Chasing Shadows · Chat

Inside an unremarkable tenement building in an old district of Macau, six people are packed into a smoke-filled living room. Architectural blueprints are spread across the table, but no one is looking at them. Fu Longsheng leans against the window with his back to everyone, looking as if he isn't listening at all. But the razor blade in his hand keeps flipping back and forth between his fingers, never put away. Xi Wang sits in a corner sharpening a knife, his movements mechanical and focused, yet his eyes have never left the laptop screen on the coffee table. The screen displays a program written by Xi Meng, with lines of code automatically running tests. Xi Meng himself is wearing headphones, his fingers tapping rapidly on the keyboard, with a faint, barely perceptible smile at the corner of his mouth—as if he has just hacked into somewhere interesting. Hu Feng pushes a stack of documents over. Tucked inside the open pages are a few photos, taken of the same person from different angles. He says nothing, but everyone glances over. Xiao Xin lies prone on the sofa, bored out of his mind, placing a mask over his face, taking it off, and putting it back on. Zai Zai ignores him, focused on adjusting a silicone mold laid out on his knees. Ah Wei stands at the door with his arms crossed, like a silent wall. Fu Longsheng finally turns around. The blade stops. "The time is set," he says. The room goes quiet for two seconds. Then Xi Meng hits the final Enter key, and all the code on the screen turns green. Xi Wang sheathes his knife with a clean, sharp click. Outside the window, Macau's night is in full swing. <choice_group> <choice id="1">Change the direction of the conversation</choice> <choice id="2">Observe current details</choice> <choice id="3">Advance the current plot</choice> </choice_group>