Fanfiction: Mo Yuan and Shao Wan - Chapter 34 (Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms 三生三世十里桃花)
Chapter 34
written by kakashiWhen Mo Yuan returned from the mortal realm later that night, he went to 17th’s old room to find Shao Wan - but she wasn’t there. Feeling slightly apprehensive, he returned to the Hall, straining his ears for a commotion anywhere. However, the only sound to be heard on the Mountain was the wind. Before he could get more uneasy, taciturn 13th came hurrying from the shadows, blushing deeply as he informed his Master that Shimu was waiting in Shifu’s room.
She was indeed waiting, sitting comfortably on his bed, her body only partially covered by his blanket - reading one of his top secret intelligence reports. It crossed his mind that he had been too careless once again with his secrets - but this mattered strangely little now that he saw her.
“Here you are,” she said and suppressed a yawn, “where did you sneak off to again? And did you really think having me sleep in that other room was a good idea? I’m your wife after all. Word will soon reach Celestial ears that you were lying through your teeth if we keep to separate rooms.”
He quickly locked the door behind him with magic. Truth was, he had thought about how he could sneak off to be with her all evening long. Seeing her on his bed in all her naked, tall glory, made his body react with a need so urgent, he almost forgot what he had wanted to tell her.
“I brought you the ingredients for your potion,” he managed to say.
She grinned. “Ha, I thought you’d go yourself. Endearingly proper and quite shy. I should have told you there was no rush, I cannot conceive right now anyway.”
She got up and sauntered over, curious to see what he had bought. She inspected each package carefully, testing the ingredients by smelling and then tasting them. When Mo Yuan also gave her the scented oils, some powders, an ivory comb and some hair accessories he had chosen for her, she was so pleased she slung her arms around his neck and kissed him. The kiss became heated almost instantly and it seemed impossible to have coherent thoughts for much longer.
“Stop,” Mo Yuan groaned, pushing her away.
“What now, Celestial, it’s been too long since we last did it,” she panted.
“The contraceptive potion, Shao Wan, we should make sure-”
“You and your blasted potion,” she sighed, “fine, let’s make it first so you can stop feeling anxious.”
Anxiety wasn’t exactly what he was feeling. “Please put on this robe,” he said and handed her the blue velvet one he sometimes wore over his sleeping garments when the nights at Kunlun were too cold. She flashed him a teasing smile that made his heart skip a beat, but complied. Seemingly. She wore the robe so loosely draped over her delicious body that he still could see everything. He would simply avert his eyes, he decided.
“The potion is easily done,” she declared, “we just need a bowl to mix everything with water. Then, I need to be told to drink a small cup full every night. My maids used to remind me. Since I don’t have any, I will count on you to tell me.”
She looked around and her face lit up when she spotted the vase on Mo Yuan’s side table. It was empty; he just kept it there for nostalgic reasons. Nobody put fresh Peach Blossoms in anymore.
“This will do,” Shao Wan announced and moved towards the table. “We can use your tea instead of water, it’s much better.” She arranged the ingredients in front of her, furrowing her brow in concentration. “Wait … was it … this, then this? Or this … then this.”
“This and then this,” Mo Yuan helped her, “willow before sweet wormwood.”
“How would you know?”
“I inquired about it.”
She beamed at him. “You are much more useful than I thought.”
“You sure have a way with praise.” And he was a fool for feeling exhilarated after so little.
She took his pot with tea and poured it all into the vase. Mo Yuan stood there and shook his head in disbelief.
“What?”
“You did not want to check whether the vase is clean first?”
“I’m sure everything on this mountain is so clean you could eat from it, no?”
He nodded, though unsure, and she proceeded to throw the different ingredients into the vase with the tea, going from left to right.
“I think you should more carefully measure the-”
“Be quiet, I know how to do this. Okay, done! Now I need-” she searched the room until her eyes came to rest on his headpiece. “I need your hairpin to stir this. Maybe you could add a bit of heat to it? Your tea was almost cold.”
He was still shaking his head at her method of making a concoction when she stepped close and snatched the hairpin from his head in one quick movement.
“You may as well let your hair down now,” she observed, squinting, “it looks really messy like this.”
She took the headpiece off too and threw it into a corner. Using both hands, she smoothed out his hair. “Beautiful”, she whispered, looking at him with admiration.
“You better drink that potion now,” he whispered back.
“I need to stir first,” she answered, stepping even closer, starting to unknot his belt.
He grabbed her hands and pulled her to the table. “Then stir.”
