A Trial by Halves

Is She or Not?

The Peach Tree Woods.

Di Juns mind went went over everything he had heard from Feng Jius mind.  Lately she had been kept busy with her maid service which he still found astounding.  Back then, he had thought she would grow weary of it and give up, but months had passed and she was still continuing with it even though everyone now knew that Qing Qius Princess was in the Celestial Heavens pretending to be a maid.   

But what surprised him more, was she was such a flighty girl, with a head full of strange ideas and the gall to action them and all because she felt she needed to repay him a life debt, when in reality she only wanted to remain at his side because she was in love with him.  

This was what was on his mind as he entered the Peach Tree Grove and he couldn't help but wonder if his own apathy to this unusual situation wasn't any different to what Ye Hua was doing.  The boy had found the love he desired above all else and was now fighting to keep that love.

Sang Ji too had fought and won the greatest battle of his life and won the right to marry his woman and all the while he himself was also fighting for his but in a more passive way.  By allowing her to continue being his maid, which he knew had nothing to do with apathy as to what she did or didn't do, but it had everything to do with wanting to keep her close. For years she had stayed by his side as a companion, and truth be told she had grown on him.  And for a while he had been mulling over the idea of giving her a Mortal love while also undergoing a Mortal trial to better understand what it was that saw her going to such extreme lengths to stay by his side, which he would only learn by experience.

So in this sense, he too was fighting his own battle to keep her only he was fighting himself which he knew deep down was in the end going to be a losing battle, because his feelings for her were changing and it really didn't begin until the day he found out that Si Yin was Bai Qian.

He had asked her if Si Ming had told her about what kind of man he was and her reply had left him not only pondering over what it was exactly he was doing with his life but also a little shaken.

She had said... "He keeps away from worldly affairs, even major events that deal with the peace of all the realms."

And for a very long time he had dwelt on that one sentence while believing that she might actually be right.  What exactly had he really done these past few millennia? he had wondered to himself and the only answer he could come up with, was nothing but allow a few portraits of himself to be painted so others could hang it on their walls.

Only now, he was on a mission of great importance, and he couldn't help but wonder if her words were the real driving force behind his desperate attempt to not only solve Su Sus dilemma, but to also assist Mo Yuan back in order to achieve a much greater peace, because if she really was Bai Qian, then not only would Qing Qiu be within their rights to declare war should she be hurt, but he would lose Feng Jiu.  And that in the end was all it really came down to.  He too was fighting his own battle for love along with Lian Song and Ye Hua.

Now making his way into the small hut with Ci Hang directly behind him, he already knew the man wasn't there and nor had he been for some time because his personal energy was no longer lingering.  But entering the hut, he hoped to find a clue as to his whereabouts though on entry, nothing looked out of place, it was exactly as it always was.  

Immaculate and orderly.  Though for a High God who had no maids and one he considered to be even lazier than he was, Zhe Yans home was impeccable and very much like his own.  Scrolls lined the walls and like his, they all overlapped the shelving by exactly one inch so they were not only in perfect alignment, but the fingers could grasp the scroll neatly without upsetting the rest.