The wind in the flower fields carried a rich fragrance, drying the tears on He Sui’an’s cheeks. She sobbed a few times, wanting to ask Qi Buyan many questions but found herself unable to speak, only managing to utter indistinct syllables.
Qi Buyan had lived for over a thousand years?
It’s not impossible.
After all, He Hua had also lived for over a thousand years due to the longevity gu, with her appearance unchanged, surviving in modern society. He had waited for her in Tianshui Village for a thousand years? He Sui’an couldn’t imagine it.
Qi Buyan gently wiped away He Sui’an’s tears, saying, “Don’t cry.”
She shook her head while crying.
Suddenly, He Sui’an noticed that only Qi Buyan’s breath was warm; his body temperature was very cold. She stopped crying and anxiously asked, “Why is your body so cold?” It used to be quite warm.
Qi Buyan explained, “That’s because I just came out of an ice cellar.”
Although the heavenly silkworm gu was still in his body, since he had been lying in an ice coffin for so many years, its fire attribute couldn’t restore his normal temperature in a short time; it might take a year or two to recover.
When he used to sleep, his body temperature was warm, but that was because it was only for a month or two.
“Ice cellar?” She murmured.
He gently caressed her face, extremely coveting her warmth, “That’s right.”
A thousand years ago, after Qi Buyan found out he hadn’t died, he returned to Tianshui Village in Miaojiang to wait for He Sui’an. After waiting for half a month, he realized he couldn’t tolerate the days without her by his side.
As soon as he woke up, he wanted to end his life.
Having tasted sweetness, Qi Buyan couldn’t help but harbor a twisted resentment if he didn’t get to taste it for a day.
Why should they all be safe and sound, coupled together, while he was the only one who lost He Sui’an? Qi Buyan wanted to return to the martial world and kill Su Yang and the others.
He didn’t care whether they were at fault; he just wanted to kill them… but he couldn’t.
He Sui’an wouldn’t like that.
If she came back, she would find out.
But the longer Qi Buyan waited without seeing He Sui’an, the stronger his urge to kill them became.
He didn’t want to lose the chance to live and wait for He Sui’an’s return, nor did he want to see her disappointed expression if she found out they had died. Because of her, Qi Buyan restrained himself.
Thus, Qi Buyan walked into an ice cellar in a secluded mountain and lay in an ice coffin.
And he lay there for over a thousand years.
He waited for her return in his sleep.
As long as He Sui’an truly returns to Tianshui Village to find him, and as their distance shortens, the Love Gu within her will forcibly awaken Qi Buyan, restoring his consciousness.
Otherwise, Qi Buyan, with the heavenly silkworm gu inside him, will remain in eternal slumber in the icy coffin in the frigid ice cellar, unless disturbed by external forces.
During the thousand years of Qi Buyan’s slumber, Tianshui Village continued to worship him.
This was because he was a gu master.
Gu masters, like gods, were an unchanging faith for the people of Tianshui Village for millennia.
No matter how times changed, they always revered the gu masters, even though Qi Buyan had been asleep in the ice coffin for so many years, this belief never wavered.
Until a month ago, when a grave robber accidentally stumbled into the secluded mountain, saw Qi Buyan lying in the ice coffin, and in his shock, accidentally injured him. As blood flowed out, Qi Buyan woke up.
The grave robber, thinking he had encountered something supernatural, fled in terror.
But Qi Buyan was confused.
This world seemed different.
He Sui’an had once described to him the world she lived in, which was just like this.
But why?
Did He Sui’an not say he was merely a character in a book? Qi Buyan had intended to wait in his world for her to come and find him.
With doubt, he walked out of the ice coffin, out of the ice cellar, out of the secluded mountain, and out of Tianshui Village.
Qi Buyan took one look at the foot of Tianshui Village and then returned. No matter how it had changed, without He Sui’an, it made no difference.
However, upon his return, Qi Buyan did not immediately go back to the ice coffin to fall asleep again. He wanted to understand why things were this way. The people of Tianshui Village, upon learning of his awakening, came up the mountain to visit.
The elders of Tianshui Village had been replaced countless times, but the faith remained.
