Natural crystal strawberry crystal butterfly snake inlaid cinnabar rose bracelet

“Rose of Thorns”

Florist Wen Nian found a blood-red crystal rose at an antique market. The petals were stacked like real ones, but a drop of black crystal was condensed in the center of the stamen. The seller warned: “This is a ‘heart-thorn rose’, which can fulfill wishes about ‘love’…but each petal is engraved with a lie.”

Wen Nian placed it in the studio. The next day, all the bouquets she handled remained strangely in full bloom, and even the withered wild roses bloomed again. The guests rushed to buy them, but no one noticed that tiny blood-red words appeared on the back of the petals – all of which were the unknown secrets of the recipients.

Even more terrifying was that crystal thorns began to grow on Wen Nian’s fingertips. Late at night, a whisper came from the rose: “Water it with 99 true tears, and you will get true love…” She trembled and cut off the first crystal thorn and stabbed it into the teacup of the person she had secretly loved for many years.

When the moonlight shone into the window, the 99 crystal thorns had been arranged in a heart shape. The rose finally fully bloomed, revealing the black crystal in the center of the pistil—which contained Wen Nian’s first pure heartbeat. Outside the window, the roses on the entire street had turned into thorny blood crystals…