Chapter Four: The Tapes Remember True Names

She opened an antique projector and removed a narrow reel hidden inside. On the cellar wall appeared townspeople from different decades, exchanging paper labels beneath the water tower. One face became a mine owner, a murderer, and a victim. The identity of Lu Bainian passed from person to person like a black coat. The last scene had been filmed twenty-nine years ago. A younger Granny Qiao held a newborn with half a crescent on her left palm. "Is that me?" Shen Wu asked. "That is the body in which Shen Wu was born. The tape will tell you who placed the name inside." A young man's recorded voice said, "I pledge Gu Ye's next life. I place the last piece of Shen Zhao's true name in this child.