X
Join our Discord server and get release updates for every novel you follow.
Join the ServerThe rarely revealed past was like a sharp thorn hidden deep in the heart.
It could not be forgotten, could not be escaped.
Yet even glimpsing the corner of it would leave the soul torn and bleeding once again.
The last bus from Zhou’an to the city sped through drifting snow in the depth of winter.
By the stop, a flickering streetlamp lit the cold, empty bench.
Above the clean, clear night sky, the eternal stars cast their glow, brushing over all the joys and sorrows of the human world.
In a cold, damp basement, Yu Zhu awoke from endless cycles of nightmares.
His wet, heavy hair clung to his back.
Before his eyes was the same familiar darkness.
He exhaled lightly, propped himself up on an elbow, and sat.
The silver chain around his neck slid down against his chest.
With frozen hands, he brushed aside strands of hair stuck to his cheek.
In the empty basement, he heard droplets falling with a sharp sound onto the bathroom floor.
“Pa—”
The chain on his wrist suddenly went taut.
Yu Zhu pulled at it as he sat on the edge of the bed.
His thin legs pressed against the messy cardboard beneath him, as he tried to stand.
The Laba Festival.
A broadcaster’s crisp, formal voice sounded in his ear.
So—
The new year was nearly here.
The new year.
It meant cheerful greetings among relatives and friends, a lively festive atmosphere.
It meant Spring Festival couplets written by his father’s hand.
Dumplings wrapped by his mother’s.
It meant fireworks blooming across the night sky.
Running hand-in-hand with friends amid deafening firecrackers.
Throwing snowballs at each other with bare hands.
Laughter echoing endlessly through the streets.
Yu Zhu’s wrists tore red and raw against the chain, but suddenly he stopped.
He let out a small laugh.
Like when he was young, at the instant before firecrackers burst, he covered his ears with both hands.
He wanted…
…to go home.
“Boom—”
A firework shot into the sky, then exploded into a massive flower.
Brilliant light scattered into pale green sparks before burning out, streaking across the heavens like falling stars.
In C City’s Jinnan New Village, Huo Xin stood by her window.
She watched the fireworks bloom and fade.
Since the downfall of the Huo family, the once arrogant, willful eldest daughter could only find brief respite in moments like this.
Her father, still unreachable.
Her fragile mother, weak as a dodder vine.
The shareholders, endlessly talking about stock prices.
The landlords, hounding for debts, sometimes even resorting to violence.
The suffocating storm of online public opinion.
Each of these forced the pampered young lady, once untainted by hardship, to abandon naïve fantasies.
To learn to deal with domineering relatives with forced composure.
To stop hoping for unreliable friends.
In barely two months, she shed her childishness and showed signs of hardness.
But only she knew—
When the true storm arrived, no matter how tightly she wound herself, collapse would come overnight.
She could not steer the Huo family’s sinking ship back on course.
She could not face the shareholders’ relentless questioning.
She did not even understand the technical terms of the company’s business.
All she could do was pretend, forcing herself to act calm, making things seem normal.
She did not dare imagine the future.
She did not dare imagine returning to the past.
All she wanted was to get through this New Year in peace.
The fireworks dimmed.
Jinnan New Village sank back into silence.
Huo Xin looked at her own shadow in the window’s reflection.
She smoothed the wrinkles from her pajamas.
Her long fringe, untrimmed for too long, brushed her collarbone when she lowered her head.
She thought of Yu Zhu.
When rough hemp rope looped around the boy’s back, his long black hair would sometimes brush against her collarbone too.
Back then, she was young, reckless, eager to appear different.
She had pretended in front of the other two that she had some obscure, peculiar taste.
Even though she had never once experienced it herself.
Only because she didn’t want to be looked down upon—
She dared to boast, to speak as if she knew.
In truth, she never found joy in torment.
When the boy lay silently before her, what she felt was not amusement but fear.
