Prologue: That night
The ice made a low groan before it cracked underfoot, like the sound of bones being slowly broken.
Shen Ji remembered that voice. He remembered standing there, holding the end of the safety rope in his hand, and the other end should be in Zhou Ye's hand. But the rope was loose. In other words, he relaxed.
At that second, his mind was blank. It's not "too late to react", it's "the body made its own choice". His fingers spread wide and the rope slipped out of his palm like a fleeing snake.
"Shen Ji! La——"
Zhou Ye's voice was torn by the wind. Shen Ji saw his headlight draw an arc in the darkness, falling like a meteor. No, meteors fly upward. Zhou is also going down. Go into the crack, deep into the ice, to a place where Shen Ji can no longer see.
Three years ago. The night before Tianshu Station.
Later, the station's report read "an accident under extreme weather conditions." No one knew that Shen Ji let go at that time. No one knew that before he let go, the first thought that flashed through his mind was not "save him" but "it's me who doesn't fall".
This thought is colder than any snowstorm in Antarctica.
For three years, he has been thinking every day: What would have happened now if he had taken that step?
But he will never know.
Intention: True love is never controlled by will!