Chapter Five: Blind Spot in the Rain

“That slate will wake Shen Xing—and what lives beneath the master reel.” Lu Xiao fought him one-handed. The car snaked in the rain. Su Wan struck his right wrist with her pistol. Pain broke Han Che's grip. “Ask me before you take him,” she said. The set cut without warning. The mountain became a brightly lit Harbor City hospital. Tires screamed along a corridor. Beds and nurses flew past. Su Wan's continuity uniform became a doctor's coat, and recognition faded from her eyes. “Mr. Lu,” she said, eyeing the burned slate, “you've brought evidence from your imaginary accident into the ward again.” In this version, Lu Xiao had spent three years in a coma. The set, loops, and missing lover were entries beneath a diagnosis: TRAUMATIC DELUSION.