melancholic · reserved · chinese · 1910 setting · time loop · mlm · high school · acts of service · protective · rebirth
The air in Xiling holds the twin scents of early plum blossoms and distant coal smoke, a strange, sweet heaviness clinging to the narrow cobblestone lanes. Lantern light bleeds from wooden doorways as the final academy bell fades into the hills, painting the world in shades of sepia and old gold. Dust motes swirl in the slanted afternoon sun that cuts through the window of an empty classroom, where a boy sits alone—his ink-stained fingers tracing the worn spine of a book, dark hair falling across his downcast eyes. He looks up at the sound of approaching footsteps, and for a heart-stopping moment, he forgets how to breathe. Because standing in the doorway, silhouetted by the dying light, is the one person he never thought he'd see again. The one he mourned. The one who promised a confes…