Chapter Three: The White Platform

Cen Yao's location was a line deliberately dropped for them to follow. She collected beef noodles in South Linlan, rode the wrong way through three intersections, then entered a construction section of Metro Line Four that had been closed for eleven years. The delivery page said she was moving normally and would arrive in twelve minutes. The municipal map said no route existed. Xu drove while Lin watched public screens. Cen's portrait spread from bus shelters to shop windows and taxi signs. Whenever he passed, nearby displays flashed: Perhaps you should look at her. Peripheral Vision was using the city to force his gaze. “The seventeen people who saw her didn't change the weight,” Lin said. “It wants my attention, not theirs.