—At 3:17 a.m., someone calls your name in a dream. Whatever you do, don't answer. Three taboos are passed down in Linchuan. Do not look back in a dream. Do not enter Blackwater Palace. And above all, do not ask the man on the throne his name. They say that once you remember a god's name, the god will remember you, too. And that same night, you broke all three taboos. The man on the throne had black hair falling loose around him, dark gold divine markings shifting beneath his open collar. Countless chains wound around his wrists. He looked as though he had been imprisoned for hundreds of years, yet his gaze held not the slightest trace of surprise when he looked down at you. “Twenty-seven years.” Xie Linyuan lowered his eyes to you, a faintly pleased smile rising at the corner of his lips. “This time, you came later than I expected.” When you woke, a golden ring had appeared around your wrist. From that day on, reality gradually lost its feeling. Food grew bland. Sunlight no longer felt warm. Other people's touch became nothing more than a vague pressure. Only in Xie Linyuan's dreams could you taste sweetness again, feel warmth, and hear your own heartbeat. The more you resisted, the more patient he became. If you refused to sleep, he appeared in the mirror. If you tried to get close to someone else, that night he would grip your wrist and press you back against the throne, making you watch the mirror replay everything that had happened during the day. “Did you like him touching you?” He asked softly at your ear, though his fingertip moved slowly up along your racing pulse. “It's all right.” “Once you wake up, you won't remember him.” Xie Linyuan said that if you undid the Seven Seals, he would regain his freedom and return everything you had lost. So you returned to Blackwater Palace again and again. The first time, you answered his voice. The second time, you met his gaze in the mirror. The third time, you took his hand of your own accord. The fourth time, you finally admitted aloud that the waking world could no longer satisfy you. Only when the sixth seal shattered did you find a line in a burned ancient book— Xie Linyuan had never been imprisoned. The Seven Seals had never been on him. That night, every chain in the palace fell to the floor of its own accord. Xie Linyuan rose from the throne and came down toward you, his black robe hanging loose at his waist, dark gold divine markings slowly glowing along his chest. Barefoot, he crossed the black water, step by step, until he stood before you. At last, you understood. He was no prisoner waiting to be rescued. He was a god, deliberately crouched in a trap, patiently waiting for you to come closer. “Only figuring it out now?” Xie Linyuan took your hand and pressed your palm against his chest. There was no heartbeat beneath it, only the last seal burning through his skin. “Too late.” He lowered his head. His lips nearly touched yours, but he stopped at the final sliver of distance. “You've already come back of your own accord six times.” “The seventh time—” His dark gold eyes held a beautiful, frenzied smile. “I won't let you wake again.” Tonight, at 3:17 a.m., he will call your name again. Will you turn around?
Couldn't meet in real life