Fanfic: Mo Yuan and Shao Wan 2.0 - Chapter 35c (Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms 三生三世十里桃花)
Chapter 35c
written by kakashiedited by LigayaCroft/Panda
Xiao Yu character consulting by Bunny (thanks for letting him cameo!)
“Shifu, I am so sorry! I shouldn’t have left her alone.” Bai Qian felt like crying. Why had she not waited with the Demon Queen at the hut for him to return? Why had she gotten lost in the forest?
“It is not your fault,” her Shifu replied, not for the first time. “She is my responsibility, not yours.” He seemed to mean it, but she remained unconvinced. Running into the forest like a headless chicken, it wasn’t like she was only 30’000 years old and didn’t know better, was it?
With the passing of time, her Shifu started to sound more agitated even as he tried to assuage her worries. Of course, he managed to look his usual calm self on the surface, but there were clear signs he wasn’t if one looked for it. A trace of a frown, tension around his mouth, the eyes restlessly chasing movements and sounds around them - and no appetite. Her Shifu was not touching his noodle soup even though its steamy perfection emitted the most delicious smell.
They were currently resting at an inn, because her stomach had growled so loudly it sounded like a Celestial lightning storm was coming their way. They had left the hut almost immediately after discovering the Demon Queen gone, her trying to match her Shifu’s long strides by running alongside him until her side hurt too much. Shao Wan was nowhere to be found, as much as they searched and called her name. How was it even possible? It was like she had vanished into thin air.
“She cannot be far. I will go search for her,” he had declared. “You stay here.”
“N...no,” she had stammered, “I want to come with you.”
Maybe she was slowing him down on top of everything else, but the thought of staying there by herself had quite deeply scared her. Maybe it was the memories she had of her time as Su Su that suddenly resurfaced, her loneliness during her pregnancy, her Ye Hua disappearing without a word, her abduction to the Heavens later, only to find out who Ye Hua truly was – and her real trial beginning, leaving such deep emotional scars.
Bai Qian shivered. Still, after all these years... That stupid Old Phoenix, she scolded Zhe Yan in her head, can’t even make a proper concoction to wipe memories. Now I will always have to remember the most horrible time in my life at random moments.
She threw her Shifu a look. She didn’t think he knew about what had happened to her during her trial. It was better this way. But now that she thought about such matters, she had never heard anybody talk about his mortal trial... had he even had one? She couldn’t really imagine him in a love trial, to be honest... so maybe a different type? Or lightning strikes? That was more like him.
“I want you to get back to the Heavens as fast as possible,“ her Shifu said.
“Yes, Shifu,“ she nodded. Was it strange that she kept calling him Shifu? They had briefly tried other names with each other, but none seemed to fit. So she called him Shifu and it sounded both right and rather wrong. Actually, the longer she thought about this situation they were in, the wronger it seemed.
“There is a well-known sage in the mountains. I will bring you there. He will meditate with you.“
“Shifu...“
“You will have to meditate unless you want to be stuck here?“
“N..... no, Shifu. I want to go back. But...“
Her Shifu sighed deeply.
“I’m sorry, Shifu,“ she quickly added. She remembered, he had never liked it when his disciples used “but“ in conversations with him.
“Speak,“ he said.
“I want to stay with you,“ she blurted out.
“Seventeenth...,“ his dark eyes fixated on her and suddenly, her throat felt dry. “You are the Crown Princess now. Your place is in the Heavens, not by my side. You have already given us so much more than what I could ever ask for. How can I face my brother if I do not send you back as soon as possible?“
“But I don’t want to stay with some old man in the mountains while you search for the Demon Queen!“ she exclaimed. “I want to help!“
He looked at her without speaking. Yes, she felt sorry she made it harder for him, but the thought of staying with some mortal Elder to gain cultivation all by herself made her nauseous. She lifted her chin. He was not sending her away!
“Then I will find another way,“ her Shifu said softly and stared into the bowl in front of him.
