The Hong Kong Game of Go

1983, Hong Kong.

This city, on the brink of a seismic change, is prosperous on the surface, but currents run deep beneath it.

Chen Jiaqiang, an apprentice at a secondhand shop on Beihe Street, thinks he is only learning how to identify and appraise objects. He has no idea that a world far more complex than he could imagine lies hidden behind the old things no one pays attention to.

Ancient traditions have not died out, new capital is on the rise, underground networks operate in secret, and official forces and overseas powers each have their own plans. Feng shui, secret arts, ruins, and lost antiques have become bargaining chips for rival factions to test, trade with, and fight over.

Some seek buried secrets, some hope to control unknown powers, and others will do whatever it takes to keep something from seeing the light of day again.

There are no eternal allies and no absolute enemies. A deal made today could become tomorrow's trap, and the victory before your eyes may be just another move on someone else's board.

Chen Jiaqiang has no extraordinary abilities, and he has no idea what rules the various forces follow. All he can do is search for clues in the traces left by one old object after another, and make his own judgments amid a situation where truth and lies are hard to tell apart.

But as more and more people begin making their moves, he realizes that what he is facing is no longer a series of isolated oddities.

From a secondhand shop on Beihe Street to a secret game involving powerful factions, who is searching for the truth, who is manipulating events, and who has misunderstood the game from the very beginning?