The entanglement between him and her

Is actually light and yet flavorful.

Like the transparent atmosphere

That burns into an inferno,

Sprinting ceaselessly between day and night.

Content warning: dub con, suicide attempt, grief over family death

The night is frigid, only as the sweaty man pulls out of her body does Jiang Hu[1] clearly understand, the night is truly frigid. She lets out a burp, dazed, not fully awake. Only the sudden loss of warmth at her side shakes her, and her mind clears a bit in response.

The man holds her waist tightly and places a kiss on her neck. On his body is the scent of alcohol, and his kiss also brings traces of it. He leaves traces in the curves of her body, as if to urge her back into drunkenness.

Desiring only drunkenness with no sobriety is what Jiang Hu can only hope for.

Worn out at last, the man releases her and falls asleep thoughtlessly.

Jiang Hu, however, slowly sobers, turns over, and turns her back to the man. She inhales deeply, and the air in the room is also frigid. They didn't turn on the heat earlier. After the illusion of warmth fades, she is faced with the frigid truth.

Jiang Hu remembers she is in a private hotel in the mountains, and even though it looks luxurious at first glance, she only needs to stand in the mountains to remember that the surroundings are cold. Thinking through this, these chilly thoughts become frozen ice deep in her heart, and from her hopelessly desolate heart, they turn into ice-cold tears that almost fall. Jiang Hu can't tell if she feels regret or pain, nor does she have the will to tell. At her side, the man starts to breathe evenly, in a deep sleep. The room goes back to a state of stillness.

Jiang Hu raises her head slightly. Across from the tatami is a window, and through the white curtains, in the dark night, the shadows cast by the mountains look like demons and monsters, and yet have an indescribable appeal. She props herself up to a sitting position, and the frozen feeling congeals again, spurring her to stand up.

She faces the window, stands, and walks forward. Lightly, she pulls back the curtains, and with a gentle push on the bolt, opens the window. With the window wide open, the mountain wind sweeps the white curtains, waving erratically, like a like a lonesome white wisp.

Looking from between the curtains, there are indeed no demons or monsters outside, only the moon hanging high in the sky. In the distance are the shadowy mountains, and the flickering stars hang low enough to fall into the valleys, letting the moon hang alone in the sky.

Perhaps the moon also feels cold.

Jiang Hu feels even colder, unable to keep from hugging herself tightly, but she suddenly lets go, both hands slowly holding onto the window frame.

Spring arrives extra early in Izu. Before the snow accumulated in winter is fully melted, the flowers would blossom here, and in the middle of the uninterrupted cedarwood forest is a very deep gorge. In the deep night, the early spring blossoms are invisible, and so is the deep gorge in the forest below the window.