Yǔ Zhēn summons Mǎ Yún after midnight. The fragment glows between them like evidence that knows too much.

Mǎ Yún risks a single beat. The fragment shows a scene from Yǔ Zhēn's childhood courtyard: specific enough to be impossible as a random plot.

More beats map onto the night Yǔ Shēn died. Yǔ Zhēn refuses to perform grief in front of Mǎ Yún.

Yǔ Zhēn searches municipal death records for Yǔ Shēn. The official entry contains a prepaid narrative fee from an unknown patron.

Níng Sable catches Yǔ Zhēn in the death records. The confrontation stays polite enough to be more threatening.

Yǔ Zhēn evades arrest using brokerage paperwork as talismans. Níng Sable gives chase.

Yǔ Zhēn runs through a night market where abandoned endings are sold like rotten fruit. Mǎ Yún waits with an archive token.

The archive token reacts to Yǔ Zhēn's blood and begins naming her as if she were already catalogued.

Níng Sable searches the market. Yǔ Zhēn hides among unsent endings, forced close to the evidence she sells every day.

Mǎ Yún reveals the entrance to the Archive: a reflection gate that opens only for someone already claimed by the shelves.

Yǔ Zhēn enters the Archive gate alone, changing from city broker to intruder between one raindrop and the next.