" The flower is actually a mere illusion, created by the purest form of love. As long as the love of the caster to the recipient is still embedded in his soul, these flowers will never vanish. It will only vanish when the last remaining consciousness of the recipient will leave the material realm. But as long as those two factors still stand, these flowers will always be here", the woman patiently explained. Di Xueyan's eyes widened at how magical it can be.
Humans are the most fickle creatures in the planet. Who they are today will never be the same of who they will be tomorrow.
You might be love by your partner today, but there is no guarantee that he or she can love you the same for the rest of your lives.
'No wonder...', Di Xueyan is intelligent from the start, but even without her intelligence, any person with brain can connect the dots.
Xueyan watched the woman squats down and caresses the flower nearest to her gently and affectionately. Xueyan's eyes widens slightly as the flower gently shakes off its 'fairy dust', before bursting into floating bluish neon dust gracefully and enters the woman's heart after the dusts forms into a silhouette of a man and embraced the woman. A tear slid from the womans eye as she savors the warmth.
Everything looks surreal.
'There's.... such thing?', Di Xueyan watched as the dusts settled inside the woman's heart, as if pacifying the woman.
" Can I ask something?", Di Xueyan asks cautiously, afraid that she is ruining the moment. She is very touched with this gesture of eternity.
The woman replied with an 'mm' as she stands again while wiping her tears.
" Has this quantity had been the same as when it first appeared? Would it decrease if the person does not love you the same way as before?", though she is touched, she is still very curious about the property of these flowers very much. The woman chuckles again, the earlier tensed mood seems to dissipate little by little.
" These would never appear if the love is fickle. As I said, pure love is a rarity, that is why these flowers rarely manifests itself. When the intensity of love will decrease, the area of the flower bed will also decrease", the woman patiently explained while all Di Xueyan can think is how the woman's second sentence sounds like a math lecture.
" And yes, these has always been the same, nothing has changed", the woman charmingly smiles, but Di Xueyan can detect a little bit of sadness deep within her layers of facade.
" Ahmm...I don't know if I should ask it but...where is he right now?", she knows that it sounds insensitive, but she can't help it. She scolded herself internally for being tactless as she saw the smile vanished from the woman's face.
"Dead..... for hundred thousand of years", the woman simply said nonchalantly, but the red sting in her eyes and her shakey voice sold her out. Di Xueyan, who never knew and experienced what devotion is like, is extremely shocked at how the man loves the woman in red unwaveringly for hundreds of thousands of years!
" Have you been here all along or this is just your hiding spot?", Xueyan asks incredulously as she got surprised at how old the woman is.
'What the hell is happening right now?'
Someone from hundred thousand of years is definitely not simple!
" Little girl, your reactions really never failed to amuse me. Your face is like an open book. Try to not plaster your emotions so vividly in your face in the future or you will be taken advantage of", the woman stares at her with a reproachfull gaze.
Di Xueyan who has been acting calm and indefferent a while ago: "..."
'You're an old monster, of course you'll be able to see through anyone!', Di Xueyan grumbles inside her head as her usual peacock self got trampled multiple times today.
" It's been so long.... It is not that this is my hiding spot but I trapped myself here after he died", the woman said steadily, trying to be calm. If not because of the redness of her eyes, others might think that she is not talking about her life but of others.
" Follow me", the woman turns around, Di Xueyan immediately follows suit. After a moment of silence and simply walking, they arrived in a simple grave. The grave is unadorned and there is just a simple name engraved in a delicate looking stone slab in the center.
'Wei Shuang'
Di Xueyan already has a guess in her heart, but didn't dare to say it out loud.
" I buried myself here", the woman looks straight indefferently at the grave while a small shiver runs down Di Xueyan's spine.
'Ghost'
She doesn't know why it is the first word that she thought of, and knowing that she is in the cultivation world, it wouldn't matter, but she just can't help but to momentarily freeze.
Not knowing what the young lady behind her is thinking, she slowly faces her, making Di Xueyan's heart involuntarily race.
' Please don't look like (1)Sadako, please don't turn like Sadako", Di Xueyan can't help it, even she is shocked that she still carries this same fear when she was just a child when she was still on Earth here in the cultivation world.
