An old-fashioned, self-indulgent cringefest from my past. It's awful, truly awful. Everything from the character dialogue to the main plot is a mess, and it's so bad I can't bring myself to edit it. I'm pasting it here as-is to give the column a little something to start with.
Save your eyes and scroll on by. (Bows and apologizes.)
Bai Yun lost her memory from the start. The moment she opened her eyes, she was rewarded by the Heavenly Dao with a succession of heavenly lightning strikes, then forced to parachute into the Heavenly Court's Human Realm branch, where she became colleagues with a bunch of big shots.
She was determined to lie flat, but was forced onto the main (overworked wage slave) track of recovering her memories. She works year-round without a day off and owes her boss ten years' worth of wages.
A bunch of weird people keep going on about how she's the key to saving the world.
I didn't, I'm not, don't make stuff up.jpg
Bai Yun got furious. Bai Yun raised her hammer. Bai Yun flattened everyone standing in the way of her lying flat.
Later, she discovered that she really was a big shot, the kind who could punch a hole in the sky with her bare hands.
I, Bai Yun, accept payment.
--
Qing Feng is a Taoist who has cultivated through eight lifetimes of reincarnation. But an accident severed all his ties to the world, and in this life, he was destined to be alone.
At last, he came to collect the karmic debt he was owed.
As her guide, he accompanied Bai Yun through one case after another, watching her trap herself, watching her weep until she lost her voice, watching her risk everything, watching her descend into madness.
Braving the agony of being scorched by karmic fire, he held his moon in his arms.
"Why do you always punish yourself for other people's mistakes?"
"Live on, or sink into ruin with me."
--
One day, Bai Yun finally met her paper husband in person.
She glanced at the merchandise filling the room, then at the real thing, and nearly fainted.
Lying in the arms of her Taoist, Bai Yun mourned the money she'd spent on in-game purchases and her shattered girlish dreams. It was all fake, all of it. At least she and Qing Feng were real.
Life-coach, motherly sect leader x shut-in, laid-back white rabbit spirit
Theme: Finding the courage to love and be loved again.
