Chapter Four: The People Taken by Light

Shen Yan touched the window. White fire covered his right eye, but this memory did not end at one image. Light from Xu Ning's phone struck the glass, bounced to a bus window, then entered a traffic camera. Every reflection extended a bright thread. He seized the next one. The city became a maze of light. Xu Ning followed the child; her reflection crossed a taxi mirror and a pharmacy door before every path converged on a Qichen service van. As its door closed, she turned and cried, “Mom.” Shen Yan fell away from the glass and discovered he no longer remembered which street his own mother lived on. The address remained in his phone, but the building, her flowers, and the road home had vanished from him.