11. No Light: 3 Lives, 3 Worlds AU Story – Ye Hua / Bai Qian

No Light: a 3 Lives, 3 Worlds AU Story

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Prologue
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Bai Qian slowly opened her eyes, wincing as the light from the early morning sun pierced the veil of her lashes. Closing them quickly, she took a moment to get her bearings and then carefully sat up. Gradually opening her eyes once more, she looked around, taking in the peach blossoms flowering on the trees nearby.

She slowly inhaled the scent of the blooms in the air, reveling in the knowledge that she was back. There were no birds, no sounds of animals scurrying about. Nothing like the forest she’d spent years in. Only with her memories returning to her, could she realize how much she had missed this place . . . this life. She was back in Zhe Yan’s Peach Blossom Orchard. It was the place that she considered more of a home than her own fox den. Maybe that’s why she had come back here when she had died . . . there.

“I’m back,” she whispered to the trees, to the wind and to the flowers, rubbing at her aching forehead. She was back from her heavenly trial, her mind still struggling to deal with the memories of the life she had left behind. Carefully rubbing at her aching heart, she attempted to suppress the emotions that were surging inside of her. Why was it that despite the relief she felt, a part of her was still yearning for those moments she had lived so briefly? And they had been brief in comparison to the many millennia she had lived as the fox Bai Qian.

Getting up, she walked carefully towards the hut in the middle of the clearing. As she took those first steps, she faltered multiple times, her body slowly getting used to moving once more.

“You’re back,” a male voice called out from behind her. It sounded pleasantly surprised.

Bai Qian turned to stare at the man striding towards her. She frowned slightly, knowing that she was in no mood to deal with this High God right now. Where was Fourth Brother when you needed him? He would have provided a happy distraction for Zhe Yan, leaving Bai Qian the time to hide and deal with the ramifications of her heavenly trial.

“And where have you been?” Zhe Yan demanded, half seriously and half mockingly, his eyes taking in Bai Qian’s frazzled appearance. “Your family has been desperately looking for you since your disappearance. No one, not even me, has had a moment of peace since you went missing. Care to share?” he asked, raising an eyebrow expectantly.

“Not really,” Bai Qian shot back. She took a deep breath, as he continued to gaze at her silently. “Heavenly trial,” she explained sullenly, turning her face away, even as a flush covered her cheeks. ‘Don’t ask me any more questions, please,’ she silently pleaded.

‘Ah, that explains it,” Zhe Yan murmured, coming to stand next to her. His arms were laden with bottles of wine. “It must have been a hard trial, seeing as how it’s changed you.”

“What you do you mean? You know what? I don’t want to know. Leave me alone for the next few hours, Zhe Yan, please,” she said irritably, grabbing two bottles of wine and making her way to the door of the hut and her room in there. She truly needed to be alone right now to think about what had just happened. Had she really . . .?

“Of course, Goddess Bai Qian,” he called out mockingly from behind her.

Bai Qian stopped in her tracks, the wine held out to her sides as she stared down at her body. Her aura had changed, her love trial apparently having helped her reach the status of a Goddess. She didn’t feel any differently. “I get to be a goddess for going through that?” she whispered incredulously, the shock stealing away her voice.

“Well, you don’t have time to rest,” Zhe Yan said abruptly, moving past her to go into the hut. “Zhen Zhen has been so worried. Luckily he’s back right now, resting before beginning the search once more. Stop moping around and come inside,” he ordered, and turned to go inside. “Zhen Zhen, you’ll never guess who’s back!”

Bai Qian stood there, the wine forgotten as her eyes slowly moving across the fields of flowers, reveling in the coolness of the shadows under those trees. She closed her eyes, inhaling the scent of ten miles of flowering peach blossoms, her heart slowly regaining its peace. She’d missed being here. She’d missed her family. She’d missed herself, even when she’d known nothing about her past.

Opening her eyes slowly, she stared down at herself once more, marveling at the glow that now encased her body. With the movement of her hand, she suppressed that shimmer. Fate could be so whimsical sometimes. You could never predict its twists and turns.

One thing was clear though. She would never tell anyone what had happened during her heavenly trial. Clenching her hands into fists, she silently promised herself, ‘Never ever.’ Her only comfort was that no one would ever know the humiliating things she had done during that time.

She tilted her head, a thought coming to her mind. Zhe Yan had a potion that one could drink and forget everything that had come before. Did she want to do that? Did she want to forget what had happened in her heavenly trial? Did she want to make it so that it had never happened?

But no, she decisively shook her head, she couldn’t forget that ill-fated relationship. She couldn’t forget those heady, yet ultimately humiliating emotions. That man . . . whoever he had been, she would never forget his face. Her humiliation at his hands was the only reason to remember those features.

She had lived for a long time. She would live for a lot longer. And in that long lifetime, she would run across him at some point. He had to have been some high immortal or god.

When she did, her mouth firmed in determination, when she did, she would make him regret his very life.

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A new story on my current obsession, Three Lives Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms AKA Eternal Love, nicknamed 3310 by avid fans. The book is based on the story of Crown Prince Ye Hua and Bai Qian and their love story through three different lifetimes.

For anyone interested in the story, there are wonderful recaps on The Probelmatic of the UnProblematic site, where there is quite a fan following, as well. And you can watch the entire subbed series on Dramafever’s Site. Or on Youtube at Croton MEGA HIT Official Channel where some kind fans have provided English subtitles.

The original is a story of Gods and beings that live thousands of millennia. It is the story of fantastic beings such as nine-tailed foxes, phoenixes and of magic. It is the story of sacrifice and eternal love.

Ye Hua and Bai Qian first meet while she is a student, and he is a mere possibility of a being. She awakens him from deep slumber. They meet once more when she has been entrapped as a mortal (named Su Su), and he a small dragon, recovering from his injuries. It is in this lifetime that the two fall deeply in love. When Su Su believes that she has been betrayed by Ye Hua, she turns her back on him and leaves him forever. In their third lifetime, she is the revered Goddess Bai Qian, and Ye Hua pursues her from the first moment they meet and eventually wins her love once more.

My story will be about the what if . . . what if Ye Hua had never met and fallen in love with Bai Qian while she was a mortal? What if there was no Su Su? What if that impetus wasn’t there for Ye Hua to unabashedly pursue the revered Goddess Bai Qian when they met once more, where his loving/lusty pursuit had broken down her walls like nothing else had for 140,000 years? Would there even be a love story in the third lifetime? According to some fans, Bai Qian only fell for Ye Hua because of fate and their meeting as Su Su and mortal Ye Hua.

My story will be about how Ye Hua and Bai Qian would fall in love when he was still the cold Crown Prince, and she the unreachable Goddess Bai Qian.