Chapter Five: The Yesterday They Collected

Pei Du stood beside her. He sealed the wound with his blood, and the pipe fell silent. Their blood mingled in the lines of her hand. Red thread curled up her wrist toward her heart. “You have incurred my debt,” he said. “Was that deliberate?” “One moment later and the yesterdays of millions would have torn you apart.” Jianyue tried to pull away. Instead, she felt the exact location of his slow heart and the hunger he restrained. The debt had made them unbearably clear coordinates in each other's darkness. Pain struck again. This time it took Lin Zhou's twelfth birthday. She knew she had given him a cardboard telescope, but could no longer remember his laughter when he received it. “I forgot another piece of him.”