Chapter One: The Encore Ten Thousand People Forgot

The woman laid down her case and took out not a guitar, but a narrow silver instrument, part harmonica and part bone flute. Gu Linchuan stood center stage and closed his hand around the microphone Shen Wu had tested minutes earlier. The first note did not come through the speakers. It rose from the gravel under every foot. A low harmony spread across the earth. Tens of thousands of phone screens flashed with static. The woman blew into her silver flute, and the shadows of the distant mining towers turned slowly toward the stage, as if awakened. Gu Linchuan sang: "If I lend you my name for one night, who will return it when morning comes?" Shen Wu had never heard the song, but she knew the next line.