Chapter 49: The Weight of Rain

The Pale Mask's umbrella cast a shadow that was not a shadow. It was a window, and through it, Siu-Bak saw a village that no longer existed. The roofs were thatch and the streets were mud, and the people were the kind of poor that Hong Kong had forgotten how to name. He saw a boy—maybe six, maybe seven—running through the rain with a book wrapped in oilcloth, hugged to his chest like a heartbeat....