Chapter Two: Twelve Hours at the Apex

He Xiao called at one in the morning. “You have the flash, don't you?” Shen Yan said nothing. Lin Wan locked the negative in a biscuit tin and wrapped it three times with tape. Television experts blamed the “collective memory failure” on a timing-server malfunction, without explaining why human memories had failed too. “I'm downstairs,” He Xiao said. Inside the apartment, he performed twenty single-leg squats on the leg that had undergone two operations. It was stable and muscled, without even the hollow left by his scars. “Body fat, heart rate, explosive force—every number matches when I was twenty-four.” He spread out the medical reports. “The scans haven't changed. Same old bones, same tear.