Fear of hurting him too much.
Fear the others would go too far.
Fear that he might never wake again.
And fear that if she faltered, the others would sneer, saying all Huos were weak, and she was just another cowardly disappointment.
So for the sake of empty pride, she forced herself to say afterward:
“Boring.”
When she first stepped into the villa in the suburbs, Gu Wanting had looked her up and down.
She forced herself to say, “So what if it’s imprisonment? Is that rare? My hobbies are far more unusual than this.”
That was when the truly tasteless game began.
A carnival in the dark.
A frenzy hidden and unspoken.
It ended the day the Huo family collapsed.
People leave when the tea cools.
Monkeys scatter when the tree falls.
An unshakable truth since ancient times.
Back then, the so-called “companions of the night” they proclaimed themselves to be—
Now it sounded so childish, so ridiculous.
Only the foolish, laughable girl Huo Xin had once been would have taken it seriously.
“We’re not just companions of the night. We’re secret watchers too.”
Hard to believe she had ever spoken such fawning words.
“Hahaha…”
“Hahahaha…”
As the memory rose, Huo Xin laughed until she couldn’t straighten her back.
She slid down against the windowpane.
Huo Xin, you’re ridiculous.
Truly ridiculous.
Her laughter cut off.
She wiped away tears at the corner of her eyes, sitting quietly on the floor, staring into the black night.
“Wu… wu…”
The sound of muffled crying came through.
Her mother again, weeping into her blanket.
Realizing this, Huo Xin frowned faintly.
She rose and walked toward the bedroom.
Why always so weak?
Why always crying?
Why must the daughter be the one to comfort the mother?
In this situation, wasn’t it she who should be growing stronger?
She flicked on the light.
The cramped room was filled with brightness.
“Mom, are you alright?”
The sobs ceased.
After a pause, a muffled voice said:
“Mom’s fine. It’s late. Xin’er, go to sleep.”
“I know, Mom.”
Huo Xin turned off the light, pulled the door half-shut, and lingered at the doorway before returning to her room.
Even in the tidied storage room, the smell of damp mold lingered.
She sprayed perfume into the air—
A faint camellia fragrance spread out.
She stood still, dazed.
Ming Yue loved camellia perfume, saying it was like an elegant Eastern beauty.
So whenever Huo Xin went to the villa, what lingered most was that scent.
Once, she had arrived too early.
Ming Yue hadn’t finished dressing Yu Zhu.
The boy was lying there in a flowing white dress, his body steeped in camellia scent.
Chained to a filthy bed.
Like a fallen immortal dragged into the mire.
“Xin Xin, you’re just in time! Sister looks so beautiful in this, I can’t bear to take it off. Will you help Sister change Yu Zhu’s clothes?”
“Huh? Sister Yue…?”
Covering her eyes, Ming Yue had fled the basement.
Leaving Huo Xin alone with the unresponsive boy.
“Yu Zhu?”
She approached.
The camellia fragrance brushed her nose.
When he heard his name, the boy lowered his head, refusing to look at her.
“Tch, planning to play dead again, like last time?”
“This time, I won’t be fooled so easily.”
A crimson cord bound his wrist.
The fragrance thickened.
A weak breath brushed against her ear.
“Huo… Huo Xin…”
It was the first time she had ever heard Yu Zhu say her name.
His face was pale, but his eyes were clear as spring water, bright and clean.
Like mist rising in Jiangnan’s rainy season.
“Huo Xin…”
“It hurts.”
For the first time, in that absurd, reckless darkness, Huo Xin felt something real.
TL Note:
Loving this chapter? You'll be hooked on Crow's Golden Fragment! Click to explore more!
Read : Crow's Golden Fragment
If You Notice any translation issues or inconsistency in names, genders, or POV etc? Let us know here in the comments or on our Discord server, and we’ll fix it in current and future chapters. Thanks for helping us to improve! 🙂