Jia Ren Qu
Chapter 7
Night of Double Seven
Author's Note:
First of all, I would like to humbly apologize for having not updated this slash for two years. I really appreciate all the reviews that urged me to update soon, but for some reason, I couldn't find it in my to do it. I've attempted, but I was never satisfied with what I had produced. The review that asked for me to update as soon as possible in 2013, I really appreciate you, and I really tried.
The reason why I have not updated since 2012 was first because I became disinterested in Xiaolin Showdown, and honestly Chase Young, but also because I've realized that while I have not yet perfected myself, my writing style has matured as well. I was afraid of how I'd tie everything together after not touching something for so long.
I have to make a confession. For some reason, the idea of Chase was hot when I was younger, before 2012. Around the time when I first began writing this series, I haven't actually watched Xiaolin Showdown for a long while. I don't remember what brought me to writing this story because all of my inspirations for this story were also done way before 2012. Perhaps it was around the time that I started re-watching movies again. If it wasn't made clear enough, my primary inspiration for Jia Ren Qu was House of Flying Daggers and a poem that was sang in that movie, "Jia Ren Qu". It's a very beautiful movie, in terms of pictures and special effects and costumes, ect… The story was also very beautiful too, but it's still a fucked up story. If you don't know what I'm talking about, watched the movie, you'll be thinking, "Man, that was fucked up," too. Other inspirations for Jia Ren Qu is my favorite flower, the chrysanthemum. The chrysanthemum strangely became my favorite flower when I re-watched Curse of the Golden Flower, which is a very beautiful movie too, watch it, you'll be in awe if you haven't seen it. The only thing is, though, that you'll also be thinking how fucked up the story is. It is even more fucked up than House of Flying Daggers. I just…smh… Anyways, around the sixth chapter, I decided to watch Xiaolin Showdown again and as I watched the animation go on, I started thinking to myself, "wow, how not hot is Chase Young anymore…" It was just so cartoony and stuff, so I guess watching the cartoon was a bad idea on my part. I think, now that I've had two years, re-watching the show would be a bad idea on my part so I will no longer be watching it. But imagining it though, damn, Chase Young and his voice is so flipping attractive…but watching it, for some reason, eww… Imagination: Damn, still feeling it.
Xiaolin Chronicles though, I haven't watched it, but I heard that all the Sheng Gong Wu names have been changed because Warner Bros. still own the names. The art though…I don't know what I really want to say about Chase Young…and his new voice… But I'll fight through! The CGI showdown scenes though, they look awesome.
My writing has changed since 2012. I feel I have become more knowledgeable and more mature. But also, I am still lazy. I've just recently read through the slash that I've written two years ago and can't help but squeak in embarrassment. I would like to rewrite it, but perhaps some other time when I feel up to it, otherwise I shall just continue on waltzing, becoming better and better at it.
Thank you to all of you who have supported Jia Ren Qu.
"Looks like our Shen Gong Wu is in another shopping district this time," stated Kimiko as she opened the map to take a look at where we were all heading. "An outside shopping district that is, somewhere in Mainland China. "
Raimundo sighed, feeling disinterest and dread. As if just the thought of it was completely troublesome. "All this trouble…for a star that makes everything rainbow colored!?"
Kimiko only sighed as she closed up the map, "Well, you see, Rai, considering it's only a star that makes everything rainbow colored, we probably wouldn't have to put up a fight with the bad guys. That means that Chen Chen will can have an easier time adjusting and finding Wu with us. Besides, today is the Qiqiao Festival, the day of Double Seven, so you'll be seeing a lot of pretty girls."
"A lot of girls, huh?" Raimundo's face perked up.
"Speaking of Chen Chen, I wonder how she is doing up there," as Omi pondered his thoughts, everyone turned their heads to look over at me as I sat at the front.
