But that woman refused him. Although the Zhu Clan Deity felt regret, he never forced her. It was only that someone in the Zhu clan could not accept her rejection of the Clan Deity, and secretly went to threaten and entice her again and again, ultimately forcing the woman to her death.
When the Zhu Clan Deity learned of this, he burned all the beautiful brocaded garments he once cherished. From then on, he wore only plain white robes. The Zhu clansmen could only wear plain garments as well — to mourn the innocent woman who had lost her life.
Because of this incident, the Zhu Clan Deity was also known as the “White-robed Zhu Clan Deity.”
【Wei Clan】
When the Wei Clan Deity was born, several elder brothers already existed at home. The family was mired in internal strife, and his appearance only intensified it.
All the elder brothers tried to win him over — except for the sixth brother, Wei He, who despised him extremely. For he too was born disabled. From the moment he was born, Wei He was rejected by their parents. Yet the youngest brother, also born disabled, was a noble shentai. Jealousy twisted his temperament.
When Wei He grew up and married, he suddenly had a brilliant idea. He ordered his wife to seduce the shentai, wanting to disgrace him, to make the family see the shentai commit a shameful act — an utterly insane and foolish notion.
Wei He’s wife, Fuqu, was timid and gentle, her temperament soft. Forced by her husband to approach the shentai, she behaved properly, only treating herself as an elder sister caring for a younger brother.
The Wei Clan Deity was cold and withdrawn by nature, indifferent to all. Fuqu cared for him patiently and tenderly for a long time, and without either of them realizing it, affection quietly bloomed.
Discovering that his wife had fallen in love with his younger brother, Wei He flew into a fury. He demanded that she reveal their secret relationship to the public. Fuqu refused. In his rage, Wei He accidentally strangled her to death.
At that time, the Wei Clan Deity had not yet reached the proper age to be made a Clan Deity. But because the woman he loved had died, he forcibly became a Clan Deity, hoping to use this to bring Fuqu back to life. In the end, because she had been dead for too long, it failed.
The woman he loved as a human left a vivid, gentle imprint in his life — a blossom that appeared like an epiphyllum, fleeting and beyond reach.
The Wei Clan Deity was the most indifferent of all Clan Deity toward his clan. With cold eyes he watched his family flourish because of him, and then watched them fall into ruin in a single night. In less than a thousand years, he and the entire Wei clan disappeared together — making him the Clan Deity with the shortest existence among them all.
—Fuqu, Fuqu, a flower that blooms for only one season.
【Guan Clan】
From youth, the Guan Clan Deity wished to see all the scenery in the world, but as a Clan Deity, he had to remain with the clan. At that time, a terrible plague had broken out. Only with him staying safely within the clan could his people feel even a trace of security.
Since he could not leave the clan’s territory, he could only wander secretly through the city each day, listening to merchants coming from north and south speak of the customs and landscapes of distant places. But the Guan region was rugged, its lands barren, far from the sea, and few foreign merchants ever passed through.
One day, he encountered a young boy selling sundries. The boy was dark-skinned and small, carrying a huge box of goods on his back like a snail, relying on his own strength to travel everywhere selling wares. The Guan Clan Deity found it interesting and followed for quite a long time, only to discover that “he” was actually a girl.
“Why are you pretending to be a man, carrying that box everywhere selling sundries?” The Guan Clan Deity sat lightly atop her box and asked.
The girl was not afraid and answered him: “I want to see more sights I’ve never seen before.”
“But unfortunately I’m a woman, and alone. They say faraway places are at war, and there are evil spirits and bandits along the roads. There’s no way for me to go farther.”
A kindred spirit!
The Guan Clan Deity patted his chest: “That’s simple — become my wife. When you gain power, you won’t need to fear any of that. Then you can go see the distant scenery for me, and every so often, come back and tell me about it. How about it?”
One dared to say it, the other dared to believe it and in the end, the two of them truly spent several thousand years together.
The Guan Clan Deity’s wife was named Lu You. After becoming his wife, she indeed once more carried her box of goods, setting off from the Guan clan’s land to see countless sights.
Every few years, she would return, travel-worn and dusty, to the Guan clan’s land to share with the Guan Clan Deity all she had seen along the way. She wrote hundreds of travelogues in her life, and even one Record of a Hundred Clan Deity Clans, documenting the Clan Deity lineages she had visited in her journeys and the tales she heard about them.
