When Gui Yin first opened his eyes, he already knew that something was off.

He tentatively lulled his head to the side, immediately making eye contact with a pair of teary, round eyes that belonged to a child who couldn’t possibly be older than six. Beside this child was another who seemed to be just a bit older, at eleven, and another who was around thirteen. The three children were watching him apprehensively as if they feared he would never wake.

Gui Yin’s drowsiness was immediately washed away. He sat abruptly, with the cautiousness one might have towards an approaching bear, and stared blankly at the three children.

The children were wearing stylized hanfu, typical of modern xianxia productions, while he was wearing plain inner robes, ones that those from ancient times would wear to sleep. His mind began to reel.

The style of clothing…the hair…the architecture…

Had he…transmigrated?

As Gui Yin fell into his own thoughts, the shock of seeing Gui Yin wake up finally passed.

The young child sniffled loudly as fat tears began to roll down her chubby cheeks. With a full-bodied sob, she threw herself into Gui Yin’s arms.

“Shizun!”

The ground trembling shriek made Gui Yin stagger. He managed to catch the child, but panic took a hold of him and he momentarily lost his composure.

“You—” Gui Yin’s words got stuck in his throat. He held the squirming child and forced out, “Why are you crying? Don’t cry.”

The young child stilled upon hearing those words of reassurance. Just as Gui Yin thought he managed to comfort her, the little girl bawled even louder and drilled herself further into Gui Yin’s arms.

Gui Yin looked helplessly at the lump in his arms and then dragged his attention up to the two quieter children. He had hopes that they could help, but when he saw their reddened eyes, he finally realized what kind of situation he was in.

The second youngest child rubbed at her eyes. She sniffled, much softer than the first, and looked at him with fear that had long faded into relief.

“S-Shizun, we…we thought you wouldn’t ever wake up again…” the little girl muttered

Gui Yin opened and closed his mouth weakly. His jerk-reaction was to declare that he wasn’t their shizun. However after a quick calculation, he realized that saying such a thing would be a death sentence. In the modern world, if your father woke up from a coma and said he wasn’t your father, you would think to send him to a mental hospital. In this world, if your shizun woke up and told you that he wasn’t your shizun, you would think he was possessed by the world’s dumbest ghost, wouldn’t you?

And, well, if Gui Yin said he didn’t feel guilty, he would be lying.

Then…forget it! Wasn’t it just a few children? It wasn’t like he never took care of children before!

With a sigh, Gui Yin resigned to his fate. He opened his arms and beckoned the second child over. His gaze hesitantly drifted to the boy who remained. The thirteen-year-old appeared calm. Gui Yin didn’t know what he had been through, but it was clear that he was already quite good at masking his emotions. But however good he was, he was still a child. Although his expression betrayed nothing, the hands at his side trembled like leaves.

Gui Yin smiled helplessly. The hand that had just come to rest on the top of the older girl’s back was raised again. He stretched it out to the boy.

“Come here.”

The boy’s eyes widened. He hesitated despite the obvious expectation in his eyes. As he stepped forward, a warm hand encompassed the back of his head and gave him a few soft caresses. The boy’s cheeks slowly reddened, but he still obediently lowered his head. A soft smile graced his lips as the anxiety he had felt for the past few days faded away.

Gui Yin let out an internal sigh of relief as the children all began to calm down.

The two little girls comfortably wiggled their way into Gui Yin’s soft bed. One remained stubbornly on his lap while the other stayed a polite distance away.

Seeing this, the boy’s softened expression became stern again.

“What are you two doing? Shizun is still recovering—you two get off the bed, right now,” the boy commanded.

The two girls glanced at the older boy and then back to Gui Yin. Their faces were full of reluctance.

Gui Yin looked at the boy helplessly. “It’s fine, just let them stay like this.”

“What if Shizun’s wounds open up again?” the boy asked, his gaze still on the girls.

The two girls paled. They scrambled to leave but were easily held back by Gui Yin.

“I’m fine,” Gui Yin said calmly. “You say I’m injured, but I don’t feel any injury, so I must have completely healed already.”

