Continued from Finding Out Who I Am~ Part 1...

The whole place rang with her chirpy laughter.

"Took you long enough, huh?" the girl said between her chortles.

"Oh fiddlesticks!" Caihong muttered. "I'm really in a dreadful hole, aren't I?"

The girl's expression became stern. "Well, I could say that I don't believe that you are Caihong either," she snapped.

"Hh-huh?!?!" Caihong choked out, her eyes on the verge of popping out of the sockets.

"What huh? You can choose not to believe that I am your soul, can't I choose to believe that you are an imposter?"

"But I am Caihong!!"

"Really? I don't believe you. In the same way, as you don't believe me."

Caihong opened her mouth to say something, but the girl gestured with her hand for her to shut up. She started pacing up and down.

She kept speaking.

"Well, there are only three ways to determine this, for we need to solve this as soon as possible. Nothing is going to come out of a row between our selves."

Caihong nodded.

"There are three possibilities to this squabble. One, you are an imposter and also a frightful liar. Two, you have gone mighty queer in the head. And three, you are speaking the truth."

Caihong was about to vehemently protest against the first two possibilities, when the girl put her palm against her lips, promptly shutting her up.
"One look at you, and anyone will understand that you are not mad."

The girl paused, taking a deep breath.

"And, as for the first option, I believe you, Caihong. I know it for a fact, that you don't lie. Or rather, I won't lie."

When she removed her hand, Caihong heaved a sigh of relief. But soon her eyebrows furrowed, and she asked, "But, please, you still haven't told me who you are."

The girl asked her a counter-question. "I suppose, you still haven't been taught the history of the neighbouring clans, have you?"

Caihong, though she found the question strange, shook her head as a no.

"Hmm, pity, though some of it would be useless, you could have known your neighbours. Maybe, you could learn their fighting skills too, their sword art." Her eyes glowed at the idea.

"Umm... I know all the names of the clans that come to our festival every year, so..." Caihong rubbed the bridge of her nose, thoughtfully.

"Oh really?! I am Yao Xingjuan, from the Yao Sect."

"Yao... Yao... No, I haven't ever heard or seen this sect before. All the sects are invited to come to our place, but Yao Sect... Uh-huh. Never."

"You haven't heard of Yao Sect... Oh. Okay." the girl sounded sad. "Who knows what happened to this sect, after I- Ummm..."

A moment of silence transpired, the only sound being the roar of the waves against the rocky, pebbly shore.

The girl smiled gaily and said, "Doesn't matter. Whatever, I was Yao Xingjuan, and now, I am Ruan Caihong."

Caihong looked at her, perplexed. "Umm.."

The girl sat down again and took her hands in hers.
"What do you feel when you see me?"

Caihong replied after a moment of thought," I feel like I have known you for many years. I feel like... I have seen you somewhere, Ummm... I... I... I don't know... I feel like if I was in your place, I would do the same thing... I feel.... warm.... an odd familiarity... I don't know how to describe this... But... I feel like... I know you by heart."

The girl's face had become brighter with each sentence. She clasped her hands in glee. "Let me tell you something, Caihong. Tch... I still have to refer to myself as two different people, tch tch... Anyway, firstly, the reason why you feel this way is that I am your soul. No one can know a soul better than themselves, neither that person's soulmate nor that person's spirit shadow." Her face turned deadly serious.

"Secondly, no one else other than you can enter your soul ocean, and that's only because you didn't know your soul yet. And you were transparent because you didn't know that I am your soul. You are translucent now because you had admitted back then, that you knew me as you have seen me in your dreams. But, you will remain like this, if you don't accept your soul. And when you leave this place, you will become only a shell of the person that you are, and will be unhappy for not only this life but all lifetimes to come. For, not accepting your soul, is equal to not accepting your self. Acceptance of your being is the first step towards creating your happiness."

Caihong's form began to become clearer, for she had started to believe in her words. She started to look a bit more opaque and less like an apparition. The girl smiled sincerely at the progress.

She continued, "Of course, other people can enter your soul realm, but only either your soulmate or your spirit shadow. But I highly doubt whether you will even need to make a pact with a spirit to make it your spirit shadow." She smiled shyly.

Caihong had been listening to all this with awe. Her form was still translucent, no doubt better than earlier, but still not close to opaque.

Xingjuan observed the improvement; she realised that Caihong still needed a bit more assurance. She wasn't surprised.

"I was Yao Xingjuan last time. This time, I am Ruan Caihong. But I look older than you, for one, I was happiest at that age in my last life, and two, I have not had any 'happiest' moments in my present life yet. So, shouldn't I have the appearance of the time when I was happiest, irrespective of the fact that it was in my last life?"

Caihong couldn't help but nod in agreement, for her words made sense, though it seemed to be unbelievable.

"Well, you have learnt archery, haven't you? Didn't you ever wonder, how could you master the art in just a little more than a week, and other people, older than you, mind it, still struggle to hold their bow and arrow-straight?"

Caihong's eyes widened at the thought.
The girl smiled earnestly.

