Chapter Three: The Breathing Door

He understands preservation better than your sister ever did.” His footsteps retreated. Yanqiu raised Homeward in Rain on its examination frame and removed her glasses. The black sea began to move, swelling when she inhaled and sinking when she exhaled. “The entrance follows breathing, but it isn't open.” Tang Qi found twelve shallow slots on the frame's reverse, each shaped for a lens. Gu had snatched three from the vault. When he fitted them into place, the painted boat moved slightly toward shore. “It needs twelve,” he said. “That's their method. My sister left another.” Yanqiu remembered a principle of authentication: later pigment concealed the original stroke, but infrared passed through the surface. Glasses were the later pigment.