Winter's Ashes

[Content Warnings]

[Experimental subject matter, enter with caution!!!]

· Biological brothers

· Both protagonists die, bad ending

· Detailed depictions of the process and psychology of suicide

· Depictions of depression and self-destructive tendencies

· No redemption, the ending is predetermined

· The repression and struggle of forbidden love

That winter, the snow came especially early.

Huo Qingchao and Huo Qingyi were brothers by blood, raised under the same roof. They shared a closeness and an unspoken understanding that no one else could enter. They should have been each other's strongest support, until feelings that went beyond familial love quietly took root in silence, pushing everything toward an uncontrollable abyss.

In the school corridors, on snowy winter nights, and in the quiet of home, every meeting of their eyes became a secret burning pain. They tacitly maintained a "normal" distance, yet on countless nights, the same forbidden thought tormented them again and again. Their blood ties were a bond that could not be severed, and a chasm they could never cross.

Their family began to watch them with wary eyes, while society's rules built high walls around them. They struggled between the responsibility of doing what was "right" and the desire of a heart deemed "wrong." Every time they drew close, guilt followed; every time they pulled away, their souls were torn apart.

Some loves are born of blood, trapped by blood, and in the end, must die by blood.

Theme: Two boys struggling to find their true selves under the constraints of what is considered "normal"