Mortal Dawn and Dusk, My Eternal Life - Chapter 1

Prologue:

“Long-life survivor, a cursed person.”

A hoarse voice once echoed in her ear; it was the only definitive statement about her origin she had heard since she could remember.

For a hundred years thereafter, from the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China, dynasties changed, and wars raged. She adopted countless identities and witnessed innumerable lives and deaths.

Only she remained eternally youthful, imperishable.

But was this truly a gift from the heavens, or the most malicious curse?

She wanted to know the answer, even if the price was… eternal solitude.

Chapter 1: The Uninvited Guest of Wushui Town
The twentieth year of the Republic of China, early autumn.

Wushui Town, an unremarkable spot in the Jiangnan water country.

Fortunately, it was situated by a navigable river, and scattered merchants traveling north and south would occasionally stop here to rest. This added some vitality to the town, preventing it from becoming lifeless.

When Su Mingyue stepped onto the bumpy stone slab road of Wushui Town, the sun was so glaring it made it hard to open one’s eyes.

She clutched her faded, coarse cloth bundle. Inside, apart from a few old clothes, there were only two clinking silver dollars.

This was her entire fortune after leaving her previous resting place. In that northern city, she had hidden for two years under the guise of a “tailor’s apprentice.” Her skills hadn’t improved much, but her face hadn’t changed a bit.

If she stayed any longer, she’d probably be worshipped as an old witch.

She found the most inconspicuous inn on the edge of town, named “Yuelai.” The proprietress was a plump auntie with a perpetual smile.

“Miss, are you looking for a meal or a room?”

The plump auntie asked, seeing she was a young woman, and a strikingly beautiful one at that.

“A room, Auntie,” Su Mingyue handed over a silver dollar, her voice a bit hoarse. “I… I’ll go out and look around first, see if I can find a way to make a living.”

Su Mingyue gritted her teeth and spent one silver dollar, booking a five-day room.

The remaining silver dollar, heavy in her hand, left her feeling empty inside.

Her luggage was truly pathetic.

Apart from the patched blue cloth shirt she was wearing, she only had a set of “tools of the trade”: two well-worn copper coins, an old writing brush with a split tip, a small piece of inkstick with a chipped corner, and a stack of yellow straw paper with frayed edges.

This was all she had to rely on to resume her old profession.

In these troubled times, with wars raging, legitimate businesses were hard to come by.

But the more unstable the world became, the more unsettled people’s hearts grew, and the more they sought reasons to ask about their future and find peace of mind.

The profession of fortune-telling, as long as one could talk black into white, would never lead to starvation.

Though she couldn’t die, she couldn’t endure hunger! That unbearable feeling of starvation, she truly couldn’t stand it!

Su Mingyue pondered, then found a shady corner at the foot of the stone bridge in the center of town.

She pulled out the blue cloth, which she had used for who-knew-how-many years, from her bundle and spread it on the ground.

Then she took out her writing brush, dipped it in some saliva (there was no water, so she made do), and wrote three large, shaky characters on another cleaner piece of straw paper: “Know Fate, Ask Fortune.”

Next to it, she used a small stone to hold down a slip of paper that read: “One reading, five dimes. If not accurate, no charge.”

This setup, to put it nicely, was simple; to put it bluntly, it was utterly destitute.

An old man selling malt candy at a nearby stall squinted at her for a long time, then kindly warned, “Young lady, can you… can you really do this? You look so delicate, and you have an accent from out of town. I’m afraid no one will believe you.”

Su Mingyue nodded slightly to the old man, thanking him. Her eyelashes lowered, her voice as light as willow catkins: “I’ll try. I have to make a living somehow.”

She sat there, back ramrod straight, like a solitary bamboo shoot.

Her clear, cold gaze swept indifferently over the pedestrians coming and going on the bridge, neither shouting nor soliciting, truly like a clay Bodhisattva enshrined in a temple, silent and still.

But her detached demeanor, so out of place with her surroundings, coupled with her exceedingly striking face, made her look more like a spoiled young lady who had run away from home in the bustling market, rather than a fortune teller with any semblance of composure or world-weariness.

An hour passed, then two hours… Not only did no one come for a reading, but not a single person even paused to glance at her stall.

However, many passing men did glance at her face, and some bolder ones even whistled suggestively.

Su Mingyue ignored them, feigning blindness.

She had lived for so long that she herself had forgotten how many years had passed.

What kind of people hadn’t she seen?

This minor harassment couldn’t even make her eyelashes tremble. She even somewhat enjoyed the feeling of being treated as air; it gave her a strange sense of security.

The sun gradually set towards the west, and her stomach uncooperatively “grumbled.” Su Mingyue secretly wondered if she should change “one reading, five dimes” to “one reading, two dimes”?

Or perhaps, simply change it to “a steamed bun would do”?

Just as she was lost in thought, a glib voice sounded above her, laced with a hint of mockery and ill intent:

“Well, well, where did this little immortal come from, here to save all living beings?”

Su Mingyue didn’t even lift an eyelid. She knew trouble had arrived.

The newcomer was a notorious local ruffian from Wushui Town, surnamed Liu, with several scabs on his face, earning him the nickname “Liu the Scabby.”

Behind him were two slouching young men, clearly his lackeys.

Liu the Scabby had been lucky today, winning some money at the gambling den at the end of town. He was strolling down the street with his two brothers when he spotted this “fresh catch” at the bridgehead.

This woman was truly beautiful, even more alluring than the county magistrate’s concubine!

Her skin was so tender it looked like water could be squeezed from it. Setting up a fortune-telling stall in this rundown town was simply like a pearl covered in dust.

He swaggered over to Su Mingyue’s stall, squatted down, and his pair of cloudy, triangular eyes shamelessly roamed over her face and chest. He chuckled,

“Little sister, tell your big brother, do I have any luck with women lately? If you tell it accurately, I’ll let you have some ‘luck with women’ tonight, how about it?” As he spoke, he deliberately cast what he thought was a charmingly flirtatious glance at Su Mingyue.

The onlookers gradually gathered, pointing at Su Mingyue and whispering.

“Ah, this girl is probably in trouble; she’s provoked Liu the Scabby, that rogue.”

“Yeah, being too flashy with her looks is also a disaster.”

The old man selling malt candy wanted to speak up for justice but was fiercely glared at by one of Liu the Scabby’s thugs, forcing him to swallow his words.

Su Mingyue finally slowly raised her head.

Her eyes were calm and unmoving, like a bottomless ancient well, clear and profound.

She simply looked at Liu the Scabby, without a trace of emotion, as if looking at a stone by the roadside.

“Sir, I only tell fortunes here, nothing else.” Her voice was very soft, yet it carried an undeniable sense of detachment.

Liu the Scabby’s heart skipped a beat at her gaze, and then a surge of malicious anger rose within him.

He had never seen a woman so unappreciative of his advances!

“Heh, the little lady’s got some temper!”

He let out a strange laugh and extended his dirty hand. “Alright then, let me see your palm. I want to see how capable you are!”

That hand was about to touch Su Mingyue’s hand resting on her knee.