"In my last life, I took one whole month to master archery. But I took only one week in this life. Ask why? Simple. I already knew it! So when I was given a bow and arrow, it was like doing something which one hasn't done for so long that one thinks one has forgotten it, but as soon as one starts doing it from scratch, one can remember it and do it with ease."

Caihong's form became more clarified as all the dots started to connect. She held an absorbed expression.

"And please don't think me to be a long lost twin or doppelganger or whatever. I am you!" Xingjuan rolled her eyes dramatically and pouted, making her giggle.

Before any other ridiculous thoughts could pry their heads up in Caihong's mind, she stated, "And, please don't think at any cost, that I have possessed your body or someone has sacrificed you to me."

Well, that was a grave blunder she made, because Caihong gave her an alarmed look and almost instantly, her form began to fade.

"Ah... Shit... Don't think that!!! Stop thinking that at once!! Ughh I am an incredible idiot... Please don't think that. It's not what you think!"

Caihong was on the verge of hyperventilating, and each breath seemed to make her lose colour.

Xingjuan facepalmed herself. "Alright. Alright. Listen to me. Calm down. Calm down. Breath. Breath. Ok? Listen. I haven't possessed you. For if I had, you wouldn't have been in disbelief about me. You would have obeyed me and only thought about what I wanted you to think right from the beginning. There would have been no question of all those long arguments we've been having till now.
And for, someone sacrificing you. That option is even more unlikely because for that you would have to be dead and there would have been runes engraved all over your flesh. And you know best that you weren't born dead."

That drove the final nail home.

Caihong calmed down and smiled. All her doubts vanished into thin air and the only thing she could feel was a relief. Calmness. Happiness. And, a new strength.

Her form became opaque. She was no longer translucent.

Xingjuan was overwhelmed with joy.

Both of them stood up and looked out at the open sea.

"It's time," Xingjuan said.

"For what?" Caihong inquired.

"For us to become one."

Saying this, Xingjuan leaned down to embrace Caihong, who was shorter than her. Caihong wrapped her arms around her as well, and closed her eyes, allowing herself to sink into the pleasant warmth of her soul. The soothing warmth of acceptance.

She didn't know what happened after that. She could sense a blinding light shining on her closed eyelids. She felt like she was standing on the ground and yet, she felt like she was floating in the air.

She heard Xingjuan's voice say, "You and I are not different. We are one. The same soul. The same being. I have been reborn as you. Promise to believe in yourself."

"I accept you. From now on, I will always believe that Xingjuan and Caihong were always one, are one, and will be one forever," Caihong promised.

"Remember, the soul may get a new name... get encircled by new and renewed ties. But the soul shall come and go as usual, the eternal identity shall never change."

When Caihong opened her eyes, she found her arms empty and no Xingjuan anywhere. She was all alone looking at the waves. But she didn't feel alone or betrayed. She felt strong and content.

Her robes had changed their hues too. It was neither royal blue, purple and golden nor green and golden. It was a majestic mixture of both. Her flowing outer robes shimmered in a mystic variety of blues, greens, violets and sunset yellows, while her inner robes were white, and adorned with intricate designs in blue and purple along the seams. Yet the clothes were airy and light as a feather. The outer robe fluttered in the sea breeze in all its royalty.

She hummed a song, as she skipped her way up to a flowing stream of fresh water that had come out to kiss the wild salt waves. She looked at her reflection and of course, she didn't look ten, she looked like she was 16. She looked like Xingjuan, the way she looked at the age of 20, to be more appropriate. She smiled at her reflection lovingly. Neither doubts nor dismay pried their ugly heads into her mind.

Somewhere, from within, she heard a voice speak, "Find my sword. I miss it." /*

The next thing she remembered was falling over with laughter from being tickled on the soles of her feet by Zhang, as it was high time for lunch.

Caihong never regretted those two days. She had come to know more about herself and it had been a most lively experience. Not only that, but it had also prevented her from asking her mother, Lady Ruan, questions that might have hurt her. For she had no twin, and asking about that would have indirectly made an impression that Caihong doubted her mother. Lady Ruan would have been very sad.

She hadn't realised that almost two hours had slipped away in reminiscing. She also hadn't realised that Elder Lady Ruan had been wide awake and was now glaring daggers at her for she had not done a single bit of knitting. She was sitting there on the floor, with her hands still and unmoving, staring at the wool. She had been so, for the past two hours.

Caihong started violently, at the snapping of long fingers right in her face.
"AAAHH!!" she yelled in fright, when she glanced up, to find her grandmother right in front of her, with her face flushed in fury and her nostrils flared.

Well, what a terrifying scare.

"RUAN CAIHONG!!!" she bellowed. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, SITTING AND STARING AT THE DAMNED WOOL, WITHOUT DOING BLOODY ANYTHING?!?!?!!"

She paused for a breath, and added, "Don't you dare deny, you naughty brat, I have been watching you from the past ONE HOUR."

Caihong gulped, her eyes widened with fear. When her grandmother curses, it's always best to stay out of her way, and of course, not be the subject of her wrath. But now, she was in a really bad scrape.

'Oh, rotten bitter gourds...What on earth do I do now??'