Chapter 44: The Key in the Hunger

The room was a museum of forgotten things. Scrolls stacked like firewood, their silk yellowed with age. Bronze bells no one had rung in decades. A ceramic tiger with one ear missing, watching the door with a glaze-eyed patience. The air was thick with camphor and dust, and every step Siu-Bak took sent a small cloud of the past swirling up around his ankles.