Notes: Hello all! I started writing this fic weeks ago when I was in Wuxi, but I did not have time to finish it until now. When I was in Wuxi, I went to the garden where Xishi, one of the Four Great Beauties of China, was said to have lived. I based this story loosely around Xishi's story, and is by no means historically accurate. More details in the post-notes. For now, enjoy!

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In the Garden of Fairies

 

1.

 

The General stood at the crest of a wooded hill, surveying her army from above. It was small. Too small to fight against the massive enemy. Her men were still excited, ignorantly so, and—alas, the burden of power—she carried the secret of their weakness upon her shoulders. Her emperor had waved his hand, ordered her to think of something, and her, powerless to even question the improbability of her task, nodded.

 

“General Moon.”

 

She turned at the sound of footsteps pattering over fallen leaves. Her grim heart was set in her stern, impassive expression, one often mistaken for coldness. “Speak.”

 

The young soldier grinned. “The men are ready.”

 

“Thank you…”

 

“Ahn, Sir. Ahn Hyejin,” she said, bouncing into an eager salute. “I accompanied you on our last reconnaissance.”

 

The General spared only a brief, but strained smile. “Yes, I remember now.” The mere thought of their last mission threatened to squeeze the air out of her lungs. She cleared . “Tell them to hold. We are not ready yet.”

 

“But Sir—”

 

General Moon raised a hand. “Tell me, Ahn Hyejin, what is man’s greatest weakness?” It was the question she has been turning in her mind for quite some time. She had, in fact, devised a plan, one which made the emperor’s improbable demands probable, even if only marginally so. And yet a selfish part of her held on to it, hoping there could be another way.

 

Hyejin thought, her eyes nervously flirting around the General’s face as she tried to puzzle out what she wanted to hear. “Man’s greatest weakness,” she said slowly, a sheepish smile spreading, “must be women, Sir.”

 

The General studied the bright-eyed recruit until she shifted uncomfortably. “What of greed?” She said. “Or pride and glory?”

 

Hyejin shrugged. “All of those things...are for women at the end of the day. Even the mightiest can be brought to their knees by a beautiful woman.” She peeked up through her tousled black hair. “Wouldn’t you agree, Sir?”

 

“Hm.”

 

She did.

 

As much as did not want to, she completely agreed.

 

It was simply a pity there was only one woman who held such power.

 

A pity, General Moon thought bitterly, did not begin to describe the sound of her own heart breaking in this dilemma.

 

2.

 

Kim Yongsun wandered restlessly around the forest, halfheartedly admiring the nature she used to adore. She sighed and sighed, while her faithful servant trailed after her without a word.

 

Kim Yongsun would later go on to be one of the most beautiful women in all of history. Rumours of her immaculate conception had already reached the furthest reaches. For now, she lived a quiet and simple life. For now, she had only one thing on her mind.

 

“Do you think she will come back?” She asked her servant, nervously twirling a fallen leaf from between her fingers.

 

Her servant nodded with false confidence.

 

“When? When do you think she will return, Wheein?”

 

“I don’t know, my lady,” Wheein replied with a tinge of unshielded exasperation. They had been over this a thousand times for nearly two weeks now.

 

“Did you ask your friend in her army?”

 

The young servant’s cheeks coloured. “Yes, my lady.” Yongsun looked up at her lifelong companion quizzically. “They’re still at the camp when I heard last.”

 

Yongsun sighed once more. “Do you think she will come back for me? I know she loves me, and yet...how can she bear to stay away for so long? If I had a horse, I would go see her immediately. I miss her, Wheein. How can I miss her so much?”

 

Wheein reached for her mistress’s hair and dusted off a stray leaf. “Forgive me for speaking out of turn, my lady, but you met only two weeks ago. How can you be so sure of your feelings?”

 

Yongsun turned away, away from her servant’s touch. “My dear Wheein,” she said, looking off into the green canopy above. “I believe you understand my feelings very well.”

