Against All Reason

At the bottom of the imperial prison, the stone coffin stood open, its carving of "a white crane bearing a skull in its beak" chillingly stark. The coffin was empty! Poison eating away at him and old wounds tearing open again, the agony nearly shattered Lin Moxiao's will. But he gripped the sword at his waist so tightly that his knuckles turned white, never letting go.

A hand suddenly caught his falling body and pulled him close with force. It was Pei Huaishu. His warm chest pressed against Lin Moxiao's cold back.

"The key has turned. The eye of the game has appeared." Pei Huaishu's gaze burned bright. "Lord Lin, how about we venture into these waters together?"

The empty coffin had been opened. The white crane bearing a skull in its beak: he was both the bloodstained key and the eye of the abyss's game. And the man in black who had pulled him into his arms: was he the one moving the pieces, or... someone falling into the abyss with him?

Cold, calculating gong Pei Huaishu x cool, beautiful shou Lin Moxiao

He gazes into the abyss, and the abyss answers by locking him away. He holds a spark of starlight in his hand, and that light burns through the endless night.

How could a candlestick measure starlight? How could daylight fathom the abyss? Their paths lie beyond the rules.

Theme: Red plums in flying snow, a broken branch offered to an old friend