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The moment Xie Lian woke up, he noticed the lack of someone familiar by his side.
Incredibly concerned, he immediately got up, desperately looking around the room for any sign of it. After all, it’s been the only thing Hua Cheng left behind when he…
He what? Died? Impossible. Xie Lian would rather cease to exist himself than even think of his beloved no longer being by his side.
Unfortunately, his nightmares were really happening right now, slowly swallowing him until there was no soul left. One day without Hua Cheng was comparable to being stuck in that coffin, with his heart pierced through, for another 100 years and even more. One week however felt like reliving his worst moments over and over and over again. Xie Lian once again felt so incredibly weak for not being able to protect someone he loved the most.
Was there really any time for whining about it all now? Hua Cheng promised he would come back, didn’t he? And he was certainly the kind of person to keep his promises, right?
Despite everything. Xie Lian was slowly losing his senses all over again. He should’ve treated Hua Cheng better. Instead of just thinking about his own work and heaven’s affairs, he should’ve paid more attention to his beloved.
And, once again, he failed.
Perhaps it was another brutal reminder that he was, in fact, the God of Misfortune?
All of a sudden, Xie Lian heard someone knock on the door.
“Your Highness?” a gentle voice filled the empty hallways of Paradise Manor.
“Yin Yu? What’s the matter?” Xie Lian asked, desperately trying to keep himself together.
“It’s nothing urgent, Your Highness. It’s just that… well…” his voice suddenly seemed slightly troubled, clearly unsure whether to continue or not.
“Did something happen?”
“No, of course not. It’s just that… the dice-room system of the Paradise Manor has been acting strange this whole night…”
Xie Lian at first struggled to understand what Yin Yu meant.
“Strange?”
“Well, yes… actually, it hasn’t been working at all. I apologize in advance for interrupting Your Highness however… I thought Your Highness should be the one to try it out, just in case it behaves differently this time…”
“Yin Yu, I appreciate your trust in me, but-”
“It’s not something I have planned myself.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Hua-chengzu sent me a message through the communication array when Your Highness and him returned. He told me to direct you to use the die if, quoting ‘you’ll feel yourself losing faith’. I’m not quite sure what he meant however, I tend to place great trust in him. And Your Highness seems to be troubled, so…”
Yin Yu suddenly fell silent, hearing Xie Lian’s hitched breath, not daring to interrupt his moment of vulnerability.
“Thank you. You’re dismissed.” Xie Lian finally spoke after a few seconds of silence.
“As you wish, Your Highness.” Yin Yu nodded, leaving immediately.
Xie Lian took a deep breath and pulled out two dice out of his sleeve.
There’s no way he could get a score higher than two at most, without Hua Cheng’s luck.
Still, maybe it was worth a try?
Even if it wasn’t, the god was desperate enough and incredibly close to losing all the sanity he had left.
So, he prayed silently and rolled. His eyes were shut tightly, his palms slightly sweaty as he listened to the sound of dice rolling on the floor.
To his own surprise, he managed to get two sixes.
He didn’t have time to consider what could that result in because suddenly the ground beneath him opened, swallowing him whole as he fell into the succumbing darkness.
-
To his surprise, the fall he had just experienced wasn’t painful. It was, in fact, quite gentle, despite the height. Xie Lian got up, trying to see anything in the overwhelming darkness of the cave. He was just about to ignite a palm torch, when all of sudden he caught the sight of a little silver light.
A butterfly.
Xie Lian quickly walked over and allowed the silver butterfly to lead him out of the cave. When he finally managed to walk out, the view surrounding him was truly breathtaking. He was standing on top of a beautifully shaped cliff with a tree at its edge, sun was setting and beneath him were countless fields of flowers of all kinds.
How picturesque.
Still, even that wasn’t enough to make Xie Lian truly smile. He turned to the silver butterfly, his gaze heartbreaking.
“It’s lovely but… I was expecting to find someone here.” He sighed quietly, desperately trying to hold back tears. The butterfly flattered its wings and landed on Xie Lian’s shoulder gently, almost as if it was encouraging him to keep going.
Xie Lian continued to walk, realizing over time that this place was quite special. The sun wasn’t moving at all. Constant sunset embraced the cliff, teasingly warming up Xie Lian’s face. As his feet touched the ground, he witnessed more silver butterflies around. Some of them were sitting on colorful flowers, some were simply playing in the air, other ones were flying around Xie Lian, almost as if they were attracted to him. In the end, he couldn’t help but curve his lips upward slightly, knowing that this was all done by his special someone.
