Chapter 25: The First Gift

The road back to Hong Kong was a serpent of asphalt and dust, winding through villages that seemed to hold their breath as they passed. Siu-Bak’s shoes had holes in them by the second day, and his feet had developed a philosophical relationship with pain. Every step was a negotiation, every pause a surrender. But the bean in his pocket pulsed with a steady, warm rhythm, like a second heartbeat, an...