A Tear Frozen in Time

The Summons

Kunlun Mountain.

"Mo Yuan,  why not take this time to rest.  Or even better, go into seclusion.  Your energy is far too unsettled and it will take at least three months to get it at a stage where you can move about freely." Zhe Yan advised him firmly.  He would have forced the issue had Mo Yuan not returned so devastated at being so thoroughly rejected..

He understood a little of Bai Qians stance when it came to men, after all her heart broke when he died, but it was her trial that put the final nail in the coffin that would see her bury her heart to all men for good.  

She never spoke of her trial, none of them did though he had plenty of questions, and all of them involved the Crown Prince.  No sooner had she learned that a marriage alliance with Ye Hua had been arranged in her absence, then she not only threw the biggest tantrum she had ever thrown while demanding that he cancel it, but she swore she would kill him if he set one foot in Qing Qiu.

After that day, his name along with Mo Yuans was never mentioned in her presence again.  It was also about that time that she decided to create an army, though why he wasn't so sure, but he had a very strong suspicion that it had to do with Mo Yuans death and whatever wrongs Ye Hua had committed against her, and he knew that he had, because the level of anger that erupted the moment she learned of her engagement, was not a normal response. 

And nor was the the level of rudeness aimed at Mo Yuan who had given her twenty thousand years of knowledge, training and protection and all for nothing.   There was no payment taken, other than allegience, when other schools of learning demanded large sums of wealth and even alliances.  Mo Yuan had never demanded payment from them, not even for her basic cares and knowing the girl so well, he knew she would have eated the place clean had she been allowed to.  She had never lacked for anything, her every comfort was taken care of, and with her education came a certain degree of prestige that no other student anywhere in their world was afforded.  To be known as a Disciple of Kunlun Mountain instantly increased their rank amongst their peers.

Not that she ever used it, because she rarely left Qing Qiu and of course as yet no one knew she was the Seventeenth Disciple of Kunlun Mountain, a woman the entire world had been searching for.

But still, he couldn't help but wonder what exactly had happened between the Master and his student for her to not only bleed her heart out for over Seventy Thousand Years while maintaining his body so that every muscle and tendon was in immaculate contition when he awoke, but to also aim that level of anger at him suggested that the relationship ran far deeper than even he could have realized.  That Mo Yuan took her lightning bolts was of course a debt she had to pay, but seventy thousand years was extreme in anyones standards.  It just made no sense as to why she would reject him now that he had returned.

He had after all done the impossible to come back, so surely that was a sign that he was committed to whatever relationship they might have had before he left, and out of her entire family, Zhe Yan was the only one who understood that their Master and Student relationship had perhaps moved in a completely different direction., one that saw him sacrifice himself in order to end the oath she made to him.

And this was never more obvious than the way he had looked at her.  There was nothing Master-ful in that look.  Zhe Yan may not have had a lot of experience with women, but he certainly had a lot of experience with Mo Yuan and that look surpassed the Master and Disciple relationship.  But even then, it went far beyond what he had witnessed with past lovers.  

In the past, Mo Yuan had many lovers, some he cared about a little more than others, but they never fully reached that part of the heart that demanded his attention any longer than it took to find their faults before he dumped them.  His ideal woman was one he thought he would never find, because in Zhe Yans experience, Mo Yuans ideal woman was far too unrealistic because he was comparing her on his own mother.  A woman he had firmly placed on the highest pedestal so of course no woman was ever going to meet his expectations.