Chapter 4: Reborn from the Flames

  At this moment

  Heartbroken and shattered

  Despair and hopelessness

  Heart as heavy as stone

  Still waters run deep.

  "The peony, the flower blooms on the other shore. The petals and leaves reflect each other without seeing the leaves, the leaves and leaves complement each other without seeing the flowers, the petals and leaves are born together but do not see each other, missing each other forever..." Gu Qingjin murmured softly in the firelight.

  "Let's go..." A maid's voice suddenly echoed from behind, Long Han Yan's footsteps paused for a moment before continuing forward without stopping.

  "It's on fire! Quick, put out the fire! Madam Jin's Qingyin Pavilion is on fire..."

  "Hurry up and put out the fire! Where's Mrs. Jin?" A worried voice came from behind.

  "Swan sister, I don't know, madam seems to still be in the room..."

  "Madam, madam, it's Yuanyang! Are you still inside? Please come out quickly..." She tried to rush into the fire several times but was blocked by the surging flames.

  Long Han brought Long Jingfeng and Long Jingyun back with him, looking at the Qingyin Pavilion with flames soaring into the sky.

  He slightly furrowed his brow, Gu Qingjin stood in the midst of the flames, wearing a red dress that was already burning, her smile directed at Long Hanshan as he appeared with Long Jingfeng and Long Jingyun. The flames around her complemented her dress, creating an atmosphere that was both enchanting and sorrowful.

  At that moment, Long Han suddenly had an inexplicable feeling rising from the bottom of his heart.

  "Gu Qingjin, come out quickly - otherwise I'll kill your maid Yuanyang!" Seeing Gu Qingjin's red clothes catch fire, Long Han's face finally changed, and he opened his mouth to threaten.

  "Long Han Yuan, I am Qing Jin. Today, I vow to illuminate the path with fire, and shed blood that will reach the sky. The beauty of the pearl-like flowers will be my witness. When leaves are present, flowers do not bloom; when flowers bloom, leaves have already withered. I make a poisonous oath: if there is an afterlife, you and I, Long Han Yuan, will forever be separated, never to meet again in this life or the next..." With that, she vanished into the raging flames.

  "Gu Qingjin, aren't you afraid that I will kill your Mandarin Duck?"

  "Prince, no need for you to kill the mandarin duck, the mandarin duck will follow my family's daughter together..." With that, he rushed into the big fire without looking back.

  In March of Yangchun, gentle breeze and warm sunshine, green willows are misty. The whole sky is filled with soft and fluffy willow catkins.

  This is a vibrant season, and also a poetic season, with the warmth of spring filling the air between heaven and earth.

  At this moment, Gu Qingjin's mood was in stark contrast to the beautiful and vibrant scene before her. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate the beauty of spring, but rather that anyone who had given up all hope and resigned themselves to death would feel a deep sense of disappointment upon opening their eyes to find they were still alive. It wasn't that she hadn't died in the fire she had carefully planned, but rather that she had been reborn.

  Facing someone who is so desperate to die, she doesn't understand why heaven would still want her to be reborn.

  If it were in her past life or before, she might have been overjoyed, but now this inexplicable rebirth is for what? Thinking back to the moment when she set herself on fire, the man's resolute departure, her life was ruined, and her love was also denied by that man, trampled ruthlessly. Recalling that man, recalling his marriage proposal to her, it turns out that something obtained by force is indeed obtained by force.

  Thinking of her foolish previous life, Gu Qingjin was reborn into this empty dynasty called Da Jing, and when she wasn't crossing over, she would often hold her computer to look at this or that, fantasizing about the day she could cross over.

  No one expected that her wish would come true one day, and when she opened her eyes to see a house full of antique charm, no one noticed the excitement and ambition in the eyes of the newborn baby.

  However, Qing Jin, who is still sane, understands that the concept of crossing over is subversive in modern times. In the eyes of the ancients, it is even more taboo and involves ghostly affairs, which can shock people and lead to a 100% chance of being exterminated after discovery.

  She quietly lay dormant for a while, waiting for an opportunity to emerge.

  She knew that being one or two steps ahead was genius, but three or four steps ahead was a freak. So she pondered the perfect timing: speaking at age one, reciting "The Analects" at age two, reading the Four Books and Five Classics at age three, mastering the five arts of a lady (zither, chess, calligraphy, painting) at age five, and becoming a renowned young talent in the capital by age seven.

  Relying on her advantage of having traveled through time, using the Tang poems and Song lyrics she memorized in modern compulsory education, taking advantage of her own cleverness, plagiarizing modern people's creativity, copying others' labor achievements, being complacent and self-righteous, receiving these honors, looking at the flattering smiles of the lower-ranking officials in the mansion, and the praise of her talent outside the mansion, she became more and more proud and confident, feeling that after all, she was a person who had gone through thousands of years of cultural accumulation, none of the ladies around her could compare to herself, she was the absolute heroine, just waiting for the opportunity to meet a prince or a nobleman, that man would be amazed by her beauty, abandon his three thousand concubines and from then on, dote on her alone.

  She thought she was unique, coming from the modern world and standing out among those traditional women who only knew how to do needlework. She looked down on them with disdain, believing that in this empty era, there was a beautiful love waiting for her. The man might be an iceberg, silent towards all the women around him until he met her, then suddenly changed like a meteor hitting the earth, lavishing infinite affection on her alone, deeply loving her for life; or maybe the man already had a wife and concubines, but after meeting her, he abandoned his wife and became infatuated with only her.

  More fortunately, she might marry a future emperor as his wife or concubine, and when that man ascends to the throne, it will be her turn to reign supreme or be exclusively favored.

  She is different, she deserves a unique love, and she will definitely have a beautiful feeling of one life, one world, and one couple.

  She was arrogant and thought that she had crossed over into Gu Qingyuan as the female lead, but she was wrong. This is not a fairy tale, this is real history.

  No, she wasn't entirely wrong either. She had guessed half of it right. She met the icy and silent Third Master Long Han Yuan, and tried every means to marry this ice mountain man. Unfortunately, her beauty was not enough to keep him, as he was pining for her younger sister-in-law, her cousin. So she lost her life, lost her love, and finally died in a great fire.

  Closing her eyes, the desperation and suffocation of being in a sea of flames, the feeling of tongues of fire burning against her skin, the deep-seated pain that penetrated to her bones. Qing Jin opened her eyes, she never wanted to try again.

  It's laughable to think that Gu Qingyu, a modern woman, would be so infatuated with an ancient man that she'd burn herself for love. Where did she get the courage to do such a thing in the first place?

  Look at this sky, look at this land, smell the breath of spring, and feel alive is so wonderful!

  Suddenly, Gu Qingjin felt that she should be grateful!