Three Lives, Three Worlds: Falling for the Little Fish Princess

In the depths of the vast sea, the High God Jun Bai guarded the blue waters. One day, while patrolling the sea, he saw a small red-scaled fish with an injured tail fin, its blood staining the surrounding water red. She was Zhao Yao, the last survivor of the Red-Scale Clan. After her clan was wiped out, her primordial spirit was damaged and her mind left clouded. Moved by compassion, the High God brought her back to the spirit pool in his divine palace.

A thousand years flowed past like water over jade. The little fish shed her scales and transformed into a girl in red, her expression as innocent as a child's. Jun Bai gave her the name Zhao Yao and nurtured her daily with his immortal essence, teaching her to recognize seaweed and read the stars. He concealed his guilt over failing to protect the Red-Scale Clan ten thousand years ago, and offered her only his sincere heart. When she playfully flicked his sleeve with her tail fin, or asked, “Jun Bai, why is the sea blue?” a tenderness that would not fade rippled through his eyes.

But Zhao Yao's mind had yet to awaken. She did not understand the meaning behind his gaze, and saw him only as the warmest light in the sea.

The day Jun Bai descended to the mortal realm to undergo his tribulation, the water in the spirit pool turned cold for the first time. Chasing his immortal aura ashore, Zhao Yao saw smoke curling from chimneys and listened to cicadas in the mortal world. She watched him take the form of the scholar Xie Jingxing, pick peach blossoms for her, and sing evening songs. When Xie Jingxing “died” in her arms, she finally understood that the sharp ache in her heart was called not wanting to let go.

When she returned to the sea, the red-scale mark between Zhao Yao's brows shone like a spark. Gazing at the divine palace in the depths of the sea, she finally understood: the moment Jun Bai brought her back was the beginning of their fate, and the beginning of their tribulation. But this bond had long since become part of her very being. No matter how many tribulations awaited, she was willing to lose herself in it.