Ch 8:
Bai Qian
“SuSu?” Ye Hua called to her in his soft tone. She could hear the surprise and disbelief in his voice. Bai Qian took a deep breath and put on her mask of SuSu’s face. Bai Qian turned around slowly and looked at Ye Hua with the demure, shy gaze that belonged to SuSu. Bai Qian stood as SuSu used to with her arms down by her body. She fluttered her big chestnut eyes innocently and subtly sucked on her button lip as Ye Hua continued to walk towards her blinking in complete shock. Bai Qian said nothing when Ye Hua reached out and caressed her cheek while calling her by her mortal name. Bai Qian’s eyes filled with unshed tears as she looked up at Ye Hua’s face as SuSu used to before she lifted up her hand and slapped his hand away. Bai Qian’s face transformed before his eyes and became a goddess full of arrogance.
“Presumptuous! How dare you touch me!?” Bai Qian spat out.
Ye Hua snapped out of his confused state before he looked down sadly. “Forgive me. You can’t be her. She would have never spoken to me like that.” Ye Hua bowed and called to the child, as the boy continued to call her ‘mother.’ Ye Hua addressed their son, “Come A-Li!” and pulled the boy away by his little hand.
Bai Qian put her weight against the tree her son had just been digging. She’d come face to face with her son and failed to recognize him. The child she carried inside her body for three years had been an arm’s length away. Bai Qian used the tree to hold herself up. Her son, whose face she’d never seen because Ye Hua had taken her eyes and her will to live. Bai Qian felt the hatred within her rise and used the negative energy to bring herself to stand without support. Bai Qian was still composing herself when she heard a familiar female voice call to her.
It was Shao Xin. Her once servant, the snake spirit, who had run off with Prince Sang Ji. Bai Qian looked at her and made some off-hand comments about Shao Xin’s appearance. Bai Qian sat comfortably while Shao Xin, who was in her last term of pregnancy, knelt before her. Shao Xin spoke of the past while Bai Qian became aware of Ye Hua watching her from a distance.
Bai Qian did all the things SuSu used to do. She formed a circle with her first two fingers and tapped her remaining fingers rhythmically on the surface of the table before her. Bai Qian raised her fan and lightly touched it to the tip of her nose. She lifted her arm and exposed the scar from the crimson fire that almost killed her in Celestial Heaven. She heard Ye Hua suck in air sharply when he spotted the scar on her wrist.
Bai Qian watched Ye Hua wipe away his tears as he approached her again. “Ye Hua failed to recognize you were Bai Qian of Qing Qiu,” Ye Hua whispered.
Bai Qian stood, told Ye Hua to show his respect and call her Gugu since she was the only High Goddess in the world. Bai Qian reminded him she was 90,000 years his senior. Ye Hua started to say something else, but she cut him off briskly and said, “I’m not done speaking to my once servant. You’ll have to wait because my time is more valuable than yours.”
Bai Qian purposely took her time speaking to Shao Xin and watched her walk away. Bai Qian finally turned her attention back to Ye Hua and asked curiously, “Were we not once engaged to marry?” Bai Qian looked Ye Hua up and down seductively and purred, “It’s unfortunate that our engagement was broken.” Bai Qian’s expression suddenly softened, and she looked like SuSu when she whispered shyly, “I believe you would have devoted yourself entirely to me. I would have liked to have married you.”
Bai Qian watched Ye Hua swallow nervously, and his bottom lip quivered slightly. Her expression then becomes one of boredom as she flipped her hair back and smirked before turning to walk away. She felt Ye Hua hold her back, so she turned back and smiled falsely.
“My son and I are attending the banquet if you’d like to join us?” Ye Hua asked, as his eyes expressed confusion but he wasn’t ready to let her go. Ye Hua believed she was SuSu. The scar on her wrist was the confirmation he needed for his growing suspicion.
