Love and Hate Fall as Silent as Snow

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After that faithless girl jilted him at the altar and ran, my younger brother spent his days sunk in gloom.

To coax a smile out of him, I gave him spirit stones, gave him an immortal manor, even placed him as an apprentice under a master of enchanted relics.

He was timid and withdrawn, so I swallowed my pride and went around smoothing every path for him, asking my immortal friends to look after him.

My wife, the God of War, was not pleased.

"A useless thing who can't stand on his own two feet will only bring you trouble. He isn't even your blood brother. Do you really have to wait on him like he's some ancestor?"

For the first time, I turned on her.

"Wesley Ashford means a thousand times more to me than so-called blood. When you're cruel to him, you're looking down on me."

Later I went to the Wildlands to quell a rebellion for a year, and Serena Crawford had someone deliver 199 enchanted relics.

When we spoke through the water mirror, she pursed her lips with that proud little tilt of her chin.

"Here. All commissioned from that foolish brother of yours. I've been such a supportive wife, haven't I? Aren't I obedient?"

I was moved. I thought it was her concession, her way of loving me.

So I fought to win early and come home, desperate to be with her sooner.

Instead I walked in on Serena and my brother, tangled together in our own bedchamber.

"Rena, I've made another enchanted relic for my brother. When we're done, remember to have someone send it to him, or my conscience won't rest."

"You've already sent him 199 for free. You've burned through so much of your spiritual energy, it breaks my heart. I'm the one who fell for you first. There's no need for you to wrong yourself like this."

I froze where I stood.

So those 199 enchanted relics were the number of times they had gone behind my back.

I sat alone in the courtyard through the whole night.

The servants watched my face and, trembling, crept inside to change the water, round after round.

Seven trips in all.

The soft sounds inside never stopped for a moment.

Not until dawn did Serena's sated voice finally drift out of the bedchamber.

"Someone come in. Your master worked hard last night. Come attend to his robes."

At that word, master, a low laugh escaped me.

The maid carrying the water dropped the basin at once and knelt on the ground, shaking uncontrollably.

The people inside heard the noise, and after a moment, the door finally opened.

When they saw me, Serena and Wesley both went stiff.

When they saw the 199 enchanted relics laid out in neat rows across the courtyard, and the servants kneeling all over the ground.

Wesley's face changed, then he pulled up a smile and came toward me.

"Charlie, when did you get back? Didn't you say the rebellion would take two years? How did it end so soon?"

"II twisted my ankle last night, and Serena said you had some fine immortal elixir in your room. I didn't expect to doze off. She only just came in to check whether my injury was better"

His probing, clumsy excuse didn't even interest me enough to hear out.

"If I hadn't come home early with the victory, I'd never have known the master of the War God's manor had already become you."

I jerked my chin at the relics.

"Serena's been well served, it seems. Otherwise you wouldn't have sent me so many gifts."

"Is this a male favorite paying tribute to the first wife in advance? How very dutiful of you."

Wesley went white in an instant.

"Charlie, you've misunderstood, I never meant"

Before he'd finished, the tears were already spilling down his face.

Serena pulled him behind her, shielding him, and frowned.

"Charles Griffin, I was the one who went after him first. There's no need to blame him. This is your brother, not your enemy."

As she said it, a faint killing edge rose off her.

It was the aura Serena carried only when she faced an enemy on the battlefield.

And now, it seemed, my turn had come.

Yet when she turned to wipe Wesley's tears, nothing was left but tenderness.

"There now. Go home and wait for me. I'll come find you once I've dealt with this."

The words scraped my throat raw.

She called Wesley's dwelling home. Then what was this place, where we had lived together for nearly a hundred years?

Wesley stole a careful glance at me, nodded, and in the end walked off without a single word of explanation.

I looked at the lovebird sachet hanging at Serena's waist.

One glance told me it was a matched pair with Wesley's.

"As I recall, you never liked wearing these. You thought them too precious, too lacking in authority."

Serena lowered her eyes and stroked the sachet, tenderness rippling across her face.

"Charlie, you always used to say I was single-minded, that I didn't know how to bend. Now I've finally learned to change, and it feels surprisingly good."

"And of all these changes, the one that brings me the most joy is falling for Wesley. You'll understand, won't you?"

The irony of it hit me at once.

Once, the Heavenly Emperor had teased her on purpose.

"My dear minister, you're the God of War of the Ninefold Heavens now, and you still guard only General Griffin? How dull. Shall I find you a few handsome male favorites?"

Back then Serena's answer was respectful and unshakable.

"Your servant is a single-minded soul. Having fixed my heart on Charles, I will never spare another man so much as a glance. If Your Majesty forced someone on me, I would sooner destroy myself than disappoint Charles in the slightest."

And now she stood there, unmoved, asking me to understand her betrayal.

Serena seemed lost in some lovely memory.

"When you'd just left for the Wildlands, it happened to be the lovers' festival. Remembering what you'd asked of me, I went to visit Wesley."

"Everyone outside was paired off, and he was sitting alone in his courtyard, holding that pair of sachets and crying. Strangely, I didn't feel annoyed. I felt sorry for him instead. I lost myself so far as to share a meal with him and float a lantern, unwilling to leave him alone. That was when I knew my heart had strayed."

