*
Crown Prince Zhao Huai Cheng, courtesy name Yunzhi, was the third son of Emperor Yingzong. He was sickly from a young age, frail and unable to walk. Empress Mingde once searched for a precious jade to protect the Crown Prince, calling it the Myriad Spirits Jade. It was said that wearing it would dispel every illness.
In the third year of Ruyi, the Crown Prince died at the age of twenty-two and was buried alongside his father at Xianling. The Myriad Spirits Jade then vanished without a trace. Some say the jade was buried with the Crown Prince and placed in his mouth, preserving his body from decay so that he looked just as he had in life.
The common people thought it was nothing more than a rumor, a fanciful tale. Little did they know it was true.
To find the Myriad Spirits Jade, a tomb-robbing little demon pried open the coffin. Inside lay a handsome, refined Crown Prince, lifelike in appearance. Then, suddenly... his eyes opened.
The Crown Prince Zhao Huai had been dead for two years, and now he was back from the dead.
Zhao Yunzhi looked around in bewilderment, as though waking from a long dream. He had no idea what year it was. He remembered only that, before he awoke, his unsmiling guard had said softly:
"Your Highness, I will always catch you."
**
In the Land of Guixu, the last faceless creature in the world crawled out of a sea of blood and a mountain of corpses, where he encountered the passing God of Fusang.
The wild little beast was fierce, and immediately bit the god, drawing blood. The god gave him a thorough beating and carried him away.
The beast bared his teeth, his eyes full of wariness. The god merely picked a little red flower and held it out to him. "I'll call you Little Flower."
From then on, he became the god's well-behaved disciple, always going east when his master said east and never west. But his gentleness, obedience, composure, and self-restraint were all an act.
One day, he could no longer keep up the act. He pinned his master down and kissed him. He said his name wasn't Little Flower. He was Kuanghua.
Kuanghua: a wild flower blooming out of season.
So his master was angry and cut off his head with a single stroke of the sword. Looking down at him, he said coldly, "Beasts are wild by nature and cannot be tamed."
Theme: Life is precious.
