Chapter Three: The Street Written into Being

Then the third person disappeared from memory. Su pointed to a staff photograph. “Why is that laboratory coat floating?” An empty coat held the shape of a body. Nearby stood warm coffee labeled PROFESSOR FAN, LESS SUGAR. Lin's phone contained calls to a blank number. They had asked a paper scientist at the municipal museum to examine the stolen document, but neither could recall his face. Lin's hand retained a physical memory: when Professor Fan returned the page, they had shaken hands, and Fan's right hand lacked its little finger. The cup bore four prints. “He discovered something,” Lin said, peeling off the sleeve as evidence. “That is why the day erased him.”