“Must have…” the boy hesitated. His brows furrowed as he looked at Gui Yin skeptically. “Shizun, what do you mean by that?”

The boy’s sharp, Gui Yin noted.

“Could you call for a physician please?” Gui Yin said. He shifted so that he could more comfortably lean back on the bed. A gentle smile graced his lips. “I want to make sure I haven’t missed anything.”

The boy’s gaze grew sharp. He glanced at the two girls for a moment before bowing and quickly rushing out.

After the boy left, the youngest girl let out a relieved sigh.

“After Shizun came back injured, Da-shixiong has become even sterner! Shizun, you don’t know how we’ve suffered,” the youngest girl whined. “Da-shixiong won’t even let us have one more piece of candy than we usually have!”

The oldest girl said nothing, but her silence was like an agreement that spurned the younger girl further.

“And whenever we’re cultivating, he watches us like a hawk. It’s not like we’re going to slack off. Why does he have to be so scary for?” the youngest girl pouted.

Gui Yin listened to the little girl ramble and tattle with a bit of amusement.

Although he was rarely in contact with children nowadays, he still had a fondness for them. Though, he found that as he grew older, it became more difficult to talk to them. Luckily, since these two girls were too busy talking amongst themselves, Gui Yin didn’t have to entertain them. It was better for him—someone who had yet to figure out what in the world was happening.

About ten minutes passed before the boy returned. With him was a man dressed in light blue robes. His hair was held up into half-bun while the remainder of it cascaded down his back. He had a box at his side, similar to the type of medicinal boxes doctors of Ancient China carried around with them. When the man arrived, he carried a worried expression. When he saw the way Gui Yin looked at him vacantly, his face paled.

“Linghuo, could you take your martial sisters out while I take a look at your Shizun?”

The young boy, Linghuo, nodded firmly.

The two girls were reluctant to part with their shizun, but when they saw the serious look on the other man’s face, they quickly followed their martial brother out.

“Shizun, we’ll visit you again later!” the youngest girl called out

Gui Yin smiled and nodded, his hand waving to bid them farewell.

Once the doors were closed, the man sat down beside Gui Yin and asked for his wrist.

Gui Yin obediently gave it and waited for the verdict.

The man breathed a sigh of relief. “Your cultivation had become mangled from the drought ghost’s attack, but it seems like you’re recovering well. We’ll have to thank Yenuo’s quick thinking in using the Fire Weed to counteract the Ice Poison.”

Gui Yin nodded along with what the man was saying. Miraculously, he found that he actually understood what drought ghost, Fire Weed, and Ice Poison all meant. Could it be that he inherited the original body’s knowledge but not his memories?

After the man finished speaking, he glanced at Gui Yin hesitantly. “Gui-shixiong…”

“Hm?”

“Do you…remember anything?”

A light smile crossed Gui Yin’s handsome face, but this smile didn’t bring the other man other comfort. Instead, it brought on an awful premonition.

“Not at all.”

The quick admittance made the doctor’s head spin. He let out a trembling gasp and held his head.

This man has quite the faint heart for a doctor, Gui Yin noted.

“Oh god. Oh goodness,” the man held his head in his hands. “This isn’t good. I—I had a suspicion this would be a side-effect, but I didn’t think it would actually—I thought with your caliber of cultivation it wouldn’t have—well, I suppose that was stupid of me! You were so injured from that attack—of course, you—”

“Please calm down,” Gui Yin said. He lightly cleared his throat. “Um. First of all, could you…tell me what your name is? And where I am? And I suppose…who I am?”

“You don’t even remember who you are?” the man’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.

“I know my name is Gui—” a set of two characters suddenly appeared in his mind. He quickly modified what he was going to say. “Gui Yin, given name Qīnlè (亲乐). But other than that, I don’t remember anything.”

“Oh…Sect Master-shixiong is going to kill me,” the man squeaked.

Gui Yin watched the man in amusement. “It’s not that serious, is it?”

