Three Lifetimes of Snow

A pond full of lotus roots, a little boat among the lotus leaves, and once there was a beauty like her.

One glance, a thousand years. One word, three lifetimes.

Whose fated calamity is whose? He is her destiny, and she is his disaster.

A peachwood sword stirs up past lives and this one, yet a shattered mirror cannot be made whole again.

Where did the sound from the abyss begin? A single bell bound together what remained of their broken bond.

If wine can numb the heart and lungs, she would gladly spend her life with it, asking only never to meet him again.

Perhaps she once hated him, perhaps she once loved him. It was all just a great dream.

Upon waking, there was only cold. He would rather disappear forever into the reflection of her face and voice in the mirror.

Their bond was tied upon the Stone of Three Lives. She would rather destroy the words carved into it.

She said, "I once unfurled half the boundless blue seas, seeing only the stars in your eyes."

He asked, "If I regret it, would you cross Kunlun for me again for a thousand years, ascending to the clouds or descending to the earth?"

There was no answer...

He said, "But you couldn't hear me. I'll say it again..."

She said, "There's no need. Though you haven't asked about love for fifty thousand years, you understand."

He pressed her, "I don't understand. Just answer me."

The game of Go was over. Su Feng asked again, "What's your answer?"

He smiled, desolate. "No answer is the cruelest answer of all."

Three snows fell, and the three lives bore witness. A hundred years had passed.

He should have been buried in the earth by now, yet she stood in a red robe and smiled sadly. "Why did you leave me behind?"

Blood flowed across the Ninefold River. Three lifetimes had passed.