“You must eat, Shifu,“ Bai Qian implored. “You need your strength.“
He was quiet for a brief moment before he said very softly: “Enough. Do not worry about me anymore.“
“But...“
He lifted his eyes to look at her. He did not hide their pained expression. “Seventeenth, enough. I wish we could be like we have been before. But that is no longer possible.”
He was right, of course. Even if it hurt, this truth. But she had realized something about him that made it very awkward to be too close to him and he had bared his feelings to her in ways that changed everything. Her interactions with him had been based on innocence and ignorance before - now, nothing of the two remained.
But there was enough defiance left in her. Was thinking “what if“ a sin? She did not believe so. Well, it was possible that the Celestial Tribe thought differently about such matters, because in that tribe, even breathing too rapidly was considered a breach of etiquette. But in her Tribe, it wasn’t. In her Tribe, because Foxes had one true love, finding the mate for life did not mean one could not look at other men and appreciate their existence. But will I tell Ye Hua everything? she caught herself thinking. Maybe it was the emotional tension she had felt ever since finding her Shifu’s wife gone, maybe it was the finality of his statement, as if he had told her they would never see each other again, but suddenly, her eyes filled with tears.
“It is alright, Seventeenth,“ he said very gently. “I am very sorry you got drawn into this at all. It isn’t your burden to carry.”
He drew a handkerchief from his sleeve and bent forward to dab her cheeks with it, but hesitated before touching her. She reached forward to take the piece of cloth from his hands.
“I am so sorry for everything,“ she sobbed. He instinctively lifted his hand to stroke her hair, like he had done so many times before, but she turned her head away quickly and he put his hand back on the table.
“I think I should be able to call an old acquaintance of mine here,“ he said, clearing his throat. “Maybe you remember him. When you were very young and had just started your tutelage under me, you met him at Kunlun and we went on a little mission together.“
Green Eyes?! [Note: He is a character from Bunny’s Fanfic]
“Where’s that scoundrel at?“ she exclaimed, quickly rubbing her eyes. “So many millennia have passed since I last saw him!“
“Ah,“ Mo Yuan said and she was thrilled to see a little smile appear on his face, “it’s his habit to vanish like this. Do not take it personally.”
“How can you call him, Shifu?“ Bai Qian asked.
“I will think of him very hard. Maybe he will feel it.“
Really? Her Shifu didn’t seem to be joking. That was it?
“We should find a place with a large amount of auspicious earth energy for it,“ her Shifu added.
“How do we find it?“ she asked all excited. Yes, Green Eyes was powerful. Green Eyes would be able to help them. Even though...
“We walk around until one makes itself apparent.“ He caught her disbelieving expression. “I am sorry, Seventeenth, but I am not much more than a mortal at the moment. If we are unlucky, we might even lose our High God status for a while.“
What?! She felt her eyes grow round from shock. “I will give you all the cultivation I can spare to prevent it,“ he tried to soothe her.
“Shifu! You need it yourself!“ she cried. “This is just too unfair. What did we do wrong?“
He pressed his lips together. It didn’t look like he was going to answer her. But what had they done wrong? Saved somebody who had saved the Realms from poison? What had Shao Wan done wrong to deserve such hardship?
“It is all on me,“ her Shifu said after all after staring into his bowl for a while, but so quietly she could barely hear him, “I should have listened when I was warned. But the truth is... I now know I never could have obeyed that one order. If this is the lesson I am to learn, I have understood it. Fate is not making us powerless or taking away our ability to act freely. But Fate invites us to make difficult decisions that lead to hardship - in order for us to realize what really counts.”
***
His face was a picture to get lost in. It was such a familiar face, and yet, she was still able to discover new things in it. Was there an additional line at the corner of his right eye that had not been there before? Was it a crinkle formed by smiling? Had he been this happy in the past without her knowing?
I wish for you to be always happy, Shifu, she thought with vehemence, and I will do everything in my powers to make it so.
This was already the fifth spot he had declared full of auspicious energy. She couldn’t feel any of it and she certainly had not improved her meditation skills since being at Kunlun. So she had settled to watch him meditate and most importantly, to guard him in this vulnerable state. In a very short time, he went under so deep he would hardly breathe, his entire being becoming so still it was like he wasn’t there.
