Another Life

Chapter 5

(Small edit 15/4 - accidentally referred to the Third Prince as the Second Prince, it's been fixed now sorry!)

*****

The next few days passed like a dream.

Several times Mo Yuan closed his eyes only to open them again quickly for fear that everything that past would disappear in his sleep.

But every time Seventeen was there; laughing, dancing, reading, playing chess. They spent many nights deep in conversation and several days wandering Qing Qiu or the realm of humans.

It felt like the most natural thing in the world, to hold her hand while walking through the winding water-towns and through ancient human temples. He would talk to her about things as they did so: history, spiritual arts, philosophy. Sometimes she would listen carefully and at other times not at all.

Once they were standing in the courtyard of a temple from a past age. He had just finished telling the story of how the God that was worshipped there had decided to come down to visit his faithful worshippers in his usual form, that of an old grizzly man wearing simple garb, only to find that the monks rudely turned him away, assuming him to be a beggar. He was so angered that he split the temple, as well as the mountain behind it, in half. Mo Yuan pointed it out - the enormous break was still clearly visible - only to find Seventeen staring at him in a somewhat disconcerting manner.

"What is it?" He asked her.

"I was only thinking that shifu is amazing. It's almost as though you know everything in the world. Sometimes I can hardly believe that out of all the girls in the world..." She looked down at her feet, suddenly bashful. "That shifu would pick me."

He reached over to hold her hand. He put his finger under her chin and lifted it up, and she melted willingly into his kiss. It seemed wondrous that to him that she felt the same way as he did. So often when they were together, whether it in the human or one of the immortal realms, he would see other men turn their heads when she walked by, and then go red and duck their heads when they saw him glaring back.

"Shall we go back to the town?"

"Should we stay in the human world again this evening, shifu? I saw some flyers in town. There's going to be a lantern festival tonight."

"If that's what you want."

Her smile was more beautiful than the moon.

Zhe Yan when he heard he heard that Mo Yuan and Bai Qian had been spending several months - though it was mere hours in the immortal realm - travelling in the human realm, shook his head.

"If I thought he doted on her before it's nothing compared to now." He told Bai Zhen. "Are you happy with your handiwork? Next time you see your sister she'll be prouder and more spoiled than a peacock and you won't even be able to reprimand her without incurring the wrath of Mo Yuan. Good luck with that!"

"I wonder," Bai Zhen said, completely ignoring him and sipping his tea all the while looking inordinately pleased. "If they've talked about the fact that she's still engaged to the Crown Prince?"

***

They had in fact. Or rather Mo Yuan had talked about it and Bai Qian had shrugged in a rather offhand manner as if to say, What does it matter?

"I know you have never met in person but a marriage that has been ordered by Tianjun is no light matter."

"His second son didn't seem to take it very seriously." Seventeen said lazily, running her hand along the pond water. They had returned to Qing Qiu that day.