The only sound audible in the room was the squeaking of a mouse. Other than that, the room was in complete silence. Still, there was a heavy sadness pressing down the atmosphere, drowning all the living creatures there into a depression.

Jun Mian didn’t move from his spot. Ever since he knew that his husband was a snake, it was shocking to him. In the usual circumstance, he would have been dead to know that he married a demon. However, the shock was merely a part. The biggest emotion he was feeling now was guilt which was mixed with agony. He stabbed his own love with the dagger that the monk gave. He betrayed his love only for the sake of protecting the monk he had considered a brother already.

If only he had thrown that weapon away.

“Lu Han....”

His eyes dropped more tears as he remembered the pain on the snake’s face, his tears that streamed not because of the pain he inflicted by stabbing him right on his abdomen, but by the pain he inflicted in his heart.

“I’m sorry, Lu Han.... I’m sorry....”

The crystals kept falling down and he had lost the track how long he had stayed there. He was still crying heavily when a mouse approached him. Normally, he would scream and leap away. Joonmyeon was afraid of mouse, let alone the one with a face that seemed to be intelligent, half human-like, but his sadness was just blocking all other emotion to seep in.

“Jun Mian. You need to stop crying. I’ve got a plan and you’re the only one who could do that.”

Jun Mian blinked. His curiousity was allured as he realized that the animal before him was able to talk.

“What... are... you?”

“My name is Chen and I am a brother of Lu Han-ge.”

He sat upright, upon the mentioning of his husband’s name.

“Lu Han! Lu Han! You know him!”

“Of course I do. He is my brother. We used to live in the the forest of Mount Er Mei.”

He reached for the brown mouse, almost squeezing him in his attempt to know what the mouse wanted to say.

“Ouch! Gentle! It hurts!” Chen squeaked. Jun Mian untightened his hold to him, but otherwise focused to his question.

“You, you said before that you’ve got a plan. Is it for rescuing my husband, Luhan?”

Chen nodded, tail wiggling in the air.

“There is just a way to help Gege. It’s the only solution I could think of, for there is no other way to heal the wound that had been caused by a spirit dagger,” Chen glanced at the weapon. “Get rid of that, will you?”

Jun Mian reached for the dagger and without any hesitation throw the sharp knife into the hole that Lu Han made while he was trying to escape.

“Please tell me that, Chen. I will do anything to help Lu Han.”

“It is really dangerous and you might die because of this.”

Jun Mian gritted his teeth, almost squeezing the tiny mouse again.

“I don’t give a ing care. I don’t care if I have to die if it can save my husband. I have to redeem what I have done to him. I would make him well again. Only by that I can be together with him again.”

Chen nodded, touched by the love that he could see emitting from Jun Mian’s eyes. All his doubts about this human vanished, leaving him understood why Lu Han insisted in being with a mortal.

“Follow me.”

Jun Mian heaved a breath. Long, exhausting one. Looking down, the fear shook his mind as he realized that he had already climbed very high. His fingers quickly gripped the vines whose roots penetrated inside the structure as he imagined losing his balance and fell down there. Jun Mian shook his head, trying to eliminate the tremble that suddenly hit him hard. He closed his eyes, attempting to be braver by remembering what Chen said earlier.

“We call it spirit herb. It looks like a ginseng, but it is floating in the air. It is a very powerful plant, a special herb made by god which can bring dead back to life. It only grows in Lei Feng Pagoda, as it could only live at the holiest place in the world. Only you can enter that place, a demon like me can’t even reach its gate.”

A puff of air escaped from Jun Mian’s mouth. Besides shivering of fear, he was shivering out of cold as well.

“There is only a single sprout living in there, so it is the only chance you could save Lu Han-ge. It is really scary. They say that even fire can’t burn it.”

That made Jun Mian open his eyes again. He clenched his jaws as another kind of fear creeped in. He remembered the path that Chen showed him. It was a shortcut to the Lei Feng Pagoda, a hidden path that would not invite suspicion from any guarding monks who was oblivious to it.

“I can’t take you any further than this. Please save Lu Han-ge. He is the only family I have in this world. He has been very kind to me, he always protects me from the other demon. I love him. Please save him, Jun Mian-ge.”

The last words from Chen when he stopped near the gate of Lei Feng Pagoda suddenly dissipated all the uncertainty in his heart. Jun Mian gulped hard all the worry he possessed as his spirit renewed by Chen’s avowal of his respect to him. His hands trembled again now, but now it was because of determination and adrenaline. He raised up and lifted his body again, which now felt very light.

I will save you, Lulu. Please wait for me.

He kept climbing, ignoring the strong wind that blew him hard as he was reaching near the top. He almost lost his grip several times, but he quickly regained his composure and climbed even higher. Jun Mian finally saw a light ahead of his head and he knew that he almost reach his destination. His finger touched a wooden frame. He was there already.

