Chapter Three: The Person Taken

Then the price knocked. Tang Li stood outside with two security guards. “Ms. Xia, please stop entering my dressing room.” “Li, what are you talking about?” “Do we know each other?” Tang Li’s badge named her artist director for a rival singer. She regarded Xia Mi as a persistent stranger. Tang Li had vanished from Xia Mi’s contacts and photographs. Eight years of dorm rooms, basement bars, and hospital corridors had been erased. Only Xia Mi remembered. “That’s the price,” she whispered. Wen Yu’s expression changed. “Who told you that?” Back at the hotel, he locked the door and removed a metal box from his luggage. Inside lay his red waterproof cord, White Whale’s casualty list, and seven festival programs from different years.