#love that scene in the donghua with baby a-zhan giving his toy to baby xianxian

[bnnywngs]

Wei Changze opened his eyes suddenly, jumping from wherever he was lying down.

He died. He was certain he had died. A night hunt going wrong, the most common reason a cultivator dies.

"Oh, no... A-Ying."

A chuckle came from behind him and he turned as fast as he could, hand coming to his waist to get his sword that was not there.

A young woman, barely out of her teens, sat on a high bolder, legs dangling while her elbows were digging into her knees and hands held her chin, her thin lips covering her round cheeks. She was smiling rather happily to Wei Changze and he suddenly had a hunch that the woman was not human.

"Now you remember him." she chuckled.

He felt like an arrow went through his heart.

"Who are you?" he asked instead, trying to ignore his guilt.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" she laughed, leaning back "I have more names that I would like." she sighed, looking up, to the white, cloudless sky.

In a blink of an eye, the woman disappeared from the boulder.

Feeling something tug the back of his robe, Wei Changze turned around and found a child, a young boy.

"But you can call me Destiny."

"...I see."

The boy walked around him with a strange expression.

"This means I died." Wei Changze said.

"Not quite yet." the boy shrugged "You did die, originally, but I decided that I didn't want that."

"You decided." Wei Changze deadpanned.

"Yes!" the boy smiled happily "It would be very sad if things went the way they did again. I was scolded, you know. A lot of people died that wasn't supposed to, and the people who was supposed to ascend, didn't. It was quite a mess."

"Two new gods?"

"Yeah, but they died as humans. That was very wrong and heaven was in pure chaos. So!" the boy ran around and while Wei Changze turned to follow him with his eyes, a old woman in multicolor robes appeared "I will send you back and right those wrongs."

"You're sending me back? Why? Why me?"

"Because I can." she chuckled "It's nice to have fun like this. And if you follow the path once abruptly cut short, I can even play a few pranks."

Wei Changze was seriously confused and a little scared.

"Bit I can't simply send you back, that is not the deal me, heaven and hell have. To bring back someone, I have to take an equivalent."

"What do you mean?"

"You already know."

Silence.

They only stared at each other with different expressions.

"Who?"

"A stone with the same weight to make the same waves. You will know. But don't worry, or be sad, it's, like your kind says, for the best." she smiled kindly.

"Stones?"

"You and this other one, are like stones thrown in still water. In the center, nothing of substance will happen, but far from it, high waves ripple through. You have the same weight, make the same kind of waves, but of different outcomes." she approached him and tapped his cheek softly, a kind smile on her wrinkled face "When the time comes, I'll welcome you back, and you'll have done an splendid job."

"How do you know?"

"It's my job to." she chuckled "Now, go back, our A-Ying is waiting."

Before he could even open his mouth to question, his eyes opened again and he found himself in the eerie forest just outside the Burial Mounds, wounded but alive. He could see his wife's bloodied body Not far from him.

He cried.

Long and loud, before a long time just watching the stars twinkling and slowly disappearing with the sunrise.

He stood up.

The villagers had the fright of their lives when they saw him, dirty with earth, blood and whatever this place has, limping his way through the streets with his wife's cold body in his arms. They soon helped him and Cangse Sanren found a resting place in Yiling, of all places.

A-Ying didn't take well the news and cried and cried and cried, asking for his a-niang between pitiful sobs.

They were guests in the city's leader house until Wei Changze was fully healed and A-Ying was calmer. But as they were exchanging farewells, a few Lan cultivators arrived.

"Lan-xiong?" Wei Changze called when he saw the familiar goatee in the town market.

"Wei Changze." Lan Qiren looked at him in awe "You are alive."

"Thank Destiny." he chuckled "A-Ying, this is you a-die and a-niang's friend, Lan-shushu."

"A-niang?" his little eyes looked around in excitement, before turning sad again, hugging his father's neck and hiding from the world once more.

Wei Changze sighed "I'm sorry."

"I see." the man nodded, an serious expression in his face "There's nothing to be sorry, my friend."

"Thank you." Wei Changze nodded back, voice wet "But tell me, what brings you here?"

"You haven't heard." Lan Qiren looked surprised "Madam Jiang died in a night hunt."

"Madam Jiang? You mean... Yu Ziyuan?!"