As Dojo flew across the sky, I felt the wind comb itself through my long tresses of hair. Gently, I breathed in, feeling the wind against my body, feeling completely familiar with it before sighing out my breath. With the wind in my ears, I didn't hear the others. In fact, I completely forgot they were there at all. Flying through the air, I can feel my heart beating against my chest excitedly. Despite having never flown on a dragon before in this life, I felt strangely used to it. So used to it that as I stared down at the earth below, barely seeing it through the clouds, I unconsciously pushed myself up to stand on my own two feet, balancing myself on top of Dojo.
"Ch-CHEN CHEN!" I wasn't sure who it was that called my name, but I don't know if I cared either. As I stared down, balancing myself on Dojo, who's body slithered through the sky, my heart was pounding quickly and excitedly. Smirking a little, Dojo whipped his body quickly, causing me to fly off of him. "CH-CHEN CHEN!" Everyone stared down at me in shock, watching me as I fell. I couldn't see their expressions though… I was falling through the sky, holding my breath as I watch the earth slowly come closer to me. The wind was whipping through my hair and clothes as I fell. I can feel the water in my eyes slipping away, running against my face before, swirling through the air, Dojo caught me back on his back. Laying on him, and holding him, I breathed in and out carefully before a giggle escaped my lips.
Once upon a time, there lived a young man who herded cows for a living. He had no mother and no father but lived his brother and his brother-in-law. Though he was mistreated often, the young cowherd was still very kind and warm hearted.
One day, an old man, who was secretly a celestial being in disguise, guided him to a sick cattle from the heavens. With the cowherd's great care, the cattle recovered. Because of this, the cattle decided to show his appreciation to the cowherd by introducing him to a fairy from heaven, the seventh daughter of the King of Heaven. They both fell in love with each other and married, living a happy life together with their two sons until her father found out about their deeds and took her back to heaven. With the cow's help, the cowherd flew to heaven with his two children, chasing after their wife and mother, before the Queen of the Heavens summoned a silver river to keep them separated.
The two lovers and their children cried tremendously that the Queen Mother was so moved; she allowed them to meet only on the seventh day of the seventh month on the lunar calendar every year.
Sighing breathlessly, Kimiko stared at the long street lined up with shops. "I love shopping." Grabbing my hand, Kimiko winked and smiled at me, "Maybe after we find the Rainbow Star, we can do a little shopping before we go home."
I smiled before I took a whiff of the air inside the mall we all stood in. "What is that sweet smell…?" I closed my eyes gently to try and concentrate on that delectable scent. Dojo sat parched on my shoulder and sniffed around too. My mouth began to water, thinking about what delicious pastry it must be in order to smell so delicate. My eyes roamed the shopping district before watching a man carry a long pole that was adorned in sweets.
"Candied dates for sale!" he called, "Get your candied dates!"
I smiled over at the group, each individual distracted with their own distractions as I reached my arm over to Kimiko, watching Dojo slither around my arm to her out of familiarity. "I'll be back," I told them before turning my back on them and disappearing into the crowded street filled with girls dressed delicately for the occasion.
"W-wait! Chen Chen!"
The streets were noisy, filled with chattering excited friends and families grouped up together. The sound of distant firecrackers popped excitedly as music sounded the area.
"Candied dates! Come get your candied dates! Here you go, thank you very much!"
"Um, excuse me, Sir." I reached out and tapped on the peddler's shoulder. He turned around to me and smiled. "I would like to buy six sticks, please."
"Of course, beautiful miss," he smiled before taking out a piece of wax paper and reaching up his pole, bringing down six sticks of candied dates. "That will be 90 yuan."
I reached towards my pocket to pull out my wallet until I realized… I looked up at the man and asked, "I'm sorry, do you accept new Taiwan dollars?"
"Allow me," I watched as a 100 yuan bill came in between me and the man with the candied dates. "Please, keep the change."
"Oh! Thank you, sir!" The man quickly placed the wrapped up sticks on my hands before taking off with this stranger's money.
I only stared up at him, furrowing my brows in thought at him before bowing my head. "Thank you for your kindness, just give me a moment to calculate how much I owe you."
"There is no need," he smirked down at me with his strange eyes, golden of hue. "A smile of appreciation would be gratitude enough."