 

Her servant blushed once more as she thought of her young soldier. She thought they had been discreet. “R-regardless,” she murmured, running after her wandering mistress, “you can have you pick of lovers, my lady. Surely there will be someone worthy of my lady’s longing and affection.”

 

“Perhaps. It is a pity that my heart is so stubborn.”

 

Just then, the sound of hooves broke through the quiet forest. They turned—a black horse with a white star, young, wild, and strong, stepped out from between the trees, just above where they stood.

 

“Hello!” The rider called out. “I’m looking for Kim Yongsun.”

 

Wheein instinctively stood in front of her mistress as the rider approached. “Who are you?” She said, fingers flying to the hilt of a hidden blade.

 

The rider stood before them astride the huffing stallion and pulled down the scarf around their neck. Wheein blinked at the familiar grin, the crinkled nose, and the quirked brow. And yet she did not recognize the regal garb.

 

“Have you forgotten me already?” The rider said, leaping off her steed with practiced grace.

 

“Hyejin?”

 

Wheein ran forward to hug the young rider. Yongsun hung back, watching their bold display impassively. A tinge of envy seeped through her as she thought of the silent general and her protégé—they had met the same day and yet the protégé returned without her master. The young maiden and her bright-eyed soldier—she had seen them embrace just like this beneath the willow trees while she had to settle for longing gazes as the General spoke to her father.

 

Yongsun, familiar with the favours of men and women, never expected to be pining so fiercely for a woman whose duty bound her feelings deep within her heart.

 

“What is your business here?” Yongsun ground out, shamelessly forgetting the grace and majesty her parents had drilled into her head. Shame—so flimsy in the face of these boiling emotions within her chest.

 

Hyejin blushed, tearing herself away from Wheein’s arms with as much dignity as she could muster, and bowed. She pulled out a scroll from her bag, and presented it with both hands, waist bent at ninety degrees. “A message, my lady. From General Moon.”

 

Yongsun met her servant’s wide eyes, her heart running away as soon as the syllables had fallen.

 

3.

 

At the top of a green swell, a short distance from her parents’ estate, there was a shelter. A few simple stone columns, topped with a curved red roof, that overlooked the valley below. And it was in this shelter that she had first found the young General, merely two weeks ago when she had been passing through. It was here where they met again, the young General’s gentle demeanour entirely transformed.

 

Yongsun couldn’t recognize the dim eyes, set in all seriousness, the love and life inside them snuffed out by duty. She couldn’t recognize the woman before her, brazenly asking the impossible of her.

 

“Yongsun,” her General—the General—said. “For the sake of the country, you must do this.”

 

Yongsun flinched away from her touch, horrified. “I will not throw myself into the hands of some villain,” she declared. “Not even for you, Byulyi.”

 

General Moon flexed her empty hands and dropped them at her side. “I do not want this either,” she confessed quietly, “for sleepless days and sleepless nights I tried to find another way, but this...you”—she raised her eyes to meet Yongsun’s—“you’re our only hope.”

 

“H-how...how can you do this?” Yongsun said, holding herself tightly as she tried to fight the tears. “How can you—when...when you know that I...I—”

 

“Enough!” Byulyi cried, holding her gaze. Their eyes, red-rimmed mirrors, spoke the same story in their watery depths, and yet light could not return to Byulyi’s eyes. “You will depart at dawn.”

 

The last thing Yongsun heard before she dissolved into heavy sobs was the heavy footsteps of Byulyi’s boots walking away.

 

4.

 

Anger—

 

Beneath everything she did, there was a layer of quietly simmering anger that coursed through her veins. Outwardly, she continued to smile, continued to play at the whims of men, continued to be the pawn in this grand scheme. Inwardly, she was anger personified.

 

Wheein learned to stay away during the quiet nights, particularly when it rained. The thunderstorms were a welcome distraction for her mistress, a welcome way to hide the noise as she let the anger out. Wheein learned to stay silent when she bandaged her mistress’s knuckles, and swept up the bloody shards of her mistress’s mirror.

