The studio wasn’t large but had a reception area. After entering, He Sui’an asked to see He Hua. The receptionist asked if she had an appointment.
He Sui’an did not.
She honestly said no.
The receptionist asked her to leave her name. Though He Hua wasn’t a CEO of a major company or a big celebrity, she still had her own schedule and couldn’t meet just anyone on a whim.
He Sui’an, looking around anxiously, answered, “He Sui’an.”
Upon hearing the name, the receptionist paused, then immediately led He Sui’an inside. “Please follow me.”
He Sui’an was taken into an office.
He Hua was there.
Seeing He Sui’an, He Hua’s face lit up with joy, and she exclaimed, “Miss He.” Though the mechanical voice couldn’t convey emotions, it was clear that He Hua was excited.
Looking at He Hua, He Sui’an felt a sense of surrealness. After all, He Hua had lived for a thousand years because of the longevity gu in her body, spanning not just one lifetime but many.
“Did you… know I would come to find you?” He Sui’an asked, uncertain.
He Hua knew He Sui’an would come.
She invited her to sit. “Yes, Miss He. Ask me whatever you want to know.”
He Sui’an asked directly.
“Why is everything in your book exactly what I’ve experienced? Even if you lived a thousand years ago and we met a few times, you couldn’t possibly know so much about me.”
He Hua looked at her with a loving gaze. “You told me yourself, Miss He.”
A thousand years ago.
One night, when He Sui’an was drunk, she shared a bed with He Hua, mistaking her for her mother. She cried all night, talking about how she traveled through the snow, and everyone’s fate. He Hua was shocked and found it hard to believe at the time.
After the initial shock, He Hua chose to bury this knowledge deep within her. The next day, she pretended nothing had happened. When He Sui’an asked if she had said anything while drunk, He Hua said no.
Year after year passed.
She lived to the present day.
On the day of the June snow, He Hua knew He Sui’an would come to Xi’an Ancient City and travel back to a thousand years ago, so she went to find her.
He Hua had considered finding He Sui’an in advance, but she knew nothing about He Sui’an in the modern world. The world was too vast, and finding one person in the sea of humanity was incredibly difficult.
She only knew He Sui’an would come to Xi’an Ancient City on the day of the June snow this year.
But He Hua arrived a step too late.
He Sui’an had already been hit on the head.
Knowing that He Sui’an didn’t want Qi Buyan to die, He Hua could only tell her, “Your task is to change everyone’s fate.”
“Miss He, please remember, your chance to return is marked by the strange phenomenon of the heavy snow. Never disregard your own life. If you die, you won’t be able to come back.”
“Protect yourself well.”
As soon as He Hua finished speaking, a gust of wind and snow blew in, and when she opened her eyes again, the injured He Sui’an had already disappeared.
The past is like smoke, disappearing in an instant.
Now, He Hua looked at He Sui’an and, in a not-so-pleasant voice, recounted the story to her.
After finishing, He Hua sighed, “This is what modern times call a time paradox. You went back and did those things. I learned about them from you and then wrote this book in this era.”
He Sui’an murmured, “But I still couldn’t change his fate.”
She meant Qi Buyan.
He Hua understood but said nothing.
Life is full of uncertainties, and who can say for sure how things will turn out?
Suddenly, the quiet office was filled with a heart-wrenching cry. He Sui’an covered her face and cried, tears streaming through her fingers. She could no longer suppress her emotions; the pain was too overwhelming.
He Hua gently embraced her.
He Sui’an had been holding back in front of her parents, but now, in front of He Hua, who knew everything, she could finally let it out. She cried until her voice was hoarse.
He Hua didn’t stop her. Some things can’t be bottled up; they need to be released somehow, or they will cause harm.
*
On the fifth day after meeting He Hua, He Sui’an booked a flight to the Tianshui Village in Miaojiang.
The Tianshui Village had survived through the ages. He Sui’an wanted to visit it because she had promised Qi Buyan they would go there together. Since she couldn’t fulfill that promise with him, she would go alone.
Her parents were worried about her traveling so far alone but knew they shouldn’t overly restrict her freedom. They didn’t insist on accompanying her but asked one of He Sui’an’s friends to go with her.
Having two people would be safer.
He Sui’an agreed.
She agreed in front of her parents, but in reality, she chose to go alone.
It was a promise between her and Qi Buyan.
Even if he was no longer there.
The June snow had stopped a few days earlier, and the temperature had returned to normal, sometimes even quite warm. Tianshui Village was halfway up a mountain, inaccessible by car.