This is Sadako' s fault! She shouldn't had watched that damned movie!
She might had made fun of Jin Linkai's crazy uncle before and called him Valak, but of course it is entirely different from now. He was alive while the woman in front of her is...dead.
She has been reading countless novels but due to her fear, the usual 'inheritance' thingy that comes after a divine consciousness slips her mind. And even if it does lingers in her mind, just based on her current situation, she will decline the idea. She might argue that 'novels are novels, real life is real life, all right?'.
The woman feels the smell of instinctive fear behind her. Confused, she fully faces the pale girl and caught the involuntary panic in her eyes. Her eyebrows are slighy knitted as she stares in bewilderment at the once brave youngster that is now reduced into a panicked wreck. Di Xueyan saw the woman's face does not changed at all and instead, stares at her im confusion, she calms down a little as embarrassment took over her system. Seing the young girl calms down and the color of her face returns the woman just stares at her strangely.
Never would she knows that her legendary self was regarded as a ghost just a while ago.
" I am only a divine consciousness now", the woman said solemnly.
Di Xueyan is even more embarrassed at her wild imagination. Coughing a little, she decided to forget her thoughts earlier.
'She will never know anyway'
" And since your consciousness is still in this world, that is why the flower is still there. But damn, it's been a hundred thousand years, but his soul still has deep love for you!? ", Di Xueyan exclaim as she realized that there can still be love as deep and everlasting as that.
The woman smiles gently, as her gaze seems to be looking at her but passes through her at the same time. Xueyan knew that she maybe is in her own dreamworld, but her tactless mouth just can't be stopped.
" He must have been reincarnated many times now right? Do you think he always found you in his reincarnation everytime, that's why his love for you never fades?", she asks innocently, but the woman's dazed gaze became extremely sad. A suffocating silence envelops the place. Only the distant humming of the luminous flowers can be heard for a while.
" No....because I can only be reincarnated until my divine consciousness is complete. My soul will never be reincarnated until I completely disappears", the woman, Wei Shuang, tried to steady her breath and voice, but she can't still control a sob from escaping her lips.
'That's why....so that's why she is so sad'
Di Xueyan can feel her chest tightening at the tragic fate of the two of them. She turns around and stares at the vibrant and dancing luminous flowers covering three fourth of the place.
Since he must be reincarnated multiple times by now, his memories has to be refreshed every incarnation. He surely can't remember her and there is nothing that can help him remember her. Everything he felt is purely based on his heart. As the saying goes 'the mind can't remember, but the heart can',
Such love.....
Is a rarity....
Now she understands how hard it is to have the luminous flowers. She can only sigh bitterly even though she has nothing to be bitter about.
" Following the rule of the cycle of life, he must be reincarnated for a hundred lifetimes right now... but the flowers never changed. It never wavers, started to vanish or show signs of disappearing at all. It can only mean that he always have me in his heart, but the thought of him, waiting for me for a hundred lifetimes alone and without direction hurts more than the day that ended 'us' ", the pain in the woman's voice is very apparent. Di Xueyan faces the woman again to comfort her because even her heart subconsciously ache at the thought. But the woman is just standing solemnly, her face is blank. If not for the tear stain in her face, no one would know what she really felt.
" If that's so, then why do you have to stay here when you can follow him peacefully in the after life?", Di Xueyan asks gently.
" Because I made deal that I can't refuse after his death", the distant eyes of Wei Shuang that are staring in the flowers slowly found it's way in Di Xueyan's own orbs. Her gaze turned profound as she stares at Di Xueyan intensely, a mysterious sad smile graced her lips.
(1) Why do I have the feeling that everyone of us knew her? She has been my childhood nightmare and though I am not scared of her anymore, I think she is one of the memories that I can never forget ahahahaha. Any ways if you havent watched the movie Ring is, where Sadako is the main lead, kidding ahahah, she is the ghost there, then you should watch it already ahahaha.
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A/N: Been a while! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!!!! Anyways, thank you for your support! I sincerely apologize for the unscheduled updates, I can't promise anything, but I will surely update when I have time.
I pray you are all well and in good situation this pandemic! Pray you all the best!!!