Yulan read the sentence again.
Three witnesses entered. Only two returned.
The river moved behind them, dark and slow beneath the afternoon light.
He folded the paper.
"Let's go back."
Li Wei looked at him.
"Why?"
"I want to see the list again."
"You think we missed something?"
"I think someone wanted us to think we did."
They returned through the hidden passage before the stranger came back.
The archive room was exactly as they had left it.
Except for one thing.
The box the stranger had knocked over was open.
Li Wei crouched beside it.
Inside were old personnel records.
He lifted the top sheet.
"Zhang Guoren."
Yulan knelt beside him.
His father's name was printed clearly beneath a list of night-watch staff.
Next to it was another name.
Zhang Meilin.
Yulan stared.
"My mother."
Li Wei looked at him.
"Her name wasn't on the witness list."
"No."
Yulan pulled out the next page.
It was a shipping-office attendance record.
Three names had been marked with red ink.
Li Jian.
Li Wenxiu.
Zhang Meilin.
Yulan's fingers trembled slightly.
"They were all there."
"Apparently."
"But my father wasn't."
Li Wei looked at the personnel sheet.
"He was listed as night watchman."
"So why isn't he on the attendance record?"
Neither had an answer.
Yulan sat back.
For years, his father had spoken about the fire as though he had been outside the entire time.
But perhaps that wasn't true.
A floorboard creaked above them.
Both men looked up.
Someone was walking across the room.
Li Wei immediately extinguished the small lamp.
They stood in darkness.
The footsteps moved slowly.
One.
Two.
Three.
Then stopped directly above them.
Yulan barely breathed.
A man's voice came through the floor.
"Did you find it?"
Another voice answered.
"No."
"Then search again."
Yulan recognized the second voice.
His stomach dropped.
He leaned toward Li Wei.
"Chen Hao."
Li Wei's eyes widened.
They waited.
The footsteps moved away.
Li Wei reopened the panel.
They climbed out cautiously.
Chen Hao was standing alone in the archive room.
He looked up.
For a second, all three men stared at one another.
Then Chen Hao sighed.
"I knew you'd do this."
Yulan frowned.
"Do what?"
"Find the secret room everyone told you not to find."
Li Wei crossed his arms.
"Why are you here?"
Chen Hao pointed toward the floor.
"I was following the man who followed you."
"You saw him?"
"Yes."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
Li Wei's expression hardened.
"Then why are you here?"
Chen Hao looked genuinely offended.
"Because I was trying to keep you alive."
Yulan blinked.
Chen Hao walked toward them.
"I saw you two leave the western district earlier. Someone followed you. I followed him."
"You followed a stranger into an abandoned archive?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Chen Hao shrugged.
"I make questionable decisions."
Yulan almost smiled.
Almost.
Then Chen Hao's expression became serious.
"I found something."
He reached inside his coat.
A small envelope.
Yulan opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
Three people stood outside Warehouse Nine on the night of the fire.
Li Jian.
Li Wenxiu.
And Yulan's mother.
But someone had been cut out of the photograph.
Not torn away.
Carefully removed.
The edges were perfectly straight.
Chen Hao pointed to the empty space.
"There was another person standing here."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
Li Wei took the photograph.
On the back was a date.
And beneath it, written in faded ink:
Ask the night watchman who opened the gate.
Yulan stared at the words.
His face went pale.
"My father."
Chen Hao nodded.
"That was what I thought."
No one spoke.
Then Yulan folded the photograph and put it inside his coat.
"We need to talk to him."
Li Wei looked at him.
"Tonight."
Yulan nodded.
Chen Hao raised a finger.
"Before we do that, I should probably tell you something else."
Li Wei sighed.
"What now?"
Chen Hao gave him an uncomfortable look.
"Your family is looking for you."
Li Wei's expression changed.
"How do you know?"
"Because two men came to the shop asking where you were."
"When?"
"This morning."
Yulan looked at Li Wei.
"Did they say why?"
Chen Hao shook his head.
"They didn't need to."
He paused.
"One of them was your uncle's driver."
The room went quiet.
Li Wei looked down at the photograph.
Then toward the passage they had just escaped through.
The mystery had stopped being something buried in the past.
Someone was searching for them now.
And whoever that person was, they knew exactly where to look.