Chapter Two: Testimony in Ash

By morning, every news station in Jichuan was discussing the ten-second “systems failure.” Seven intersections had produced identical collisions. Hospital cameras repeated the same corridors. Thousands of phones contained the same ten seconds. Experts blamed cloud synchronization, and citizens turned it into comedy clips. Nobody asked why burning film appeared in every corner. Ye Lan locked Lu Chenzhou in the VIP lounge. “This door can't hold me,” he said. “It can hold the cleaning lady outside. How many versions of me have you met?” “Nine. One was a doctor. One never left Jichuan. One died at seventeen. Every time the world is reshot, you appear near the ending. This is the first time you haven't known me.” “What were we to each other?”