“I went to the Luo clan. Many among the Luo practice martial arts and live in the Xingyun Mountains. They are very skilled at climbing trees and hunting, but I do not know why all of them fear water. Few can swim, a whole group of land ducks…”
“On the way back, I passed through the Qin clan’s territory. The Qin clan’s clan head was worrying about how their Clan Deity had no wife, afraid their Clan Deity would be lonely. He even asked me if I had any good candidates to recommend…”
【Qin Clan】
One generation’s clan head of the Qin clan, Qin Shuke, had been a very curious child since young. At three years old, he dared to climb over the courtyard wall into the sacred grounds where the ancestral shrine of the Qin clan was, just to sneak a look at the Clan Deity.
At that time, he was a fearless little troublemaker. Seeing that inside the shrine there wasn’t the fierce and terrifying Clan Deity adults spoke of, but only a young man sitting with sleeves tucked, smiling lazily in the sun, he made it his own secret base to run wild — and plucked all the blooming camellias in the courtyard bare.
“Ai, children are truly mischievous.”
That young man sighed, not showing the slightest anger.
But then, after flaunting his boldness, the three-year-old Qin Shuke received retribution that very night. He woke up needing to pee and saw a white figure hanging by a red rope at the head of his bed, swaying gently. He instantly wet his pants in fright. That scene became a lifelong childhood shadow he could not forget for many years.
“Ancestor, I’m your great-great-great-great-great grandson, right? You actually have the nerve to hold a grudge with a little kid and even specially come scare me?”
“I was just playing with you.”
After Qin Shuke grew into a teenager, he was no longer afraid of the Clan Deity. He treated him like a lonely elder in an empty nest and always snuck over to see him, complaining about youthful troubles.
“Father and Mother keep urging me to marry. I’m still so young — what’s the point of finding a woman to have children with? I’ll absolutely never marry and have kids! It’s too troublesome!”
The teenager who vowed so confidently later met a girl he liked, finally married her, felt his life complete — and suddenly began to worry about the ancestral Clan Deity’s lifelong happiness.
For several decades afterward, Qin Shuke was troubled by this matter.
“Clan Deity, in all these years, isn’t there anyone you like?”
The Clan Deity simply smiled without answering.
“All the other Clan Deity have already found wives. You’re not bad at all, so how come you can’t find one? It makes no sense. Now, only you and the Luo Clan Deity, and the Shui Clan Deity… anyway, just a few of you still without wives. Our Qin clan has such prestige — if word gets out that you don’t even have a wife, wouldn’t we juniors seem so unfilial?”
“You don’t want to go outside, but honestly everyone lives pretty well now. It’s fine if you occasionally go out. If you always stay in the shrine, how can you possibly find a wife? How about… I find some people and let you take a look?”
Qin Shuke tested the waters with this suggestion and that very night, he saw someone hanging at his bedside again, reliving his childhood nightmare. He was nearly scared to an early death.
“Ai… Clan Deity, I’m old now, I really can’t handle fright anymore. I won’t look, I won’t look, alright?”
After becoming clan head, Qin Shuke had far more responsibilities to handle, which left him severely balding. He could only wear a hat to maintain the dignity of a clan head. Sometimes, seeing the Clan Deity’s thick, dark hair, he could not help but feel deeply envious.
Later, his hair slowly turned white, and there wasn’t much left to fall out. His teeth were gone too, and he had become an old man nearing the end of his days.
“Clan Deity… in these decades of my life, if not for my Ah-Ying by my side, I would have felt so lonely. You must live so very long, without anyone beside you… how lonely that must be. For such a long time… how are you supposed to endure it alone?”
The Clan Deity smiled faintly, and gently touched the child’s dimming eyes.
“I truly hope you can find someone you like, to accompany you…”
Witnessing yet another child’s passing, the Qin Clan Deity raised his hand and returned to the shrine. He had already spent a thousand years like this, and would continue so forever.
Red single-petal camellias swayed lightly in the wind and snow. Who knew after how many years, someone would pluck one again.
(End of the first story)
Author’s note:
The first small story is finished. Next chapter, the second small story — the male lead is a swamp monster!
