Wicked childhood friend versus twisted childhood sweetheart
*
The year Shen Zhui crawled out of the Puppet Realm, the hand that held his sword had been broken 9,996 times. The bones of his clansmen he had crushed underfoot numbered at least ten thousand, if not a thousand.
He had never imagined that someone like him, a man whose eyelid had not even twitched when he pulled his father's spine out, could hate a woman so much.
In his five hundred years of life, he had spent three hundred and fifty-six hating Cui Yaoguang.
Shen Zhui hated her for their first meeting, when, amid endless snow, she lifted his filthy face with a shoe embroidered with southern pearls, looked him up and down with disdain, and ordered him to return with her to Weiyu Grotto-Heaven and become her servant;
He hated her for using him as bait at Que Mountain, forcing him to face every calamity in their path, then abandoning him when he was on the verge of death, only to cleave open the venomous worm with one sword when he was about to be swallowed by it, take him aboard a spreading-winged vermilion bird, and fly toward the bright light of day;
Most of all, he hated her for giving him a bell at the Guihai-year birthday banquet, accepting his crabapple blossoms, kissing him on the lips, and then turning around and entering the bridal chamber with the young lord of the Chongwu Sect.
Shen Zhui loathed Cui Yaoguang.
He wanted to eat her flesh, sleep beneath her skin, and grind her bones to powder to make incense.
Later, after avenging himself and reaching the summit of the clouds in the Upper Realm, the first thing he did was not claim the throne. He stormed into the Chongwu Sect, held his sword to Cui Yaoguang's neck, and ordered her to kneel and bow her head as she recounted her sins over the years.
The young woman looked up at him. Her eyes were as black as ink, her beauty mark a deep crimson, and her face as luminous as a white peony yet to bloom. Her skirt whipped toward the distance, where tens of thousands of crabapple blossoms rushed toward them.
Across a sea of crabapple blossoms, she touched the jade bell hidden in the pommel of his sword, smiled softly, and impaled herself on his blade.
Blood and fallen blossoms blurred together. Everyone congratulated Shen Zhui: their feud was settled, his Dao-heart had been proven, and ascension was only one step away.
The young man traced the pommel with trembling fingertips.
The jade bell chimed, but held not a trace of warmth.
*
When Shen Zhui was on the brink of death, a former fellow disciple came at someone's request to admonish him. When words failed, they could only toss a pile of love knots onto him.
Then they told him that Cui Yaoguang had made them by hand for her husband while she was alive.
Whenever her husband went away on a long journey, the young woman would make one to express her love.
Twenty years of this, almost a hundred in all.
Shen Zhui's face turned deathly pale. Gritting his teeth, he still refused to believe it. "She's the sort of person who thinks even threading a needle is too much trouble. When an expensive silk garment snags, she just says to replace it. Love knots are everywhere. Why would she make them herself?"
His fellow disciple sighed. "She treated the person she truly loved differently."
Shen Zhui's pupils contracted. He almost tore his throat apart arguing back. "What true love could she possibly have?"
His fellow disciple had no choice but to speak plainly. "Of course she had true love. It just had nothing to do with you!"
It just had nothing to do with you.
But why?
Why?
Shen Zhui clutched his chest, laughing and crying at once. He thought he hated Cui Yaoguang so, so much. He hated her until his hair turned white too soon, until illness ravaged his body, until every inch of his flesh and blood
ached in shock and twisted out of shape,
reaching for the woman's bones.
*The setting is my own: the Lower Realm has thirteen provinces, and there are also the summit of the clouds in the Upper Realm, the Puppet Realm, and three thousand lawless worlds.
*This is a medium-to-long novel, with many clues and twists. The romance and plot are split evenly.
*The female lead is goal-driven and will stop at nothing to achieve her aims.
*As above, this will most likely be a story of love and hatred. The male lead is a virgin, and it has a happy ending.
*Please do not offer writing advice.
Blurb first posted on Jinjiang Literature City, 2024/4/19
Theme: Save up 200,000 words before starting