Only then did he realize he wasn’t alone.
Someone had been sitting under the tree at the end of the cliff, surrounded by flowers, gently making a flower crown out of the most beautiful ones he could find, as well as wearing one on his head himself. He looked peaceful, dressed in a plain white shirt with puffed sleeves, black material pants and crimson outer robe. His hair was disheveled, lips slightly curved upward as he continued to link different stalks together.
Crimson Rain Sought Flower, also known as Hua Cheng, was sitting under a tree, calmly making a second flower crown. Perhaps it was for someone other than himself?
Xie Lian exhaled slowly, beginning to walk swiftly in the direction of Hua Cheng. Soon he started running, tears forming up in the corners of his eyes. He wasn’t yet sure if it was a dream, but to be awakened from it would be the most cruel thing.
“San Lang?” he said quietly, slowing down his pace and walking towards Hua Cheng, who turned his gaze to him and got up swiftly. He smiled softly as Xie Lian.
“Your Highness.”
That was all Xie Lian needed to hear. It was enough. He embraced Hua Cheng tightly, no longer being able to stop tears from falling out of his eyes.
“I found you. Finally, I found you.”
“Yes, Your Highness found me. And I couldn’t be more grateful for your courage to seek me at all.”
“Please don’t ever leave again.”
“I won’t.”
“Promise?”
That was when Hua Cheng kneeled down, gently took one of Xie Lian’s hands and placed a soft kiss on it.
“Always.”
“Please don’t ever hide your suffering from me. We can figure it out together.”
“As Your Highness wishes.”
“You deserve love too. No matter what. You can’t change my mind. I would shoot the sun, carve in the moon and rewrite the stars if you asked me to. I would do anything for you. And I would rather take all your suffering from you and experience the pain myself than see you die once again.”
Hua Cheng definitely wasn’t expecting that response. He looked at Xie Lian softly, gazing at him. There were many emotions behind that eye but the reason for all of them was the same - it was incurable love and devotion. In the end, Hua Cheng was just a man. A man deeply in love with someone, slowly approaching the conclusion that he deserved happiness too. What he cherished the most however, was the fact that there was someone who would willingly give all that love to him.
And that someone was right there, embracing him tightly, not planning on ever letting him go.
“Your Highness… I…”
“Don’t say a word. Don’t apologize. Just stay.”
“As Your Highness wishes.”
So he stayed. For gods know how long, they stood there, both of them not daring to interrupt the vulnerability of their reunion.
“San Lang?”
“Yes, Your Highness?”
“What is this place?”
“It’s… some sort of a paradise I suppose. I arrived here when I was shattered into silver butterflies for the first time… I regained my powers here and came back.”
“So, it’s your personal heaven?”
“Sort of, I suppose. What does Your Highness think of it?”
“It’s… truly divine.”
“Would Your Highness be willing to stay here?”
“I would be willing to stay anywhere as long as you’re with me. Heaven is a place on earth with you.”
Hua Cheng smiled brightly at those words, burying his face in the crook of Xie Lian’s neck.
“Your Highness is truly flattering me.”
“Very well. That’s how it’s supposed to be.”
“Shouldn’t it be the other way around? It’s quite inappropriate of a god to worship his follower.” He teased, laughing softly.
“Since when does the supreme Crimson Rain Sought Flower care about rules of the heavens?”
“A convincing point, Your Highness.”
“You were making a flower crown. Who was it for?”
“For Your Highness, of course.”
Quite the obvious answer it was, considering the flower crown was made fully out of white flowers, mainly Xie Lian’s favorites.
“Won’t you do me the favor of crowning me with it then?”
“As Your Highness wishes.” Hua Cheng smiled gently, putting the flower crown on Xie Lian’s head.
“Now I truly am the Flower-Crowned Martial God, hm?”
“Your Highness has always been one to me.”
“Oh, my sweetest…” Xie Lian laughed.
The two sat at the edge of the cliff, watching the sunset and admiring each other for a long time. So long in fact, that it’s a tale for another person to tell. Another sunrise, another sunset and perhaps another night. What didn’t change however was the affection Crimson Rain Sought Flower showered his Flower-Crowned Martial God with. And, of course, all the love was returned each day by the god with utmost care. And so were tied the names of those two immortals, never willing to leave each other’s side. Crimson Rain Sought Flowers and the Flower-Crowned Martial God were bound to stay together. Until forever itself falls apart.