After All the Blossoms Fade, It's Still You

A Guo Fu and Yang Guo fan fiction. One adventure from a lifelong fan of The Legend of the Condor Heroes...

When they first met in Jiaxing, she was Peach Blossom Island's young lady, a pearl hanging at her neck, while he was a ragged, wandering boy. They met again at Dasheng Pass. She smiled like a rose in bloom, and he blushed, his heart stirred, yet he rejected her in front of everyone. In the Xiangyang manor, her sword fell, taking one of his arms and severing their bond for sixteen years.

In the sea of flames at Passionless Valley, he risked his life to save her. Beneath the lanterns of Xiangyang, she remained unmarried for sixteen years.

His betrothal was still in effect, and she was too innocent and proper to ever overstep. So he went instead: searching desperately for Dragon Girl to break off their engagement, falling into despair, pursuing his wife, risking his life to repel their enemies, and waiting sixteen years. At last, their hearts found their way to each other.

Xiao Longnu uses a pledge of life and death to set a trap, while Yelü Qi betrays them out of heartbreak. At Fengling Ferry, the sisters begin to harbor resentment toward each other; atop the walls of Xiangyang, the three stand face to face. Amid the blood and flames, Yang Guo sweeps Guo Fu into his one-armed embrace. On the walls of Xiangyang, she asks where the peach blossoms outside her window came from. He answers, “One every year, on your birthday, for sixteen years. In this life and every life to come, my life belongs to you.”

Faithful to the original story in its bones and to love and loyalty in its soul, this tale fills in the thirty-two-year love and hatred between Yang Guo and Guo Fu. Sweetness and heartbreak intertwined, with a happy ending. When all the splendor fades, it will still be you.