Chapter Two: The Person Who Was Replaced

It evaporated quickly. In the final drop, Yanqiu saw the real Zhou compressed inside a narrow silver space, mouth open in a scream. Then the water dried, and he was gone. She understood her sister's warning. Do not see clearly was not an order to stop investigating. It was literal. Each time Yanqiu saw more clearly, someone disappeared. Gu sealed the room under the pretext of an electrical fault. Counterfeit Zhou was taken to the infirmary, and everyone accepted low blood sugar as the explanation. Faceless Old Chen paused at the doorway as if recognizing the scent of another copy's birth. Back in the conservation room, Tang Qi opened Zhou's ledger. “He asked me to sign for a package and said he needed medicine for his mother.