The Suspended Moon - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

No one in the Ruined District had ever seen the moon.

In my mind, the moon should have been gentle-a silver disk veiled in gauze.

But now, a massive blood-red eye had taken the moon’s place, its pupil formed from black gears.

As time passed, it slowly turned its gaze, as if it were looking straight at me-and yet not at all.

I reached out without thinking, only to touch cold glass.

And the reflection in that glass left me bewildered.

In my hazy impression, I didn’t look like this. I should have had black hair and black eyes.

“It’s time to eat.”

A soft voice sounded behind me.

I drew back my thoughts and turned around.

The black-haired man coughed lightly a few times, then smiled at me with crescent eyes, a sheen of tears brought on by the coughing shimmering in them.

Even in the warmth of the room, he wore a heavy coat. His ink-black hair was tied back loosely, his face pale, making the faint red at the corners of his eyes and his cold, deep gaze stand out all the more vividly.

I snapped back to myself and hurried over to him, patting his back to help him catch his breath. Helplessly, I said, “Qiewen, didn’t we agree that I’d go buy dinner later? You were already in poor health, and now you’ve caught a chill. Why insist on tiring yourself out cooking?”

A few days ago, he had carried me back from a pile of corpses.

Because of that, the cold had seeped into him, worsening his already fragile condition. He had been coughing ever since.

Qiewen seemed to want to say something, but a violent fit of coughing bent his back. Beneath his long, elegant swan neck, his body curved into a fragile arc, as if the slightest pinch would draw out a mournful cry and make him wither away.

“Are you okay? Where’s your medicine?”

Anxious, I quickly helped him sit down on the sofa and poured him a cup of warm water.

Because of the violent coughing, the hair tie holding his long hair loosely in place slipped to the floor, and a few strands of ink-black hair fell across his forehead.

The young man took a sip of water and shook his head. His damp eyes looked at me as he said softly, “Before, whenever I was like this, Baby would unlock the handcuffs that chained my wrist to the headboard, then hold me and coax me.”

I fell silent.

Chapter 2

It was a terribly cliché plot.

I had lost my memory.

On the verge of death, my brain had killed off my past.

My memories began on that late night, when I was lying on his back.

The wind was bitterly cold. He panted as he carried me, his voice thick with tears as he begged, “Baby, I’m taking you home. Don’t sleep. Don’t sleep…”

At the time, I thought he was my family. Or my lover.

Because he truly was good to me, and he knew my favorite foods and my daily habits.

But then one day, I accidentally opened the room at the end of the hall.

It was a gorgeous…

Cage.

Only then did I learn that our relationship had never been that simple.

He never said it outright, but I understood. Because I had lusted after his looks, I had imprisoned him, locking him inside that luxurious birdcage.

Me: “…”

What in the ever-loving hell.

And it was obvious that Qiewen had already grown dependent on that kind of treatment. Even when he saw I was dying, instead of kicking me into the gutter, he had fished me out of it.

Someone this gentle…

I really deserved to die.

Thinking that, I looked at Qiewen’s glistening gaze and sighed helplessly. I reached out, pulled him into my arms, and gently patted his back as a form of comfort.

The young man was a head taller than me. Though he looked frail, he had a large frame and firm muscles. Yet right now, he curled up in my arms, his brows and eyes curved with contentment, his gaze full of deep affection and dependence.

“Qiewen, you know I’ve lost my memory,” I said softly. “What I did before was wrong. From now on, I won’t ever imprison-”

Before I could finish, Qiewen abruptly straightened and stared at me in disbelief.

He pressed his lips together and blinked. Tiny tears clung to his lashes. Then came one ragged breath after another, each heavier than the last, as bean-sized tears slid down his cheeks.

I panicked and swallowed the rest of my words. Quickly, I pulled him back into my arms and coaxed him in a low voice, “Breathe, Qiewen. Breathe. I won’t say it. I won’t say it anymore.”

He held my waist tightly. Only after a long while did his breathing calm. Then, in a hoarse voice, he said, “Baby imprisoned me because you loved me. I’m willing to be imprisoned by you. You have to keep loving me, keep locking me forever in your house, with shackles and a collar. I’m yours…”

The black-haired beauty murmured in a low voice, his brows and eyes pressing down with a fierce edge. “I will never again…”

I didn’t catch the rest before he closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep, his brows still tightly furrowed, tears still glimmering at the corners of his eyes.

I sat there for a while, then got up and fetched him a blanket.

After finishing my meal, I saw that Qiewen still hadn’t woken up.

After thinking it over, I left a note, put on my cloak, and went out.