Snow fell like goose feathers, swirling gently.
A figure in red stood between the modern high-rises and the ancient city that retained a touch of historical charm. The girl had her hair beautifully braided, adorned with delicate silver ornaments.
Her red dress, embroidered with butterflies, was speckled with snowflakes. She stood there in a daze, her eyes unfocused as she took in the familiar yet slightly foreign surroundings.
Passersby occasionally glanced her way.
Perhaps it was the sudden June snow that chilled her; the girl’s face was very red, especially the corners of her eyes, as if she had been crying. She wore a traditional dress and authentic-looking accessories.
However, this wasn’t an unusual sight. Tourists visiting the ancient city of Xi’an often dressed in traditional attire to take photos. The passersby probably looked her way because she was particularly striking.
Suddenly, she lifted her skirt and started to run.
But where was she running to?
She didn’t know. He Sui’an was now running aimlessly. How could she return at this time? She saw Qi Buyan’s butterfly silver chain completely broken. He would die.
He Sui’an ran as she cried.
Her embroidered shoes slipped off as she ran.
He Sui’an didn’t want to cry, but she was in so much pain and felt utterly helpless, swallowed by an overwhelming sense of powerlessness.
A kind-hearted passerby asked if she needed help, but He Sui’an’s throat felt stuffed with cotton. She couldn’t speak, could only shake her head and shed tears, like a mute, making only the sounds of sobbing.
The passerby called the police.
A girl who didn’t seem very old, with no money or phone, who wouldn’t say anything, wearing a beautiful but slightly dirty dress, with injuries on her wrists, and crying non-stop—it was safer to call the police.
In less than ten minutes, the police stationed at the ancient city tourist area arrived with two other people.
Recently, the police had received a plea for help from a couple urgently searching for their missing child.
Now, two days later, the police received another report about a young girl who seemed in trouble, matching the description of the missing child.
The police brought the couple along.
As expected, the girl was their daughter who had been missing for three days.
As soon as they saw He Sui’an, they ran over and hugged her tightly, asking where she had been for the past three days. They had been going crazy looking for her.
Hearing her parents’ voices, He Sui’an cried even harder, sobbing uncontrollably.
Her parents felt even more heartbroken.
No matter what, she was back, and that was all that mattered.
He Sui’an was taken away by them. Her emotions were not stable, and she couldn’t answer any questions. The police couldn’t continue questioning her at that moment, so they called for someone to bandage her wrist wounds and asked the parents to bring her to the station another day.
On the way back to the hotel, He Sui’an buried her head in her mother Yang Jin’s arms, gripping her clothes tightly with her hands, as if feeling very insecure. Though she wasn’t crying loudly anymore, she was eerily quiet.
Understanding her fragility, they didn’t press her with questions.
Even though they desperately wanted to know what He Sui’an had gone through in the past three days.
He Sui’an knew they were concerned and wanted to understand why she had disappeared for three days. But how could she explain it? She couldn’t make sense of it herself and might be sent to see a psychiatrist.
So, she could only remain silent for now.
Yang Jin gently stroked He Sui’an’s head. Her attire was different from three days ago; the orange long dress had turned into a red one, and the butterfly hair bun had turned into braids adorned with silver ornaments.
He Sui’an’s father, He Jin, was driving and glanced at the rearview mirror while waiting at a red light. The mother and daughter were cuddled up together, reminiscent of old times, seemingly serene.
His gaze shifted to He Sui’an’s wrist. One wrist was injured, but the other was fine, adorned with a butterfly silver chain.
The butterfly silver chain was engraved with the character “Sui”.
There were many small silver bells in her hair, all engraved with “Sui”.
The silver ornament in the middle of her braid was engraved with the character “Yan”, blending inconspicuously among the many “Sui” ornaments, yet it was there.
He Jin usually didn’t pay much attention to the accessories Yang Jin put on He Sui’an. He only knew that on the day she disappeared, she wasn’t wearing a red dress but an orange dress made by Yang Jin.
Looking at her alone, she seemed unchanged, yet something felt different.
*
The first thing He Sui’an did upon returning to the hotel was ask Yang Jin for her phone, then ran to the room she had stayed in after arriving at Xi’an Ancient City.
