Golden Restoration

This is not a story about repairing love. It's a story about acknowledging brokenness. The philosophy of kintsugi is: cracks don't need to be covered up – fill them in with gold powder, acknowledge that it existed, and let it be seen later. Bai Juyi wrote at the end of the Song of Everlasting Regret: As time goes by, this hatred will last forever. Both heaven and earth have an end, and there is only no regret. But this regret is not sadness - it is a crack that is still called a crack after it is filled with gold. It's the physical repair that lasts forever, but the spiritual connection eventually wears out. It's how you face the period after you admit that you've been broken and before it will eventually run out. The answer is Kintsugi. Not cover up. Not denying exhaustion. It is to add a golden edge to the cracks, and then continue to live with this golden edge. This novel and its characters are purely fictitious. Any similarity is purely coincidental and should not be imitated.