Bai Qian bent down slightly, glanced at A-Li and said, “I don’t like children, and I already have a companion for this event.” Bai Qian walked over to Li Jing, now the Ghost Lord, but once her childhood heartbreak and threw herself unexpectedly into Li Jing’s arms.
Li Jing was entirely surprised, looked at her and whispered, “A-Yin” before Bai Qian pulled Li Jing’s lips to hers. She wrapped her body around Li Jing in the most intimate manner. Bai Qian could feel Ye Hua’s jealousy vibrating from where he stood yet he could say nothing.
Bai Qian glanced back at Ye Hua over her shoulder when Li Jing moved his kiss to her neck and asked, “Why are you still here?”
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Ye Hua
Ye Hua couldn’t believe it, but SuSu was Bai Qian of Qing Qiu. Bai Qian’s constantly changing expressions utterly confused him. Ye Hua saw SuSu appear and disappear right before his eyes repeatedly. He heard SuSu’s voice and her words, but they came from Bai Qian’s lips. How was this possible? His once mortal wife that he’d yearned for over three hundred years was now in the heated embrace of another man in front of him. Ye Hua couldn’t tell what hurt more, his heart or his head.
Watching Bai Qian sensuously drape her body around Li Jing almost made Ye Hua draw his sword. If A-Li wasn’t with him, Ye Hua might have killed Li Jing. Ye Hua knew that expression of passion on Bai Qian’s face and recognized her soft moaning because he had seen and heard them with SuSu. He’d wanted and dreamt of her soft noises of pleasure for years. SuSu was Bai Qian, yet she didn’t recognize him or was pretending not to. Ye Hua could do nothing while his once wife was very nearly sharing bodily pleasure while completely dressed in public with another man in front of his eyes.
Ye Hua found himself laughing at the absurdity of the situation. Bai Qian heard him laugh and glanced over at him. She asked why he was still there. Ye Hua was wondering the same, why was he still there? Ye Hua couldn’t take a step while his wife was in the throes of passion with another man. Ye Hua, being an only child, had never had anything taken from him and he refused to permit it to occur as an adult. Losing SuSu once was enough, and Ye Hua would never allow it to happen again.
Ye Hua pulled Bai Qian off Ghost Lord Li Jing by her arm with force, and claimed his wife before saying, “Ghost Lord Li Jing, release my wife or there will be a new war starting tomorrow between the Celestials and the Ghost Realm.”
Bai Qian looked amused and delighted. She looked at Ye Hua’s grasp and suddenly pressed herself to his body causing Ye Hua’s body to react immediately. He wanted to take her instantly due to his intense jealousy. Bai Qian caressed Ye Hua cheek with the back of her hand and said smiling, “I understand my appeal, young prince, but you’ll have to wait until Gugu is through.”
Ye Hua tightened his grip on her arm and replied in a low voice as the fire blazed in his eyes, “You’re done now. SuSu.”
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Bai Qian
Bai Qian’s plan had ensnared Ye Hua just as she hoped. He was scared, confused, angry and possessive. He hadn’t changed a bit in the three hundred years they had been apart. He was still the selfish bastard she remembered him to be. His youthful pride and jealousy were the weaknesses she’d planned on exploiting.
Ye Hua looked at her as if he would have taken her right on the spot if she’d allow him to.
Ye Hua signaled to his bodyguard Tian Shu to take A-Li away. A-Li looked at them confused and afraid. Bai Qian looked away. She wouldn’t be detoured now even if that obstacle was her son.
Li Jing looked just as confused and afraid as A-Li. He didn’t understand Bai Qian’s behavior after years of avoiding him.
Bai Qian turned back to Li Jing, sighed regretfully and said, “Unfortunately, we’ll have to meet another time, Ghost Lord Li Jing, as it appears that Ye Hua the Crown Prince is impatient and doesn’t like to wait.”
