You: Yes, You

In 2003, in Yuanzhou, a small city in southern China. A woman’s body is found beneath Phoenix Bridge. Your motorcycle is parked nearby, blood on the back seat. You can’t remember what happened last night. The victim is Lin Xiaoman, who came from Wuhan and was looking for someone who died six years ago. That name belongs to Zhang Lei, your comrade who died during the 1998 Jingjiang flood response. On the back of a photograph, someone wrote four words in ballpoint pen: He’s still alive. You make a living carrying passengers on your motorcycle. Your back hurts, your wife has left you, and you live in a twenty-year-old apartment building. Your cloth shoes, worn through at the heels, slap against the floor as you walk. Old Zhao, the mechanic, has disappeared, and there’s blood in his shop. A man in a gray jacket, dragging his right leg slightly, is following you. Downstairs, a dark Santana sits with its engine running all night. You begin retracing your steps. Every step forward brings you closer to that night. Your memory ends at Phoenix Bridge, like a wall of poured concrete that you can’t break through with your head. What lies on the other side? Who killed Lin Xiaoman? What does Old Zhao know? Is Zhang Lei really dead? Someone is looking for you through a dead man. This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.