Chapter Four: Everyone Has a Line

She seized Gu’s shoulder. An old SILVER PALACE sign crashed from above and shattered the windshield in front of them. Had she followed her filmed reaction, they would have stepped beneath it. “It’s rehearsing us,” she said. In the broken glass, she saw a credit across Gu’s chest: THE PROJECTIONIST FINDS THE DIRECTOR AND RETURNS HER TO NUMBER THIRTEEN. Xu called. Qiao Lu had appeared at White Deer Photography and would see Lin alone. Every photograph inside showed Shen Qing holding two girls’ hands. One child’s face was a white flare; the other was Xiaoman. Qiao developed film beneath the darkroom’s red lamp. She resembled Lin only in one gesture: when nervous, she pinched the second joint of her forefinger.