A Deep Love for the Old Sword

Gu Jian's life began with a name that brought her endless misery. A surname is decided at birth, and no one gets to choose. So she couldn't be bothered to complain about how frustrating it was for a young girl to have the surname “Gu,” a name that made anyone who heard it sound ancient. But she was unmistakably a girl, so why had her heartless parents given her a name like “Jian,” a character that sounded masculine and was pronounced like a vulgar word?! She wasn't rebellious. She had always been a sweet girl, but this had plagued her for the first seventeen years of her life, and it would surely keep troubling her in the years to come. So she had spent a long time thinking up two solutions. First, she would practice swordsmanship. If they were going to name her “Jian,” then it would be a disgrace to everyone if she didn't learn to wield a sword. Her father, a grandmaster of martial arts, repeatedly told her that she had inherited her mother's poor constitution. Even if she practiced martial arts her whole life, she would only make it into the ranks of first-rate fighters, never becoming a top-tier master. But did she care? Of course not! Was she learning swordsmanship so she could sit every day in a hard chair like her boring old father, listening to people prattle on about trivial matters they grandly called “the affairs of the world,” when all they really meant was neighborhood gossip? No! She had only one reason for learning the sword: when she patted the sword at her side and introduced herself as “Gu Jian,” people would immediately understand that her name was Jian, not “Jian,” meaning “slut.” That was all. What a filial daughter she was, always looking for the problem in herself instead of blaming her heartless parents. Second, she would get married. Though she had come of age two years ago, there had been no one lining up to court her, but she had never given up on the idea of marriage. Getting married would be her chance to escape this painful name for good. Just think: once she was married, especially if she married someone rich and powerful, everyone would call her Madam So-and-so. No one would call her Miss Gu anymore, much less “Jian'er”! She had to get married! She absolutely had to, and to someone of high standing, so she could leave the name “Gu Jian” behind once and for all. What a filial daughter she was! Not only did she find her own solutions to her problems without blaming her parents in the slightest, she even took care of the very thing that worried other people's parents most. What more could anyone ask of such a filial girl? Truly remarkable... simply remarkable... But why was nobody interested in her, when she was reasonably pretty, came from an excellent family, and had mastered the sword? It was utterly baffling. Still, apart from the innate flaw of her name, she had plenty of virtues. Her most outstanding qualities were her quick wit, thoughtfulness, independence, and optimism... Oh, there were far too many to list. In short, she would find a way to get married! If only she could figure out the reason, she had the ambition to turn things around! She refused to believe no one would marry her! PRE has been obsessed with wuxia for ages, especially the works of the great Jin Yong. The setting of this story is based mainly on four of Mr. Jin Yong's works: The Smiling, Proud Wanderer and the Condor Trilogy. I treat the jianghu he created as a real place, and dedicate this story to the reckless, idealistic days of my youth, when I was captivated by the idea of righting wrongs and championing justice. PRE would say I got my start writing fantasy, but I want to make Deep Affection for an Old Sword a traditional wuxia story without any supernatural elements, set among ordinary people in an ordinary world. Traditional wuxia demands more substantial writing skill than fantasy or xuanhuan, and PRE will do her best. The protagonist, Gu Jian, is the daughter of the leader of the Sun Moon Order, so the entire story is told from the perspective of the so-called “demonic cult villains.” But the jianghu has been peaceful for a long time. Good and evil are merely excuses for people of the jianghu to pass the time. Without that opposition between good and evil, everyone would have to go grow crops and raise pigs like Gu Jian. The girl has a complicated personality. For nine-tenths of her life, she is odd and straightforward. The remaining tenth is known to no one. Qing Shen is a very low-key person. In terms of personality, he is no more “normal” than Gu Jian. It's just that when someone prefers to keep quiet, no one knows how strange they are. A light comedy: Through Gu Jian and Qing Shen's eyes, the joys and sorrows of the jianghu and the hardships of life are all one big comedy. Here comes PRE's self-promotion, hehe. “Prophecy” (complete): Harry Potter fan fiction (fantasy), long-form, serious drama, Professor vs. Xixi “Autumn Butterfly” [sequel to “Prophecy”]: Harry Potter fan fiction (romance), novella, serious drama, Draco vs. Qiu “Lava of Sin [sister story to ‘Prophecy’]” (ongoing): Original (fantasy/science fiction), long-form, light comedy, Sesos vs. Xixi “Deep Affection for an Old Sword [traditional wuxia]” (ongoing): Original (wuxia), long-form comedy, multiple protagonists. “Maple Leaves Collection” (ongoing): Original poetry. “On Martial Arts and Writing” (ongoing): Recommendations, web novels and print books, co-written by PRE and Yu. “Underworld [sister story to ‘Prophecy’]” (ongoing): Harry Potter fan fiction, long-form light comedy, Cotton and Hank, with all the children of the underworld as protagonists. “Absolute Darkness [prequel to ‘Prophecy’]” (ongoing): Harry Potter fan fiction, long-form, dark happy-ending comedy, the Dark Lord. Premise: