TFSRSO Chapter 151 (Gu Girl 1)

Lin Dan stared at the two red "pills" in her palm, lost in thought. It felt as though a long time had passed, yet it also seemed like just a moment. She had changed to a different place, a different body, with no memory of where she originally came from or who she was.

She subconsciously tried to piece together her memories and finally understood her situation. This body was also named Lin Dan, with an unknown father and a deceased mother. Her father was unknown, and her mother died young. She had managed to graduate from junior high (middle) school with the help of government scholarships, but due to her less-than-ideal grades, she hadn't been able to attend the only high school in town. Now she had been out of school for a year.

She was in a minority ethnic group settlement, called Ali Township (阿里乡 or Ali Xiang), where most of the residents were Miao people, with some Tujia people as well. They have been farming for generations. Because of the steep mountain roads and remote location, they rarely interact with the outside world. Children from the township who want to study have to travel a long way from dawn to dusk to go to the only school in the town. However, due to the poor quality of teachers, very few get into college. Most of them only graduate from high school and then go elsewhere to work, trying to escape a lifetime of poverty. Gradually, this small, quiet mountain village became more and more deserted. All the young people left, leaving only some old people and children.

The original owner had also planned to leave, but she had picked up a seriously injured young man on the road, which delayed her plans. The young man was very taciturn and rarely took the initiative to communicate with her. He would play with his mobile phone in front of the sun during the day and go to sleep very early at night. Even so, the original owner became more and more attached to him, firstly because of his handsome appearance and unique temperament, and secondly because she lacked love and desperately longed for someone to accompany her. (T/N: Poor girl T^T)

The boy's name was Zhou Nan, and he came from Haicheng and was the same age as the original host. If the original host hadn't dropped out of school, she would probably be a sophomore in high school this year, just like him. Zhou Nan took advantage of the summer vacation to travel, but because he was not familiar with the mountain road, he fell from the cliff, fracturing his leg. If he hadn't been lucky and met the original owner, he wouldn't know what would have happened now because this place was so remote that the cell phone signals couldn't be received at all.

After understanding the recent experiences of the original owner, Lin Dan looked at the two objects in her hand again with an indescribable expression. It's a bit hard to explain, but as it turned out, these things were not pills at all, but two love Gu (T/N imagine it as a larva). The larger one was the mother Gu, and the smaller one was the daughter Gu. If Lin Dan had come a moment later, the original host would have taken the mother Gu herself and then planted the child Gu into Zhou Nan's body. This child had been deeply in love with Zhou Nan for some time. Seeing that the other person was always cold and indifferent to her, she actually developed such a twisted thought.

Even though Lin Dan was indifferent by nature, she still understood the most basic truth – a melon forcibly picked will be bitter (T/N: a forced love isn't good). What kind of love is obtained through these devious tricks? They were just a means of self-deception.

Thinking of this, she put the two Love Gu back into the camphor wood box left by the original owner's mother and sighed silently.

The stilted house where the original owner lived was built on the outskirts of the small mountain village, almost blending in with the dense forest where wild beasts frequently roamed. In contrast, the rest of the villagers' stilted houses were scattered in the mountain valleys. From a high altitude, it could be seen that the original owner's home was isolated from the others. Although it was in the same area, it seemed to be in a different world of its own.

The Miao people have always been very united. When a family is in trouble, everyone is willing to help. However, when the original owner became an orphan at a young age and almost froze to death and starved to death, these villagers never cared about her and just left her to fend for herself. In the end, the original owner's teacher couldn't stand it and applied for a subsidy for her, allowing her to survive.

The original owner didn't know the reason, nor did she dare to inquire, because whenever she appeared in the Miao village, the villagers would insult and drive her away, leaving her covered with bruises. They looked at her with disgust and disdain, as if she were a bug, only fit to live in darkness.

Over time, the original host no longer went near that small mountain village, let alone expect to receive warmth from others. But Zhou Nan's arrival broke down her defenses and made her fall completely. The boy just said "thank you" to her in a low voice and smiled gently at her, but she was like a grass seed hidden in the crevices of a rock, desperately trying to sprout and escape from that dark prison.

Zhou Nan was her light, her warmth, the nobility and aspiration in her humble life. But at the same time, she was aware that sooner or later, he would leave here. So, she thought of the relic left by her mother to her, the mysterious camphor wood box with a strange smell. Before her death, her mother had said to her: "Lin Dan, if one day you are bullied or feel that you can't go on anymore, open this box and take a look."

Without Zhou Nan, the original host didn't want to go on, so she opened the box and found these love Gu.

Now that Lin Dan had replaced the original host, she naturally wanted to find out the secret of this box. There was only a small light bulb installed in the building, and the lighting was very dim, but this didn't hinder Lin Dan's vision. She found a stack of letters, a sheepskin bag, a small bronze censer (T/N: the thing they used to put incense in back then), and a long wooden box.

The Miao people were a mysterious and ancient ethnic group with a variety of rich languages but no written script. However, the notes Lin Dan found were written in a script similar to the oracle bone inscriptions (T/N: the writing they found on turtles). She shouldn't have been able to understand it, but when she held it in her hand, the characters seemed to come alive, rushing into her mind as if vying for attention.

