Pawn Shop at Midnight

Intern reporter Lin Xiaoman accidentally broke into Shadow Alley while investigating the "serial disappearance case". She saw Su Ling, the proprietress in a cheongsam, exchange the "fear" from the stockbroker's hand with a diamond ring. From then on, the man was invincible in the financial market, but he could no longer feel the rapid beating of his heart. Su Ling told Lin Xiaoman: "Every missing person has pawned their 'right to be remembered' here, so the world will automatically erase their traces." In order to find his missing twin sister Lin Xiaoyu, Lin Xiaoman began to investigate the secrets of the pawnshop. She found that each pawned object corresponded to a memory of the city: the rouge box of the Republic of China actress concealed the sound of Paramount gunfire, the programmer's code fragments recorded the SARS lockdown in 2003, and the deliveryman's electric car rearview mirror reflected the old alley before demolition. The only clue left by my sister was a subway ticket stub with a pawnshop symbol on it, and the date was during the rainy season three years ago. As the investigation deepened, Lin Xiaoman gradually became able to see the "urban scars" invisible to ordinary people: on the glass of the Bund sightseeing tunnel, there were the palm prints of the refugees in 1937; on the railings of the Lujiazui overpass, the sighs of those who had been laid off were entangled; in her own notebook, there was a note written by her sister before she disappeared: "They are stealing time."