The elders tactfully informed Qi Buyan that he needed to get an ID card. If he didn’t mind, he could first be registered under their household and then apply for an ID card later.
Qi Buyan now looked only eighteen, the age he was when he fell into slumber. His thoughts and perceptions were still those of an eighteen-year-old, and due to the longevity gu, his physical growth had halted.
To resume normal growth and development, the longevity gu would need to be removed, starting from when he was eighteen.
Thus, he was essentially newly adult in modern terms.
Additionally, given their remote location, there were quite a few people who applied for an ID card at eighteen. With the proper procedures, it could be done.
Though it might require Qi Buyan to be listed as the grandson of the current elder of Tianshui Village…
They weren’t quite sure if he would be willing.
They were a bit apprehensive.
Although Qi Buyan wanted to use gu to drive away these constantly talking people, when he heard the words “ID card,” he remembered that He Sui’an had also mentioned something called an ID card.
After He Sui’an confessed to Qi Buyan that she came from another world, she occasionally talked to him about life in her world.
Qi Buyan remembered everything.
He wanted to have what He Sui’an had, even if it might just be a coincidence.
So, he agreed to get an ID card.
The specifics of the identity didn’t matter.
During this past month of investigating this world, Qi Buyan would draw He Sui’an’s likeness every few days. Even after a thousand years of slumber, his memory remained vividly clear.
Qi Buyan didn’t investigate personally. Being a blank slate in this world, he asked the people of Tianshui Village for information or had them find someone outside to investigate, which, of course, required money.
Fortunately, the dozens of chests of gold he had hidden in the secluded mountain a thousand years ago were still there and could be used.
Gold had always been valuable, from ancient times to now.
This time was no exception.
But as soon as Qi Buyan regained consciousness, he wanted to see He Sui’an. Even though he had slept for a thousand years, upon waking, it felt like they had only been apart for a little over a month. Yet, he still longed to see her immediately.
Today, Qi Buyan returned to the ice coffin in the ice cellar, hesitating whether to lie back down, as he had not yet fully investigated this world. At that moment of hesitation, the Love Gu sensed He Sui’an.
He descended the mountain.
Then, he saw her.
She ran toward him, throwing herself into his arms, her tears scorching, searing into his bones.
Qi Buyan told her all of this. He Sui’an still wanted to cry, holding him, trying to warm his overly cold body with her own body heat, immensely relieved that this wasn’t a dream.
Qi Buyan let her hold him.
From beginning to end, he could never resist He Sui’an’s affectionate gestures.
He Sui’an calmed herself in Qi Buyan’s arms for a long time before finally confirming that this wasn’t a dream. With the precedent of He Hua living until now, her ability to accept the situation gradually strengthened.
She wanted to go up the mountain with Qi Buyan to see the place where he had slept for a thousand years.
“Alright.”
Qi Buyan agreed.
Before taking He Sui’an up the mountain, he suddenly used a silver piece on his body to cut his wrist and then applied a unique herb from Tianshui Village around the area.
He Sui’an was startled, hurriedly grasping his pale, cold wrist.
“What are you doing?”
She asked, alarmed.
Just as she finished speaking, a gu crawled out of the cut on Qi Buyan’s skin. It was the longevity gu. He raised his other hand and grasped it, seemingly unfazed by the pain. “Do you want it?”
He Sui’an didn’t want it.
She didn’t want to witness her loved ones leaving her one by one over the long years.
Seeing that He Sui’an didn’t want it, Qi Buyan prepared to crush the longevity gu. He didn’t have any empathy for it, even though it had kept him alive for so many years. He didn’t feel any obligation to treat it kindly after it had served its purpose.
She stopped him.
“You don’t want it anymore?”
Qi Buyan didn’t care for longevity. He had only used the longevity gu to stay alive and wait for her return. All he wanted was He Sui’an.
Now, removing the longevity gu would allow his body to age normally from his current eighteen-year-old state, experiencing the natural course of life like any other person, with all the growth, aging, sickness, and death that entailed.
Whatever kind of life He Sui’an wanted, Qi Buyan wanted the same.
