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"The Lost Antique Clock" is a suspense novel that combines tough-guy detective, black humor and modern Jianghu style. The story begins with an absurd commission: the antique grandfather clock owned by the thrift store owner Zhao Si "lost" on time every Tuesday morning and appears in a public toilet cubicle three blocks away on time in the early morning. Private detective Mapp took over the case and discovered that Zhong was carried by a group of well-trained stray cats and tracked to an abandoned meat factory, which involved the unsolved case of the missing model worker 40 years ago. Mapu gradually uncovered a criminal pyramid composed of the meat factory smuggling network, the black market money laundering organization "Shadow Pavilion", the West City boss Jiu Ye and the multinational group "Crane Eagle". The key witness, Secretary Zhou, who was the deputy secretary of the party committee at that time, spent four years training the cats, setting up clues, and using a ridiculous "clock walking" ceremony to guide the truth to be exposed, belatedly repenting for his crime of concealing the murder of his apprentice Li Hongqi. During the investigation, Mapp encountered arson, pursuit, betrayal, witnessed the loss of innocent lives, and suffered historical trauma. Although part of the truth was finally revealed, it failed to cut off the foundation of the black network. The novel depicts the gray areas of modern cities in a grim tone. In black humorous scenes such as cats moving clocks, dung truck chaos, and casino rumors, it ponders the institutionalization of evil, the politics of memory, and how individuals maintain dignity in the face of collapse. The ending is open, and the new bell reappears, suggesting that the struggle is not over, and Mapu goes into deeper darkness alone, completing a modern world fable full of bureaucratic poetry, sound labyrinth, and suffocation of openness.