Chapter One: After Midnight

The moon over Linlan began turning red at 11:47 p.m. When Lin Jianyue photographed it through the subway window, the glass reflected half the carriage behind her: a nurse off the night shift dozing over a canvas bag, a schoolboy bent over a game, a drunk using an advertisement panel as a pillow while he hummed. High-rises sliced the moon into dark red slivers, like an old coin caught between the city's teeth. She pressed the shutter. The film camera gave a crisp click. Seven people looked up at once. Jianyue lowered it. The seven gazes scattered as though the reaction had been no more than instinct. Her phone vibrated. The message her brother, Lin Zhou, had sent forty minutes earlier still filled the screen.