Chapter Four: The One Who Came Back

The rain at Pier Seven tasted of rust. Someone had cut through the fence before Shen Yao and Lu Zhi arrived. At 11:17 p.m., emergency lights came alive inside the warehouse, as if the dead building had waited seven years for them. Locker seventeen stood underground. When the rusty key turned, the black ring around Shen Yao's wrist turned with it. Inside were a cassette, Lu Cen's hospital pass, and a palm-sized mirror. Words had been carved into its back: IF YOU SEE TWO OF YOURSELF, ASK WHICH ONE OWNS YESTERDAY. Lu Zhi fed the tape into an old console. Gu Linchuan's voice emerged through static. "Echo Therapy, trial seven. Subject Lu Cen will carry the trauma personality. Guide personality Shen Yao will enter the silent band and bring it back.