Back to our heroine. Falling backward after being pushed by an unseen hand, Qiangu jumps up to find herself in the middle of a bustling street. Unable to wrap her mind around what just happened, Qiangu looks around in confusion. Closing her eyes against the bright sun, Qiangu feels hot and thirsty as a seemingly endless sea of people surround her at every side. Alone for the first time in an unfamiliar place, Qiangu ball up her hands as panic and fear bloom inside her.

“Master! Master!” Bumbling around in circles, Qiangu calls out with tears in her voice.

Having never seen such a beautiful girl but also one who seems to be short of a few screws, the crowd of people automatically parts a path for Qiangu wherever she goes.

Finally, a few daring thugs approach Qiangu “Little miss, where are you going?”

Big tears falling, Qiangu cries “I am trying to find my Master, do you know where my Master is?”

The men share a knowing smile and collectively thought it must be their lucky day. Who would’ve thought such a beautiful girl to be a fool?

“Come on, Miss. We will take you to go find your Master.” Instinctively avoiding an arm that tries to wrap itself around her, Qiangu nonetheless follows the men to a small alleyway.

“Why don’t you make us feel good first, then any of us could become your Master and teach you the most glorious thing of this world.”

Belatedly figuring out the men have some unknown evil intention towards her as one of the men starts to take off his clothes, a frightened Qiangu breaks into tears and cries “Master! I want my Master!”

Stumbling backward and trying to pull out her sword out at the same time, Qiangu desperately tries to remember what Master taught her. She has to stay calm, she is good at sword fighting so she can fight off all these baddies!

Surprised at first to see the sword, the thugs laugh with glee when they saw a terrified Qiangu could hardly hold the sword upright in her trembling hand. Forgetting everything she learned the moment the thugs rush towards her to take her sword away, Qiangu could only wave the sword around blindly. Scared out of her mind when someone suddenly grabs her from behind, Qiangu drops her sword but the man was instantly thrown against the wall behind them the moment he touches her and a silver light flashes. Stunned, the rest of the thugs try to throw themselves on Qiangu but were instantly repelled into the air the moment they touched her clothing.

“Demon! Demon! She is really a demon!” Howling in fear, the thugs run off.

After crying for a long while, a hungry and tired Qiangu finally stumbles out of the alleyway, forgetting her sword completely.

Where is Master? Why is he not here yet?

Stumbling around as she wonders the street, Qiangu can’t help but salivate when she smells the delicious aroma of the meat buns. Unfortunately, after searching all over, Qiangu couldn’t find a single coin on her. For most of her life, Master has been by her side taking care of her every need. The thought has never occurred to her what she would do if one day Master is not around.

Wiping away the tears on her face, Qiangu takes off a hairpin Zihua had given her and asks the street vendor “Mister, can I use this to exchange for a meat bun?”

“Demon! Demon! She is that demon that had appeared a short while ago! Apparently, she had even broken a few men’s ribs!”

Stunned when screams and panic ensued the moment people looked up and saw her face, Qiangu looks around in confusion as the people run off in fear. Tearing up again, Qiangu wonders why they keep on calling her a demon. She is Xiao Gu not a demon. Wait, she is not Xiao Gu either, that’s someone else. She is nobody.

Staring down at the tip of her shoe, Qiangu wonders if her Master, an immortal who could do anything still haven’t come to find her by now then does that mean he doesn’t want her anymore? Looking around at the completely empty street and the still steaming meat bun, Qiangu finds herself start to salivate again. If everyone had run off then does that mean she can take a meat bun and have some milk as well?

But Master said taking without asking is stealing and she doesn’t want to be a thief. Dejected, Qiangu walks away…she needs to get away from the meat buns or else she won’t be able to help herself.

Walking for who knows how long or how far, Qiangu has never walked so far in her life. When she was younger, she would whine for Master to carry her after walking only a few steps. Once she got too old to be carried, then Master would fly with her. Unused to walking so much, her feet are now covered with blisters. Master, where are you?

Walking into a dilapidated monastery, Qiangu had hoped to find a place to rest for a bit but there were already a few beggers there already. Not about to let their place be invaded by some dirty crying girl no matter how pretty she is, the beggers chased Qiangu away.

Squatting underneath a tree, Qiangu trembles under the cold and rainy night. Tired, cold and hungry, Qiangu finally falls asleep dreaming of Master’s warm embrace and the delicious Plum soup.

“Master, don’t abandon Xiao Gu!”

“Gu Tou, Gu Tou!” (Gu Tou= Bones)

Suddenly feeling like someone is shaking her until the plum soup in her hand falls to the ground shattering into a thousand pieces, Qiangu opens her eyes to find a pair of gentle eyes staring at her. The eyes seem to be filled with the tenderness from this whole world, soothing away all the fear and pain she experienced that day.

Master? No, not Master. Even though Master’s eyes are full of concern but they are always cold…cold and lonely like ice.

“Gu Tou?”

The man’s soft call makes Qiagu’s heart suddenly feel peaceful yet filled with a strange aching.

Puzzled to feel something cold on her face, Qiangu reaches up only to find it was covered with tears as she hears a voice seemingly not her own saying “Don’t leave me again.” before throwing her arms around the man tightly.

It seems like she has been waiting for a long time. A thousand year? A hundred thousand years? He is finally here. She never wants to be apart again.

Softly patting her on the back, the man smiles and says “Alright, we will do everything you say this time.”

Bai Zihua’s biggest nemesis is back!!! This shouldn’t be a very hard question but any guess on who our mystery man is

Her senses slowly returning, Qiangu belatedly realizes she has somehow ended up in some stranger’s embrace. What if he is like those baddies? And why did she suddenly say those words when he is obviously a stranger to her?

