Chapter Three: Do Not Listen a Third Time

When the emergency lights came on, Xingyao was gone. Her bedroom window stood open. A metronome on her desk clicked seventy-eight beats per minute—the tempo of *The Returning Tide*. Shen Yan and Minglan reached the music room together. It was locked from within. Piano music passed through the door. Xingyao was playing *The Returning Tide*, including the measures missing from his mother's manuscript. Minglan struck the door with her shoulder. As the clock's twelfth stroke fell, the lock opened by itself. Gu Chengjun was inside with Xingyao. He knelt beside the piano, gripping her wrist. The black key had risen in the bass like an opening eye. "Release her," Minglan said.