On a night of torrential rain in Nancheng, Lin Qingnuan signs a consent form for an abortion in the emergency room. Before the blood has dried, her husband, Fu Tingye, is celebrating his mistress’s birthday. She smashes her wedding ring into the floor tiles, clutches the shards, and vows to put a crack in the world itself. From protecting Kangxi-era blue-and-white porcelain at a street stall to refiring Yaoyu porcelain with gutter oil, she turns every heartbreak into a career breakthrough with her kintsugi craft. Her scumbag ex forces her to take the blame, an influencer livestreams herself trashing her stall, and city inspectors chase her down. She flees and fires up her kiln, leaving sparks flying all the way. It’s only when Shen Sinian hands her electrolyte water at 25°C that she realizes even broken porcelain can be pieced together into a galaxy. At the end of Volume One, she holds up a porcelain pillow worth 30 yuan and smiles as her ex-husband’s stock plummets. Brokenness isn’t the end, but the prologue.
