Ch 6:
Ye Hua
Ye Hua sat in his study as the glaring brightness from the red candles caused his eyes to tear involuntarily. He’d been awake for less than a week when Heavenly Grandfather forced him to marry Su Jin and take her as his side consort. Ye Hua was fully aware this marriage was Su Jin’s reward for tricking and ultimately removing SuSu from his life at the request of Heavenly Grandfather.
If Ye Hua hadn’t taken SuSu’s eyes, she wouldn’t have asked to leave him and returned to Mount Junji. They could have been living together happily now. The bitterness left a lingering acidic taste in his mouth, and his heart felt the sharp pang of regret.
When he’d first awoken from his long slumber, Ye Hua wished he could to fall back into an eternal sleep. He would have rather stayed in his false dream with SuSu than face the painful reality of living without her again. Ye Hua wished more than once that he was a mortal so he could simply take his own life.
He loathed living without SuSu, and there wasn’t a moment when SuSu wasn’t on his mind. Even now, Ye Hua held his copper mirror in his hand and caressed it tenderly. He regretted not jumping off Zhuxian Terrace after her disappearance, especially since he was now ordered to marry the woman who was both Heavenly Lord’s vassal and responsible for so much of SuSu’s heartache. Ye Hua sighed and gently put the mirror down on his desk when his assistant Jia Yun entered his chambers.
Jia Yun came and reminded Ye Hua that Su Jin’s carriage was near and asked if he was going to change before her arrival. Ye Hua looked up at his assistant with silent hostility and told his bodyguard Tian Shu to change all the red candles because they hurt his eyes. Ye Hua slowly stood, walked to the entry of Xiwu Palace and waited for Su Jin’s arrival with his back turned in such a direction that he would not have to watch her approach.
Ye Hua heard the carriage and the steps of the servants accompanying Su Jin. Even with his back turned, he could smell the sickening perfume Su Jin wore as she stepped out of the coach and moved towards him. Ye Hua was attempting to quietly calm the raging inferno inside his heart when he heard Su Jin happily call him ‘husband.’ Her voice caused a sudden wave of nausea that almost overcame him.
Ye Hua slowly turned around to see Su Jin smiling at him in her crimson bridal gown. Ye Hua stared at this vile creature who looked at him blissfully. He recalled how often she’d made his SuSu cry. This evil beast’s deceitful trick had forced Ye Hua to take his beloved pregnant wife’s eyes as she begged and pleaded in horror.
Su Jin was the reason SuSu felt nothing but fear of him in the end.
Su Jin had told SuSu to jump from Zhuxian Terrace after giving birth to their son. Su Jin also falsely informed SuSu that she would return to Mount Junji in doing so. Mount Junji, the place where SuSu had died alone in a fire because she couldn’t see. Ye Hua struggled to control his anger and suddenly felt a fierce heat in his face from rage. Ye Hua glared at Su Jin with hatred. He would never take this vicious, ugly monster as his wife.
Su Jin was still looking up at Ye Hua with unbridled exuberance when he silently summoned his sword and wordlessly drove it through her heart.
The sensation of his sword piercing through Su Jin’s heart felt euphoric. It was the first time he’d felt subtle happiness in years. Ye Hua almost smiled when he saw Su Jin drop to the ground as he swiftly pulled his sword back out of her chest. She looked at him in shock and asked him ‘why’ repeatedly while tears ran down her face. Ye Hua looked down at the inhuman thing on the ground and felt nothing but disdain. Su Jin was holding her chest as blood seeped through her fingers when Ye Hua walked back into Xiwu Palace, and the doors closed behind him.
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Bai Qian
Bai Qian sat and quietly waited on Ye Hua and Su Jin’s wedding day. She drank her wine patiently while holding out for the right time to make her first move. It was finally evening, and she thought by now the newlywed couple would be sharing their first night as husband and wife. Bai Qian slowly reached and pulled out the copper mirror that Ye Hua had given to SuSu years ago. Bai Qian had kept it hidden, knowing one day it would serve a purpose.
The copper mirror she’d once found to be so beautiful was now just a cold piece of metal no different than herself. Bai Qian smiled as she lifted it to her lips and softly whispered Ye Hua’s name for the first time since her departure. Bai Qian heard silence, so she repeated his name in the same soft tone when she suddenly heard Ye Hua’s voice reply in utter shock.
Bai Qian heard Ye Hua’s voice of desperation. Ye Hua repeated SuSu’s name in shock. He pleaded for her to say something else. Ye Hua begged to know where she was. When Bai Qian heard him crying on the other end, she covered her mouth to smother her laughter.
Ye Hua pleaded with her for hours all night and into the following day. Bai Qian indifferently listened to his emotional appeal while slowly sipping her wine. After hours of listening to Ye Hua imploring her for a reply as to where she was, Bai Qian finally whispered the truth. She whispered to Ye Hua that she was dead and the person responsible for her death was him.
This viewpoint was Bai Qian’s truth. SuSu was dead, and Ye Hua was her murderer.
Bai Qian could still hear Ye Hua sobbing continuously for days after her last words to him. She should have felt something but Bai Qian was numb inside as she went to Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms to drink her fill in wine.
