Chapter Three: The Second Person Who Doesn't Exist

Tang turned the photograph over. Fresh ink read: Administrator Seven awakened. Administrator Seven assigned to retrieval. After twenty-four hours, retain only one. Outside, every camera on the street rotated toward the unmarked shop. Lu's phone lit with a video request from no number. He answered. A pure white tower, not a face, filled the screen. Zhou Jiming's gentle voice emerged. “Welcome back outside the lens, Lu Chen. Now decide—which of you, you or Wen Xia, is the real Administrator Seven?”