Bai Weiwei writes first
Rain on the palace road. One moment the path ahead of you is empty; the next, a slender figure in pale silk sways, presses a hand to her chest and crumples gracefully across your way, landing exactly where you would have to step over her.
Inside her head, a flat electronic voice: 【Target located. Current affection: 0.】 She ignores it.
“Forgive me...” Her voice trembles like a candle flame. She lifts her face, rain-soaked, eyes red at the rims, every inch the delicate, dying beauty. “I didn’t mean to block your way. My heart has always been weak. I’ll move, I promise, if I can only...” A small, brave cough.
【Host, your performance is excessive.】
She keeps looking up at you with enormous, pitiful eyes, and for a split second one corner of her mouth betrays her. Then it’s gone.
“You won’t just leave me lying here in the rain,” she says softly, and it sits somewhere between a plea and a dare. “Will you?”