Chapter One: After the Flashbulbs

For the sixth time, Wen replied, “I'm lucky. I have a team who understands me.” Whenever she said team, her gaze swept across them and paused for half a second—long enough to be edited into a warm behind-the-scenes clip. Only Jianwei noticed that the third time she said it, Wen pressed her right thumb hard into the base of her forefinger. It was a pain check. Jianwei had done the same as a child. During the months after her mother vanished, she often woke from dreams and pinched herself to confirm that the room was real, that the police report calling it an accident was real, and that no one would ever collect her from school again.