The sea breeze in Keelung Port is salty and wet, and the fishy smell of the fish market hits your face. In the late autumn of 2024, at four o'clock in the morning, the lights of tourists were not yet on at the pier. Only the searchlights of returning fishing boats made a bright streak in the darkness.
Lin Yan squatted on the stone steps of the pier, twisting an old coin stained with sea sand between his fingertips. The edges of the coin are rounded and engraved with the old Taiwan dollar pattern that has long since been discontinued. He dug it out of his father Lin Zhengxiong's junk box.
Three days ago, my father was found unconscious in his apartment in Zhongzheng District, Taipei City. After being sent to the hospital, he was diagnosed with severe brain injury. The doctor said that it was most likely caused by an external impact. The police initially determined that it was an accidental fall, but Lin Yan didn't believe it - his father had been the "district chief" of Taipei City's Third District for more than 20 years. He was gentle to others and never offended the neighbors. How could the accidental fall come from?
What's even more strange is that after my father fell into a coma, the iron cabinet in the house where the "Lin Family Archives" was hidden was pried open, and the documents inside were missing. Lin Yan rummaged through his father's belongings and found only this commemorative coin from Keelung Port Pier and a crumpled piece of paper with only three scrawled words on it: "Looking for Ah Qing."
Lin Yan was not born and raised in Taipei. His father, Lin Zhengxiong, moved north from the countryside of Tainan to work hard in his early years. He saved the family business by contracting small renovation projects. Later, he was elected as the district chief and established a firm foothold in Taipei. Lin Yan majored in finance at university and originally planned to work in a bank after graduation. Before his father's accident, he had just received an offer from a local bank in Taipei.
At this moment, the screen of his mobile phone was on, and it was the message he had just sent to his old friend in Taipei: "Check it for me, Keelung
