"Like I said" Zhe Yan muttered with a smile while Bai Qian stood up to meet her husband as he came into the hall.
"Ye Hua" She said with a smile "You're early"
"We were able to reach a consensus early and we heard the Kulun bells. Everyone wants to rush here to confirm the high god Mo Yuan is really alive. I wanted to beat the crowd" He replied
"And I thought you rushed back because you missed me"
Ye Hua smiled, wrapped one arm around her waist and kissed her forehead before he started walking towards Mo Yuan and others with his arm still around her. Bai Qian was surprised, not with the affection, Ye Hua was always affectionate just never publicly at least not outside Xiwu palace or Qing Qiu. Something was going on, maybe the meeting went worse than he was letting on, but she couldn't ask him now in the presence of everyone, she had to wait till they were alone. She noticed the smile on her brother and Zhe Yan's face and decided they knew something, she could pester it out of them if Ye Hua is too busy.
As they get to the group and Ye Hua removes his arm, Bai Qian introduces him to her Shifu
"Shifu, this is my husband, Crown Prince Ye Hua"
Ye Hua smiled in his mind, Qian Qian introduced him as her husband not just the crown prince
"Ye Hua greets high go Mo Yuan, high god Zhe Yan and high god Bai Zhen" Ye Hua said
"Ye Hua, good to see you again so soon. Come sit with us, Mo Yuan has something you'll be interested in hearing" Zhe Yan replied
"No" Mo Yuan said, standing up. "Ye Hua, walk with me"
"Come on brother, I don't get many chances to witness this kind of excitement" Zhe Yan said but Mo Yuan simply gave him a neutral look which he had learnt over the years meant there would be no argument but Mo Yuan would do what he wanted. With a sigh, he continued "Xiao Wu, let's drink while you Shifu chats with your husband"
Bai Qian watched Ye Hua and Mo Yuan leave and looked back to her brother and Zhe yan as she realized she was now completely confused, she understood why Shifu wanted to talk to Ye Hua privately, if she found out she had a twin, it'll probably take her a month to be ready to talk to other people but both Ye Hua and Mo Yuan were not really the talking type. However, she thought there was more going on and every man in the room gave off that vibe, like there was a second conversation she was missing.
"Fourth brother, Old Phoenix, what is going on? Why does it seem like you are about to jump out of your skin?" she asked
"My dear dimwitted sister, as much as it pains me to admit especially as you're one of the most powerful goddess and a fine specimen of immortality, you are the most clueless person I ever met when it comes to emotions. But not to worry, two of them will sort it out." Fourth brother said then turned to Zhe Yan "who would have thought they would be twins, that would make it all even more interesting I think"
"What? I still don't understand what you're talking about" Bai Qian said
"Like he said, dimwitted. Come on, let's go get some of the good wine your Shifu has in his cellar. Wine is something you understand" Zhe Yan said.
Ye Hua was nervous, his heart was beating so wildly in his chest and he had no idea what Mo Yuan was going to say and why he wanted to say it privately. Qian Qian was already married to him and even though he knew Mo Yuan paid no attention to what people thought and also knew that even his grandfather would not stand on his side should Mo Yuan decide to fight him, he knew the venerated god of war would not fight him for a woman he was already married to; at least he hoped he wouldn't.
He'd never been to Kulun, not really, he'd stepped in while looking for ways to revive Su Su and hoping to find Si Yin. Who'd have guessed his Su Su and Si Yin were the same person. The thought brought a smile to his lips.
"You always liked it here" Mo Yuan said
Ye Hua looked around in confusion, it was a nice area, they were standing in front of a lotus pond and for some reason, everything felt familiar and welcoming but he'd never been there as far as he could remember. "High god Mo .." he began
"You should call me 'big brother'" Mo Yuan said and Ye Hua turned to look into the face that was unnervingly similar to his
"Big... Big brother?" Ye Hua asked
"You're my twin brother" Mo Yuan said with a slight smile
Ye Hua opened his mouth then closed it again without saying a single word, the confusion he felt, clearly visible on his face.
Mo Yuan told him the story explaining as much as he knew of the events surrounding their birth and Ye Hua's soul being transferred to the golden lotus.
"At first I thought father had given me the wrong lotus, even with all the dragon energy in Kulun, your lotus shell showed no signs of being different from any other lotus. I consulted books and tried a lot of things, I finally figured out how to confirm there was a soul in the lotus and in the process exchanged a piece of your soul for a piece of mine so I would always know if something happened to you. For hundreds of thousands of years nothing did, so I accepted that you'd always be in that form. When I sacrificed myself at the battle, I saw you sitting with me, gathering the pieces of my soul and fusing them together and then you were gone. That's how I knew you'd been born." Mo Yuan explained
"Mo ... brother, how are you sure it is me? That the soul is me?" Ye Hua finally asked, his voice sounded strange even to his own ears
Mo Yuan simply smiled in response.
If the situation wasn't so serious, Ye Hua would laugh at being on the receiving end of a response he used quite often especially when he encountered what he considered a silly question. He knew why Mo Yuan was sure, he felt it himself. He'd known Mo Yuan was awake just before the Kulun bells started tolling, he had no claim to precognition so the only rational explanation was that the piece of Mo Yuan's soul in him came alive. He sighed, he'd been prepared to fight with Mo Yuan or reason with him but now he felt guilty about stealing his brother's love, He'd seen it on Mo Yuan's face when he kissed Qian Qian in the hall, his brother loved her. Their story could not be more tragic if Si Ming had written it.
As though he guessed the directions of his brother's thoughts, Mo Yuan continued "Seventeen always loved to come to the lotus pond when she was here"
"She did?" Ye Hua asked, getting excited at learning something new about his wife
"The first time I saw her here, she'd been with us for a little under a year and tested nearly every rule we had. And even though she was very talented and had the potential for greatness, her laziness was beyond compare so I was considering sending her into extended seclusion for a while as punishment. I walked here and she was talking to you, the way I had on countless occasions but you were glowing. You'd never shown that there was anything extraordinary about your lotus and I'd never seen you glow in countless years of talking or playing music but here you were, glowing for her. Your soul recognized her, although I wasn't sure what it recognized. Was she going to be your mother or your lover? After she left, I came up to you and the glow was gone, nothing I said made you glow until I started talking about her. To be honest, I felt very slighted at the time and I worked it so she spent time here."
"I... "
"Did you not recognize her when you met in this life?"
Ye Hua thought back to the first time he'd met Qian Qian "I recognized her from dreams although she was male in my dreams and female in reality. I felt like she was something I'd lost a long time ago and was looking for again"
Mo Yuan smiled again "She's grown up a lot since I've been gone." Ye Hua felt his heart drop, he wasn't sure Mo Yuan would be happy once he realized what Qian Qian had gone through especially in his hands.
"I'm glad you found her and that you're both happy" Mo Yuan finished
"But you love her" Ye Hua said, the words spilling out before he had a chance to censor them
"Yes"
"Not just as a disciple but as a woman"
"Yes"
Both men were quiet for a long time. Ye Hua felt deflated, he didn't want his suspicions confirmed. not that Mo Yuan's denial would have helped but he felt infinitely worse knowing he was right about his brother's feelings.
"Little brother, you're asking the wrong question. It's not who loves her or you'd have to battle more than half the men in the world for her."
"It's not?"
"It's whom she loves"
"She loves you" Ye Hua said, his voice barely a whisper.
"Does she?" Mo Yuan asked calmly before leaving his brother at the pond as he went back into the hall.