On the seventh day after heavy rain washed away the mountain road, Shen Yi found the burnt finger bones in the basement.
There is still a half-melted silver ring stuck to the edge of the finger bone. It is the style he put on Lin Ye three years ago.
Three days ago, Lin Ye "missed" in the fire that burned half of the mountain. The search and rescue team said that the temperature in the core of the wildfire was enough to burn bones to ashes, but Shen Yi knew that he was still there - just like the burnt smell that filled the air at this moment, like the half-plate of leftovers that were gradually rotting in the refrigerator but had not been dealt with, and like the sound of wet muddy footsteps knocking on the door on time at midnight.
They had been each other's fuel. In the ruins of a sanatorium abandoned by the world, in an abandoned warehouse with a blind spot under surveillance, they used their body temperature to fight the cold, and fed their greedy flames with secrets, thinking that as long as they were hot enough, they could burn away all the evil. It wasn't until the fire swept over that Xie Lin saw clearly that what was dancing in Lin Ye's eyes was not redemption, but the madness that wanted to drag him into the ashes.
Now the flames are extinguished.
Shen Yi counted the lines on his finger bones and listened to the creaking sound of the floor upstairs. He knew who it was. It was the ember that he had pushed into the fire with his own hands and crawled back. With an obsession that could not be burned out, it was licking away at his remaining sanity inch by inch.
"Found you."
In the darkness, a voice sounded against the back of his neck, with a burning hoarseness, like the soft sound of charcoal fire running over his skin.
And Shen Yi's hand holding the broken phalanx finally began to tremble uncontrollably - he couldn't tell whether the hot temperature in his palm came from the remaining warmth of the embers, or the rekindled desire in his heart to burn everything completely.
Intention: Love and hate burn out, obsession never dies
