Sea of Flowers Prologue

Introduction:

I first read this book about a year ago, and some months ago, I thought about it enough to read it again which is extremely rare for me (even for English books, which take me no time at all to reread). Sea of Flowers left a deep impression on me, not because of either of the male leads, but because of the female lead. This story takes us through over two hundred years of her life, and the roles that the male lead and the second male lead played in her life. The way that she grew up and changed really stuck with me, and although the ending is sad, I found it particularly poignant.

This story is about Luo Wei, a princess of an island called Suzhao and a water spirit. The male lead is Yinze, a powerful water G.o.d. The second male lead is Fu Chenzhi, Luo Wei’s adoptive brother. After Luo Wei is forced to flee from her home, she becomes Yinze’s student, and it all spirals from there.

I’ll be translating from the Chinese published edition which means longer chapters (but also a longer wait in-between). I’m not fluent in Chinese, and this novel draws from the mythology of the Cla.s.sic of Mountain and Sea, which I am also not familiar with, so there may be mistakes and misinterpretations.

Prologue: The Moonlit First Meeting

Three hundred and thirteen years later, in my dreams I once more returned to my childhood, to a night when the sea was frozen.

That was also the night that I first met that person.

During the pearl-diving day which happened only once a year, I was fiercely competing with my elder brother. I dived straight into the water, but fate was unfavorable, and a tsunami appeared. A huge whirlpool appeared nearby, and in the center where the water parted, there appeared the gaping blood-red mouth of a monster, as large as the whirlpool below. I couldn't help but cry out in fear, wanting to escape, but the monster suddenly surged upwards, and caught me in its talons. It was 4 zhang* tall, a criss-cross of green and black, golden eyes like fires, scales like silk brocade. It was easy to tell that this was a legendary coiled dragon.

*One zhang is around 3.3 metres. 

A coiled dragon's scales were venomous, and if one was injured, they would die immediately.

When I remembered that, I didn't dare to act without thinking, but couldn't stop sobbing, my fear becoming tears which would not stop streaming down. Whether or not other people recognized what it was, all of the people in the city of Suzhao were so frightened by its appearance that they cried out in fear and fled. My elder brother mounted a five-coloured bird, and headed towards me to fight back, but the coiled dragon knocked him back hundreds of feet with a single claw.

The coiled dragon held me tightly, and with a long hiss, swept up raging waves and turned its body and wildly rushed towards the east. In the blink of an eye, my people had become a countless black dots on the horizon, and then after another moment, they had disappeared into the fog.

The sea was as vast as the sky, and the sea wind broke mountains and riled up the sea, but to the coiled dragon, it was like walking on even ground. As the setting sun dropped lower, the darkness arrived and I finally couldn't hold back the fear any longer, and started to wail. But no matter how I cried, it had no effect on its frightening speed.

How many hundred zhang, how many thousand zhang, I didn't know how far we had gone, I only knew the wind and rain that beat against my face like knives; if the shadow of an island appeared around me, it would soon be forgotten.

Until suddenly, the sound of breaking ice rang out. The tranquil ocean convulsed and shook, and powerful waves rose up three thousand zhang, forming a gate of ice. In the moonlight, it was like the blade of a knife, blocking the coiled dragon's path, commanding all living things to halt.

The coiled dragon pinched me for a moment, and I nearly threw up. Then it slowed down and headed towards the sh.o.r.eline, towards a lone steep cliff. I heard the sound of something breaking, and looked down to see that even the sea had become ice. That was the sound of the coiled dragon's claws breaking the ice.

Night had fallen. The bright moon hung in the sky like a round, silver-white disk. I had never seen such a round moon, and so with everything else on the sea, along with the deep blue ice, it all seemed to be a mist-covered illusion, as if I had fallen into a dream. Ten thousands of s.h.i.+ning stars were scattered along the ice, making the ice glitter silver-white, making me squint at them. The coiled dragon followed the cliff upwards, and then stopped to hover over the top of the cliff, lowering its head in a humble gesture.

On the peak that it was facing, there was a red pavilion with a jade wine jar and finely crafted cup inside. Inside the pavilion stood a youth. His back was towards us, his figure tall and straight, his black hair like water, robes like smoke, like the vast blue-black night sea.

In a low voice, the youth commanded: "Let her go."

In a flash, the coiled dragon was no longer like before, and softly placed me beside the precipice. Then a golden pellet floated from the youth's robe, and settled in the coiled dragon's claw. The youth said: "This can be a subst.i.tute for the lives of hundreds of water spirits. Now leave."

The coiled dragon looked down, pleasant surprise in its eyes, then acknowledged the youth again. With a roar, it rushed back down the cliff, and into the deep sea. I kneeled on the ground, frightened to death, just staring at the youth's silhouette, wanting to say something but not being able to make a sound. I was too young, and didn't know any strong magic, but I would be able to feel the G.o.dly power of this man even from even ten li* away just on instinct.

*One li is about 500 metres.

He didn't speak to me either, but just walked to the centre of the pavilion, and poured himself a cup of wine. In the darkness amid the moonlight, the sound of the wine was a like a murmur. His beauty was like that of an immortal, yet he was like moonlight, as high as the clouds. Finally, he turned his head to look at me, the corners of his lips mocking: "Little water spirit, your courage really is not small."

At this time, a normal person may have asked him what he was, but I asked in all seriousness: "I'm of the Suzhao Clan, not some water spirit."

"A water spirit is a water spirit, from where did so many names come from." Although he smiled, there was no trace of politeness, and he looked as if he held the world in contempt.