As I stared at him, my heart beat was quickly picking up. He only continued staring at me while I pondered the thought that this may be a warning to walk away from him. He was rather handsome and very well kept looking, dressed very nicely. I had no idea that men in this day still had very long, black hair. Having a stranger pay for my treats and asking only for a smile in return hit me as odd and…rather creepy, but I gave him a forced grin, watching him only smile contently. A gust of wind blew at us and it seemed as if time was slowing down for just a moment. I held a hand to my chest, suddenly feeling pain there… It was as if my heart was suddenly stabbed by shattered glass.
"U-um…I'm sorry…" I trailed off as my brows continued to wrinkle at him. "I must get back to my friends, thank you for your generosity." I bowed my head to him again before turning to walk away as quickly as I could, feeling tears welling up in my eyes. From above, the sky began to darken, becoming shrouded with grey.
"You're welcome," I heard him say, "Xiu Xiu." I stopped in my tracks, hearing that name. Slowly, afraid to look back, I pushed some of my bangs behind my ear and turned my head. Alarmed, I turned my whole body and he was no longer there, as if he wasn't there in the first place. My heart raced quickly as I couldn't figure out why. Was I really hurting inside? Why am I crying…? Or is it because I'm genuinely scared and freaked out?
Sniffling and breathing to control myself, I wiped away my tears and made my way back towards the direction that I had left the monks. Is this what it's like? To have a heart attack…?
Clay's hat. I see Clay's hat! "Kimiko…" I quietly called before running after them. "Kimiko!" My lips quivered as I made my way towards them all, ignoring all the eyes that turned to look at me. My vision of them blurred up as they all turn to look at me and I fell to my knees, dropping the candied dates onto the ground. Cupping my hands together against my heart, I leant forwards and wept as the others came and surrounded me, asking me what was wrong. Whispers around the street barely reached my ears.
"Oh, she must have been dumped by her boyfriend." "I wonder what happened." "She was probably dumped by her boyfriend…" "And on Double Seven too…" "Ah, rain!"
Thunder rolled and roared with vigor as the light sprinkle began to suddenly pour and everyone ran for cover as I sat there in the rain, crying terribly with an aching heart as Kimiko held onto me, trying to console me as everyone else huddled together to cover me.
'Xiu Xiu…'
That's what he called me…
"The boys will be fine without dry clothes but we girls are a little more delicate," I heard Kimiko said from the other side of this cloth changing room. "We might as well take advantage of the situation and dress up like all the other girls in the shopping district, right?"
I remained quiet, unsure of how to answer Kimiko as the shop ladies helped tied my clothes together. I didn't have money, but Kimiko said it was her treat and forcibly bought a set of clothes for me.
"Just wait until they see us all dressed up in these robes, they'll jaws will drop down to the ground, right?" I can hear rustling and movements from the other side of the cloth before Kimiko peaked in at me. Her eyes widened at me and she smiled excitedly. "Chen Chen, you look so…you look like a goddess…" She gave me a sincere smile as I looked down at myself before giving her a small smile.
"You look very pretty too." I can feel my cheeks heat up as we went and got our hair done, having no worries about the Shen Gong Wu that the boys decided to go find on their own. As we sat down, getting our hair combed out and styled, I decided to ask, "If I have any questions about my past self, the person I should ask is Dojo, right?"
"Well," Kimiko shrugged gently, "He is the one who knew the actual Chen Chen Xiu Zhen. Why do you ask?"
I sat there, dully staring out at the rain outside of the window. "I ran into someone earlier and he called me 'Xiu Xiu'."
"Su Su?" Kimiko questioned, quirking a brow. "Maybe he mistook you for someone else, I don't know. Guys these days, they'll be coming up with tons of ways to hit on a girl."
"'Hit' on a girl?" I was confused, hearing her laugh at my response.
"I forgot, sometimes you're like Omi," I frowned at that as she continued on, "'Hit on a girl' means to, like, flirt with a girl. Trying to impress a girl, trying to ask a girl out, trying to woo you, trying to court you," she began giving out a number of examples just to get me to understand.