My breath stopped short.

That day, of all days?!

Before I left for the Wildlands, Serena kissed me like she couldn't bear to let me go.

She begged me to reach her through the water mirror on the night of the lovers' festival, so we could celebrate together even from apart.

As luck would have it, a demon beast ambushed us that very day. Not wanting to break my promise, I threw everything into cutting it down as fast as I could, took grave wounds, and nearly lost my right arm.

But the water mirror stayed silent. No one answered.

Only the next day did Serena tell me she'd waited and waited for me until she fell asleep. I actually felt guilty over it, and apologized to her.

Thinking about it now, it's almost funny.

I looked into her eyes.

"But you said you'd never keep a male favorite."

Serena looked away.

"I did. But I won't let Wes suffer either."

"So, Charlie, let's end it. Let's divorce."

She set a divorce writ down on the stone table.

"Charlie, you're a brave general of the heavens. You can always stand on your own. But Wes is too fragile. I have to marry him, and it's my duty to take care of him for the rest of his life."

"This manor, and every reward from this campaign, I'm leaving them all to you as compensation. From now on we're still comrades-in-arms and friends. You can hate me, but don't make trouble for Wes. I can't bear to see him guilty or hurt."

My heart clenched so hard I could barely breathe through the pain.

And at the same time, it struck me as absurd.

She used to despise Wesley for being weak and useless, a vine that could only cling to someone else to survive.

I'd fought with her over it more times than I could count.

Now it was the other way around.

I couldn't hold back my fury. I threw my tea in her face.

"Serena, you make me sick!"

Her expression didn't so much as flicker, but her voice carried a warning.

"Charles, I know you're burning up inside. You won't feel right until you let it out. If you want, you can put a blade in me. But you'd better not go bother Wes."

"Otherwise the same power that lifted you to deputy commander can turn you into a mortal, not even fit to be a common celestial soldier."

"Becoming the heavens' foremost general is your dream, and the Griffin Legion is your life's work. You've suffered so much, fought for hundreds of years. That wasn't so you could end up with nothing, was it?"

I stared at her, unable to believe it, my fingers crushing the divorce writ into creases.

Serena was the God of War, my direct superior, and the one who shared my bed and knew me better than anyone.

She was threatening me.

Before she left, Serena handed me a handkerchief to wipe my hands, and had someone carry off the placard of the War God's manor.

Looking at this manor full of memories, a place that could no longer be called home.

The tears I'd held back so long finally fell.

The next day was Wesley's monthly rest day.

When I reached his manor, he was directing the servants as they packed.

Last night the servants at home had told me Serena had set up another manor. It looked like this was where she meant to move.

When he saw me, Wesley ducked his head, uneasy.

"Brother, you've only just come back from the front. You should be resting a few more days. What brings you here..."

I tossed the boundless pouch into his arms.

"I came to return those relics to their rightful owner. What, I'm not welcome?"

Wesley's face flushed faintly. He said quietly, "Then what tea would you like, Brother? I'll go prepare it."

I said nothing, my eyes on the trunk on the floor, still open.

No wonder Serena had left so breezily yesterday. I'd meant to have someone pack up her things and send them over.

But I'd found the study already emptied. Her clothes, all her personal belongings, gone.

So it turned out they'd already been moved here.

While I stood there stunned, a familiar parrot came flying out of the back courtyard.

It was the pet Serena had brought back from the mortal realm two years ago.

She raised it like a son, and taught it to talk whenever she had a spare moment.

It swept past me and landed on Wesley's shoulder, calling out.

"Daddy Wes, Daddy Wes."

I remembered how, right before I left for the Wildlands, Serena had just taught it to say Mama.

And she'd told me that by the time I came home, she'd surely have it saying Daddy Charles.

It had learned, all right. It just wasn't calling me.

I looked at Wesley and let out a mocking laugh.

"Why bother going to all the trouble of moving? Isn't it nice right here?"

"After all, while I was out there risking my life this whole year, the two of you were building your little love nest here."

Guilt in his eyes, Wesley held the boundless pouch back out to me, awkward.

"Brother, these relics are my compensation to you. Please, keep them..."

I let out a scornful snort.

"Compensation? Wesley, when that fox-clan fiancee of yours turned on you and fled the wedding, and nearly drove you to take your own life, I was the one who rushed to Blackpine Hollow and cut off her tail to avenge you. For harming an outsider without leave, I took a hundred strokes of the military cane."

"When you said you couldn't bear to stay in Blackpine Hollow, I was the one who brought you to the Ninefold Heavens, gave you a manor, arranged for a master craftsman to take you on as a disciple so you'd have a way to survive, and greased the way with immortal friends everywhere so you could take commissions before you'd even finished your training."

"Even the finest raw materials you used to forge your relics came out of my private stores. Seven hundred years of brotherhood, and as long as it made you happy, there was nothing I wouldn't do for you."

"Yet you live in the manor I gave you, carrying on with my wife, and then use my own things to compensate me. Don't you think that's funny?"