He Jin wanted to follow her in, but Yang Jin shook her head, stopping him. As He Sui’an’s closest mom, she could sense what He Sui’an needed: “Let her be alone for a while.”
In the room.
He Sui’an’s fingers trembled uncontrollably as she held her phone and pressed the power button.
Traveling, He Sui’an naturally couldn’t carry a finished novel with her. But since it was published, she could definitely find related information online. She wanted to search for it.
Thanks to the advanced internet, He Sui’an quickly found information about the novel.
Title: “Meeting Sui”
Publisher: XX Publishing House
Publication Date: April 2020
Author: H
He Sui’an quickly skimmed through this information and then searched for the author of “Meeting Sui.” The search engine automatically displayed a link to a live stream by the author, which she clicked on.
On the live stream, a familiar face to He Sui’an appeared.
It was He Hua.
Her phone almost slipped from her hand.
He Hua was wearing a long apricot-colored dress, sitting upright with a unique grace on the sofa. Her appearance hadn’t changed, and she wore a device on her throat to help her speak.
Someone was interviewing He Hua, asking about her inspirations and such.
He Hua smiled slightly at the camera and said, “Some readers might not know, but the book ‘Meeting Sui’ is actually based on a historical prototype, specifically the Qi dynasty.”
“But some history-savvy readers noticed that in the novel, the Qi dynasty is renamed to Great Zhou, and the defeat of Weicheng is adapted from a related historical event. Emperor Duan Jing is actually based on…”
The voice produced by modern technology lacked any emotion.
But it was clear enough for everyone to hear.
He Sui’an in front of the screen also heard it.
The interviewer then asked if He Hua had previously worked in historical research or a related field, and why she was so knowledgeable about history.
He Hua smiled and stated that this was her personal life, and she preferred to keep it private.
He Sui’an knew there was a Qi dynasty in history, but as a science student, she wasn’t very familiar with the details of the dynasty He Hua mentioned, since her high school exams didn’t cover history in such detail.
That wasn’t the main point.
The main point was that He Hua was still alive today and had written a novel featuring a character named “He Sui’an.” Was the “He Sui’an” in the book really her? Was she the “He Sui’an” from the novel?
Could it be that Jiang Xuewan, Jiang Songwei, Su Yang, Shen Jianhe, Zhong Huan… and Qi Buyan weren’t fictional characters, but people He Hua had encountered throughout history?
He Hua had a longevity gu inside her.
That’s why she was still alive, neither aging nor dying, and seemingly no different from ordinary people.
He Sui’an tried hard to organize her thoughts.
She hadn’t just entered an ordinary wuxia novel; she had traveled back a thousand years to the Qi dynasty. He Sui’an’s breathing became labored as she looked down at her red dress and the silver ornaments on her braid.
How could this be?
It was too absurd.
He Sui’an could hardly believe what she had discovered was true, but rationality told her it probably was. She hadn’t entered a novel but the historical Qi dynasty.
Is it real?
Then Qi Buyan died a thousand years ago.
He Sui’an’s tears fell uncontrollably.
She realized that she couldn’t change the course of history but instead had become a part of it.
Wait a minute.
Before she traveled, the figure she saw and the voice she heard should have been He Hua.
Did He Hua know she would travel back to the Qi dynasty during a June snow? He Sui’an wiped away her tears and stood up resolutely. She needed to meet He Hua and get to the bottom of everything.
*
After calming herself, He Sui’an put down her phone and came out of the room.
Yang Jin and He Jin, who were sitting on the sofa outside the room, stood up simultaneously. He Sui’an ran to them and hugged them tightly, sobbing, “Mom, Dad.”
Yang Jin’s eyes reddened. “You scared us to death.”
He Jin’s eyes were also moist.
“It’s good to have you back.”
He kept repeating this phrase, as if reassuring He Sui’an that everything was okay, and also reassuring himself that his daughter had returned.
Unable to hold back any longer, Yang Jin asked what had happened to He Sui’an in the past three days.
He Sui’an’s fingers twitched slightly.
He Jin also asked.
Faced with their questions, He Sui’an could only say, “I don’t remember. I don’t remember anything from these three days.” She truly couldn’t explain what she had been through.
