Fate's promise

Chapter 2: Hope is the thing with feathers

228 hundred years after Mo Yuan's return

Ye Hua wondered where Qian Qian was – he had a few hours free but he hadn't been able to find her. She had promised not to leave Celestial Heaven so he had checked her usual spots first, but she was not in Xiwi Palace, her peach tree or the Realm of Supreme Purity. He was about to cloud-jump back to his meeting in the Western Seas Palace when he noticed one of the maids from Taichen Palace walked by him carrying the tea service that looked like the set Qian Qian had received from her mother when she choose to be with him. He followed the maid but was unable to enter Taichen Palace without an invitation. He spent another few hours wondering what to do when Bai Zhen arrived, and Ye Hua couldn't believe his luck. Seeing Ye Hua standing in front of the entrance, Bai Zhen assumed he was joining them. They greet each other and Zhen Zhen follows Ye Hua, the Crown Prince, in. Ye Hua excuses himself saying he was on his way to the library and will see Bai Zhen later. Having seen scrolls carrying Taichen Palace's seal near her peach tree, he remembered Qian Qian telling him that Di Jun had given her permission to come and go from Taichen to read and even borrow his precious scrolls. Something Ye Hua still found surprising.

By the time he gets a tenth of the way into the library he realises she isn't there, as her name echoes through the room with no response. But the tea set is definitely hers; it's one she uses for special occasions like A-Li's birthday. If it was here then so was she. Realising she was probably in the main hall, Ye Hua gingerly makes his way there. Even if he is the Crown Prince, he hasn't been invited so he makes his way quietly to the receiving hall. Keeping himself mostly hidden behind  a pillar at the back he tries to pick to out Qian Qian from the other guests. From where he is he can see maids serving Qian Qian's parents, High Gods Zhe Yan and Zhen Zhen, Lord Pua and Lord Lao Tingbao and even Bai Feng Jiu, who is close to but not seated next to Di Jun. There is someone to Di Jun's right but with all the maids in the room, he can't make out who it is. It must be someone important enough to hold Di Jun's attention, because the man is looking animated, which said everything. He has given up on finding Qian Qian here when he catches what he thinks may be her dress. She is kneeling beside an Immortal he can't see and she is clearly serving him tea using her tea service. His mind shuts down for a moment. He is not used to seeing Qian Qian like this in public, kneeling and serving someone. Usually, even in private, he was the one who did most of this because he never wanted her to feel neglected again. Ye Hua's heart is racing because he knows there is only one person in the world that Qian Qian would do these intimate things for. Him. High God Mo Yuan, her Shifu, God of War, Master of Kunlun, only naturally born son of the Tiandi and the Celestial Empress, and his older brother.

He hasn't see much of Mo Yuan since his brother used his cultivation to heal him and then told him where to find Qian Qian. Ye Hua has corresponded with his brother and even visited him a few times at Kunlun but always on his own and without telling Qian Qian. It was something he couldn't get past – even though she had chosen him he still felt that Mo Yuan was too much a part of a lifetime he had nothing to do with.

He also knew she hadn't seen her Shifu since he had come to find her outside Xiwi Palace and sent her to Ye Hua; something he knew he would not have been able to do in his brother's place. In the darkest part of himself, he was glad that she had made no attempt to see his brother even when she thought that he, Ye Hua, was dead. He still remembered asking her if there was no place in her heart for him, a question that had barely left him when he saw the scar across her heart. That she had done something so painful over and over again for 70 000 years just on the belief that his brother was coming back worried him. Although he had died for the Bell too, she had not followed him in grief or even asked one of her family members to keep his body pristine because she truly believed he was gone for good. She had never once considered that he too might come back as Mo Yuan had done. Instead she had drunk herself into dreams of him.