If He Sui’an wanted to go up, she had to climb. She wasn’t afraid of the effort and packed lightly for the journey. Just as she was about to start walking, the driver who brought her to the base of the mountain called out, “Wait a moment.”
He Sui’an stopped.
“What is it, driver?”
The driver had ferried many passengers in the area and knew a bit about Tianshui Village. Unlike other places in Miaojiang, it wasn’t open to tourists and remained quite insular even in the 21st century.
The village had many unattended insects and snakes. If a tourist was bitten, no one would take responsibility. Seeing that He Sui’an was young, the driver kindly advised her not to go in out of curiosity.
He suggested she visit another place instead.
The driver said, “How about you go to a different place? There’s another village not far from here, developed for tourism, with a similar environment but much more fun.”
He Sui’an insisted on going to Tianshui Village. “I only want to visit Tianshui Village. You said the people there are insular, but have they ever actively or without reason harmed outsiders?”
“Well, no…”
If they had, she would reconsider. “Then that’s fine.”
The driver clicked his tongue a few times. “But the people in Tianshui Village are hard to communicate with. They won’t talk to you.”
Leaning against the car, he lowered his voice. “If you upset them, they might use strange insects to bite you, causing pain for ten days or more. They are not easy to deal with.”
“Thank you, I understand.”
He Sui’an thanked the driver for his kindness and handed him a few hundred yuan for the fare. “Please wait for me at the nearby village. I’ll come down before dark, and you can take me back to the hotel then.”
The driver thought to himself that she seemed like a well-behaved girl but was incredibly stubborn. Seeing her insistence, he didn’t argue further and agreed, “Alright.”
He Sui’an started her climb.
The mountain path was rugged and difficult. Her legs ached by the time she reached halfway up.
Someone was humming a tune on the path.
He Sui’an looked over.
The singer was a little girl from Tianshui Village, half-squatting on the ground, playing with bugs. She had a youthful face and wore silver ornaments on her neck, wrists, and ankles.
He Sui’an crossed a stream running across the path, stepped onto a wooden bridge, and approached the girl. “Hello, can I take some pictures?”
The girl looked up at her.
“Not of you, but of the scenery in the village,” He Sui’an clarified, raising her camera.
The girl stared at her for a while.
He Sui’an was puzzled.
A head popped out of a stilted house to the left. “Ah Man, come back for dinner.”
Ah Man tossed aside the bugs and ran home but kept glancing back at He Sui’an. She found He Sui’an’s beauty different from the people in Tianshui Village. Having never left the village, Ah Man found her intriguing.
How beautiful was He Sui’an?
Ah Man thought carefully.
She believed He Sui’an’s beauty could rival that of the mysterious gu master in the village legend.
How mysterious was the gu master? He survived even after his butterfly silver chain was broken, living for over a thousand years like a beautiful and immortal creature.
Ah Man had only seen this mysterious gu master once, and it was recently. He hadn’t appeared before, as if he had vanished, but the villagers still revered him.
As a gu master, he was venerated.
Whether alive or dead, conscious or comatose.
The villagers’ reverence for the gu master came from genuine respect, so Ah Man also believed in him, though she feared him too. His smile was beautiful but also strangely like a venomous snake.
He was definitely not easy to approach.
Ah Man took another look at He Sui’an.
So beautiful.
Ah Man stopped looking at He Sui’an. Beautiful as she was, the people of Tianshui Village were generally xenophobic, and Ah Man was no exception. Even if she found He Sui’an attractive, she would only admire her beauty secretly.
It’s better not to engage.
Ah Man ran into her house.
He Sui’an, ignored by Ah Man, felt puzzled. Why did the girl keep looking at her?
The woman who called Ah Man back for dinner was her mother. She also ignored He Sui’an, believing that outsiders would be scared off by the insects and snakes and would leave, posing no threat or disturbance.
The woman was about to close the window when she noticed that the insects and snakes in the grass and flower beds were avoiding this outsider, instead of attacking like they usually did.
Why was this happening?
The woman widened her eyes in surprise.
He Sui’an didn’t notice and continued on the stone path, taking photos of the scenery.
Every shot turned out beautifully.
Miaojiang’s Tianshui Village was stunning, impossible to capture poorly.
But she knew that the Tianshui Village of a thousand years ago was different from the one now. This realization made He Sui’an sad; she still couldn’t truly experience the place where Qi Buyan grew up.
She continued walking.
