Immortal Mortals

The consequences

Deciding to take Zhe Yans advice and return the wine, Mo Yuan headed back to the Mortal Realm.  Her family had shared many stories of her with him, and they all seemed to involve inebriation and though he was not happy about it, he knew Zhe Yan was right, he did not have a right to take away her choices, husband or not, but he would monitor her drinking regardless of how well she could handle it.  Because whether she liked it or not, her body really was susceptible to serious damage if she drank too much of the higher Immortal wines.  

Arriving back at the Mortal Realm almost 3 days later, he immediately entered the little cottage, and put the wine back.  At least he was now aware it was there, and where she had been for the five days she was missing, which also explained why she was wearing that dress.  She wanted to make him jealous.  He never thought she had such childish tendencies in her, and he would have laughed at it, had it not actually worked, admitting to himself that he had indeed been very jealous.

Jie spent a good hour cleaning up the mess, and what a mess it was.  It was so unlike Ai, he thought to himself as he gathered up the half eaten food, dirty dishes,  broken ornaments and smashed earthenware cups that she must have thrown in her drunken angry state, along with her clothing and shoes that she had taken her rage out on which had all been cut up into little pieces, though going by the remnants of one skirt, it looked as if she had attempted to create a new fashion in her inebriated state going by the thread and needles still attached to it.

Then gathering the empty wine bottles together which he would return to Zhe Yan to recycle, he made his way to the back garden, where he found even more remains of her drunken revelry.  The whole back yard was covered in the remnants of almost a hundred candles which she had hung in the large peach tree in the center of the yard and scattered all over the table which also contained fragments of what was left of her beautiful handcrafted cups that he had purchased for her from a nearby market and even her flower garden did not go unharmed.  Every where he looked, there were dead flowers strewn everywhere, as if she had purposely ripped each one from their stems and thrown them everywhere.  

For Jie, the remnants of her flower garden was the most telling.  Ai loved her gardens so much she spent every spare second in them raising rare plants, blooms and herbs, all of which were now dead or dying.  That she would go that far, told Jie how very hurt she had been.  Sadly and no longer unable to look at the damage, he returned to the house and sat down.

Jie knew he had wronged her and he made no excuses for it.  That Zhe Yan and Bai Zhen had tried to tell him his prank was not a prank, he wouldn't listen, and Zhe Yan was right, he was too much The God of War.  In the Mortal Realm and as her husband, he had to let it go or he would lose her completely.  And though he was hopeful that Ai would in time forgive him, he would do everything in his power to win her back, whether she was Ai or Bai Qian, it no longer mattered.

And with that thought in mind, he immediately left her home, for Chang Lis in the hope that she had gone there.  However, on arrival, he found his little apartment closed and no one there.  That only meant one thing, Ai had already collected the children and having already been gone for three days, Jie quickly mounted his horse and returned home.

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"MEILI"  Tais voice suddenly roared through the house, with Meilis high pitched squeals and giggles following seconds after.  Ai raced into the house from the garden thinking the children were in serious trouble, only to find Tai chasing Meili through the house.  In her hands, was what looked to be a new painting.  With paint running down her arm and onto her dress.  She was trying her very best to keep the painting from Tai and going by his reaction he was not happy with what she had painted.