Chapter Four: The Price of a Song

During her twelve hours, Tang went to her daughter's school auditorium. She sang the unpublished song, then told three hundred parents and children Su Qiao's name. Lin Wan did not release the confession. Tang opened the door herself. That night, three minutes and twenty-seven seconds disappeared from the old record company's archive, from every witness, and from Tang's own mind: her first performance in a basement bar, the moment she first learned that strangers might listen. The new negative showed twenty-two-year-old Tang beneath a cheap mirrored light. There were seven people in the audience. In front, Su Qiao held a handwritten sign: ONE MORE SONG.