The flower blooms for a thousand years, then withers for a thousand years. Flower and leaf never meet. Love is not bound by cause and effect; fate has decreed life and death.
The flower blooms on the other shore.
When the flower blooms, there are no leaves to be seen.
When the leaves appear, the flower is nowhere to be found.
Flower and leaf never meet.
They pass each other, life after life.
They know and understand each other forever, yet can never fall in love.
That year, beside Huaqing Pool, he was the East Pole's high and mighty Dijun, Lian Mi, while she was the daughter of the Ziwei Great Emperor, who had sneaked into the pool to steal and eat a spirit fungus.
"Do you know that trespassing in Huaqing Pool is punishable?"
His bright, sparkling eyes explained the slight curl of his lips.
"Your totem is so ugly."
His fingertips gently traced the crimson mandala flower spreading from her neck to the corner of her eye.
"This is for you, and to repay the love I bore you. You owe me nothing, so you needn't repay me." She slashed her own face, just to save the man who had never held her in his heart.
She faced the wildfire consuming her body and skin with composure.
In the Kunlun Mirror, she saw him placing a flower in another woman's hair. His faint smile overflowed with a contentment no one else could replace.
He said, "Seeing each other only brings us more sorrow. Let us part here."
She said, "I only know that I once loved you, but I've long since forgotten what that felt like. I've forgotten what passed between us, too. So be it. I simply didn't love you enough."