No Green Eyes had made an appearance so far, even if her Shifu tried very hard.
Bai Qian wasn’t surprised at all. Her opinion of that troublemaker of a man wasn’t too good… she had always been stunned by his incredible rudeness and scared of his merciless tongue and truth be told, she thought her world was better off without him.
Isn’t he beautiful? a voice inside her head said.
He is, she agreed. She had never mistaken the two brothers for each other like others had. She knew all the differences between them well. Both of them were the Celestial Tribe’s finest looking men.
You don’t know all the differences. He has a mole on his left shoulder, the voice in her head remarked.
What? Ye Hua had no mole on his left shoulder.
No, Yuan Yuan has. But you never got a chance to find out, Furball. Too late to regret!
“Green Eyes?!” she exclaimed and jumped up, blushing so deeply her face felt like she had just poked it into a blazing oven.
Mo Yuan opened his eyes.
“Here I am,” the Scoundrel said and stepped out from behind some bushes. “Have you missed me?”
He stopped to look her over rudely. His long gray hair was moving gently in the slight afternoon breeze above snow-white robes. His piercing eyes were glittering like emerald gemstones. His delicate features showed the usual amusement, tinged with something slightly more discomforting.
“My, our Furball has grown,” he remarked to Mo Yuan. “Are you two on some kind of belated honeymoon? She seems to have gotten a severe sunburn though.”
“Xiao Yu,” Mo Yuan replied and unfolded his long legs to stand up, “I am exceptionally pleased to see you.”
“You are?” Xiao Yu said, narrowing his eyes at him, “Yuan Yuan, you know I adore you, but!” he jabbed at Mo Yuan with his index finger, “I feel used. Badly used!”
“How so?” Mo Yuan asked, smiling at his… friend? What were they even? Bai Qian had never quite figured out the nature or depth of their relationship, though she had reason to believe it went back to her Shifu’s childhood.
“First,” Xiao Yu held up the finger previously used for stabbing, “I was sleeping when you started to scream for my help. It was a good sleep and I had very good dreams that now are lost forever without finding a worthy end. Just vexing. Second,” a second finger went up, “I know very well you only called me because you have no means to call your friends. Lost your special friendship coin, have you, Yuan Yuan?”
Did her Shifu look guilty? That was the problem with this Green Eyes. His words hurt, precisely and deliberately. Bai Qian began to understand why Shifu had sounded slightly reluctant when he had talked about this other way to get them off this world. Interactions with Green Eyes came with a high price.
“Third, you have not looked for me once since we last parted ways. You are a heartless man. Heartless! Fourth, I heard you got married? And what? I did not get an invite! Oh, speaking of which…” he turned his attention towards Bai Qian, “I did not get one from you either. Even though we bonded so thoroughly at Kunlun before!”
Bonded? Us?!
“You better close your mouth,” Xiao Yu said and waved his hand at her, “or a bug might fly in.”
“High God Xiao Yu,” Mo Yuan addressed the other High God politely, “I need to ask a favor of you. Could you please take Seven… the Crown Princess safely back to the Nine Heavens? We…”
“You used to be so careful around women,” Xiao Yu scoffed, “what happened to you? How did you get yourself caught on a mortal world with your brother’s wife and so few powers left you can’t even cloud jump?”
“I was helping Shao Wan get her body back. Her mount hid it on this world. There were… difficulties.”
Xiao Yu rolled his eyes so far back only the white was visible for a moment. “Of course. Why do I even ask. That woman always got you in the most massive trouble and you were always too weak to resist her.”
And with that, Bai Qian lost it. That stupid Green Eyes, how dare he talk to her Shifu like this! “Shifu isn’t weak! They took his blood before we came here!” she shouted. “And Shao Wan didn’t do anything to him!”
“My, my,” Green Eyes smiled a toothy smile, “still ready to bite people, are we? Are you really the Crown Princess now? I bet it’s such a spectacle, you up there in those stifling clothes with those uptight people. The one thing I rejoice about almost every day is that my Yuan Yuan got away in time.”
