Chapter Two: Whom Does a Secret Own?

The vision drove Lin to one knee. Weight crawled from his fingers to his shoulder. “Each time you look, some of it enters you,” Xu said. “Not my flesh. My bones.” “Then stop. I’ll investigate the rest.” She sounded firm, but her hand trembled. She had yet to claim her father’s belongings from the tunnel. She archived grief as if it were evidence. Lu Mi’s firm stood opposite the old courthouse. Its lobby was crowded with people seeking advice about a seventeen-kilogram marriage certificate, a phone transported in a shopping cart, and a company seal that bent a steel tray despite its owner insisting the company had been sold. Lu Mi was twenty-six, pale, and impeccably dressed. He led them into the records room.