My clothes was drenched, and was covered in mud from head to toe, and I had long lost the strength to stand, but I wiped my face with my sleeve, and puffed out my little chest: "I already said, I, the Princess, am called Luo Wei, and am of the Suzhao Clan. Don't you dare change my name."

He finally gave in, and said with a soft laugh: "All right. Then I will call you Luo Wei."

The moonlight was beautiful, and the sound of the sea like whispers, and then suddenly, after finis.h.i.+ng the wine in the cup, the youth gazed up at the full moon, and said as if to himself: "In the once-familiar places hangs a comet. And yet it is not known if those already gone have left behind records…"*

*I genuinely have no idea what he's saying here so this is an educated guess. In the original Chinese: "今舊地空懸天英，也不知遺人尚有千載否…" Actually, entire part is confusing.

Those words of his were obviously not for me, but Master once told us, a comet was to be a be a sign of calamity. If a comet hung in the sky, then it was feared that there would be a dreadful disaster. I was unwilling to see a comet, and really couldn't see a comet, and just said: "I just see a beautiful moon, where is the comet."

The youth said: "It's been gone for the last two days, and before it hung in the sky for ten days. It could only be seen from here."

"You've been here for ten days?"

"For two months."

I said, amazed: "For two months, you've been here alone in the pavilion on the mountain, drinking the dew and eating the wind? No, drinking wine and eating the wind."

"Not everyone needs to eat." The youth continued to pour himself wine as if telling me, wine would be sufficient.

This person held G.o.dly power, could it be that he was cultivating immortality? Or could he already be half-immortal? No matter which it was, it was something that I couldn't help but be excited about. I asked: "Could my humble self respectfully ask for your great name?"

He turned his head to look at me, eyes full of starlight, nose like a snowy mountain, cheekbones sharp. Although he was very beautiful, there was an arbitrary look in his eyes as he said: "You should be more concerned with your own safety. If I hadn't saved you, that coiled dragon would have taken you back as pregnancy-stabilising medicine."

"Preg-pregnancy-stabilising medicine?" Cold sweat ran down my spine.

"That coiled dragon's wife is pregnant. Your people are the best medicine."

No wonder it was violent towards me, but didn't kill me straight away. It wanted to take me back and cook me into soup… when I thought of that, I couldn't help but shudder. But the coiled dragon was so ferocious, and changed att.i.tude when it came upon this youth, only made me more curious about his ident.i.ty. But I didn't get another chance to question him, he clapped twice and said to me: "It's gotten dark, you should go back."

A large shadow appeared on the ground in front of me. I originally thought that it was a was a five-coloured bird, but then I looked up, and almost fell over in shock: I didn't know when another dragon had appeared by the cliff-side, head lowered towards us in the same way. But wings sprouted from this dragon's back, with yellow scales all over, and much larger than the one before. It only needed to let out a soft breath, and a large area of icy mist would appear. I couldn't help but s.h.i.+ver in the cold air.

I once read that, after five-hundred years, a dragon became a jiaolong, and after a thousand, a yinglong. Those were scales were called jiaolong, those with wings were called yinglong. This magnificent creature before was a yinglong who had lived over a thousand years! I saw two dragons in one day, and the second was so exciting, and I found it hard contain myself. But knowing that the youth had the power to command dragons, even if I was a little frightened by its ferocious appearance, I still felt safe.

The next moment, the yinglong stretched out a claw, and scooped me up to sit on top of its head. I let out a low cry, but heard the youth say: "It will take you home now. In the future, when you go out, be more careful."

"Wait! Wait!" I grabbed a few strands of the dragon's beard, asking impatiently: "My Father the King, once said that only immortals could command dragons, could it be… you're an immortal?"

"It's not only immortals that can command dragons."

"Then who exactly are you? What are you called? The kindness you have shown today, I will not forget it, if in the future…"

"No need. Today took no effort at all." The youth said, "We are separated by a great distance, fate will most likely not allow us to meet again."

"At least tell me your name!"

"I have no name."

He clapped twice. The yinglong spread its wings, and soared skyward. In moments, it had taken me far away. I turned my head to catch another glimpse of that youth. The sea wind picked up his wide-sleeved embroidered robes, and his long dancing hair. It was only a normal mountain peak, but it was full of the moon's pure, s.h.i.+ning light, a beauty which blossomed in the dead of night. As a person of Suzhao, I was always easily attracted to light on the water and other s.h.i.+ning things. The thousands of shards of ice glittering on the sea surface was like a starry galaxy, opening a s.p.a.ce for the night sky in my heart.

I didn't know until later, that the comet which hung in the sky that night foretold the devastating disaster which would happen to my home twenty-seven years later. And that person, would also be a beautiful disaster in my life.

I think, all that happened afterwards, fate and blame, love and hate, all started from this first innocent feeling of longing.

To be separated by great distance, for fate to not allow us to meet again.

Those short eight* words, although ordinary-sounding, foreshadowed my last three-hundred years of endless longing.

*It was eight in Chinese: 相隔甚遠，無緣再見

If we had stopped then, and fate had not allowed us to meet again, how wonderful would it have been.

The Buddha says: "There are eight struggles in life: the struggle of new life, old age, sickness, death, parting with our love, living with complaints, inability to attain what is sought, and being unable to let go."

The most beautiful thing is life, is knowing that you were like me, feeling the deepest of emotions.

The most painful things in life, you felt them so deeply.

The common people know a long-lasting love is good, but do not understand that the wasted years, hard-to-repay debts of love, and a lifetime of dedication, is an immense mistake.

So, this is how it all starts! What did you think of it?