Chapter Five: A Kiss Takes This Life Away

Zhou Jibai raised his knife toward the tapes, but his left hand caught his right wrist. Two voices forced themselves through one throat. "Burn them." "Shen Wu, run." Granny Qiao threw developing fluid over the red lamp. Darkness swallowed the cellar. Shen Wu pressed Zhou's wound while Gu took cassette forty-three. Outside, the borrowed Granny Qiaos struck the door until wood splintered. "An old aqueduct reaches the water tower," Granny Qiao said. "I'll lead them away." "What happens to you?" "As long as one tape carries my original name, they cannot erase me." She placed a cassette labeled QIAO QI—TRUE NAME in Shen Wu's hand and pushed them through a second passage.