Chapter One: After the Glasses Come Off

“The tension.” She lied smoothly. “I need to examine it alone.” Lin neither agreed nor refused. He asked for a conclusion by noon, then turned away. An instinct trained by years of spotting false brushwork made Yanqiu remove her glasses. The room softened into blocks of color. Tang Qi was a shape of ginger yellow, Gu dark gray. Lin reached the door—and ceased to resemble a man. Above his collar there was nothing. It was not that his features were blurred. There were no features to blur. His face was a sheet of white paper swollen by water, with only faint impressions where eyes, nose, and lips should have been. He turned. The smooth oval aimed itself precisely at Yanqiu.