Chapter Four: The Nameless Man

The first warning came from Mother on Changning Bridge. “Cheng—” Shen Jing covered her mouth before the name was complete. Cheng's left hand turned transparent, and dozens of hands reached from the dark glass beyond the railing. “No full names.” Cheng wrote CALL ME CHUAN on his palm with Xu Man's marker. Zero steadied Mother. “He kidnapped Cheng Yao. Don't listen to him.” Police raised a loudspeaker. The moment their database announced Cheng's name, the rule would finish its work. Cheng pulled Shen Jing into the bridge's maintenance passage. Xu Man followed. “I don't know which one is real,” she said, “but the other one never asked why I had blood on my hand.”