Chapter Three: The Person Taken

Xia Mi woke in a dressing room with the taste of seawater in her mouth. Someone touched her cheek. “Can you hear me?” She opened her eyes and saw Wen Yu. He was older than she remembered, his hair shorter, a new line beside one eye. A festival badge identified him as an acoustic safety consultant. She touched his warm face. “You’re alive.” He smiled uncertainly. “I only went to inspect a cable.” Xia Mi held him and sobbed. He stroked her back with the ease of someone who had loved her continuously for two years. Photographs covered the mirror: the two of them beneath the northern lights, beside a cat in their apartment, outside a marriage registry. A wedding invitation bore their names and next month’s date. She had saved him.