Wesley's tears spilled at once as he dropped to his knees at my feet.

"Brother, I've let you down, I know. But I was born infertile, and I'm only a three-tailed spirit fox with limited talent for cultivation. That's why that woman threw me away."

"Rena is the only one who doesn't look down on me, the only one willing to marry me. I love her. I'll never find anyone worth leaning on more than her. You've cared for me for hundreds of years. Just care for me this one last time. Please?"

So he still remembered that I'd cared for him for hundreds of years.

My parents were ordinary folk in the mortal realm. When I fell gravely ill, they grudged the cost of treating me.

They still had my younger brother, after all, so they left me deep in the mountains, hoping the beasts would eat me and be done with it.

It was Wesley, who couldn't even take human form yet and had slipped out to play, who carried me on his back and hauled me home to Blackpine Hollow.

While the fox healer treated me, he discovered I had a rare gift for cultivation.

So Wesley begged his parents not to let such talent go to waste, said he'd always wanted a human brother, and pleaded with them to take me in.

And so they gave me half of their resources and helped me ascend to godhood.

I swore then that I would repay the Ashford family, that I would be good to Wesley.

The spirit stones, the immortal elixirs, the treasures I was granted, I sent them all their way like water.

But it was precisely because I'd treated him as a true brother that the betrayal cut this deep, this bitter.

I closed my eyes for a moment.

"Wesley, you've been failed by someone yourself. You should know an unfaithful woman can't be trusted."

"If you still care about me as your brother, cut off all ties with Serena, and I'll go on watching over you and caring for you the same as before."

Wesley hesitated a few seconds, then finally shook his head, tears still on his face.

"No. Rena just hadn't figured out before whether what she felt for you was the kinship of comrades-in-arms or love. Now she's certain she loves me, and she'll never fail me."

"Brother, I know you've done a great deal for me. I'll give the immortal manor back to you, I can even give up being the master craftsman's apprentice. But Rena is the one thing I can't return."

It was the answer I'd expected.

And still the grief in my chest wouldn't stop.

I pulled the corner of my mouth into something like a smile and said quietly,

"Wesley, what you're doing now is every bit as shameless as the man who seduced your fiancee away."

He froze. Then, when it sank in, he pulled the enchanted relics out of his boundless pouch.

He hurled them at me one after another, like a man gone mad, nothing left of the pitiful figure from a moment ago.

"Charles Griffin, if not for me back then, you'd still be a lowly mortal, gnawed to pieces by beasts long ago. What right do you have to call me shameless?"

"I'm sick of being handed scraps of charity by a stray like you. I will marry Rena. I'll be the God of War's husband, and I'll keep you crushed under my foot forever!"

I stood there frozen, forgetting even to fight back.

So in his eyes, hundreds of years of my kindness had only ever been charity from a stray.

A humiliation, even.

Wesley had lost all control, and a relic caught the tip of his finger and split it open.

Habit carved into my bones made me reach out without thinking, wanting to check the wound.

The next second, a surge of spirit energy came straight at me.

Caught off guard, I was blasted clean off my feet, my lower back slamming into the door pillar, and the pain forced a low grunt out of me.

Serena shielded Wesley in her arms and glared at me, furious.

"Charles Griffin, you knew Wes has a heart condition, and you deliberately provoked him while I was gone. Now you want to hit him too? You're the shameless one here!"

She unfastened the boundless pouch at her waist.

"As for the master craftsman, I've already withdrawn Wes from his tutelage. The spirit stones and treasures in this pouch are more than enough to cover this immortal manor and those raw materials of yours. From now on, stop dredging up this nonsense to hold over us!"

Wesley threw the pouch into my face, weeping.

"Charles Griffin, our brotherhood is severed from this day. Never appear before me again."

"I won't let anyone take my future wife from me ever again!"

The mouth of the pouch hadn't been tied tight, and the heavy spirit stones flew out with the motion.

They struck my forehead on the spot and drew blood.

But neither of them so much as looked at me. Serena called for the servants to carry the chests off to their new home and, supporting the still-sobbing Wesley, walked away.

Even from a good distance off, I could still hear her soothing him in that gentle voice.

I looked down at the blood on the ground and, with a bitter smile, let my tears fall.

The year Wesley's fiancee scorned him, she ran off on their wedding day with a man of higher spiritual power, one who could give her children.

He became the laughingstock of all Blackpine Hollow.

All he knew to do was weep and sever his own tails to end his life. It was a gruesome scene.

Even Serena was shaken watching it, and she leaned into my arms, still frightened.

"Charlie, so this is how it feels to be betrayed by the one you love. Such agony. I would never do that to you. If I ever did, let everyone spit on me and let me meet a wretched end."

Later, when Wesley saw that I had all but drained my spirit energy to regrow her tails and save her life, and had angered the clan chief by wounding one of Blackpine Hollow's own,

I was sentenced by the Heavenly Emperor to a hundred military lashes, and for three whole months I couldn't rise from my bed.

He'd taken my hand then, heartsick for me.

"Brother, I'm the one who dragged you into this. I won't be so cowardly again. I want to be a great tree that shelters you too."

But now, every last one of them had gone back on their word.