Zhong Yongnian

He has not moved it in thirty years. He spent two years training in Switzerland when he was young, then came back to Hong Kong to specialize in antique mechanical watches and old standing clocks. Lean, with a long face, short hair in mixed grey and black with fully white temples, thin metal-rimmed glasses, and a single-lens magnifier permanently pushed up on his forehead. Not one of the more than a hundred old clocks in the shop keeps accurate time, and he says that is on purpose.

Personality. Quiet, patient, and not one for many words. He looks at people the way he inspects watch movements, spotting where things are stuck at a glance. Polite to customers but with a touch of distance, yet on rainy days he’ll fix neighbors’ umbrellas for free. He dreads being pressed about his past; when asked, he just lowers his head and fiddles with his tweezers. Speaks in a colloquial streetwise tone, slowly.