“Lord Immortal Nínglán (宁澜), you’re fortunate enough to forget about how scary our Sect Master-shixiong gets when he—” the man’s voice stopped abruptly. The look in his eyes turned a tiny bit resentful. “Forget it. You wouldn’t understand even if you did have your memories. Sect Master-shixiong has always treated you the best.”

Although Gui Yin wasn’t the original goods, he couldn’t help but feel a bit awkward. Was the Sect Master’s favoritism that blatant?

But wait. Gui Yin’s mind traveled back to the other’s term of address.

“Ninglan? Is that me?”

The man looked as if his death was in sight. “Yes. Yes, others call you Lord Immortal Ninglan or Elder Ninglan. My name is Yè Liǔxīng (叶柳星). I’m the peak lord of Zi Cao Peak (紫草峰).”

“Is Zi Cao Peak a medicinal peak?” Gui Yin asked.

Ye Liuxing glanced at Gui Yin. The desolate look in his eyes deepened. He sighed, seemingly having completely given up. “It is. Our Yunjing Pavilion (云镜榭) is comprised of four peaks—yours is the Shuangye Peak (霜叶峰). Shuangye Peak—”

“Teaches musical cultivation.”

Ye Liuxing’s head abruptly snapped up. He stared at Gui Yin with wide eyes. “You remember?”

Gui Yin smiled. “I seem to.”

In fact, he already had his suspicions when he heard the words “Lord Immortal Ninglan”. After listening to Ye Liuxing talk a bit longer, he gradually remembered why “Yunjing Pavilion”, “Lord Immortal Ninglan”, and “Shuangye Peak” all sounded so familiar.

It was because these were the few places and the only person that appeared in Miss Shen’s new outline.

The story outline had only labeled characters “Girl A” or “Guy B” and mentioned that they were (potential) protagonists and disciples under Lord Immortal Ninglan in Yunjing Pavilion’s Shuangye Peak. This point had been marked as important, as Lord Immortal Ninglan’s disappearance would later spurn on a series of tragic events.

As for who the protagonist really was, what the rest of the world was like, and even what Lord Immortal Ninglan was like was unclear. None of it had been written.

“There’s three of them,” Gui Yin mumbled under his breath.

Ye Liuxing stared at Gui Yin. “Three of them? Three of who?”

Gui Yin offered a sheepish smile. “Those three children. They are my disciples, right?”

Ye Liuxing patted his chest. “Good brother, you do remember some things! Do you remember their names?”

Gui Yin shook his head. “I’m afraid I don’t even remember how they came to be under my tutorship.”

Ye Liuxing let out a sigh. “That’s fine. You can slowly remember everything, alright? I’ll tell you first. The youngest girl is named Shàn Yù (鄯玉). She’s actually Elder Shan’s (鄯长老) granddaughter. Because you owed Elder Shan a favor, you agreed to take her in just last year, before your trip. Your relationship with her is quite one-sided. She clings to you all the time because you’re good looking, but you’ve always been a bit cold, so as not to give her any hope.”

Gui Yin lightly touched his face. “Children shouldn’t be making judgments based on looks.”

The words were blurted out before he could really think about them. Ye Liuxing laughed.

“That’s exactly what said when that silly girl told you why she wanted to be your disciple.”

Gui Yin chuckled, but he didn’t say anything else. He and this Lord Immortal Ninglan were just similar enough.

“The oldest girl is named Qín Sīyí (秦丝怡),” Ye Liuxing said. “She’s not as energetic as Shan Yu, but she’s diligent. She’s a good shijie—you often tell me this whenever I ask how your disciples are doing. She came to the sect through regular testing. She’s been here since she was six. She is now eleven.”

Gui Yin nodded. It seemed that, in this world, children were allowed to enter sects earlier than in other stories.

“Now, your eldest and head disciple is that serious looking boy, named Linghuo,” Ye Liuxing said. He frowned slightly. “Honestly, I don’t know him well since he’s so quiet with strangers, but his affinity for cultivation is very high. He joined when he was seven and he’s already broken through Foundation Building. He’s thirteen now.”