The Midnight Gear and the Unfinished Song

Lei Zhiyin, the night-shift maid at the Clepsydra Pavilion, was jolted awake at midnight by a bloodstained bronze pocket watch.

The instant its gears stopped, she saw a girl being sent flying by a truck.

“At midnight, I fix clocks. I don’t meddle in worldly affairs.” But the scrawled words inside the watch stung her eyes:

“Thorns will bloom, scars are medals, and our story will go on forever... ”

When Lei Zhiyin secretly turned the watch’s gears backward to save the girl, every clock in the attic stopped at once.

She wiped the machine oil seeping from the corner of her mouth and chuckled as a faint spring snapped beneath her skirt.

“What’s all the fuss? I’m just fixing a clock.”