The rain outside the window was as heavy as someone pouring black ink in the sky. It was so dense that the outline of the bell tower not far away was blurred. The damp air filtered in through the gaps in the old oak window frames, bringing with it a chill that smelled of musty and old paper. Gu Yun rubbed his frozen fingers and returned his gaze to the desk in front of him.
Spread out on the table is an extremely old book.
It is not any of the ones currently available on the market. The book cover is some kind of dark brown leather that is cold and tough to the touch. It has been worn to the point where the original appearance cannot be seen clearly. There are only a few vague dark gold lines hinting at the delicacy it once had. The pages are thick and yellowed, and the edges are curled as if they have been read and touched countless times, as if they have been burned by fire.
Gu Yun found it in the bottom of a dusty cabinet in the corner of an extremely remote and almost unknown second-hand bookstore in the south of the city - "Xujingzhai". The shop owner, a skinny old man who seemed to be frozen in time, had his eyes flickering like a candle swaying in the wind when he handed the book to him. The old man didn't offer a price, he just stretched out his fingers like dead branches and tapped on the cover of the book. He let out a meaningless grunt in his throat and never wanted to look at him again.
