The White Guest of Moshan

Plot-driven story. I'll start posting once I've finished writing it. I'm aiming for around 100,000 characters, but at this rate it'll be much longer...

What do I do if the worldbuilding keeps getting more terrifying...

Two powerful leads / transmigrate between ancient and modern times / tragic past life, happy ending in this life

Cheerful, devil-may-care, handsome bottom who looks half-dead x loyal, possessive, cold beauty top

The bottom is cool, but it's an act. Watching him earnestly pretend to be an overpowered hero is just too adorable!

A series of short stories, an obscure genre, and a chance to practice my writing, drawing, and prose!

[Blurb]

○ Past-Life Arc

In the sixteenth year of Chengchang, a handsome young man emerged in the martial world. With a jade flute and a half-open painted fan, he stirred the hearts of countless people.

Lian Jue loved wine and beautiful, tipsy people. He had a chivalrous heart and a soft spot for the downtrodden, and he loved righting the world's wrongs. His elegant charm and fleeting, cloud-stepping figure earned him the name "Xiubai Wanderer," alongside the "Gentleman Sword," renowned throughout the land in his youth for his mastery of both the qin and the sword.

Green mountains rise like peaks, and white clouds emerge from their folds.

Chen Anheng thought Lian Jue attracted too many admirers. Lian Jue laughed at Chen Anheng for being dull and boring. But let them share half a jar of strong liquor, and all grudges would disappear. They'd throw their arms around each other and tumble together, turning into a very different pair.

*

After years of hardship, Chen Anheng returned to this place.

In his memory, mountain winds howled as Lian Jue lay gazing up at the stars. "Anheng, look at this world. People struggle through a sea of misery for fame, fortune, love, and vengeance. Who ever gets to be truly happy?"

Back then, he'd given a measured answer. "Fame and fortune are illusions, but working for the welfare of the people can be a worthy path."

"I only want to live honestly." Lian Jue turned his head slightly and gave him the stars in his eyes. "There's nothing wrong with giving everything you have."

And so Lian Jue truly became a blazing meteor, burning his flesh and bones to ash.

Chen Anheng stood alone on the empty mountain, faintly hearing laughter scattered on the wind.

So those whispered words hadn't been drunken nonsense.

Lian Jue had known his life was not his own, yet still made a pact with his life and thrust it fiercely into Chen Anheng's hands. Chen Anheng hadn't held on tight enough. He let that cloud drift away in a vast wash of blood, never to return.

○ Modern Arc

Lian Jue spent two years and six months lying in a VIP hospital room. When he woke up, not only had he not lost weight, he'd gained eighteen pounds.

He opened his eyes, saw the ill-fated bond at his bedside, and grinned. "A fortune teller said I had a calamity in my future. Turns out it's you, kid."

Chen Anheng was silent for a moment, then frantically hit the call button. "Someone come quick! The patient's gone crazy!"

Lian Jue: "?"

What kind of thing is that to say?

In the end, after lying in bed for so long, Lian Jue was terribly outnumbered by a bunch of bald experts in white coats. They strapped him to a frame, and he was so furious his chest heaved as he struggled to give them the middle finger with what little strength he had left.

*

Another year later, Lian Jue turned down Chen Anheng's advances.

"Brother Lian, we love each other. Why should we care what other people think?"

That was just an excuse.

Lian Jue's throat tightened with bitterness.

How could he explain? In his heart was Anheng, the one before him with tears in his eyes, and also A-Heng, the one from his past life, etched into his bones. Since he picked up the jade flute again, memories of his past life had surged like a tide, day and night.

Holding the love of this life in his arms, Lian Jue's soul flew once more to another time and place.

He was both the beautiful dream and the nightmare.

A suicide should fall into the eighteenth level of hell. What a grievous sinner he must be.

Half-asleep and half-awake, Chen Anheng pinned him beneath himself, desire staining his eyes red. "Where are we?"

Lian Jue wondered when he'd picked up the habit of talking in his sleep again. With a sigh, he kicked Chen Anheng off the bed.

Chen Anheng looked around, then stared at Lian Jue, who'd ducked under the covers until only half his face showed. "Brother Lian, do you really not recognize me?"

I couldn't help doting on little Lian. My sweet boy, mwah mwah mwah...

My Lian is so handsome. I've drawn over 30,000 strokes, including the scrapped versions. I can't draw clothes and I'm going bald over it, sob.

His mom is trying her best to draw him, even if nobody's reading. Did you see the gold nugget on the flute? That's a knife! Ahhh! Anheng couldn't find my Lian's body, so he swallowed this and was carried off in an instant. Even the greatest hero has soft guts :) That's what you get for keeping yourself in check in your first life (though you still did plenty, you jerk), and getting a lifetime of being single!

I've also slowly managed to draw Anheng...

Dear readers, please don't ship them the wrong way around. My tastes are this obscure.

I actually have another version with him in white, soaking wet, but I'm not showing it, hehehe.

The only story I have with a groveling-to-win-them-back arc, but the relationship wasn't the problem. Someone who turns a straight man gay and then causes relationship problems can't be called a top. He deserves to be beaten to death and reduced to ashes.

Theme: Look back and see you, with the land at peace