The City of the Moon: An Outsider?

(The novel is also titled “To Angela: A Thousand Million Goodnights.” You can ignore that title.)

In the bottomless cracks of the City, Shuang Xiao once thought she could eke out a living like a rat in a gutter, until Jiu Xin dragged her into an office glowing with warm light. But the gears of fate never stop turning, not even for a brief moment of comfort. In the end, she was swept into an even greater, more desperate maelstrom.

Seeking the truth about the City, Shuang Xiao entered the research institute, only to lose her emotions in a horrific experiment. From then on, she became an expressionless shell, watching coldly as the institute fell and the Smoke War raged, until Lobotomy Corporation rose from the ground.

When the Seed of Light project ended in betrayal, the Library of Ruina rose on the same site, and Shuang Xiao was reborn. As the Librarian of the Floor of Literature, she recovered her long-lost emotions, and her personality grew brighter too. She was still the same observer who preferred to stay behind the scenes, but this time, she was no longer cold.

From struggling in the Backstreets, to sinking into Lobotomy Corporation, to finding salvation in the Library. This is not only the long journey of a girl recovering her soul, but also a thousand million goodnights written for the AI librarian who stood watch alone through endless years.