Hearing Under the Lights

The project manager's face changed. He tried to steer the discussion back to compensation standards, but Xu Zhixia didn't give him the chance. She turned on the projector and played the footage she had captured over the last few days, one clip after another. Aunt Fang's ladle. Lu Chen bent over a film strip. Children running through the alley. Zhou Yuan showing residents the website on his screen. The last clip showed Lu Chen in the empty screening hall, looking up at the screen and saying softly, "This isn't a place that can't be kept. It's a place we never managed to speak for." The room went silent for several seconds. Then someone started clapping.