Chapter One: The Fixed Diet

Zhiwei paused the video as Gu lifted a floret. A pale violet groove crossed the base of his fingernail. That was not a mark left by discipline. She turned the screen toward Lu Yao. “A Mees' line, often associated with heavy-metal exposure. More interestingly, it appears in exactly the same place on his hand in a restaurant magazine from twenty-one years ago.” Lu Yao stood in her office doorway holding two cold coffees. He worked for the city police, and he was one of the few people who did not lose patience when she studied a photograph of a fingernail for half an hour. “Edited?” “The old cover was shot on film. And there is this.”