The bulldozers on Old Pine Lane have been turned off and parked in the night, waiting for dawn to demolish homes.
Typemaker Lin Yan huddled next to the old plate frame that was about to be cleared away. The broken piece of copper type that had been embedded for sixteen years suddenly burned hot at his fingertips.
He followed the broken words floating out from the cracks in the wood and crashed into a hidden city made of thousands of pages and ink marks - Ziji City.
There is no day or night here, the skylight is made of gold-rimmed bookmarks; what falls when it rains is blue ink, and when printed on the hand, it is a short poem that no one has read.
There is a ghost in the city who has guarded the city gate for a hundred years - Qin Ge.
Qin Ge was holding a long black ink knife, which was as cold as a layer of frost. He said to every living creature that came close: "Don't touch those broken words, they will be gone if they are scattered."
But late one night, Lin Yan discovered that Qin Ge's old scar on his left shoulder, which was deeply visible to the bone, contained an obsession that he had never spoken:
"When I was alive, I just wanted to go to Old Pine Lane to live in seclusion after being discharged from the army. If I die, I can never go back."
Lin Yan looked at the man who couldn't even put his last words on the ground, and silently took out the entry ticket from his pocket that floated out of the old edition shelf - there were two words printed on it: "Return."
"Who said we can't go back?" Lin Yan stuffed the piece of paper into his palm, "I'll block the bulldozers in reality for you. Ziji City protects Canzi's life, and I'll protect yours. I'll take you back to Old Pine Alley."
Qin Ge held the piece of paper and said nothing.
But in the dim light of the full moon in Ziji City, his eyes that had been hardened for a hundred years turned slightly red.
A broken word will not be broken, a rotten tree will never decay, a human feeling will never die, and people will return to their destination.
[Food Guide]:
1. Two male protagonists, focusing on warmth and healing, 1V1, mutual redemption.
2. Intertwined timelines: real bulldozer countdown VS fantasy city repair crisis.
3. Slowly heat up, the emotional line is simmered slowly, there is a sense of alienation in the early stage, but it goes in both directions in the later stage.
4. The background involves traditional culture (movable type printing), and reality and fantasy run parallel.
5. Enter the pit with confidence, HE throughout the whole process, and have a happy ending.
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Intention: On a night when bulldozers were devouring old alleys, I used half a piece of copper movable type on my fingertips to catch a lonely soul that had been dead for a hundred years, and the remaining characters that had nowhere to put them in the city.