Chapter 33：In Search Of Xiao Qiang

She left the place and went in search of Xiao Qiang. This time that Xiao Qiang left, he had not told her about where he went. Not that he did tell her anything for the past months, but he always came back late.

This time she waited for him by playing guzheng. She waited for so long that she didn't even remember how many songs she played. She continuously waited, but as the time went by, it didn't seem like he was coming back home.

Still, she waited. She paced around the room thinking maybe something bad may have befallen him, but she knew that he was a tough man, he couldn't have possibly gotten hurt.

As the sun rose, she gave up on waiting and left in search of him. She didn't know where to begin as he she didn't go out with him a lot. However, the first place she went to search was where she first found him.

Going back to the snow mountain, she found that the cave had disappeared. The only remaining was the one she had went in to release her spiritual energy. She did not believe that the cave would have disappeared without leaving a trace.

She searched around the perimeters thinking that maybe she was at the wrong spot, but no matter how many times she circled around the mountain, she found herself at the same spot.

Thinking that maybe the cave had just been hidden by him, she used her golden eyes to see the unseen. She circled around the mountain for a while to scout the mountain. When she went back to where she started, she counted that there were 10 caves in all that she had not seen.

This was mysterious as when she last came here, there was only two caves. The one where she found him and the one she rested in. She thought that perhaps this was his magic because she knew how smart he was was. She didn't want to waste time by going to look at every cave to see which one was the real one, but there was a force blocking her from using her peripheral vision.

It was not possible for her to use magic to see which one was real, so she spent an hour or so to look at every cave. After going inside them all, she found that none of them were the one she was looking for. She couldn't believe that she used her time to open up the caves, but none of them were the one she was looking for.

Still, this strange occurrence caused her to be determined to find the cave she believed he was in, so she went in all 10 of them again and this time, she found clues in everyone of them. There was a pattern that she needed to solve. The first one solving a poem. She had to choose the correct dress and the poem was the hint. There was 3 dresses that appeared in front of her, a red wedding dress, a royal gold dress, and a black tight dress. The poem stated that the correct answer had something related to a small celebration full of meaning.

If she was anyone else, she would have chosen the red wedding dress, but she remembered clearly that these dresses belonged to her. She knew the history behind each of them and chose the black tight dress. She wore this dress on his birthday. It was the first time they met each other and because of her family abandoning her, she wore this dress to define her grief.

The dress showed that she knew how to fight, but it showed how lonely she was. That was the night that they both celebrated meeting each other. It was small, but that day they met, was meaningful. If she never met him, she would probably be off the cliff and if he never met her, he would be hated and killed. This was the history to the dress and why she chose it.

Another door opened an entrance to the next cave. Each cave had a poem as a hint and three options for her to choose. Everyone of them was meaningful to her as it was full of nostalgia, but the last one, made her cry.

The seas at calm, the disappearance of the moon, the gleam of the sun - dead

This poem was clearly talking about how him and her had both died on the opposites of the world. It wasn't a lie, she was chased off of a cliff, while he was killed unknowingly. They both did not know how each of them died, but they knew that they had separated when they felt the traces of their soul dying.

She was crying hard on the floor not knowing what to do. She felt that she might fail on this one as it looked like she had to name how he or she died. She was scared to say out loud, but in the end, she gave up and told how she died. It was the tenth cave and just like the others, she expected for the door to open or fire to start springing from the incorrect answer, but another poem popped up instead.

Reunited the butterfly lovers, so shall we...

Seeing this poem made her cry again and when she was drowning in emotions, a rock door moved.

She didn't know that while she was searching for him and busy doing all of her business, Xiao Qiang was busy planning their date for their anniversary. She cried at how he was able to remember their anniversary of the first day they met. He always kept his promises and he continued to do so. She remembered that when they first romanticized, he made a promise to her saying that every year, he would remember to celebrate the day they met.

She cried in front of the door in happiness and sadness. He used the butterfly lover story to describe their story. Just like the butterfly lovers, they went through lots of hard times to be together. He died and so did she, but just like the butterflies, they both reunited after death.

He made her want to fall in love all over again. Ending her tears, she entered the door to find the cave full of her favorite flower. She really loved plum blossoms for not only their beauty, but also their uses. The table full of food she used to cook for him. She wondered how he cooked all of these food.

"I missed our date, but is it still available?"