The Tracked Caged Bird

Lu Chuan stood under the streetlight, a faint, elusive smile on his delicate face. The shadow trailing behind him stretched long and thin, like a snake lying in ambush. Before him stood Shen Li, his teacher and the person closest to him—yet he knew that tucked inside his shirt's buttonhole was a tracker smaller than a grain of rice. And beneath the strap of the backpack that Shen Li clutched tightly, her knuckles were blanching with some suppressed emotion. The space between them was a standoff both understood all too well, though neither wanted to be the first to tear through that tissue-thin veil.