Author: Xiao Jinyuan
Prologue: The Tiger's Roar in the Silver Hairpin
Jining, 2023.
Autumn seeped in. The library's windowpanes felt cold as if coated in a thin layer of frost. Shen Muran crouched before a cardboard box, her fingertips brushing a heap of old belongings. The coarse cloth garments had been washed until they faded, their stitches worn smooth; the corners of old textbooks curled like dead leaves, and chalk dust from years ago still lay embedded between the lines. At last, her fingertips came to rest on a wooden box. It was dark red, carved with a chrysanthemum pattern. The petals were crudely rendered, and a thin layer of verdigris had formed around the hinges, as if half a century had been locked inside. The instant she lifted the lid, the scent of camphor wood and old silver
