Chapter Two: Number Fourteen in the Dream

“Every September thirteenth, I dream of it. It used to have two houses. Last night it had twelve.” They examined the movie frame by frame. A newspaper boy crossed the background in the first minute. At nineteen minutes he stood upstairs in Number Thirteen. At forty-four, his face appeared in the wallpaper. Brightened, the pattern of his lips said: DO NOT REVERSE. “Reverse it,” Lin said. Under the backward rain came production audio. “Keep Camera A rolling. Lock the door. Don’t let the extras out.” Then a woman shouted, “Zhou Jibai, you’re filming this for real!” Zhou should have been sixteen in 1998. Gu opened the log to a project photograph. In one corner stood a boy wearing a badge: PSYCHOACOUSTICS OBSERVER—ZHOU JIBAI.