"Oh, I see…" I frowned a little more, "I've never been 'hit' on before in this lifetime, I don't even know how courting went in my past lives. I kind of…" She waited for me to continue. "…I kind of just woke up and already had some sort of relationship or none at all. So I wondered what made me feel so hurt and cry."
"Hmm…" Kimiko stared at me as the stylists finished their work and Kimiko paid our bills. We stepped out onto the streets that were now covered in light rain rather a storm. We walked out with our own parasols covering our heads from the soft shower. "I'm not sure what to say about that, but from my understanding, I think your past self was a very emotional and very caring woman, perhaps you were so touched it brought you to tears?"
I stared at Kimiko, still feeling as if I never got any of my questions answered. "Oh," I said, "Perhaps…" My eyes turned away as he continued walking down the street to look for the boys and Dojo.
But how do you mistakenly call someone…'Xiu Xiu'…?
"Hey, guys, we found the—oh…" I stared over at the boys as Kimiko giggled. "You look…"
"WOW!" Omi opened up his mouth wide, "Chen Chen, you look like an ancient beauty!"
"Look at you two pretty lil ladies walking around all regal and all. I'd tip my hat to that!"
Looking down, I smiled and bowed my head, "Thank you."
"Oh, so you're all only going to compliment Chen Chen and not me, huh? How rude!"
"Hey, you shouldn't feel so bad, at least Clay included you."
"Kimiko should not be jealous, before Chen Chen arrived, you were always bringing attention to yourself with your colorful hair and your strange clothes!"
"It's called fashion!"
I stood there and watched them all babble together before laughing a little, being unable to hold back the jealousy I felt in my heart, seeing them so close. I reached into the little bag that Kimiko bought me and flipped open my phone, seeing a picture of me with Ying Guo and Yuan Ji. I smiled at the photo sadly before looking around. I should probably buy them some souvenirs.
"Anyways, since we're here and it's the Qiqiao Festival, me and Chen Chen are going to have some girl fun before we go, okay?" Kimiko immediately linked her arm with mine and smiled, leaning her head to the side a little.
"Girl fun?"
"Don't you know how many steps we had to take to get all the way up to the temple up there for the Rainbow Star?"
I stared at Raimundo before reaching out to him, "Actually, can I have it?"
"Uhh…" He stared at me, unsure, "Sure…" Gently, he dropped it into my palm and I stared down at it.
I smiled at it a little, feeling tears in my eyes again. "I don't know why I feel so sad…"
As we all stood there in a group, I couldn't help but let my mind drift off towards my thoughts. Who am I really now? Am I Chen Hao Mei? Or am I Chen Chen Xiu Zhen?
'Xiu Xiu'…
I turned around to look behind me, ignoring everyone else's banter before sticking the star inside my robes.
"Come on, Chen Chen! Let's go!"
"Oh, okay!" I smiled politely before being dragged away by Kimiko, celebrating Qiqiao Festival with her. We went up to the local temple to pray to Zhinu for wisdom. When I saw the painting of Zhinu and Nuilang, I couldn't help but recognize them as well. We recited traditional prayers and made wishes to marry someone who would be a good and loving husband and gave our offerings to Zhinu and her sisters. After so, we went down and ate sweets and other various foods as long music played through the night. We even entered a needle threading contest, and despite having never threaded a needle in this lifetime, I won a box of sweets.
The sky cleared since the rain stopped long ago and the stars shown as young ladies, couples, and newlyweds watched the stars, looking for Vega and Altair in the Milky Way and their bridge. Late into the night, firework began to appear, booming loudly in order to capture the attention of many.
"Wow!" Kimiko stared up at the sky, "Fireworks never cease to amaze me sometimes."
I looked up and smiled over at Kimiko before people began pushing through us, separating us. She called for me and I reached towards her, but there were already too many people keeping us apart. I sighed, looking around to find a way to find the group and even stood on my tip toes. Ignoring the firework show, I decided to get out of the crowd, not wanting to be trapped within a whole entire group of people.
