Silence Costs a Thousand Stones
By @john1208
Gong Suyin was meant to die quietly. As the tragic younger martial sister of the Obsidian Cicada Sect, her only role was to weep for the arrogant young master Yan Zun before fading into obscurity. But an ordinary morning of watering spirit-herbs shatters when the bamboo bleeds black sap, unlocking a terrifying realization: she only has three hundred days before her soul collapses from a hidden sect curse - a deadly time limit the original story entirely omitted. Terrified but impossibly stubborn, the shy Suyin abandons the plot. Her sole obsession becomes rebuilding her ruined sect’s spiritual anchor to cure herself. The problem? Yan Zun and a sudden flock of powerful suitors won't leave her alone. Her solution? Charging them five hundred spirit stones per conversation. Narrated in alternating perspectives between the desperately focused Suyin and the increasingly frustrated Yan Zun, the story follows her race against time. As the deadly countdown ticks closer and the world grows darker, her cold, transactional brilliance inadvertently captures the hearts of the realm's most dangerous men. But can a girl who views love as a waste of time and money survive a doom nobody saw coming?
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