She laughed and reached out to stir the potion with his hairpin.
“Use this,” he said and handed her the ladle from his tea pot, taking the pin from her hands.
“You Celestials are very superstitious, are you not,” she declared, accepting the new tool with a nod, “how many times do I stir this way and that way for a good balance of Yin and Yang?”
“You just stir until all the powder is dissolved,” Mo Yuan said and looked over her shoulder. “And I told you you should have measured it more carefully! You stir in one ingredient after the other. This is-”
“Just add some heat, that’ll help,” she declared and pulled him down next to her, putting his hands around the vase. Of course, she deliberately pressed her breast against his arm as she stirred energetically.
“Will you concentrate,” she scolded him, “that’s very simple magic I’m asking you to do.”
His eyes glued to her beautiful face and not other parts of her, he added heat until the tea started to boil. The powder dissolved immediately.
“Looks ready!” she pronounced with a sweet smile, “but now it’s too hot. I cannot drink it just yet.”
She might have had the upper hand from the moment he had entered the room, but he was not completely defenseless. “Fine, I will go to bed then while you wait for it to cool down. You won't be able to wake me, I’m much too tired.”
She pouted and quickly took his hands into hers. “Pour me a cup. Cool it down.”
“Do you think I am to be ordered around like a servant?”
She pouted some more, fighting her stubborn pride. “Mo Yuan High God,” she then purred, “would you mind helping a woman out with her contraceptives? All she can think of is your manhood rubbing against her pleasure points and your hot lips sucking on her nipples.”
He was quite certain, never before had any man so quickly decided a “please” wasn't necessary after at all. As soon as she had ingested the cup with the contraceptive, cooled down to an almost icy temperature by an overzealous god, Mo Yuan threw her onto the bed and entered her, almost frantic with desire.
It was over way too quickly for his taste, his failing because she drove him half-insane and he could not take it slow, however much he tried. She seemed happy nonetheless. She watched his phoenix fire scars fade with utter fascination, obviously fighting the urge to touch his skin there again. Whenever they flared up, and they did so fairly often when he exercised, his abdomen became a source of great pain. It was the scar he valued most for the lesson it had taught him.
She started playing with his hair afterwards, pulling it lightly and making little braids. Mo Yuan cleared his throat.
“Shao Wan-”
“Yes, husband?”
She just knew too well how to rattle him. He sucked in breath, thrown off balance, caught himself and proceeded with what he had wanted to ask. “Do … do you want to sleep here?”
“Yes, of course. I will not stay in a room near those boys.”
“It is not customary in the Nine Heavens for husband and wife to share the living quarters. Nobody would think I’m ‘lying through my teeth’.”
“It’s because you Celestials have too many wives. They would start to scratch each other’s eyes out to get a piece - the piece of their husband if all of them were to share the room with him.”
Mo Yuan smiled broadly. Her logic was solid. He imagined a room full of docile Celestial women… and Shao Wan knocking all of them unconscious to get to him. One definitely did not need another woman besides her.
“It would hurt my pride if I were your real wife and you’d have me sleep in a separate room,” she added. “The Demons would laugh at me and say I’ve lost my prowess.”
“It’s fine, you can stay.” That was how you talked to this woman if you did not want to spook her with the truth, which was: “I am deliriously happy you want to share a room with me.”
“But no toads are allowed in here,” he quickly added.
Shao Wan sighed. “If the realms knew the God of War’s rival is a toad, there’d be much merriment. Oh, maybe I should start writing plays? I have not much else to do.”
“I will instruct my disciples to keep ink and scrolls away from you at all costs.”
“Well, then I’ll make you a villain in my play.”
Mo Yuan laughed. Maybe he’d make sure she had all the ink and scrolls in the world from now on. He never read mortal plays, but he would make an exception for this one.
“Celestial?”
“Yes, wife?”
She glared, he smiled more broadly, because he liked the sound of it. He liked everything about this situation. A man could get used to this. But a man shouldn't.
“Are you sure you can trust the people writing these intelligence reports for you? The information on the Demon Realm is faulty.”
That rendered him temporarily speechless.
“The names of places are all wrong and some of the distances are skewed. The Black King’s palace is not one day away from the Yellow King’s. It’s two.”
When no reaction came, she scrambled up to look at his face. “I forgot, you do not want to discuss realm politics with me. I understand.”
“I wish there were no realm politics to discuss,” Mo Yuan sighed, “I wish-”
“Cheng Yin is mine, Mo Yuan. Do you promise?”
