Tassel Knot

Li Huaian / Chu Zhi

A transmigration-and-romance story

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World One / Xuanhuan

Junior uncle-master / Junior sister of the sect

The first time Chu Zhi met the target she'd been assigned to win over, someone tailor-made for her, was the day her master brought her back to the sect. At first, everything was perfunctory, just going through the motions.

Clutching the tool the so-called System had given her to monitor affection levels, a sapling of a fringe tree, she struggled up the steps, only glancing at the tranquil lake.

Li Huaian stood on a bamboo raft. He wore white and gold robes with golden clouds embroidered on the cuffs. His hair was half tied up, with a jade hairpin stuck in casually. A ruby earring shaped like a teardrop dangled from his right ear, and he held a folding fan in one hand.

The wind lifted the hem of his robe. In that instant, he turned and met Chu Zhi's dazed gaze.

Her master said, "This is your junior uncle-master. There aren't many geniuses in the sect, but he's one of them."

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World Two / Youth and school life

Sickly boy / Cheerful girl

This time, Chu Zhi sees Li Huaian again at school.

In a daze, she can't remember how long it's been since she last set foot in a high school. When she arrives in this world, she's standing on the flag platform with a speech in her hands. Glancing to the side, she sees a huge fringe tree.

It isn't blooming, but it has grown thick and sturdy.

Clutching her pages, she begins to stumble through her speech one word at a time.

When she's done, she bows to the audience. Just as she raises her head, she catches sight of Li Huaian at the end of one of the lines.

His school uniform hangs loosely on him, making him look somehow frail.

This time, their eyes don't meet. He's looking down as he coughs again and again, each cough seeming to tug at the girl's heart.

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World Three

Guitarist in a band / Young office worker

This world really is different. Specifically, what's different?

Li Huaian is different.

They meet at a bar after Chu Zhi has dragged herself through a long day at work and finally gets a chance to relax. Then she suddenly hears someone in the crowd shout, "Whose sapling is this?"

She freezes. Two seconds later, she heads over with an awkward smile to claim the fringe tree sapling.

As she carries it away, she runs into Li Huaian. With a guitar on his back, he looks down at the sapling in her arms. Li Huaian says there's a courtyard behind the bar, and asks if she wants to plant the sapling there.

Chu Zhi is stunned. Why is everyone so kind in this world?

But she agrees anyway.

One day later, her brain malfunctions, and she blurts out her feelings to Li Huaian just as he's about to go onstage.

The man pauses, but still walks onto the stage. However, he changes the set list and doesn't play the songs he'd planned. Chu Zhi recognizes the song he plays instead.

"At last, you've said it. You feel just as deeply for me."

Theme: Love