Cultivating the Dao in a Beijing Courtyard: Are None of My Roommates Human?

Name: Cultivating the Dao in a Beijing Courtyard: Are None of My Roommates Human?
Author: Lemon with a Slice Missing

四合院修道：我的室友都不是人？

by Lemon with a Slice Missing (缺片柠檬)

Status: Completed
Length: 1.1M Words
Genre: Urban
Subgenre: Urban High-Concept
Updated: 4mo ago
English: Request a translation

Read on Fanqie

Synopsis

Lin Chen has a master's degree in cultural relic restoration. He was chased by urban management officers while running a stall at the antiques market, and his restoration videos on Douyin had only 50 likes, all from classmates showing their support.

He'd hoped to make some extra money drawing talismans and quietly lie flat. Instead, he rented a courtyard house and ended up with roommates, each more outrageous than the last:

The girl who plays the zither can hear people's heartbeats. The first time she met him, she said, "Your heartbeat sounds like shattering glass." A former special forces soldier upgraded the door lock to use fingerprint recognition and directional explosives. The traditional medicine practitioner brewing remedies carries a copy of the Book of Poisons and can make someone "die laughing" in three seconds. The tech geek hacked into the city's surveillance system and called it "protecting us."

Even more bizarrely, the owner of the antiques shop upstairs looked at him as if he were a long-lost friend.

The landlord, Old Chen, leaned against the locust tree and said leisurely, "You made the right choice moving in. You've all been family for a long time."

I thought it was a coincidence. Then the "Door" appeared, a rift connecting two worlds and the secret the Lin family had guarded for generations.

My mother walked through the Door and never came back. My fate had been written from the day I was born: stand before the Door and protect it.

The first time I deciphered a talisman, I consumed fear and drove back a powerful enemy.

The second time, I consumed anger and saw my past life: a woman had died taking a sword meant for me.

The third time, I consumed love.

My cultivation vanished, and my talismans stopped working. I looked at Su Xiaotang, waiting for me beneath the locust tree, and said the cruelest words: "Have I... stopped loving you?"

Her emotions had already been drained to nothing when she saved me, yet she still remembered one thing: "I should love you, but I can't feel it."

Before he died, Old Chen said, "Protection doesn't come from strength. It comes from the heart."

He closed his eyes

Stats

366Chapters

85Reads · 30 days

5.9kReads · all time

26Listens

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