Chapter Four: Condemned by the Camera

Tang led them not to a safe house but to Municipal Hospital. On the thirteenth floor, two officers guarded taxi driver Zhao Qishan. Three days earlier, his car had plowed into a riverside night market, killing one and injuring four. A dashcam, traffic cameras, and seventeen livestreams all showed him running a red light. Zhao insisted his steering had locked—and that a man invisible to the footage had been in the passenger seat. “He messaged me last night,” Tang said. “The man had a severed-eye tattoo. This morning the platform deleted the message. An hour later, the hospital declared him critical.” Disguised as orderlies, they entered the room. Zhao wore a ventilator mask. At the sight of Wen's umbrella, he thrashed.