[ssfx3yuchen collaboration with Micarzam14] - in progress
NOTE: THIS IS A TEN MILE OF PEACH BLOSSOMS FANFIC AND NOT ETERNAL LOVE OF DREAM FANFIC.
🌸🌸Disclaimer: please be informed that I do not own the rights to the characters in this story except...
It had been purely coincidental that the rich family that had taken Zhang Ya in as a servant that year shared his surname, Zhang. As a servant, he learnt to dye his hair by experimenting with and mixing different herbs like he had seen Old Zhang Liu do to the old master's hair. However, his attempt was not fruitful as the dye barely covered the whiteness of his hair. He took on another option, which was, to cut his hair short and hide it under a cap that given to him by another servant.
When he reached the tender age of thirteen, the young master, Zhang Xu, learnt of his poetic sense. Admiring his desire to study and his brilliance, the older Xu proposed to his father to allow Ya to assist and accompany him in his studies. The two struck up an unexpected friendship, and over the years, it was said that there was no place that Xu would go without taking Ya.
As time went by, he continued to have his childhood memories of Fengjiu in his mind, even keeping a painting of Fengjiu in his room. Although he didn't know her name, he knew she had to be a fairy of some sort, and so he named her 'Fairy Beauty'. Xu would often tease him that he was in love with an older girl, and Ya would deny, stating that he was merely trying to remember his debt of gratitude to her for saving his life.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Art from m.dutang.com
Upon Ya turning seventeen, Xu and Ya passed the imperial examinations to become scholars with the rank of xiucai (flowering talent). When Ya was twenty years old, they passed the provincial examination held normally once every three years, to achieve the Ju Ren (raised man) grade. Xu had Ya and himself enrolled at an academy in the capital to prepare them for the last stage, the Jin Shi (advanced scholar) examinations, which would determine whether they would be within the 200 candidates that were selected every year. The lucky candidates, known as the zhuangyuan, were said to be offered a permanent post in the government, along with numerous benefits.
With his brilliance and determination, Ya's name was top in the list of candidates selected during the final examinations. At this time, it was customary for the emperor to present a golden rose to the winning candidate. Ya had been filled with pride when he approached the emperor's high seat, believing that he was about to fulfill his mother's dying wish. Unfortunately, it happened that it had been breezy, and his cap was blown off, causing his hair to stream out behind him in waves.
Alas, Taoist masters arrived at the scene, sent by the emperor's own teacher, Guoshi, and interrupted the emperor from awarding Ya the golden rose. The reasoning they had given to the emperor was that his white, devilish hair and his birth during the blood moon was a curse that would result in the downfall of the empire. Believing the words of his teacher, the emperor erased Ya's name from the list of selected candidates and instead awarded the top position to Xu. Ya was dragged out by his feet from the hall by the ferocious masters, before being treated as a demon by the horrendous souls in the crowd that had best assembled. While they mocked him and threw rotten eggs in his face, the only thought in his mind had been, what could he say to his mother, now that he had failed her? Deeply humiliated and devastated, he saw no way out but to drown himself. When Xu was able to get to him, all that remained of himself was the portrait of Fengjiu that had dropped on the river bank. At 23 years old, Zhang Ya had ended his life.
