Hua Cheng

Xie Lian was leafing through a scroll in the pavilion when the wind wafted the scent of blood-stained peaches. He Xuan appeared and tossed him a bag of ginger candy. "Your prince watches the clouds from a tower; this is for someone who can't stand the sea." Qingxuan laughed. "He who was pierced by arrows fears the rain?" but fell silent, seeing the shadow on Xie Lian's face. The emperor entered in a golden cloak, his gaze slid to the bamboo sea, where a crimson hem of his robe flashed. Qingxuan quietly remarked, "Some circumambulate a deity who has broken fast three times." He Xuan leaned his elbows. "The prince carved your second form from jade; you wear the ring for seventeen days." Xie Lian stroked his wrist, and the red bracelet faintly glowed. The emperor passed by a bowl of iced tea from Hua Cheng. Qingxuan sniffed the fan: "Too sweet, a childhood jam?" From the west came the sound of a flute—Hua Cheng was playing a melody from a century ago. Xie Lian removed the agate rosary and placed it on the bowl, and the music stopped. The Emperor turned sharply, but the mat was empty, the rosary gone. He Xuan chuckled: "A thousand plums bloom in the harbor, a night with a loved one grants a hundred lives." Qingxuan snapped the fan shut: "Even a thousand eyes won't stop the plums from dancing under the moon." The Emperor left, the crimson edge vanished, only Hua Cheng's laughter and Xie Lian's voice—a few words that froze the Emperor. And He Xuan and Qingxuan opened the lollipop, and the sweetness bit into the world like fate.