Chapter Two: A Photograph That Would Not Pass

Zhou's phone remained unreachable. She examined his photographs and found faint writing on the back of the image with the brass instrument: GO TO PIER SEVEN IN THE OLD HARBOR. FIND SU MI. BRING THE FILM I MADE. Su Mi had edited Jianyue's photographs for five years and had promised to pick her up after work. At eleven thirty, she had canceled with a sudden stomachache. No one had heard from her since. Jianyue needed to leave. The front door was watched, and the balcony opened twelve floors above the pavement. She tied a red scarf around a standing lamp, placed it beside the window, and set the washing machine's timer. Three minutes later, the turning drum made the lamp's silhouette sway behind the curtains like someone pacing.