Pushing the man away abruptly, Qiangu asks “Who are you?” The way this man is patting her head is very different from Master, making her feeling shy.

“My name is Dongfang Yuqing.”

“Why did you call me Gu Tou? Do you know me?” Unconsciously letting down her guard, Qiangu peers at Dongfang with curiosity.

“You can say we know each other…and you can say we don’t.”

Silent for a long moment, Qiangu finally figures out an answer “Do you also know the girl called Hua Qiangu?”

Raising an eyebrow, Dongfang replies “Yes.”

Qiangu is all of sudden filled with disappointment and sorrow…a sorrow that is even worse than when she found out that perhaps there is another Hua Qiangu to Master.

“Gu Tou, you don’t have to fill your mind with wild imaginations. That Hu Qiangu is you in the previous life so you can think of her as yourself or you can pretend that she is someone else completely. If you want, you are still you and you can start over. You don’t have any duty to make her past yours.”

“Previous life?” Not expecting him to reveal everything so easily, Qiangu couldn’t wrap her mind around what Dongfang said.

“Just ask your Master about the parts you don’t understand. He will be here soon.”

It’s morning now, Qiangu had freshened up by the river and eaten some of the food Dongfang had given her.

“Thank you.”

“I have said that you never have to thank me. Everything from me has a cost so nothing is free.” Smiling sadly, Dongfang thought back to how Qiangu had found out from him the way to save Bai Zihua and the heavy cost she paid. She really doesn’t understand anything.

Sitting amongst the wildflowers, Dongfang let the restless Qiangu lay on his lap. Feeling faint from the closeness but strangely not rejecting Dongfang, Qiangu has never been this intimate with another man other than her Master…or rather, other than Master she has never come in contact with another man. However, this person…she just feels an instinctive closeness and affection for him. It’s like he is someone she has known for a long time, someone she wants to hold tightly to and never be apart from again.

Dongfang’s finger softly trances across Qiangu’s face and lips, making Qiangu’s heart pound like crazy.

“Is this what you look like as a grown up? Gu Tou, how am I supposed to recognize you?”

Not understanding Dongfang’s meaning, Qiangu asks “Am I really ugly? All the people on the street ran away and called me a demon when they saw me.”

Qiangu’s heart starts to race again when Dongfang begins to laugh. How can someone with such an ordinary looking face become so handsome when he laughs?!

“I like Gu Tou no matter what you look like.” Gently putting Qiangu’s hair into a bun, Dongfang continues “But Gu Tou, have you thought about the fact that you are so big but seems unable to survive if your Master is not with you? Your Master has some issues he can’t overcome so he can’t teach you as he should, but you need to learn to be independent and not always rely on others. The Gu Tou I know is always strong and brave, unafraid of any difficulty. I know you are no different. It doesn’t matter if a person is smart or not, the key is his willingness to put in the effort. Do you understand what I am saying, Gu Tou?”

Nodding, a contrite Qiangu thought of her poor performance the day before and promises herself that she can’t be like that anymore.

“Are you an immortal like Master? You know everything as well?”

“I am an ordinary mortal like you. Gu Tou, do you know who your Master is?”

Thinking for a long moment, Qiangu slowly shakes her head after realizing she knows nothing about the one that is closest to her. Master has never talked about himself and she had never thought to ask.

“Gu Tou, you can’t always wait for others to tell you things or tell you what to do. You need to think for yourself. Is not that I am trying to force you to find the you in the past, but you can’t lose who you are now as well. Ask your Master about the things you can’t figure out or wants to know. I think if you ask, he will tell you everything in the end.”

Taking out a piece of crystal after Qiangu nods, Dongfang hands the crystal over to her. Her hands begin to tremble uncontrollably when she sees the seemingly asleep silk warm in the crystal, Qiangu sobs out loud without understanding why. Not understanding the images flashing across her mind, Qiangu cradle the crystal to her like it was the most precious treasure.

“What a cute silkworm.”

Pulling her into his arms, Dongfang says apologetically “I am sorry Gu Tou. This is the resurrection stone. I know she is the most important thing to you in this world. She is to me as well. These years I have been trying to save her but this is all I could do. Can you give me a bit of your blood?”

Filled with a sense of familiarity, Qiangu holds out her hand like it was the naturalist thing in the world and lets a drop of her blood drip onto the crystal.

Letting out a soft sigh when the crystal flashes brightly for a moment, Dongfang knew that if Qiangu was still who she was before then Tang Bao could come back to life this instant but now…Qiangu herself has lost most of her power.

“Can I take the silkworm back with me?” She doesn’t want to be separated from her.

“You can’t, it will scare your Master if he sees it. Don’t worry, when you finally wake up completely, then that’s the day Tang Bao will wake up as well. Also remember, don’t tell your Master about meeting me when you get back.”

“Why? My Master is super strong so why would he be afraid of a silkworm? I am awake now, why can’t you wake the silkworm now? Why can’t I tell Master about meeting you?”

“You will understand later. Your master is indeed very strong, he is very close, I have to go now.”

Grabbing onto Dongfang’s sleeve, Qiangu panics “Where are you going? I don’t want to be apart from you!”

Handing her a small slip of paper filled with words she can’t read, Dongfang explains “Put this under your pillow at night when you are going to sleep. At that time then your spirit can leave your body so you can see me. Be careful, don’t let your Master find it. I am leaving now.”

Giving Qiangu a hurried embrace, Dongfang smiles when Qiangu plants a kiss on his face and turns his face quickly to kiss her on the lips before he disappears.

Stupidfied, Qiangu feels like her whole face is burning so hot that she is tempted to immerse it in the river to cool it off. She often kisses Master like that so why is she so nervous and shaken this time?

 

All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com

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