Transmigrate Through Time to Find You, My Shattered Love

The hospital lights were painfully bright. Su Mu sat on a bench outside the operating room, both hands clasped around a bronze pocket watch, the last gift Zhou Chen had given her. Cracks spread across its face like a spiderweb, and its hands were frozen forever at 3:17, the moment the car accident happened.

“Are you Zhou Chen’s family?” The operating room door opened, and a doctor wearing a blue mask came out.

Su Mu shot to her feet, the watch burning in her palm. “I’m his wife, Doctor. How is he?”

The doctor removed his mask, revealing an exhausted face. “We did everything we could. The patient’s spine was severely damaged, and he suffered massive internal bleeding... I’m very sorry...”

Su Mu couldn’t make out the rest. Her world collapsed in that moment, and all she could hear was a sharp ringing in her ears. The last thing she remembered was crumpling to the floor as the pocket watch slipped from her fingers with a clear chime.

The funeral took place on a rainy afternoon. Su Mu stood before the gravestone in a black dress, rain and tears mingling as they ran down her cheeks. Zhou Chen smiled from his photograph on the headstone. She had snapped it the year before, when they traveled to Barcelona. He stood in front of the Sagrada Familia, sunlight gilding his outline.

“What were his last words?” Zhou Chen’s friend Chen Yan asked quietly.

Su Mu unconsciously ran her fingertips over the pocket watch hanging around her neck. “He said... I should live well.”