Chapter One: After the Glasses Come Off

A newer layer of ultramarine did edge the lantern, but it came from a documented restoration in the nineties. She switched on the raking light and moved it slowly across the surface. Her right lens slipped down her nose. At the unfocused edge of her vision, the painted sea swelled. Yanqiu stopped breathing. The sea stopped too. She inhaled experimentally. Black pigment rose like wet skin stretched over a hole. The lantern was not a lantern but a pupil opening somewhere far beneath the canvas. “What is it?” Gu asked. Yanqiu pushed her glasses back into place. The painting became a painting again. “There's something wrong with the reverse.” Lin's smile thinned. “The lining hasn't been removed. How can you know?”