 

By day, Yongsun smiled sweetly at the fumbling pigs with their open sneers and vapid compliments. Her enchanting beauty was uncanny—it was a double-edged sword she was not shy to use. By night, she cursed them all. She wanted to curse General Moon most of all, yet the love she still stubbornly harboured seemed to have a way of staving off that anger when she needed it most.

 

She did not let them touch her—her false affections so entirely convincing that she did not need to. The illusion, she thought bitterly, would be better than the truth. And she was good at playing the fantasy they needed her to be—simple men as they were. She was good at fantasies in general. 

 

She considered writing to the General. Feed her lies and see if the calm General could be incited in any way. But, she was tired. She was tired of her anger, her double life, and her stubbornly undying love for the most stupid woman in the world. She missed her, above all, and when she looked out the window at the empty moon every night, she could not resist wondering if her own Moon missed her too.

 

Finally, after two months, Wheein slipped a letter into her sleeve.

 

She opened it with trembling hands.

 

When the moon crescents, the sun will smile again

When the moon meets the sun on the golden horizon,

A new day will dawn

 

Yongsun looked to Wheein, who returned the question with a blank expression.

 

“Who gave this to you?” Yongsun sighed, the anger coiled tightly inside her.

 

Wheein blushed. “Hyejin did, my lady.”

 

Yongsun shook her head, sighing as she laid down on her bed. She did not have the energy for petty—

 

Just as she was about to close her eyes, her gaze fell on her window, where the full moon hung against the sparse grey clouds. She sat up. “Crescent moon,” she whispered.

 

“My lady?”

 

“They’re coming,” she breathed. “She’s coming.”

 

She loved her after all.

 

The sun will smile again.

 

She loved her.

 

5.

 

It was The Night of the Crescent Moon, as history will later call it.

 

For Yongsun, it was a routine night, though the electricity thrumming through the air belied the truth.

 

When the moon meets the sun…

 

Yongsun smiled.

 

Yongsun sang to them, like a sweet bird in their gilded cage. Like a Siren’s song, they listened and swooned. She poured them drinks; they drank them like their own personal blessings from their very own man-made goddess. She would be lying if she did not secretly enjoy the power she had—useless as it were in attaining the only thing she ever desired. The open affection of a woman far too steeped in principal to be swept away by something as fickle as beauty. 

 

But she fulfilled her duty all the same. She giggled and laughed and batted her lashes, and they clapped and cheered until alcohol drowned everything else out.

 

All while the crescent moon hung high above them.

 

Yongsun smiled at the sea of pink-faced men at her feet. Heroes or villains, they were all the same, she mused. Simple creatures seeking pleasure in our dreary lives.

 

She stepped over the threshold of the courtyard and shut the door.

 

When she turned, she looked down the stone path, past the towering trees and the walls of the garden. There, at the gate, a familiar figure stood, as handsome as ever with her hand resting casually on the hilt of her sword. General Moon held out a hand. 

 

It had been far too long. 

 

“Come,” she mouthed. Come, we are finally free.

 

A rush of imperial soldiers suddenly appeared, two lines of them, brushing past Yongsun as they charge through the courtyard door. The sound of metal unsheathing echoed in the night air as Yongsun walked forward, stumbling against the current of soldiers, away from the slaughter, away from all this.

 

She reached forward and took the warm hand.

 

They shared a smile, the first in months.

 

Except—

 

“General Moon!”

 

Suddenly, the hand was gone. Yongsun raised her eyes to meet Byulyi’s. Her gentle smile stayed and it eased her heart, but in a moment, she steeled her expression as she looked past Yongsun and down the path.

 

It was Hyejin—steadfast in the crowd as she met her General’s gaze.

 

“Where are you going?” She asked, her voice quivering as if she already knew the answer.

