Immortals and Demons Perish Together

[Story Synopsis]

At the end of an unremarkable alley in the city stands a pawnshop that opens only at midnight. It accepts no gold, silver, or jewels, only “intangible things”: your happiness, your talent, your luck, even your time.

Down-on-his-luck painter Chen Mo enters this eerie pawnshop in a desperate attempt to bring back the love of his life, who died in a car accident. The owner is a young man who seems forever frozen at twenty. Smiling, he hands Chen Mo a contract. “You can return to the past and save her, but in exchange, you must pawn your feelings for her.”

Chen Mo thinks it’s a bargain. After all, as long as she’s alive, he can fall in love with her all over again.

But after saving her again and again in a time loop, he finds that when he looks at her, his heart is as still as a pool of water. Worse still, as he pawns more and more, he begins to forget who he is, why he came, and even how to write the word “love.”