"Lovebirds, they don't fly apart; when they fly, they drink and feed together, never to be separated... Even in death and rebirth, they must be together." He spoke confidently, "The love flower is similar to the lovebird. I heard this tree only blooms once every hundred years, and only those destined can see its flowers. And those who see it bloom..." He suddenly fell silent.
Fairy Qinghua asked, "What will happen?"
Gu Caiyu hesitated, lowering his head in embarrassment: "They will be together for a lifetime, never to part."
"I could cut off your head, refine your bones into a spiritual artifact, and then you could be with me for a lifetime without separation." Fairy Qinghua stared at him.
Gu Caiyu cleared his throat: "It's just a legend; don't take it seriously."
Fairy Qinghua shot him a glare, then bent down to pick up a love flower that had been blown off the tree by the wind. The fiery-colored phoenix perched on her fingertip. Perhaps moved by the vibrant colors, she looked at the flower and smiled slightly.
Gu Caiyu was mesmerized.
After that, life continued as usual.
However, Gu Caiyu stopped starting new carpentry projects and stopped writing those overly sentimental poems. He became infatuated with painting.
He painted Fairy Qinghua but dared not be blatant about it; instead, he painted secretly, only daring to make a few strokes when Fairy Qinghua went out to practice her sword or break the barrier. Sometimes he would add a jade hairpin of emerald color, sometimes a skirt that resembled misty clouds. Sometimes he would depict the bright red flower on her fingertip, and sometimes he would paint her bright, captivating, yet somewhat indifferent eyes.
His paintings became more detailed, and the cracks in the barrier grew larger; perhaps it wouldn't be long before they could escape.
Under the starry sky, Gu Caiyu's voice rang out beneath the love flower tree: "Fairy, fairy, come out and see!"
A woman dressed in white stepped out of the thatched cottage. The giant tree in the field was adorned with all kinds of paper lanterns, illuminating the long field brightly. In the distance, at the end of the sky, fireworks burst in the night sky, filling the air with dazzling colors, breathtakingly beautiful. A man's voice echoed, laced with teasing amusement: "The brilliance of the lanterns is like a fiery tree, shining bright as the branches."
"Boring."
"How can it be boring?" Gu Caiyu's voice remained cheerful. "Every day, I've been carving a mark on this post on the wall, counting the time, and it has already been half a year. Today is New Year's Eve. Even in this secret realm, we must not forget our customs. Look, aren't the fireworks beautiful?"
Fairy Qinghua looked into the distance.
The fireworks noisily shot into the night sky, showering the field with colorful stars.
She replied indifferently, "It's just an illusion; what's so good about it?"
"You know about illusions too, Fairy?" Gu Caiyu was surprised.
"Illusions are tricks used by the demon clan to deceive people's hearts; they have no offensive power and are mere illusions that ordinary cultivators do not bother to learn. How did you learn it?"
"It has no offensive power, but girls like it," Gu Caiyu said with a grin.
Fairy Qinghua turned her gaze to him.
He rubbed his nose and then looked up at the night sky, saying earnestly, "Illusions are simple, yet mortals love falling for them. This only proves that they can indeed strike at the most vulnerable parts of one's heart. For example, the fireworks may be fake, but the feeling of wanting to see the fireworks at this moment is real. The illusion may be false, but the yearning at that moment is genuine."
"A person's life will have many moments when they feel so distressed that they are unwilling to face reality. Even someone as awake as the fairy might, one day, need such illusory tricks to find solace."
"You're talking nonsense," Fairy Qinghua replied coldly. "How could I need such things?"
"That's not necessarily true," Gu Caiyu said, stroking the chicken head in his arms. "Life is long; this is just the beginning."
Fairy Qinghua fell silent, merely raising her head to gaze at the distant lights. The love flowers bloomed abundantly, as if they would continue to flourish passionately forever.
Suddenly, the scene became chaotic, accompanied by a cacophony of sounds.
She heard the clashing of weapons and saw what seemed like many people fighting on a battlefield; Fairy Qinghua appeared to be injured. She saw the silver-haired Master Shaoyang sitting by Fairy Qinghua's side, sighing, "Just treat it as an illusion; forget the past."
"An illusion..." Zanxing saw Fairy Qinghua lower her gaze, her voice calm: "No."
She said, "I will never forget."
Zanxing watched as Fairy Qinghua selected a blue long staff from the spiritual artifact storage. She planted a love flower in the Xiaoyao Palace and used illusions to make the love flowers bloom fully, just like those fiery-colored phoenixes in the fields. She danced with the staff under the flowering tree, where flower rain intertwined with the staff's wind, creating ripples of moonlight.
It became an illusion of beautiful flowers and water.
Those images whirled rapidly in Zanxing's mind, like a revolving lantern. She saw Fairy Qinghua in the Xiaoyao Palace, shaping two clumsy puppets out of clay. She placed one puppet under the love flower tree, and the radiance on the blue staff grew brighter each day.
She saw Fairy Qinghua place The Qing'e Nianhua Staff onto the shelf in the martial arts library.
So that's how it is.
Zanxing suddenly understood.
She had thought The Qing'e Nianhua Staff was a martial technique created by Fairy Qinghua as a heavenly beauty; nothing more. Now, with this love flower, she learned many past connections. Gu Caiyu, sharing the surname "Gu," was most likely Gu Baiying's father, Fairy Qinghua's mysterious love.
The illusion of beautiful flowers and water represented those days spent with Gu Caiyu, fragile and elusive like reflections. The fiery trees and silver flowers were merely to reminisce about that moment of brilliance in the fields, perhaps even more. Every move in this technique was closely related to Gu Caiyu, a "solace" created by Fairy Qinghua to remember her beloved.
As a solace, it was filled with tenderness, sincerity, gentleness, and regrets everywhere.
She had never truly comprehended this heart technique because it had never been meant for her in the first place.
Now, only a trace of Fairy Qinghua's consciousness remained in the portrait of the beauty. The fairy had gone, and the past was hard to find. What about Gu Caiyu? That man who had built a thatched cottage in the fields, whose face was obscured, yet seemed always to carry a bright smile?
All the images abruptly converged, and the chaotic white gradually occupied her vision.
All the noisy sounds slowly faded away, the vibrant colors dulled, and the red love flower lay in her palm, but it was no longer the vivid, dripping hue it had just been. It had become withered, its brightness deepened, and its eager wings drooped weakly.
Unbeknownst to her, it had already wilted.
"You saw it," the woman's voice was cold and indifferent.
Zanxing looked up, and Fairy Qinghua gazed at her, her expression complex and entirely different from the emptiness she had shown earlier.
YOU ARE READING
Zanxing
FantasyOriginal Novel By Qianshan Jiake Original Title: 簪星 Translator: XiaoBai. There is already a translated version of this novel online but I want to re-translate it for myself. After five consecutive nights of overtime, the corporate worker Yang Zanx...