After being drunk for days in Ten Miles Of Peach Blossoms, Bai Qian held the copper mirror and stared at it in slow reflection. She flipped it in an examination and thought of when Ye Hua gave it to her. Bai Qian thought of the significance it once held and realized now it meant nothing, so she threw it to the ground. Bai Qian stepped on it spitefully as the peach blossoms underneath smashed and stuck to the flat surface.
Bai Qian smirked to herself, released a deep breath and felt lighter without the weight of her only item from her hideous mortal past. Bai Qian stepped on it again with more force, recalling her hatred for Ye Hua. She gave the mirror one last glance and turned to walk away when she suddenly felt someone hold her back. She glared up with full anger to see who would dare to touch her without permission and recognized his face instantly. It was her Shifu, Mo Yuan, God Of War and Master of Kunlun Mountain.
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Ye Hua
Ye Hua was in a daze as he held the copper mirror in his hand. He’d heard SuSu through the copper mirror. Ye Hua had definitely recognized her voice — after sixty years of silence, she’d spoken to him. Ye Hua at first thought he was going mad, but when she said he was the one who caused her death, he realized she was speaking to him from the afterlife. Even now she refused to forgive him and came back to remind him of his crime. Ye Hua had killed his wife as the Fox King said and SuSu herself had come back to haunt him so he would never forget. He’d failed her then, and even now, Ye Hua was still neglecting to nurture the part of SuSu that she’d left behind, their son A-Li.
When A-Li saw Ye Hua, the infant child smiled lovingly at his father and Ye Hua teared up seeing SuSu in his son’s face. Ye Hua silently swore he would love their son with the love of two parents. The love he wasn’t able to give to SuSu, he would give to A-Li instead. Ye Hua would raise A-Li himself without the constraints and rigid structure that were imposed on him; A-Li would not only to be his successor but also a child with full of compassion and love for others as SuSu had once been. Ye Hua would raise A-Li with the freedom and comforts he’d wanted to give SuSu. A-Li would be Ye Hua’s world, and he would never love another woman as he loved SuSu.
Ye Hua refused to acknowledge Su Jin as his wife. But he was forced to accept the royal decree since he was without any other options. He declined to allow her to live in Xiwu Palace until Su Jin offered Ye Hua something that he couldn’t refuse.
Su Jin would tell Ye Hua how to bring SuSu back to life in exchange for being able to live in Xiwu Palace.
The Soul Gathering Lamp that belonged to Su Jin’s clan could make a replica of a dead mortal. He needed to burn articles which belonged to SuSu and that once held her breath. After enough of the SuSu’s essence was collected, it would create a replica of SuSu. Ye Hua knew it was only a copy but his desperation weakened his rational mind. Ye Hua would rather have a reproduction of SuSu than nothing at all.
He returned to his study and lightly caressed SuSu’s clothing that had been left behind. Ye Hua closed his eyes, touched the soft material between his fingertips and remembered the sensation of removing it from SuSu’s skin. Her soft, beautiful skin and the fire of her passionate embrace. Ye Hua wanted to feel SuSu’s touch more than he wanted life. Ye Hua knew what he was doing wasn’t right, but he couldn’t stop himself. Even if she was only a replication of SuSu, Ye Hua wanted her back.
Ye Hua held his breath and allowed her dress to burn in the flame of the Soul Gathering Lamp.
Ye Hua was staring at the remaining ashes of SuSu’s dress when peach blossoms suddenly came blowing into his study. Stunned, he stood and stepped out of his chamber showered by peach blossoms falling from the sky like raindrops. He raised his hand to catch a peach petal when he felt something cold and hard land in his hand. It was SuSu’s copper mirror covered with dead, crushed peach petals stuck to its surface.
Ye Hua realized even in death, SuSu was reminding him from her grave of all his unkept promises and his failures.
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Mo Yuan
Mo Yuan saw the expression on Seventeen’s face when she recognized his face. Her eyes went from anger to fear and then to death. Seventeen’s gaze was one of a corpse without life and light. She hadn’t healed or changed during the last sixty years. If anything, Seventeen had become more emotionless than before. Seventeen exuded nothing. She was empty inside.
Seventeen looked at his grasp and yanked her hand away with force before politely bowing to him.
“Shifu,” she said in her cold, indifferent tone as she turned to walk away.
Mo Yuan held her back again but released his hand when he saw Seventeen slowly turn around with the Jade Purity Fan in her hand. Mo Yuan took a small step towards her and watched her back away. Seventeen was still seeing Ye Hua when she looked at him. Nothing had changed.
“Shifu, what do you want this time? Do you still want my heart?” Seventeen smirked sarcastically at the end of her question. “I’ve already told you I don’t have one to give,” she added.
Mo Yuan took a deep breath and replied, “Seventeen, I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want your heart since it’s something you’re incapable of giving. I’m concerned about your well being since it’s impossible to live without a heart, so I’ve decided to give you mine.”
Mo Yuan pulled Seventeen into his arms and embraced her tightly as an unexplainable tornado lifted and took the peach blossoms under their feet to an unknown destination.
to be continued…………….