It was so painful that her temples were throbbing, but she didn't even groan. It took about ten minutes before she finally relaxed her jaw and exhaled. It was only then that she understood why the villagers avoided the original owner like she was a snake or a scorpion. It turned out that the original owner had the bloodline of a Gu master flowing within her, something which was the most feared existence of the Miao people.

The sheepskin bag contained the Gu eggs passed down from the ancestors of the Lin family, all sealed in small porcelain bottles. Some were labeled with their names and purposes, while others were not completely unmarked, their species unknown. If Lin Dan possessed the talent of a Gu master, she would naturally know how to cultivate her own Gu the moment she picked up the handbook. Otherwise, the Lin family's heritage would be cut off in her generation.

The bloodline of the Gu masters was very powerful and mysterious, but with the passage of time and marriages with outsiders, their bloodline became thinner and thinner, completely losing its former power. The original host's mother had been ostracized and oppressed by the villagers as well and passed away at a young age, leaving the original owner to face the cruelty of life alone. If Lin Dan hadn't come, she might have followed her mother's path – using the love Gu to keep her beloved behind and losing everything due to the backlash.

Lin Dan shook her head, filled with sadness. She continued looking over the remaining two items. The bronze censor had exquisite craftsmanship, and it was very old, likely to be an antique. If sold outside, it might fetch a good price. But according to the records in the handbook, it was not meant for burning incense, but for cultivating Gu. In the hands of people who didn't understand, it would only bring disaster.

Lin Dan put down the bronze censer, opened the wooden box, and found a necklace lying inside. The design of the necklace was very simple. A red silk thread threaded through a black bead, whose surface looked like wood, yet also like jade. At the bottom of the wooden box, there was a letter, left by the original host's mother, repeatedly warning the original owner to keep the necklace safe and pass it on to the next generation.

"...This is the most treasured possession of the Lin family and must be passed down from generation to generation. If you, like my mother, did not inherit the talent of a Gu master, then put the necklace in the box and don't touch it. If you are fortunate enough to have inherited the gift of a Gu master, then put it on. When you reach a dead end, it may be able to help you. After I'm gone, study hard, try to get into college, and go see the outside world. Mother is leaving now."

The letter was written very briefly, with only two or three lines, but it wasn't difficult to see that the original host's mother loved her very much. Lin Dan gently touched the letter, her expression calm, but there was a hint of tenderness in her eyes. She put the necklace on as she was told, then put the rest of the things back into the box and locked it with a click.

A rooster crowed outside, reminding her that night was approaching, and it was time to prepare dinner. She immediately stood up, trying to pick some vegetables from the garden, but a fish-shaped jade pendant fell from her pocket with a slight tinkling sound. Lin Dan picked up the jade pendant and looked at it, then searched her memory for a moment, before realizing that the jade pendant belonged to Zhou Nan. The reason why it was in the original owner's pocket was that the original host thought Zhou Nan would leave before finding the love charm. So, she decided to take one of his belongings as a keepsake of their memories.

Before the original owner found the love Gu, he thought Zhou Nan would definitely leave, so he took his personal belongings.

Lin Dan put the jade pendant back into her pocket and walked to the room with the brightest light and smoothest ventilation, where she knocked on the door.

"Come in," a magnetic voice came from inside.

Lin Dan pushed the door open and found Zhou Nan lying on the bed playing with her mobile phone. His red and swollen foot was bound with a wooden board, as the original host had no money and could not find an adult to help him apply a proper cast. He had just turned seventeen this year, but he was already very tall and sturdy, his height over 180 centimeters tall. He looked out of place lying on a wooden bed less than 1.6 meters tall, which gave an onlooker a sense of pity. (T/N: Personally idt he should be aggrieved bc he's literally freeloading -_-)

"Did you borrow a cell phone to call for help?" he asked as soon as Lin Dan entered.

"I couldn't borrow one. The villagers wouldn't lend me their phones. Tomorrow, I'll go to the town to find my teacher and have him notify your family." Lin Dan was not the original owner, so naturally she had no intention of keeping Zhou Nan here.

The moment she saw the boy, she finally understood why the original owner had fallen so completely. Unlike the villagers, whose faces were weathered with the vicissitudes of life, Zhou Nan's facial features seemed to have been carved from jade, exquisitely delicate and gorgeous. His sword-shaped eyebrows flew to his temples slantingly; his eyes were long and narrow, and his whole body had a somewhat cold and alienated temperament that made people hesitant to approach, yet irresistibly drawn to him. (T/N: ಠ⁠_⁠ʖ⁠ಠ) There was also a teardrop-shaped mole under the corner of his eye, which added a touch of melancholy.

Not to mention a little girl like the original owner who had never seen the world, even a mature, experienced woman wouldn't be able to escape the temptation of his beauty.

But Lin Dan didn't spare him a glance. She simply walked over and carefully inspected his broken leg.

Seeing that the girl didn't use various excuses to avoid helping him contact the outside world, Zhou Nan couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. His cell phone seemed to be broken and had no signal, and with his legs unable to move, his only hope of leaving this place rested on Lin Dan.

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