 

General Moon pressed two hands to her helmet and removed it, the long strip of fur on top floating like a red flag. Hyejin pushed past the waves of soldiers, and stumbled forward, just in time to catch the helmet in both hands. Her eyes widened.

 

“I am retiring,” Byulyi announced, taking Yongsun’s hand into her own once more. “I believe the empire will find my sacrifices sufficient. My debt to my country has been paid, and now I must be with my love.”

 

“B-but, General,” the young soldier sputtered, still unable to take her eyes off the helmet. “Are you sure?”

 

Byulyi grinned. “You will be great, Hyejin.”

 

With trembling hands, Hyejin lifted the helmet upon her own head, disbelief still evident on her features. “I...I won’t let you down, General,” she said, saluting proudly.

 

“General Ahn,” Yongsun said, smiling, “you better take care of Wheein for me too. She was my servant, but she will always be my friend.”

 

General Ahn blushed, dropping her salute in alarm, her heart secretly bursting with tentative joy. “Wheein...isn’t...isn’t coming with you? B-but…where will you go?”

 

Yongsun looked up at Byulyi, who smiled back with no small amount of adoration. “I have an idea.”

 

6.

 

In a garden set between green valleys, built upon a crystal lake, a myth began to grow. The garden, spanning miles and miles, was the home of fairies, they said. Some talked of beautiful women who built a home in its secret coves. Others talked of lovers singing on the shores.

 

Elsewhere, legends of the brave General and the most beautiful woman in the world spread like wildfire. Over the years, their disappearance was erased from the lore, none expecting a connection to the fairies of the lake others whispered about.

 

It was said that twenty years after The Night of the Crescent Moon, the legendary General Ahn had forfeited her helmet, had taken her wife and child, and disappeared just as her friend and mentor did. The helmet, some storytellers will later whisper, must have been cursed.

 

No one knew the truth of their stories but themselves. And yet, those who lived around the garden all spoke of the most beautiful melodies and glimpses of the most wondrous paradise.

 

The fairies, they thought, must’ve been very happy.
 

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Notes: Hello again, everyone! Surprise quick update!! I started this story weeks ago, but didn't have the time or energy to finish it. As mentioned, this story was based on the legends of Xishi, who was, as far as people seem to be concerned, real. And was so beautiful that she could charm fish. 

A couple things about this story. I started writing it when I was actually in the garden. The legend was etched out on a number of pieces on the wall, but I unfortunately could not read it well enough to piece the information together. Wikipedia was also quite limited. Regardless, the garden is very, very beautiful, and while I waited for my mother and her friends to finish taking selfies, I thought why the hell not. My mom even joked that I looked like I was trying to be an old-timey poet, but really, I was just writing fic hahahah!

The general in the story was, of course, a man. I believe he does not reunite with Xishi until decades later, when he retires from the army. Xishi, in the meantime, was being a spy among other things. She was basically China's Trojan Horse, from my understanding.

The garden was where they go after they reunite. It was said that "they lived like fairies" and I thought that was really amusing, so I wrote it in too. My first thought was, "Are there even fairies in China?" 

According to my mother, however, in some versions of the myth, she ends up drowning in the lake. Not sure if on purpose or by accident. Still, I thought it was amazing that she and the general had feelings for each other for basically a whole lifetime before they were allowed to elope (at least, I hope it was a consensual eloping). I collapsed the timeline, of course, so they can be young and happy hahaha. In my mind, Hyejin was probably only like 36 or 37, so she was young too when she eloped to the garden with Wheein and baby.

Finally, the poem was just a result of my overexerted brain. It is not historical at all, so just take it all with a grain of salt. 

I hope you all enjoyed it nonetheless! I know I haven't been posting as often, but your support is really important to me! Please comment below or send me a little upvote if you had fun~

Edit: I got the name of the woman wrong in my notes...oops. Her name was Xishi and not Xishan. Hopefully I’ve corrected every instance! 

It’s so embarassing because I know the tongue twister in Cantonese too. I believe the translation would be “Xishi died at 44 (years old).”