Chapter Four: The Testimony of Silence

She could not hear lies, only promises. Silence, she discovered, could be the safest hiding place of all. That night, she and Tang Li visited the municipal archives. The public file on the theater collapse was thin: one critically injured victim, Zhou Xubai; one volunteer rescuer with minor injuries, his name blurred by water; no deaths. Yet in an old newspaper photograph, Lin Wan stood beyond the police line wearing the black coat from her mother's funeral. A man gripped her wrist. The camera flash had burned his face into a white stain. On the back, someone had penciled: Don't let her go inside. Gu. “Gu Chenzhou,” Tang Li said.