Encountering a few snakes along the way, her first reaction wasn’t fear but a wish that the red snake, silver snake, and black snake were still around.
These snakes didn’t attack her but slithered into the nearby grass.
She took a photo of them.
Then she turned to the right.
He Sui’an crossed the stone path and entered a field of flowers. As she raised her camera to take a picture, a tall figure in indigo appeared in the frame.
“He Sui’an.”
The voice was melodious, like a gentle breeze or a trickling stream.
Her fingers froze.
He Sui’an’s gaze slowly moved from the camera, lifting her eyes to look ahead.
She was dazed.
A young man in indigo clothes stood there, a tassel swaying lightly from his forehead, a bone flute tucked at his waist. His wrist was empty, the butterfly silver chain gone, but the pink scar remained.
Qi Buyan wasn’t dead.
The Celestial Silkworm Gu was refined by Qi Shu using his own blood and life essence. It could suppress Qi Buyan’s urge to kill and had another hidden function—to save his life in critical moments.
However, this function only activated if Qi Buyan developed genuine love, rather than a twisted and pathological possessiveness. Otherwise, it wouldn’t work, and he would still die.
Qi Shu didn’t save him.
Qi Shu wouldn’t leave a twisted, irredeemable pervert in the world.
Qi Buyan saved himself.
If he had chosen to die with He Sui’an, the Celestial Silkworm Gu’s life-saving function wouldn’t have activated.
Therefore, he survived.
But Qi Buyan still wanted to die. As he was about to end his life, he saw the red thread on his wrist and vaguely felt He Sui’an’s heartbeat. Qi Buyan then didn’t want to die anymore.
He wanted to wait for He Sui’an to return.
What if she did come back?
Not long ago, after Yan Luoxu’s death, her Longevity Gu autonomously transferred to Qi Buyan.
If the host of the Longevity Gu dies, it can find a new host, and it was drawn to the aura of the Celestial Silkworm Gu in his body. To have enough time to wait for He Sui’an’s return, he used this Longevity Gu.
The Longevity Gu was different from the Celestial Silkworm Gu; it could be removed at any time. Once removed, his life would return to its normal course.
He used the Longevity Gu at eighteen. Once removed, his life would no longer be stagnant, starting again from eighteen.
Qi Buyan wanted to wait for He Sui’an and then remove the Longevity Gu.
He waited and waited, through winters and springs, for a thousand years, until today. A red thread born from the Love Gu ran through the center of his left wrist, growing redder the closer he got to her.
When they were within a certain range, the Love Gu allowed Qi Buyan to instantly sense He Sui’an’s exact location. When they were far apart, he could only sense if she was alive or dead.
Today, he sensed her exact location, right in Tianshui Village.
So he came down the mountain.
Qi Buyan saw He Sui’an.
He walked towards her step by step, but He Sui’an ran towards him, dropping everything, crying as she ran. Tears flew behind her, and she ran faster than ever before.
She feared it was an illusion, and if she was late by a moment, the illusion might vanish without a trace.
After a thousand years and countless days and nights, He Sui’an finally leaped into Qi Buyan’s arms again, her collision making his silver ornaments jingle. She looked up at him with a tear-streaked face.
But he smiled.
Qi Buyan cupped He Sui’an’s face, bent down, and kissed her.
“He Sui’an.”
“I missed you so much.”
These words fell between He Sui’an’s lips, his breath hot and familiar, with a warm, intoxicating scent. Qi Buyan greedily licked her lips, his Adam’s apple moving as he swallowed her saliva.
They kissed passionately in the flower field.
The fragrance of flowers filled the air, and the sound of bells echoed.
The wind blew through the boy’s hair, causing the small silver bells engraved with the word “Sui” to jingle.
Translator’s Note: I will not follow the sequence of the author for the extras. I’ll translate the continuation of the main story first, followed by the Tianshui Village extras, and lastly with the IF story extras.
Author’s Note:
- The Longevity Gu is different from the Celestial Silkworm Gu. The Longevity Gu can be removed at any time. When Qi Buyan reunites with He Sui’an, he will surely remove it. When he does, his life will resume from the age of eighteen. He will not die or age instantly upon removal.
- This chapter did not cover how Qi Buyan spent the thousand years; it only described their reunion. In the following epilogue, it will be revealed that Qi Buyan was in a state of slumber for those thousand years. His mindset and beliefs remain at eighteen years old, meaning he reunited with He Sui’an shortly after awakening from his slumber.