Everyone thought Jiang Wang had returned to the Su family to seize the eldest daughter's place.
Only Su Xingyao knew that this true heiress, newly returned from Miaojiang, would sneak into her bed in the middle of the night. Her cold fingertips traced circles down Su Xingyao's collarbone as she murmured softly,
“Run away once, and the gu worm will move an inch closer to your heart. Once it moves seven inches, you'll belong to me forever.”
Su Xingyao had tried running, making a scene, and giving in. None of it worked. The gu worm burrowed deeper into her veins, and Jiang Wang watched her more and more intently.
She thought her life was over.
Until one day, Jiang Wang fell unconscious when the gu poison turned against her. Su Xingyao gripped a fruit knife and locked herself in the bathroom. Gritting her teeth, she cut into her flesh and carved the bloodstained love gu from her heart. Her whole body shook with pain, but she didn't shed a tear.
Then she vanished without a trace. Even the Su family couldn't find her.
They met again two years later. Jiang Wang stood before her, so thin she was almost unrecognizable. Her black hair had been cut short, and she looked as if every last spark of life had been drained from her. She held a dark red life-bound gu before Su Xingyao, her voice as hoarse as sandpaper scraping over stone.
“Before, I used gu to force you to love me. Now I'll stake my life to make you come back.”
Su Xingyao lowered her eyes to the wretched sight of her kneeling on the ground and stayed silent for a long time.
At last, she stepped around that trembling hand and left only two words:
“Too late.”
