Chapter Two: A Perfect Day

I registered the fact without feeling sorrow, as if a nerve connecting us had been severed along with the memory. “Why didn't you answer?” he asked. “I was working.” “Where were you between one and three?” “Walking home.” “Did you pass Huai'an Alley?” “Were you following me?” He removed a photograph. In the grainy rain, a bronze door stood half open and I was stepping through it. The timestamp read 1:44. “Who took this?” “I'm investigating that place.” His voice dropped. “In two months, three people who received so-called emotional treatment have been involved in impossible incidents. An investment partner fell from the twenty-seventh floor, then appeared on hotel footage after his fall.