Yang Jin and He Jin immediately took He Sui’an to the hospital for a full check-up.
He Sui’an went along with them.
Generally, memory loss would result from a brain injury, so they had her undergo a brain scan. The results showed that He Sui’an had indeed suffered a severe head injury, which could have affected her memory.
However, the doctor found it strange that the injury on He Sui’an’s head was not from three days ago but at least a few months old.
Yang Jin insisted it was impossible.
A few months ago, He Sui’an was still in school preparing for her college entrance exams. Yang Jin visited her every few days to bring her nutritious meals.
If He Sui’an had sustained such a serious injury a few months ago, Yang Jin would have noticed. Her teachers and classmates at school, who saw her every day, would have noticed too.
The doctor admitted he didn’t know.
The results were indeed as shown.
Yang Jin felt a pang of sorrow, hugging He Sui’an tightly, trying hard to hold back her tears.
He Jin turned to wipe the corners of his eyes. He Sui’an, with her head bowed, reached out to hold their hands and whispered, “I want to go home.”
*
Since the incident at the ancient city of Xi’an, they hadn’t left He Sui’an’s side for a moment.
In the days following He Sui’an’s return, Yang Jin stayed with her every night, and during the day, they took turns watching over her, never leaving her alone for fear of another accident.
They didn’t let her go out alone, worried that something similar might happen again.
He Sui’an had no chance to find He Hua.
Even though she hadn’t found an opportunity to see He Hua, she never stopped searching for information about her online. Eventually, she discovered that He Hua had a writing studio in Xi’an.
Earlier, He Sui’an sat in front of the computer, repeatedly watching He Hua’s interview.
After finishing He Hua’s interview, He Sui’an went through the novel again, carefully reading every description about Qi Buyan.
Each time she read, it felt as if she could reach out and touch Qi Buyan through the words.
But sometimes, as she read, tears would fall because reading the novel was like reliving their experiences. He Sui’an missed Qi Buyan, wanted to see him, to hold him.
Her eyes were sore.
Yang Jin came in with a cup of hot milk. The June snow hadn’t stopped, and the weather was cold. A cup of hot milk would help her sleep: “Here, Sui Sui, drink this milk and then go to bed.”
He Sui’an drank it.
Yang Jin touched her slightly thinner face.
“What’s wrong, Sui Sui? You still seem very unhappy.”
Yang Jin noticed that since He Sui’an had returned, she often stared into space or fixated on watching interviews on the computer, or held onto her new book, reading it over and over.
While reading books and watching interviews were normal activities, for He Sui’an, it was unusual. She used to be focused solely on her studies, occasionally reading novels but never indulging for long.
Yang Jin didn’t understand what had changed recently.
She sighed inwardly.
Oh well, as long as He Sui’an is safe, she can do whatever she wants.
Yang Jin looked at her with tender affection.
He Sui’an left the computer and hugged Yang Jin’s waist, but then she remembered how she used to hug Qi Buyan’s waist like this, and a sharp pain pierced her heart.
“Mom, I feel so awful.”
She said.
Yang Jin pulled He Sui’an to the bed to sit down. “Where does it hurt?”
He Sui’an shook her head, not wanting her mother to see her expression. She lay down, resting her head on Yang Jin’s lap, and tightly hugged her waist, like a child who hadn’t grown up.
To Yang Jin, He Sui’an would always be her child.
Yang Jin only had one daughter, whom she cherished dearly, always careful to protect her. Whenever she thought about the days He Sui’an was missing, she felt an overwhelming sense of guilt.
He Sui’an, lost in her thoughts, slowly withdrew her right hand, looking at the red thread around her wrist, which had faded in color. This thread was left by the love gu Qi Buyan had placed on her, and it had traveled back with her.
But the Qi Buyan who had refined this love gu had died a thousand years ago. She hadn’t changed his fate; she had only witnessed his death.
He Sui’an closed her eyes.
Hot tears silently seeped into the bedspread.
*
He Sui’an went to find He Hua.
She finally convinced her parents to let her go out alone, promising to return by 8 PM.
He Hua’s studio in Xi’an wasn’t hard to find, thanks to modern navigation tools. He Sui’an took a cab to the vicinity, and following the navigation, found the studio within minutes.