Chapter Two: Everyone Knew My Ex-Girlfriend

Only Lin remembered what the paper had said before. “The original ticket is a memory anchor,” a woman said from the doorway. Red dress, short hair, a pale scar through her right eyebrow. Su He entered, locked the staff-room door, and slapped a newspaper onto the table. Tomorrow's headline announced that Gu Changqing would claim the seventy-million prize. The photograph was blank. “Each search makes him more complete and you less complete.” “Are you really my ex?” Lin asked. “In everyone else's memory, yes. In mine too.” Her composure cracked for an instant. “I remember kissing you in Seven-Code Alley. I also remember covering a fire on that same day. Both memories feel real.”