Chapter Five: The Shadow Arrives First

Cheng ran back without stopping and wrote CHENG YAO across the young shadow. The rule recognized an owner. It wheeled around and returned beneath Shen Jing. At 2:31, brother and sister pinned their shadows underfoot. The fifth appointment was complete. An old Baiyu ticket gate rose from the square and played footage from three years ago. Cheng Yao waited alone until 12:17. Zero stepped from a window and kept the promise in Cheng's place, leading her onto the ghost train. But as its doors closed, Zero retreated to reality and abandoned her in Daocuan. “He broke a promise too,” Shen Jing whispered. Each time Zero failed under Cheng's name, Daocuan produced another Cheng and imprisoned him behind glass. The figures in the windows were not illusions.