Theoretical excerpt:
(Wu Xie is looking for a particular object which could be a puzzle piece in a more complex investigation.)
Antiques this modern were not my forte to begin with and to make matters worse this clock was a Swiss build - modern AND Western, fully out of my field of expertise.
Thankfully the relative abundance of primary sources at least somewhat made up for it. The clock in question was supposedly brought on board and installed on the Titanic, which if true, put it completely out of my reach and would cut off this lead in my investigation, but I needed to know this for sure, confirm it without a shadow of a doubt before I was ready to let it go.
…Which was why I spent four days in a row holed up in my room, buried under a pile of photos, etchings and drawings I amassed over the last couple of months, all depicting life on board the Titanic, carefully examining the background of every last one of them.
I never found the clock, but I did find something much more interesting and confusing.
As I was leafing through the pictures, all focused on interior design, I found a drawing of a young man. Since it had no defined background I almost tossed it aside, but something made me pause and take a closer look.
And once I did I could not tear my eyes away.
There was no mistaking of that face, of those eyes.
It was Pokerface. It had to be, unless he had a twin brother he forgot about and whom even Zhang Haike failed to mention. He was depicted reclining on a sofa, dress shirt half unbuttoned, looking bored and stoic as ever.
I have no idea how long I must have sat there, blinking in sheer confusion, the questions in my head melting together in a puddle of static noise.
Should I ask him about it? Would showing him the picture jog a memory?
I could only try.
