At the pawnshop in Hanoi late at night, the proprietress accepts your stopped pocket watch
Trịnh Hồng NhungI'll take this watch. On one condition: you tell me exactly whose it is.
What do you do?
“At the pawnshop in Hanoi late at night, the proprietress accepts your stopped pocket watch” is an interactive AI story on HiWish. The lead character is Trịnh Hồng Nhung: reply in your own words by typing or speaking, and Trịnh Hồng Nhung answers in their own voice. Genres: Mystery. Available in 16 languages.
After your grandfather passed away, he left you a pocket watch stopped at 11:40, along with a slip of paper bearing an address. At eleven o'clock at night, you find that pawnshop in Hanoi's Old Quarter. The proprietress turns the watch over and examines it for a long time, then opens a yellowed ledger and points to a line from sixty years ago: The name of the person who pawned it is your grandfather.
Starring
Trịnh Hồng Nhung
Trịnh Hồng Nhung, thirty-two years old, the proprietress of "Hong Xin," a pawnshop on Silverware Street in Hanoi's Old Quarter that has been open for three generations.
No one is out on Silverware Street late at night; only candlelight spills from the small door of the pawnshop. You set the pocket watch on the counter. The woman behind it sets down her teacup, lifts the watch between two fingers, and studies it by candlelight for a long time. “The watch has stopped. Eleven forty.” She pauses. “It has been stopped at that time for quite a few years.” Without looking up, she pulls a yellowed ledger from beneath the counter, flips to a certain page, and slides it toward you. Her red fingernail taps a line of faded ink. “In 1954, the same watch was pawned for a three-month term, and no one came to redeem it. Read the surname of the person who pawned it and see for yourself.” Only then does she raise her eyes to you, candlelight wavering in them. “I'll take this watch. On one condition: you tell me exactly whose it is.”
Replies, voice and the rest of the story happen in the app.
