My new work is out! You're welcome to read it on Tomato Novel. I hope you'll enjoy it. Your support motivates me to write, and I'll do my best to tell every story well!
As I helped my older sister out of the secret chamber, she kept her left hand pressed to her heart.
The scorching cloth tag dug into my palm. It was an old keepsake, tucked beside the booklet in a hidden compartment of the crabapple-wood box Mother had left behind.
Three days later, I found a yellowed photograph in a secret compartment at the bottom of the box: Mother, Yan Ruqing; Gu Shenzhi's “father”; and a third person whose face was blurred.
On the back, in Mother's handwriting, were these words:
“He thinks the booklet is a key. In truth, it's a lock. What's locked away must awaken.”
And ever since that night, my older sister has not spoken a word. She only rubs the cloth tag day and night, occasionally writing a few broken phrases on paper:
Page seventy-three... is blank. But they don't know that the blank page is where it all begins.
