Chapter Four: The Retoucher Who Refused to Retouch

NULL sent a message at once. “Eight million without the tool. Good. Now you’re valuable enough to become larger source material.” Su stood at the window sorting evidence. Her reflection overlapped a photograph on Lin’s phone from two years earlier. In the original, they had stood close together. On the day they separated, Lin had angrily cropped her away, leaving only half a hand. Tomorrow Layers recognized the damaged photograph. FRACTURED RELATIONSHIP DETECTED. USE HEALING BRUSH? Lin dismissed the prompt. He did not see another remote cursor silently unlock the layer labeled SU WANQING.