Chapter One: The New Repository

” A cursor-like bar blinked after the sentence. Then another line appeared by itself. `At 1:19, he will hear his mother's voice.` His phone vibrated. It was not a call. The photo app had created a “Twelve Years Ago Today” memory. In the thumbnail, a woman in an ivory dress knelt on a beach with both hands on the shoulders of a seven-year-old boy. Shen Zhou recognized the dress and the deeper dimple on the left side of his mother Shen Lan's smile. He had avoided these reminders for years. His mother had died in a gas explosion when he was twelve. Only one recording of her voice remained, buried in the backup of an old phone. The photo app placed it at the end of the memory video.