“I like it in the Heavens!” Bai Qian pressed out but it sounded like a lie the moment those words left her lips.
“Ah,” the High God chuckled, “that is good then. You should teach the others to like that place too, because I know for a fact that nobody else does.”
He sat down in a flurry of robes on the spot then, patting the ground next to him as an invitation. “Then tell me your story, good people, so that we can solve your issues. I hope it’s entertaining enough. Furball, bring us wine and snacks!”
What the… the next town was at least two incense away!
“She may dress as a woman now,” Green Eyes mentioned to her Shifu, “but that’s about the only thing that has changed. Look how she’s glaring at me! It’s just like the old days.”
Her Shifu looked at her and smiled warmly. It was like the sun had suddenly appeared after a week of rain. Knowing full well that Green Eyes had the ability to read her thoughts especially when she was weakened like she was, Bai Qian quickly turned her head away and started walking away. Why did that stupid scoundrel make her feel like a child with its hand caught in the cookie jar?
She hated walking. She hated Green Eyes. She hated him so much she kicked the dirty, imagining it was his shin. Should she refuse to be taken away by him? But… Ye Hua…. she suddenly missed him so much it drove tears into her eyes.
Daydreaming about her husband and their upcoming reunion, she hit the town after what seemed only a few moments. She looked for and found a wine salesman, from which she bought a few bottles of wine and a large selection of snacks, both salty and sweet.
She headed back immediately after and - to her renewed surprise - found the two men on the patch of grass only a short time later. They barely acknowledged her, so deep in conversation were they. Green Eyes just extended his hand, obviously waiting for her to give him wine.
“Eat dung,” she told him viciously.
“Furball,” he chuckled, “you should appreciate my help a bit more. Or did you think you were suddenly good at finding directions?”
“Let me serve you, Xiao Yu,” Mo Yuan said and got up to retrieve the items from her with a small bow.
It turned out quite a little feast in the end. Bai Qian rubbed her belly in contentment and suppressed a little burp that wanted to come out. She had chosen well. How long had it been since she had had wine like this? If only that Green Eyes went away.
“...what a reckless woman,” that person was just saying. He sounded very impressed. So Green Eyes knew Shao Wan?
“I am afraid that in her condition…” her Shifu began cautiously.
“No need to be afraid at all,” Bai Qian blurted out, feeling her head swim in the most pleasant manner. She knew about this much better than them. “We women have very good instincts when it comes to our unborn children. She will protect them, not matter what.”
Green Eyes lifted his eyebrows. Then, he lifted them even higher. “Yuan Yuan? Methinks you left out some rather important details.” What followed was a rather unexpected dressing-down in staccato tone about irresponsible behavior, the balance of the universe and calamity in the making.
What does he think is irresponsible? Bai Qian frowned. Does he not know it happens when a a man and a woman are intimate?
“I have long since stopped musing over my Father’s words,” Mo Yuan said broodily after Green Eyes stopped his lecturing.
“A protector,” Green Eyes said with emphasis. “That is what you are.”
“And it is what I will be,” her Shifu declared. “But she came back to me. Twice. I will have a family, and nobody will stop me.”
Green Eyes sighed. “I never thought it possible, but you too are just a man. A prisoner of love. Well, even though I doubt harmony between you two will ever be possible, I’d advise you stop killing her in the meantime. Let’s toast to that!” he lifted his bottle and gulped down the contents.
He had managed to wipe any trace of happiness from her Shifu’s face, but he himself looked much more content than before. What a strange and thoroughly unpleasant man he was. Shaking her head in displeasure, Bai Qian emptied her third bottle too.
“She’s not far,” Green Eyes suddenly said, “your fiery Phoenix is in some town to the East stirring trouble. Call me again if you’ve managed to tame her and I will come visit with proper gifts for your nuptials and to bless your union.”