He hoisted him self from the window frame, breath hitching, and he found himself standing in an enormous chamber. He breathed deeply as his eyes examined the room while spinning around, completely surprised to see that Lei Feng Pagoda was much more enchanted than was people’s talk. There was spiral staircase that led to the top of the building s on the wall. The wall, which looked sturdy despite being put hundreds of years ago, all decorated by the paintings that depicted the stories that was told inside Buddha’s sutra book. There was a bronze mirror that stood in the corner of that story, also painted with scary pictures of demons. Joonmyeon shrugged, trying to remember Chen’s instruction.

“Go to the top of the building. It is where the spirit herb resides.”

Jun Mian quickly made his way to the stairs and jumped on quickly. His body was already screaming in fatigue but he kept forcing himself to reach his destination. He didn’t have much time left, Lu Han was getting worse for each moment he spent uselessly.

Just as he was put of breath, he arrived at the final floor of the pagoda. There was a sharp pain on his side stomach and he was stunned for a while due to the intencity of the pain. He had to heave his breaths for some moments before he caught a glimpse on his target.

There it was, floating in the middle of the story. It was exactly like how Chen described. It was purring, Jun Mian noticed, as he was approaching that magical plant. Jun Mian couldn’t contain his awe and for a split second felt loving toward the creature.

You need to hurry!

He was snapped from his temporary reverie, shaking his head as he let his hand reach for the plant. Easy, he thought.

Before the spirit herb glided in the air, getting away of Jun Mian’s hand.

He hitched, feeling confused but quickly marched to grab the plant. It glided again, this time faster than before. In his third attempt to catch the plant, it released himself free and suddenly it popped up some other plants that was dancing in the air like a school of jellyfish. Now Jun Mian felt offended. As the plants began to swirl, he kept his eyes on a particular one. He leapt forward and the plant was in his grip.

Suddenly a face appeared on the plant. A pair of hollow eyes and a mouth filled in the area of the plant body. It looked creepily at Jun Mian.

“How dare you steal the spirit herb! You’re a thief!”

With that heard a scary laughter from the spirit herb. It protruded its side roots and started constricting Jun Mian with them. Jun Mian resisted, he freed his hands from the handcuff of root but the plant had called his clones and now they all slithered their roots to Jun Mian’s body.

Jun Mian tried his best to get rid of the spirit herb and its clones but they were much more adamant in their trying to strangle Jun Mian, constricting his body and letting him die in suffocation. He lost his balance when a clone, or the real herb, he didn’t know, whipped his foot, making him fell to the ground with a loud thud and painful bruise.

“THIEF! THIEF! THIEF! THIEF!” the spirit herbs screamed while gliding in the air and attaching themselves to Jun Mian.

“Oh ! Which one is the real spirit herb?” Jun Mian hissed in his attempt to free himself.

“Hahaha. You will know after you meet your death, Thief!”

That laughter offended Jun Mian more than ever.

“I’ll find it even if it kills me! I will save my husband!”

However, even though his rage was building up inside him, the spirit herbs had already accomplished their mission. All their roots has been tying Jun Mian up and the man was huffing in agony as he was coiled up breathlessly. He clenched his jaws, trying to free himself but their power was too hard to overcome. His body almost gave up when his mind smacked him with a very vivid memory.

“There is only a single sprout living in there, so it is the only chance you could save Lu Han-ge. It is really scary. They say that even fire can’t burn it.”

“THAT”S IT!” exclaimed Jun Mian in muffled scream. It was a great struggle when his fingers crawled into his clothes and reached for a match that was given by Chen. Unlike a regular match, this one would just pop fire whenever it was shook in the air. Jun Mian tried to sway it but the constriction of the roots of spirit herbs was just too suppressing.

If only I could wave it....

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!”

It was the mixture of spirit herb’s and his own scream. The constriction was lessened in a sudden but another pain from the fire burned his skin. The spirit herbs were quick to release themselves from him, gliding in the air and screaming. Jun Mian, as he finished rolling in the floor to kill the leftover fire, quickly looked up and scanned the surrounding.

There it was, gliding in the middle of its burning clone, dancing in the air like a strange jellyfish. It was no longer protected. It was alone and it was the right time for catching it.

Jun Mian rose up in pain, his body was weakening due to exhaustion and the burn. He slowly stepped ahead before he jumped in the air and grabbed the spirit herbs tightly, squeezing it between his fingers. For the second time, he fell to the ground. This time, however, he had already fallen into unconsciousnees before he even touched the floor with the second loud thud.

Not so far from him, only two stories below him, the bronze mirror he passed before began to shake. The bronze convex surface slowly disappeared, leaving it blank. Leaf-shaped light began to popped up inside the now hollow mirror, along with the groan in the background.

“Finally.... We are free....”

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March 14, 2015

Poor Jun Mian. Good luck, love. Lulu is waiting for you. More intense action coming now. Just stay put.

Schandelierre