Chapter Five: A Murder That Never Happened

When the image died, Li Wu took a fragment of a name from a broken mask and pressed it into the marker. Rust fell away, revealing three characters: Guichao Ferry. She spoke the full name. A horn sounded over the distant river. The lost landing emerged from fog, while all nineteen survivors whispered its name in their sleep. Place, name, and starlight aligned. The first star on Shen Yan's disc ignited. The floor split, revealing an elevator to Qichen's underground laboratory. Its door required two palms. One print belonged to Shen Xingyao. The other's name had been scraped away, but it fitted Li Wu perfectly. “Your sister knew my mother,” Li Wu said. “More than that. Seven years ago, they wrote both of us into their plan.”