Mornings were Jiang Yue's worst enemy.
Not demons, not exams, not even the terrifying landlady who once chased him for unpaid rent—no, it was mornings.
The shrill cry of his alarm clock dragged him from sleep like a cruel executioner. He groaned, rolled over, and slapped at the offending device until it finally went silent. With a sigh, he pulled his blanket back over his head.
"Five more minutes," he mumbled.
Five minutes turned into forty-five. By the time Jiang Yue stumbled out of bed, the sun was already high, and his first lecture had long since started. Not that he cared. He rubbed his messy hair, tugged on yesterday's hoodie, and shuffled toward the door with the sluggish steps of a man carrying the weight of ten lifetimes.
College life, in his opinion, was a scam. Professors threw around words like discipline and responsibility, but none of those things could compare to the bliss of a good nap. Jiang Yue's only true ambition was to live quietly, eat well, and never exert unnecessary effort.
As he wandered through campus, sipping on a cheap milk tea, his eyes drooped. Maybe I should skip class altogether… The grass under that tree looks comfortable.
He was halfway to collapsing under the shade when something shiny caught his eye.
It was half-buried in the dirt, glinting faintly in the sunlight—a thin, black bracelet. Its design was simple but strange, the metal cool and slightly rough, etched with faint, unfamiliar markings.
Jiang Yue crouched down and picked it up, brushing off the dirt. "Huh… looks old." He turned it in his hand. It wasn't heavy, but the moment he held it, he felt a faint thrum against his skin, like a heartbeat.
"Probably just some cheap accessory someone dropped," he muttered. "Well… finders keepers."
He slipped it onto his wrist without much thought. The metal was a perfect fit, neither too tight nor too loose. Oddly, it felt warm, as if it had been waiting for him all this time.
Shrugging, he continued on his way, already forgetting about it.
---
The rest of the day unfolded as lazily as ever. Jiang Yue skipped his afternoon lecture, claiming to himself that "mental health comes first." He spent two hours in the library—not studying, but napping in the quietest corner. He bought instant noodles from the convenience store, ate them in the dorm lobby, and then returned to his room to flop onto his bed like a fish thrown ashore.
Life was simple. Predictable. Exactly how he liked it.
But that night, something strange happened.
---
Jiang Yue woke to the sound of rain tapping against the window. The storm outside was loud, but not enough to explain the odd sensation crawling over his skin. His wrist tingled, a sharp sting pulling him from drowsiness.
He sat up and glanced down. The black bracelet was glowing faintly, the markings along its surface pulsing like embers.
"…Weird." He rubbed his eyes. "Maybe I'm dreaming."
He tugged at the bracelet, but it wouldn't come off. The more he pulled, the tighter it seemed to cling to his skin.
"Tch. Annoying thing." He grabbed a pair of scissors and tried to wedge them under the metal, but the blade snapped with a sharp ping.
Jiang Yue froze. "…Did this ten-yuan bracelet just eat my scissors?"
The glow grew stronger. His wrist burned. He hissed and scratched at it in frustration, his fingernail catching on the metal and drawing a thin line of blood.
A single drop slid onto the bracelet.
The instant it touched, the markings flared to life, spreading across the metal like wildfire. The bracelet tightened once, then loosened, as though it had drunk deeply and was satisfied.
Jiang Yue's heart skipped. The air in his tiny dorm suddenly grew heavy, thick with a pressure that made it hard to breathe. His desk lamp flickered, shadows stretching unnaturally across the walls.
"What the hell…" he whispered, backing away.
The rain outside hammered harder. The bracelet throbbed, heat radiating up his arm and into his chest. For a moment, his vision blurred—flashes of red skies, burning fields, a man with crimson eyes reaching for him—
Jiang Yue gasped and shook his head. The images vanished, leaving only the storm and his pounding heartbeat.
He stared at the bracelet, now dim again, lying innocently against his skin as if nothing had happened.
"...Nope." He crawled under his blanket, pulling it over his head. "Not my problem. If it wants to glow, let it glow. I'm going back to sleep."
Yet long after his eyes closed, he could still feel the faint warmth of the metal against his wrist, steady and alive.
Somewhere deep within the sealed darkness, a pair of crimson eyes slowly opened.