"Zither music?"
Su Ziji had just arrived home and was heading inside when he heard a strain of zither music. He immediately stopped to listen.
The music was very soft, rising in curling wisps amid the fragrance of tea, then seeming like spring rain drifting down, blending into the rustle of the bamboo grove and the bubbling of the stove. Its notes were heavenly, exquisitely subtle, seeping into the heart. Bright yet touched with a thread of emotion, it made the humans and foxes in the tea room feel as though they had fallen into a dream, stirring up emotions hidden deep within them. Scenes from storybooks they had once read seemed to be playing out before their eyes.
The courtyard was silent. Though he could not see them, he could still picture fingers pressing, holding, and plucking the seven strings. The zither music possessed a power that could infect one's emotions. Quite a few nearby servants were listening quietly, looking lost and wistful.
Because Su Ziji had cultivated the Coiling Dragon Heart Method and later studied Daoist elixir scriptures, his willpower had gradually strengthened. The zither music that had initially been able to immerse him completely had already lost its effect on him before he left the Capital City.
Yet now, standing here and listening from afar, it felt as if he had returned to his previous life once more.
People said first love was different. But for Su Ziji, who had lived through two lifetimes, that innocent romance which had only begun after he graduated high school in his previous life had ended quietly. It had been as bland and unremarkable as fruit deprived of water, and it was far too distant now. No matter how hard he tried to recall it, he could no longer recover the