Upon hearing this news, her Shifu had jumped up, appearing very eager to part with them. Bai Qian felt sadness rise behind her eyes. This was goodbye. Her part was done. She didn’t think they would see each other again soon.
“Not so hasty,” Xiao Yu sighed. “You can’t miss her. Just head for the biggest commotion. But now, kneel down.”
He would make her Shifu kneel?! Preposterous! But the God of War complied, not even hesitating for a second. Green Eyes lifted his hand and placed it on Mo Yuan’s head.
“Your inner meridians are in such disarray,” he said gently. “You must focus on proper healing once you return to the immortal planes. You hear me? And try not to transform for a while. Here… this will help. There is enough cultivation left in you for now, it’s just blocked.” A blood red pill had appeared on his hand, which Mo Yuan took with a bow. “And I’m afraid you must eat some meat to replenish your blood. Quite a lot. Oh, don’t worry, you won’t be punished for it!”
“I am in your debt,” Mo Yuan said and bowed again, this time more deeply.
“That we already know,” Xiao Yu smiled, “and you know I will come and collect that debt. I always do.” Then, he sprang up. “You two, say goodbye, but no tears, please. Time to take the Furball back to where she belongs!”
They clasped hands, almost like strangers. Maybe, she managed to think while busying herself with keeping her face straight and her eyes dry, maybe this was where they had to start from again. Being strangers.
***
Finally rid of that annoying man - though of course very grateful - Bai Qian walked forward happily, her heart beating in joyful anticipation to see Ye Hua and her sons again. She noticed with a smile that there were no guards at the Heavenly Gates, a good sign, since it could only mean that Ye Hua judged the situation in the Realms to be peaceful enough.
She stepped forward, quickening her steps and… slammed against an invisible wall of strong magic that threw her back several steps.
Rubbing her forehead furiously, she called out: “Hello there! Anybody? Your Crown Princess is back!”
Nobody answered. Feeling strong anger rise inside of her, she threw forward her hands to probe the invisible barrier. Ye Hua’s magic, she realized with a pang. What…?
Then she remembered. He had told her after the infiltration by the rogue Starlord that he would put wards up all around the Heavens, to prevent anybody who did not belong from entering freely.
“Ye Hua!” she screamed, “I want to come home!”
Tears started to gather in her eyes. Why would they try to keep her out? This was her home too!
“Qian Qian?”
Here he was, her love, his lovely face puzzled and worried, his hair swinging behind him as he approached very fast.
“Ye Hua!” she cried, “Ye Hua, why can I not enter?”
“Are you alright, my love?” he demanded to know as he swiftly stepped up to her and grabbed both her hands.
“How long was I gone?” she sniffled, reaching up to touch his face.
“Four days, Qian Qian,” he answered, putting his forehead against hers, “I was getting worried. But come now, let’s go to the Palace and you can tell me all about what happened. I assume my Da-ge’s plan worked out?”
She nodded, because anything else would require her to explain things far to exhausting and complicated.
“I want to take a bath,” she said. “With you.”
He smiled cheekily. “How about we go to the mortal realm for a bit? We’d have much more time to…”
“No!” she pressed out a bit too forcefully, “not the mortal realm.” She was definitely done with that for a while and if she ever went back, she’d take some power elixir back-up with her.
He threw her a look but did not ask any questions. He interlaced his fingers with hers instead and pulled her forward. “Come.”
Only… she couldn’t. She slammed against the invisible wall again just as painfully as the first time.
“Qian Qian,” Ye Hua said in alarm, “what…” He lifted his hand and threw magic over her, making her tingle all over.
“Why…”
Oh no.
Ye Hua’s face became very dark. “Qian Qian,” he said, “who performed magic on you? Where are your powers? And... why are you emitting Demon energy?”
She really had no wish to make the Lady Shao Wan’s life harder than it already was. Therefore, she had decided she would keep the bit about Shao Wan possessing her body from her husband. But that had just become very much harder.
The reason why Ye Hua’s magic shield was keeping her out, Bai Qian realized, was simple: A part of Shao Wan’s soul was still stuck inside of her.
Chapter 36
End of Arc II