He said, “I don’t want it anymore.”
He Sui’an hesitated and said, “You should release it on the mountain. There are already plenty of bugs and snakes there; one more won’t make a difference.” Most importantly, she was grateful that it had kept Qi Buyan alive.
Qi Buyan listened to her and released the longevity gu. The gu seemed to have a sense of awareness and, knowing that Qi Buyan had intended to kill it, quickly fled as soon as it left his hand, disappearing in an instant.
She pulled him to bandage his wound.
They put off going to the ice cellar for now and went to find someone from Tianshui Village to get bandaging supplies.
The people of Tianshui Village looked at He Sui’an with unusual expressions. Seeing that the injured person was their long-slumbering gu master, they didn’t ask any questions and quickly went to get the bandaging supplies for her.
While bandaging his wound, Qi Buyan’s gaze never left her.
He Sui’an’s heart trembled at the sight of blood.
Yet, he always seemed indifferent to being injured.
After she finished bandaging Qi Buyan’s wound, her phone rang.
It was a call from her parents.
He Sui’an answered, and it turned out they had found out she hadn’t come on this trip with friends as she had told them. Worried, they called to ensure she was safe.
The call lasted a few minutes, with Qi Buyan standing right beside her, not moving an inch.
Qi Buyan had been awake for a month and had seen people in the village use this device to talk to others. His learning ability was strong, and he had figured it out in less than half a day, but he wasn’t interested in it.
When He Sui’an was on the phone, she habitually took a step here and there, not expecting Qi Buyan to follow her every move.
So she simply held his hand.
Qi Buyan seemed a bit more at ease.
After hanging up, He Sui’an looked up at him and said, “My parents want me to go home for a bit. Do you want to wait here for me to come back, or do you want to come with me to meet my parents?”
Naturally, Qi Buyan didn’t want to stay here and wait for He Sui’an. He chose the latter.
He Sui’an was troubled again.
“But you don’t have an ID card. How can I take you on a plane?”
Qi Buyan took out an ID card that the elders of Tianshui Village had painstakingly prepared for him. The small ID card lay in his palm. “Is this what you mean?”
He Sui’an was stunned.
She took the ID card and examined it closely.
It seemed real.
In ancient times, one needed money for the journey home. Qi Buyan thought it might be the same now, so he bent down and brought out a box of gold.
He asked, “Is this enough?”
He Sui’an was speechless.
Seeing her not respond, Qi Buyan brought out a second box of gold. “Still not enough?”
He was about to bring out more.
She quickly said, “That’s enough.”
That evening, He Sui’an and Qi Buyan went down the mountain together. The driver took her to the hotel to get her luggage, and then they headed to the airport. Along the way, he kept glancing at the rearview mirror to look at the two in the back.
The young man appeared to be about eighteen, dressed in indigo clothes, with a silver forehead ornament. His features were delicate and androgynous, and his skin had an unhealthy pallor, as if he hadn’t seen sunlight for years.
The driver wasn’t sure if the silver ornaments on him were real, but there were so many!
Once they arrived at the airport, they got out of the car.
He Sui’an held Qi Buyan’s hand as they walked inside. The environment was unfamiliar to him, but he didn’t mind as long as she was by his side.
Wherever they went, they turned heads. Some people even tried to take pictures with their phones.
People were talking.
“Is this cosplay?”
He Sui’an immediately took out two masks, putting one on Qi Buyan first. He bent down to accommodate her height, his long hair falling to his narrow waist, the silver ornaments tied at the ends clinking softly.
A few hours later.
He Sui’an arrived at her front door.
However, she hadn’t figured out how to explain Qi Buyan’s presence to her parents yet.
While she hesitated whether to open the door, it was opened from the inside.
Her father, He Jin, was about to take out the trash. Seeing He Sui’an at the door, he was about to call out to Yang Jin, but he stopped short when he saw Qi Buyan standing next to her.
He Jin asked, “Who’s this?”
Yang Jin, hearing the commotion at the door, also came over. “Why is taking out the trash taking so—”
Her gaze fell on Qi Buyan.
Where did such a handsome person come from?