He thought about the last time he had trusted her. I can assure you that Cheng Yin will not get me. You can relax, Celestial. Those had been her words. She had almost died because he had let her face the Yellow King alone.
“Promise me, Mo Yuan. He hurt what’s dearest to me. He took what’s most valuable to me. I want to crush the life out of him and destroy his soul. I want to make it the most horrible death possible.”
She bore into him with eyes so full of emotions he felt it in his gut. Every bit of his resistance just crumbled and disappeared.
“I promise.”
“Thank you, Mo Yuan.” At least, he got to hear her say “thank you” and his proper name.
“I need to know what I’m up against nonetheless,” he said cautiously. “If you can, please tell me-”
She did. Her account was detailed and for the most part emotionless. Only when she talked about finding Fong Hung in a pool of his own blood and almost lifeless did her voice falter. Mo Yuan hugged her closer and she let him.
“It was incredibly foolish to use your sky-power against the Yellow King,” he whispered, “you could have died.”
“I was ready to die. I saw no other way.”
His felt immediate anger about her saying something like this, but who was he to get angry at such a decision? He had brought great grief to people dear to him too. He had sacrificed his life for others and he had no right to scold her.
“I don’t know how he was able to stop it,” she continued, “all he did was move his lips and then, it felt like I was hit over the head with a boulder.”
“He didn't move his hands?”
“No, I held onto his arms and squashed his hands.”
It was a scary thought, that Cheng Yin was that powerful. Stopping the sky-power just by using his lips? Was that even possible? Mo Yuan thought about it a bit more.
“May he have had … have had something on his person? An artifact, maybe? Something powerful. Is there something you are vulnerable to?”
A short pause, then: “Yes.”
“Could he have it?”
“He says you have it.”
“I have it?”
“My Feather.”
Mo Yuan instantly remembered Shao Wan so many years ago, her face white as death from anger, her eyes ablaze, her hair flowing around her like poisonous snakes. She had accused Yao Guang of stealing her Feather. If this had been true, Yao Guang would have had to leave school in disgrace immediately and would have been punished severely. The Demon Ancestor’s Feather was a holy object of immense value, kept secure where Shao Wan had first come into the world from her egg.
Mo Yuan had vehemently defended Yao Guang back then, because he knew her. She had a foolish side to her, especially when she got too obsessed about things, but he would have given his right hand to vouch for her. She would never steal something that threatened to plunge the realms into a new war. Yet, the Demon Queen had insisted she had proof and her senseless fury had troubled them deeply.
Even his father had not been able to stop Shao Wan from leaving school after this incident. It had taken Father Immortal’s scattering and many more millennia until the Demons had gone to war, but it had all started to turn sour when Shao Wan’s Feather had disappeared.
Naturally, given that the Feather was one of the main reasons for one of the most terrible wars in the history of the realms, Mo Yuan was aghast to be confronted with such an accusation.
“I have never even see your Feather,” he finally said, now feeling anger too. “It sounds to me like Cheng Yin has it and if he has it, then I’m guessing his father had it. Which would explain a lot, for example why you suddenly exploded when you fought me back in the war.”
“Yao Guang could have given it to you before she died,” Shao Wan said defiantly.
“Shao Wan. Do not say something you will regret later,” Mo Yuan warned, trying to keep the anger from his voice. “Yao Guang never took your Feather. And she died a hero. She sacrificed her life to correct a grave mistake I made.”
“Very much like her to die for you. She’d do anything to get your attention.”
Mo Yuan closed his eyes in exasperation. He did not want to remember these things. “She … yes, she did desperate things to get my attention. I threw her off this mountain for it, Shao Wan, and never felt sorry for it. But she would never have taken your Feather.”
Shao Wan remained silent. She was still lying in his arms, which he considered a good sign. She who was prone to irrational and scary rages was still thinking about this. She would hopefully come to the same conclusion as him: Cheng Yin must be the one who had her Feather. If that was true, they needed to think about talismans to protect her, apart from working on her control. He would need help with those. And it looked like he needed her help with finding out whose intelligence to trust and whose not to. He sighed.
She sighed too, echoing him. “No more realm politics. It gives me a headache. Let’s sleep.”
It was true, and she was unusually sensible, they needed to catch up on sleep. And his body needed to get used to just sleeping, even if she was next to him like this.
She turned around to look at him. “You can call me a foolish woman for saying this, Celestial. But I don’t think you would lie to me. You are much too honorable, in your slow, stick-in-the-mud way.”
“I never lie,” he answered and kissed her fervently. It was the truth, he never did.
Chapter 35