The Wedding Curse - Book 2 (Complete) Extras coming Sept 2021

Emotions

I apologize for all the pain and suffering I have put you all through for a while.  So, as a thank you for sticking with me, I wrote a fluff chapter to give your heart some rest before moving on.  I hope you like it.  I liked writing it.  Maybe I needed a break, too!  Enjoy everyone!!!!

After emptying out his stomach contents onto a nearby bush, Lan Zhan walked aimlessly around Cloud Recesses. Everywhere he went, memories of his life with Wei Ying haunted him. Visions of his husband played in his mind like ghosts that refused to move on.

Wangji returned to Jingshi with an unforgiving headache and a paralyzing heartache. He removed his outer robes and brought out his guqin. Hopefully music would soothe his broken soul and provide him with the strength he needed to save Wei Ying.

Even though the day had been warmed by the bright early winter sun, the evening breeze was bitter and nipped at his skin through his inner robe. Goosebumps rose all over his smooth pale skin and a chill crawled its way up his spine but Lan Zhan sat by the lotus pond refusing to surrender to winter's cold challenge.

He caressed the dark wood with both hands, asking the instrument permission to touch its sensitive strings. As he started to play, his golden eyes stared sadly at the lifeless pond that was now covered with a thin film of ice instead of bright blossoms. In his mind, he remembered how his husband would lay on his back with his feet dangling off the short dock, sloshing his bare feet back and forth in the water and staring wondrously up at the sky. Wei Ying would always ask him the strangest questions as if he were a young child just discovering the world around him.

"Lan Zhan! Do you think a caterpillar knows it will become a butterfly? Or does it just live in the moment, eating all the leaves it can find, and enjoying the life it has been given?"

"Lan Zhan! Where does the sun go when it sets over the mountains? Is it shining for someone else in the world or does it go to sleep, giving the moon her time to shine?"

"Lan Zhan! Why does a person's heart hurt even though what they are feeling is love? Why do we cry even when we are happy?"

Lan Zhan watches as a tear falls from his beloved's face and reaches out to capture it before it falls to the ground. He cups Wei Ying's cheek and smiles when his husband turns his head into his palm, nuzzling it with his cute bunny nose. Wangji cannot help himself as he moves and plants a soft kiss on his lover's forehead, holding his lips against the skin that is as soft as the flower petals floating in the pond. The skin that smells like the fragrant lotus's sitting on the giant lily pads in the water.

Lan Zhan's fingers continued their strumming of the guqin's strings as he inhaled deeply, holding his breath in hopes of smelling Wei Ying's calming scent. But, just like the flowers, Wei's lotus scent was gone. Wangji's concentration faltered. But, then he realized something. Something that raised his hopes like a dandelion seed in the wind. The lotus pond was only dormant. It was not gone forever. In a few months, it would once again be covered with beautiful pink, white, and purple flowers. And every year, there were always more flowers than before.

Lan Zhan knew in his bones that his Wei Ying would come back to him. His Wei's soul would bloom again and it would be stronger than before. And Wangji wanted everything to be perfect for when his beloved came back to his home in Cloud Recesses. His heart raced at the thought. The first time Wei Ying had come here to find the lotus pond that Lan Zhan had created for him, his husband thanked him in ways that made him blush. Wangji wanted to make his lover feel like that again.

But what could he do this time? What could he do to make Wei Ying happy and feel loved? Lan Zhan continued to play but now, instead of the notes carrying his sadness and despair, they expressed his eternal love for his soulmate. There was no one else for him. He had to get his Wei Ying back. If his husband was strong enough to hold his own darkness at bay for this long, to fight against the demonic energy that fought to claim his soul, Lan Zhan believed that they would be reunited. If Wei Ying still had hope, Wangji would not lose his.