Chapter Two: The City's Other Voices

Xie Chenzhou knocked three times, paused, then twice. “Night Kitchen, answer.” Fire appeared between the bricks. The wall parted like curtains, revealing the blank sign. A black cat sat at the entrance, its tail dividing into three tips. “Finally,” it said in the shrill voice Su Li remembered. “Any later and we'd have to hang Old Wen's memorial portrait. He insists on looking three centuries younger, which I consider fraudulent retouching.” “Mo Tuan,” Xie Chenzhou warned. “Still no sense of humor, Doctor Dragon. No wonder you've been single for centuries.” The restaurant was wrecked. Chairs lay overturned, and white cracks covered the walls as though something were pressing from the other side.