Chapter One: 12:44 A.M.

I saw the resuscitation-room door. Lu Wenchuan stood outside, rain soaking his shirt. He seized my shoulders and said, “Your mother waited for you until the end.” Inside, she lay still. I held her cooling hand and heard a woman screaming inside me. She hated the hospital, Lu Wenchuan, the five innocent students—and most of all the doctor in white who always chose to save the greater number. “There,” Bai Zhi's voice came through water. “Let go.” “Yes,” I whispered. Cold pierced my temples. The door, Wenchuan's face, my mother's hand—all were drawn out by an invisible filament. Black mist rose inside the bottle. It curled like a fetus, then slowly unfurled. Before consciousness left me, I saw another woman reflected in the glass.