Chapter Five: Two Gu Linchuans

“Half an anchor,” Tang Qi said. “Enough to keep both alive, not enough to complete a replacement.” Their memories began diverging. Yanqiu named the one with the red thread Gu-One and the other Gu-Two. Gu-One insisted he was original. Gu-Two said nothing and inspected the locks. Zhou opened the door. Having touched the Archive's underlying circuitry, he knew corrected security would ignore an original who officially no longer existed. The reader flickered between terminated and active; the bolt released. Pei and Lin had gone, taking the crates. Surveillance showed only a loop of everyone calmly working around the painting. They left through the staff garage. Yanqiu produced the old group photograph.