I held my parasol in my hands, standing off to the side, listening to the ooh's and awe's that sounded throughout the brightly light street. Slowly I held a hand to my heart and thought a little bit. I don't know why, but I kept thinking about the man who called me Xiu Xiu and why my heart hurt so much.
"Don't feel like watching firework tonight?"
I turned my head towards the darker area of the alley and pushed myself off of the wall, moving to the area with more light, however closer to more people and noise. "Umm…there's just too many people." I bit my lip, staring at him, feeling my heart ache again.
I watched him as he slowly stepped towards me. One step at a time and the sound of them frightened me, yet gave me this strange pleasure. It was him again, the one who paid for the candied dates that I dropped in the rain. Knowing the dangers of strangers, I slowly stepped closer towards a more populated area, keeping an eye on him while trying to conceal the sudden fear and sadness that I felt.
"That's alright, I know that feeling." He came close to me and I looked down until he gently lifted my chin up. "You really have no recollection of me, do you?" I watched him as he frown before looking back down at the ground with my eyes. "I don't know what I was expecting then, forgive me, I never meant to startle you."
"Then can you…" I frowned a little, trying hard to control the negative feelings that I felt at the moment, "…please step away from me?"
It was quiet between us as the only noise that vibrated throughout the night were the fireworks, the cries of awes from the people, the sound of steaming and frying from kitchen stalls, and the sound of crickets singing and frogs croaking. I looked up at him, waiting for him to back off since he was so close to me. He only stared down at me, looking into my eyes with his orange ones. How strange it is that they look like…reptile eyes. The fear of looking at them hit me hard that I gasped and looked away. I turned to leave, but each time and direction I turned, he would continuously block my way, waiting for me to do as he asks.
"Can I ask that you look at me?" Rather than hearing his amused voice, this time it was soft and sincere. However sincere it was, I only shook my head.
I frowned and looked away, trying to search for a familiar face in the crowd. "Men and women must always keep a distance from each other." I don't know where that line came from, because it was certainly something I have never thought of saying, but I couldn't think of any other words at the moment.
"I see…" Gently, he lifted my chin again but I only kept my eyes away from his, feeling like I could break at any moment. I was feeling the deep sadness for some reason and I didn't know why. "Xiu Xiu, look at me."
"I am not—" My eyes opened wide in shock as tears began to pour from my eyes. I was unable to gasp as he had covered my lips with his. Our eyes stared into one another's, his nonchalant as mines were confused and sad. My heart beat quickly against my chest as I began to whimper and hold onto my chest in pain as he grasped my arms. I shook my head to shake him off of me, covering my mouth. "What are you doing!?"
"Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-CH-CH-CH-CHEN CHEN!" A nasally voice called out and we both turned our heads to see Dojo on the ground, staring at us in shock, wheezing in and out.
In a quick moment, I was suddenly pulled into the man's arms and suddenly flying in the air. He held me against him, jumping away from building to building before levitating into the sky. Beneath the moonlight, I struggled against him, trying to get him to let go of me. "Do you want me to drop you?" He gave me a hard stare as I only glared at him.
In a swift movement, I slapped him, surprising him. "I would rather drop to my death than be taken away by someone like you." Though I flowered at him as hard as I could, my chest hurt with each of those words slipping away from my lips. "How dare you!" I criticized him. "How dare you take advantage of me? Let me go!" He only stared at me, as surprised as he had been, his expression frozen as I raised my hand again to slap him, only to have my wrist caught in his grasp. "Let me go…!" I pulled my hand away and pushed myself away from him, watching him as I fell from the sky. Rotating up towards the sky, I was suddenly caught onto Dojo's back with the help of the Xiaolin Monks, all of us staring at the stranger before flying away to the temple.
As we flew away, I didn't dare look back at him, but I reached a hand towards my chest and cried as quietly as I could, feeling the sudden sadness and heartache that continuously consumed me today.
