Chapter Three: She Takes My Night Shift

“That seems like you,” he said. “At least this one does.” Then I understood. He did not know which Su Mian stood before him either. The police did not detain me. The footage proved only that someone remarkably like me was present, and the blood on my coat did not belong to He. Its owner remained unidentified. Zhou ordered me to remain reachable. That afternoon, Wenchuan and I returned to Huai'an Alley. The convenience store was back, its red sign promising twenty-four-hour service. The clerk said it had operated there for seven years. He had never seen a bronze door. Beside the rain gutter, I found a scrap of dark blue fabric matching Nocturne's curtains.