Autumn, Year 18 of the New Era. The shadow known as "Deep Blue" has finally receded amid the flames of war. The guilty have been brought to justice, and the ruins are being cleared. Yet no victory celebration can bridge the chasms in their hearts. Sunday's sketchbook will forever remain unfinished, its last page a seaside scene. Tuesday's and Thursday's names are etched among the cold stars. Wednesday searches for a new foothold between her family's gentle words and their heavy stakes. Friday silently works the bolt of her rifle beneath the lights of home. In Saturday's eyes, the world remains blurred behind frosted glass.
Monday, Luo Yuming, returns alone to the ruins of Wuhe Hill, the scar on her cheek refusing to fade. She has not come merely to pay her respects. In the depths of a collapsed passage, among dust-covered belongings, she discovers three things: diary pages pointing to the "starting point of everything" in the far north, which Sunday, Su Ye, had "seen" with her dying breath; encrypted data about the last clue to the whereabouts of Thursday, Amir's missing sister, which he never managed to crack before his death; and the unfinished words of Tuesday, Simon, heavy with concern for his junior brother, Lei Dong, codenamed "Little Stone," struggling in the bitterly cold borderlands.
These three "last wishes" from the dead lead her farther north, and to a crossroads where the shattered symbol of the "Zhoutian Squad" lies. The Joint Command's senior officers want to rebuild this "sharp blade" and fill the places of the fallen with fresh blood. But Luo Yuming knows that Tuesday, who is dead, cannot be replaced, and a broken cycle cannot simply be restored. She chooses to set aside her assignment for now and head north alone, into a land sealed in ice by ancient legends and harsh reality. She has only one purpose: to honor Simon's final promise, find Lei Dong, and lead him away from that frozen earth that devours hope.
Witnessing new life in the Far East
