"鵲橋仙

纖雲弄巧,飛星傳恨,銀漢迢迢暗渡。 金風玉露一相逢,便勝卻人間無數。 柔情似水,佳期如夢,忍顧鵲橋歸路。 兩情若是久長時,又豈在朝朝暮暮。"


"And so in anger, the Goddess of Heaven scratched her hairpin across the sky to create a huge river, and the weaver girl and the cowherd were separated forever."

"Forever, Yu Sao?"

"Yes, forever, young master."

Yu Sao observed Ah Si's face suddenly downcast. "Oh," he said. He didn't say anything else.

"What, are you sad, Ah Si!" she laughed.

"NO! I don't even care about the cowherd or the w-weaver girl. I'm so happy that they can't be together. Girls are disgusting."

Yu Sao just shook her head and smiled that mysterious smile that Si hated, that smile that meant she knew something he didn't and reminded him of their age difference and how she wasn't really his friend. And how he had no friends beside her. . .

That night, as Yu Sao tucked him in and he went to sleep, he wondered what the cowherd felt like when he got to meet the weaver girl again.


That day he saw her for the first time at the university he wondered if she was his weaver girl.

But it didn't matter, because as he found out soon enough, she liked Lei. Lei was the hairpin dragged across the sky to keep them apart.

He tried to shake away the thoughts, embarrassed he even remembered that stupid childhood fairy tale.


He realized later it was not Lei, it was his own mother, who was the hairpin.

No, not the hairpin. She was the Goddess of Heaven who had never loved him and was hell bent on keeping his only happiness apart from him.


On their wedding, he whispered it so softly he couldn't believe she'd heard it.

"My weaver girl."

When she looked at him in surprise, he turned away, embarrassed. "Never mind."

"But you are my cowherd."

He looked back up at her and her smile was so blindingly beautiful he almost forgot to breathe.


He was at the hospital and he couldn't breathe, again.

This time, not because he'd forgotten to.

Yu Sao had just suffered a severe stroke and was now strapped to several IV machines in her room in the hospital, while Shancai, his mother and sister, and he were gathered around her.

"Yu Sao. . ." He tried to say, his voice breaking. She hadn't been doing well for the past few years, and she was pushing 85.

"Don't be sad, boy. Remember the story I told you."

"What?"

"Stupid boy. The one about the cowherd and the weaver girl."

"I. . ."

"I never finished telling you the ending." She smiled, struggling to talk.

"What?"

"She felt sorry for them, you know. The Goddess of Heaven. And so she granted them the ability to meet each other again on the 7th day of the 7th month of every year."

His hands were trembling. He was that little boy again, unloved by his mother, and seeking friendship and warmth in the only one who would offer it: Yu Sao.

She reached out and took his hand, like she could sense his pain.

"And for you and Shancai, you are lucky enough to see each other every day. Be happy for that, boy."

"Yu Sao. . ." he was crying now. Shancai next to him was quietly sobbing.

His mother was quiet, and his sister hugged Shancai.

"I love you, Ah Si. You are not that sad and angry little boy I once took care of."

She smiled at him and he smiled a watery one back.

"Ah Si. . . be happy."

And then Yu Sao closed her eyes, not opening them again.


If you weren't there, it would just look like she was sleeping, a hint of a smile on her face.


The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl is a real Chinese folk tale I'd just read about a few days ago :).

It's basically a beautiful love story between Zhinü (織女; the weaver girl, symbolizing the star Vega) and Niulang (牛郎; the cowherd, symbolizing the star Altair). Their love wasn't allowed by the Goddess of Heaven(who is either the Weaver Girl's mother, or her ruler/superior(?)), and as a result, they were banished to opposite sides of the Silver River (symbolizing the Milky Way). Once a year, on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, a flock of magpies forms a bridge to reunite the lovers, but only for a day.

It was originally going to be a romance centered fic, but I added in Yu Sao as the main focus. Hope you like 3

- coexistantLilli :D