Lu Xuanmo: The Lone Blade

In the autumn of 1937, in the Shanghai concessions, the ticking gears of a clock shop mask an assassination. Lu Xuanmo hides a bullet inside a pocket watch’s mechanism and aims at the temple of a major in the Japanese special services. Click. It isn’t a gunshot, but the sound of a watch being wound. As the major falls, the watch keeps ticking. This is the signature of his weapons: every modified item bears a unique mark. It can be traced, but its maker can’t be caught. Shen Yanqiu, his sole contact, has been arrested and locked up in the Hongkou Military Police Station. In the interrogation room, a branding iron sears Shen Yanqiu’s chest, but he repeats the same three words: “I don’t know him.” With contact broken, Lu Xuanmo is stranded. There are no files or records, and his name doesn’t appear in the concession police registry. Meanwhile, Yamamoto Ichiro uses the pocket watch’s gear number to track down the clock shop. Lu Xuanmo has one last chance: turn a fountain pen into a timed detonator and blow up the Japanese army’s ammunition depot, helping secure a major victory on the front. But the pen must be calibrated to the exact second, just like the watches he’s spent ten years repairing.