All Chapters of The Polar Night Won't Shine on the Faithless: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

That line from the memo, "leave something behind inside Eve's wedding dress," echoed over and over in my head until my temples ached.After leaving the family dinner, I took a cab alone to our wedding home.It was a red-brick apartment near the college's old library, with a view of an ivy-covered clock tower from the window. Adrian had once said that after we married, he'd come down from his study every day, cross through the mist and the chiming bells, and take my hand to go get the first coffee of the morning.In the center of the dressing room hung the wedding gown he'd flown all the way to Europe to have hand-made by an old tailor.Layer upon layer of white, studded with fine pearls, like a snowfall frozen in place.I walked over and pulled back the dust cover.Through the elaborate lace lining, I searched inch by inch.Finally, on the most hidden inner side of the hem, I felt a spot that had been washed again and again until the fabric had stiffened.The smell of detergent was str

The high fever turned into severe pneumonia, and I finally collapsed on the living room floor.It was Noah, a senior colleague from my group, who sensed something was wrong, broke down the door with building management, and got me to the hospital.He stayed up all night, his eyes red, keeping watch by my bed, changing my towels and giving me warm water.Adrian didn't get to the hospital until the next morning.He looked exhausted, the collar of his white shirt still damp with rain, his cashmere coat draped over one arm, altogether too disheveled to be the ever-proper, elegant Professor Hall.The moment he pushed open the ward door, his gaze fixed on Noah, who was spoon-feeding me porridge.His face darkened in an instant."I'm her fiancé. It's not your place to fawn over her here. Get out."Noah glanced at him, set down the bowl, and turned to leave.Only the two of us were left in the ward.Adrian's knees bent, and he knelt before my bed.He grabbed my hand and pressed it hard against

News of the broken engagement spread quickly through the college circle.Adrian didn't give up.He thought I was just angry in the moment, thought that if he cut off my way out, I'd come crawling back to beg him.Citing unfinished project handovers, classified data reviews still awaiting signature, and ethics evaluations needing further explanation, he hit pause on the college's approval process.And while he was at it, he froze the grant funding on every project I held.The dean of administration in charge of approvals spoke earnestly over the phone."Eve, quarrels before an engagement are common among young people. Professor Hall means well for you.""Just swallow your pride, go have a good talk with him. Your file will be approved right away, and the funding can be restored."I hung up.Adrian knew me too well.He knew research was my life, knew that without my file and funding I couldn't go anywhere.He wanted to use this to force me to bow to him.But he forgot that I hadn't gotte

In three years, the polar wind never truly stopped for a single day.I'd severed all contact with the outside world.Every day I faced only the flood of data sent back by the deep-sea probes, and the long, grinding polar night.I packed my schedule as tight as it would go, and when I got sleepy I'd catch twenty minutes on the cot in the instrument room.In wind and snow like that, the word "love" seemed utterly trivial.Not until the eve of the project's declassification, when the communication controls were lifted.Only then, from the academic weeklies and internal college bulletins Noah forwarded me, did I piece together how things ended for Adrian and Selena.After losing me, his fiancée in name, the hypocritical shell Adrian wore peeled away completely.He'd once believed that as long as he chose to, he could move between the light and the dark with ease forever.But he'd overestimated himself.Without the light, even the dark became unbearably glaring.I heard that in the first mo

That night, a rare storm broke over the city.Wild wind drove the rain against the car windows.Noah drove me back to the newly assigned expert apartment.The moment the car stopped downstairs, by the beam of the headlights I saw a figure kneeling out in the rain.It was Adrian.He hadn't even opened an umbrella, soaked through from head to toe.His white shirt clung to his body, smeared with mud.Seeing me get out, he scrambled toward me.Only then did I see clearly the sharp letter knife clenched in his hand.On his wrist, a horrifying gash had already been cut open.Rain mixed with blood dripped from his fingertips into a puddle, blooming into a glaring patch of red.He was trying, through this extreme act of self-harm, to draw out the last shred of softness in me.He crawled on his knees to me, wanting to hold my legs, yet not daring to touch the clean hem of my trench coat.He could only brace his hands in the muddy water, weeping without a scrap of dignity."Eve, I'm begging you,