She blew Li Jing a kiss and turned back to Ye Hua who was looking into her eyes searching for an explanation for her behavior. Ye Hua pulled Bai Qian to an isolated location and kissed her roughly and possessively. Bai Qian wanted to vomit, but she returned his kiss.
He pulled away and pleaded in earnest, “SuSu, have you forgotten me or are you pretending not to know me?”
Bai Qian pressed her body into his bewitchingly, touched his face and replied, “Young prince. I’m not the person you seem to think I am but if you would like me to pretend…I can play along but understand that I prefer it rough. Do you think you can handle it?”
Ye Hua shook his head as if he was amused and replied arrogantly, “Nine-tailed foxes mate for life. I was your first lover, so I doubt you’ve been with anyone else.”
Bai Qian ran her finger down the front of Ye Hua’s neck slowly and watched his jaw tighten with tension. She purred, “Yes, we mate for life, but you seem to be confused, Prince Ye Hua. From birth until death, nine-tailed foxes constantly consummate with many partners and lovers. It’s our nature as the sexual creatures we are. I don’t recall us mating, but if you’d like to refresh my memory, I won’t decline.”
Bai Qian brushed her lips lightly against Ye Hua’s neck, wrinkled her nose playfully and smiled before looking down thoughtfully. Bai Qian suddenly looked up at Ye Hua with SuSu’s gentle, sincerely innocent gaze and asked in the mortal’s voice, “Ye Hua, why do you think that I’m SuSu?”
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Ye Hua
Ye Hua’s head was spinning. Bai Qian had him euphoric, heartbroken, furious, aroused, and terrified simultaneously. If SuSu planned to drive him insane, she was succeeding. Ye Hua could barely catch his breath. How could SuSu be so different? So completely altered. Bai Qian wasn’t SuSu, the woman; Ye Hua loved because of her sweet innocence.
Bai Qian was wicked, twisted and utterly desirable. Bai Qian and SuSu were the same people but how could she have changed so drastically? After overtly displaying her sexuality proudly and shamelessly, Bai Qian was now looking up at him with SuSu’s face, eyes, and voice. Ye Hua struggled to control his shaking while feeling Bai Qian’s body pressed into his. The heat exuding from Bai Qian’s body was making him erect while he gazed down at her in fear. SuSu had turned into Bai Qian, and she had returned to ruin him. Ye Hua looked deeply into Bai Qian’s eyes and decided if she wanted his soul, he would give it to her freely and happily.
Ye Hua was resolute that he would rather die from Bai Qian’s warped venomous love than live without her again.
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Bai Qian
Bai Qian could see Ye Hua wavering before her eyes. He was scared, but his desire for her was elevating dangerously. She had seen this look before. Ye Hua was so easy to read that she found herself chuckling. Bai Qian wrapped her arms around Ye Hua’s neck and asked playfully, “Would young Prince Ye Hua like to become Gugu’s new toy?”
Ye Hua replied sarcastically, “I’m your husband, Qian Qian. Does that make me a unique toy?”
Bai Qian caressed Ye Hua neck up to his jawline to his ear with her lips and whispered, “Oh, Prince Ye Hua wants to play house with Gugu. Should tonight be our wedding night? Would you like Gugu to use a particular spell so that I’ll bleed when you come inside me or would you rather blindfold me so I can’t see? What is your preference, Prince Ye Hua?”
Bai Qian pulled away to see tears running down Ye Hua face as he pleaded, “Qian Qian, please don’t do this.”
Bai Qian softened her expression and became SuSu again as she gently held Ye Hua’s face in her hands. Bai Qian noticed Ye Hua’s eyes light up with hope when he saw SuSu again. Bai Qian stared at Ye Hua lovingly as SuSu used to do and said in the mortal’s voice, “Come back after you’ve grown up young prince.”
Bai Qian opened the Jade Purity fan and tapped it to her nose, winked at Ye Hua and left him standing there speechless.
to be continued………….