Backlash

Clock restorer Shi Yan can "hear" the lies of the gears with his fingertips - every abnormal wear tells the story of tampered time. When a "meridian" clock from the Republic of China was sent for repair, the moment he took apart the movement, seven brass gears actually projected a light spot code in resonance: seven city coordinates, corresponding to the dumping points of seven "perfect accidents". What's even more suffocating is that when the repair of the clock was completed, the time of all electronic devices in the city jumped to 23:59:07. And the news is broadcasting the time the watch of the seventh deceased has stopped: every minute and every second. The police detained him for "premeditated crime", but surveillance proved that he did not leave the studio all night. Early the next morning, lying quietly on the repair bench was a pocket watch gear he had lost in childhood, with the longitude and latitude on the day his sister disappeared slightly engraved on the inside. Following the tooth mark code and sneaking into the ruins of a century-old clock manufacturer, he found a yellowed handwritten note in a secret compartment: time is non-linear, and evidence of crime is hidden in the gaps between the teeth. When the seventh gear returns to its original position, the one who restores it becomes the one who seals it. And deep inside the movement of the latest pocket watch sent for repair, there is a bloody gear embedded - the tooth marks and wear track completely mesh with the pocket watch fragments left at the scene of his car accident three years ago. This novel and its characters are purely fictitious. Any similarity is purely coincidental and should not be imitated.