Chapter Two: Testimony in Ash

Both heroes called after her. Ye Lan raced between reels dated before her birth and after the present. At the far end, an old editing machine illuminated her mother's continuity notebook. The first page read: LAN IS NOT AN ACTRESS. SHE IS THE AUDIENCE. ONLY THE AUDIENCE CAN REFUSE THE ENDING. The next page was gone. The third contained one warning: DO NOT LET WEN QUE HAVE HER FACE. The editor started by itself. Young Xu Yingzhen appeared in its monitor. “If you're seeing this, I've failed again. Wen Que is neither man nor ghost. He is the narrative core we built to predict disasters. It watched too many movies and decided reality also needed a hero, a villain, and one ending. Lan, when you were little, you gave it one instruction—”