The Wife of Hades

An Luxia tried to read the words on the page in class, but they seemed like absolute nonsense as her brain was far away thinking of other stuff.

During this time when she was beginning to forget things, An Luxia could not deny that she was horrified. She was scared. Very scared. She tried to be brave and not think about it, but it was hard. The idea that she was dying and before long, she would go completely crazy was terrifying to her.

It would be terrifying to anyone.

All she could do was focus on other things, and she stayed up late doing school work that was not even necessary, studying things that weren't even taught in the course yet, only to forget them the next morning.

She wrote more chapters than she even needed to publish, until she was out of ideas to write about. She was even starting to forget the names of her own characters, and had to look back to find them and reread their information over and over again to remember.

An Luxia knew that Mo Han was also scared. He also tried not to show it, but it was quite obvious in how his attitude and temper was unusually bad to the workers recently, and he got impatient very easily. 

He was also getting more and more angry and upset at the group of scientists and researchers, although they could not do anything either.

An Luxia finished her class and was going to go to the An house today to eat with her family. No one besides her and Mo Han knew anything about it yet, and they both did not have any plan on telling anyone. 

Before long, November had passed already and December was also flying by. So far, besides forgetting things easily, there were no other effects of the Trap, so no one suspected anything was up.

It was a cold December morning, and winter break had started so An Luxia was able to stay cuddled inside her bed during the cold mornings. She blinked her eyes open, surprised that it was unusually cold today as she snuggled up against Mo Han, pulling her legs and arms in.

The room was completely dark as the curtains were not opened, and even if they were, it would probably be quite dark. An Luxia rolled around, looking at the clock on the nightstand and her eyes widened. It was 11 already?!

  An Luxia knew that it was time to wake up, but she did not want to move! It was cold and dark! From the commotion, Mo Han also woke up and he looked over at her, pulling her in because he was cold as well.

"Why are you up so early today?"

  "Early?!" An Luxia scoffed, "It's 11 already!"

  Mo Han was also surprised as he looked at the clock and then at the dark room, "I'll go open the window. Let's sleep a little longer."

Mo Han got out of the comfy blanket, and An Luxia immediately felt a rush of cold air when the blanket was lifted up. First, Mo Han went over to turn on the heater and then he pulled the curtains open, exclaiming, "It's snowing."

  Hearing this, An Luxia jumped out of bed, not wanting to miss the first snow of the year. It was about time! Christmas was already just around the corner, yet the snow was a little late this year.

"It's so beautiful! It must have started overnight," An Luxia said, pressing her hands against the cold window, which immediately made a mark. 

Mo Han looked at her with a smile on his face, grabbing onto one of her hands. Her eyes were brighter than the snow outside, and Mo Han couldn't help but say, "It's not like this is your first time seeing snow. Why are you so excited?"

  Hearing this, An Luxia's eyes dimmed slightly but the sparkle quickly returned as she said, "It's pretty! Of course I'm excited!"

She did not want to ruin the mood by saying her true thoughts. . . It surely wasn't her first, but who knew if it would be her last?

As it was winter break, An Luxia had lost complete track of time and she turned around to ask Mo Han, "What date is today? Is Christmas coming up soon?"

  Mo Han smiled at her helplessly, "It's in three days."

  "Three days!" An Luxia jumped away from the window, feeling a little cold as she returned to the comfortable bed, "I have to start preparing! We didn't even set up the Christmas tree yet, and I should bake some gingerbread cookies, and we can all eat together on Christmas night!"

  An Luxia rubbed her hands together excitedly as she reached for her phone, burying her entire body and half of her head underneath the blanket as she began to think of everything they could do for Christmas.

---

"No! Not that much cinnamon!" An Luxia screamed frustratedly as she immediately took the cinnamon container away from Mo Han, who had gotten white and brown patches on his face, hands, and apron already.

An Luxia sighed as she looked at the large bowl in front of the two of them, and she reached a spoon in, removing half of the cinnamon, "That is a pinch, okay? You put in way too much!

Mo Han looked at her with an amused smile on his face, "Now what?"

  An Luxia shook her head, seriously reconsidering letting him make the batter, "Mix it. Remember, clockwise and in one direction only."

  Mo Han grabbed the spatula and began mixing it right away, and the flour powder immediately flew into the air, landing on all objects near them.

"Ah!" An Luxia immediately covered her face, coughing aggressively as she flapped her hands at the air, "What in the -"

  After the powder had all landed, An Luxia and Mo Han stared at each other both with completely flour-covered faces. An Luxia wanted to get mad at him, but staring at his stupid appearance, she could not help but laugh. 

"Hahahaha!" She burst out into laughter and before long, Mo Han was laughing too at An Luxia's face, which was also caked in flour and cinnamon powder.

"Give that to me!" An Luxia snatched the spatula and bowl away from Mo Han and began mixing the contents inside herself, "How the heck are we together!? You have absolutely no talent at all in cooking!"

Mo Han grinned, leaning down closer to her, "I guess opposites attract, right?"-

---

Ding! The cookies had finished baking and An Luxia carefully took them out, setting the perfectly baked gingerbreads onto the table. After they had cooked, she took one cookie, split it in half right through the body and gave the head to Mo Han.

"So cruel," Mo Han said to receive an eye roll from An Luxia. 

"It's so good!" An Luxia looked at the cookie in surprise, expecting for it to fail after what had happened.

"Exactly! You have to see who made it," Mo Han said proudly, finishing up the entire cookie within seconds. An Luxia glared at him, eating another one.

"Exactly! I made it!" 

Mo Han chuckled and did not fight with An Luxia as the two of them both began eating warm cookies in the cold weather as the pure white snow fell down from the sky and onto the ground outside.

---

"Merry Christmas!" Everyone said as they lifted up the glasses filled with wine.

The table in front of them was filled with delicious food as all of them began to eat, chattering and talking about endless things as all unhappy thoughts were pushed away.

"Xiaxia, can you go get a spoon for the gravy?" Qi Lanyu asked when she realized that they were missing a large spoon. An Luxia stood up and quickly ran into the kitchen to get a spoon, but as she entered the kitchen, she forgot why she was there.

She looked around the empty room confusedly, wondering why she had come. After a few seconds, she returned to the seat, not holding anything. As she was about to sit down, Qi Lanyu looked at her confusedly, "Where is the spoon?"

  Hearing this, An Luxia then remembered and she was just about to go again when Mo Han stood up, "I'll go get it."

An Luxia pressed her lips together as she watched Mo Han go get the spoon and come back. She smiled at him and he smiled back. No one noticed anything as they all began eating the Christmas dinner, but the one thing was enough to bring back the bad thoughts.

After eating dinner, An Luxia and Mo Han went outside to see the snow and as they stood on the second floor balcony, staring out at the night where all the houses' lights were all bright open.

There were tons of cars out on the streets, even though it was Christmas night as everyone tried to rush home. As they stood next to each other, An Luxia could feel the tension and stress in the cold air.

"It's okay," she said, "I will be happy to spend my last time with you. . ."

  "Stop talking," Mo Han immediately said, turning to face her, "I will find a way."

  An Luxia looked up at him and didn't say anything.. After a while, she smiled and grabbed onto his hand, and the two of them entered the room together.