Chapter Three: Beyond the Bleed

The display changed to the company archive. Shen Zhuo stood before the torn photograph holding his own scrap of paper marked with an open circle. He could see beyond the bleed. Behind him, two guards pinned Su Qiao against a desk. She covered the wall with misspelled versions of Gu Yan’s name. Bai Mi placed her hand over the final one. Beginning at the corner, every error was correcting itself. When all of them became correct, Su Qiao would forget too. Gu Yan clenched his fists. “How long to the tower?” “Three days by the roads here. Before dawn in reality.” “Too slow.” He studied the straight red route and the grid forcing the entire city into alignment.