Ten Thousand Books, But Only One You

Side Story: 08 Snow Path: Reboot

Chapter 8: Snow Path: Reboot

In her childhood, holidays in the Qian family mostly meant going on a trip to China to visit Qian Siyu's paternal grandparents or to visit her mother's ancestral home. They would stay with her maternal grandaunt's family in the suburbs where she would mostly explore the old Wen mansion with her younger sister.

She recalled that when she was ten, she found a room in some corner of the compound filled with boxes and chests, covered in a thick layer of dust. However, somewhere in the middle of the room, there was a small jewellery box that looked clean and polished. Curious, Qian Siyu and her sister opened the box, only to find a notebook with old yellowed pages inside.

The notebook turned out to be an old diary, belonging to a person named Wen Ning. To a young and impressionistic Qian Siyu, the diary entries read more like a fantasy novel. It detailed accounts of a girl's apprenticeship at a place known as Wanshu Tower, which was more than just a private library. The owner of the diary was sent by her clan to study something known as the art of transmigration into books. However, before she had completed her apprenticeship, she discovered that her clan had surrendered their library over to Shibao Pavilion due to an incident that shook up their community, leaving her with nowhere to return to. In the end, she could only return home and cut off all contact with an organisation known as the Association of Private Libraries.

Having read the intriguing secrets of the art of transmigration which Wen Ning had penned down in her secret diary decades ago, Qian Siyu secretly followed the instructions and somehow managed to learn it. After years of practice, she finally mastered it but had never dared to use it, until she heard of an upperclassman known as Shi Ruijie.

He was the current chairman of the mysterious and exclusive Association of Private Libraries.

He was part of the Shi family clan—the family that caused her maternal ancestors to be expelled from that association due to that incident. Wen Ning's diary did not provide details on what that incident was, but it was clear that the Shi family had a part to play.

Qian Siyu knew that grudges from past generations should have nothing to do with the current one. But as a history major, the mystery of her family's history was something she had to investigate. As such, she thought of ways to interact with Shi Ruijie, but encountering him at school was more difficult than achieving straight As. Eventually, she gave up and decided that it was not worth her time.

That was until she learnt of Shibao Pavilion's research library when preparing for her thesis. It was an avenue to kill two birds with one stone — she would be able to do her research and get closer to Shi Ruijie.

But what she didn't expect was that he had sounded so condescending and unsympathetic. It was as if he knew of her roots and had automatically blacklisted her. But, surely she was being overly sensitive. And in her overly sensitive state, she had drank a little alcoholic beverage with her best friend and roommate as they trash talked Shi Ruijie in their dormitory. Which led her, when she was low in sobriety, to send three books that were written by an acquaintance to Shi Ruijie. Those books would cause him to transmigrate into characters with tragic stories. That would teach him a lesson to mess with her. That would teach the Shi clan a lesson for bullying her ancestors.

Somehow, it must have worked since Shi Ruijie seemed to have a change of heart. Not only did he approve her application, but also did not confront for what she had done to him. His lack of anger or retaliation unnerved her and pricked her conscience. Her actions warranted some sort of punishment. Wen Ning had written in her diary that the art of transmigration was not to be used for evil but for good. Perhaps, after she had had her way, it was time for her to be punished.