To the Sky Kingdom

by Tang Qi

  He had his head down, engrossed in pulling the water-lily grass off the coral. I watched him for a while before walking over to say hello. “Little Sticky-Rice Dumpling, what are you up to over there?”

  “I’m pulling up these weeds,” he said without lifting his head. “Father Prince told me that the coral hidden beneath these weeds is the most beautiful thing in the whole of the Eastern Sea. I’ve never seen it, so I’m pulling off the weeds to have a look.”

  Father Prince? So this is a young Sky Clan lord.

  I felt sorry for him expending all that energy pulling out those weeds and wanted to lend a hand. I took my fan from my sleeve and placed it before him. “You can use this fan and wave it gently,” I explained eagerly. “The grass will disappear without a trace, letting the coral show its face.”

  He pulled a handful of weeds with his left hand and took the fan from me with his right, and started to give it a little wave. A wild wind suddenly rose up from the ground, and the whole palace shook three times. Waves of dark ocean water crashed down from ten feet above us with a huge roar and the energy of a sword being whipped from its sheath or a wild horse throwing off the reins.

  In a matter of minutes, the Eastern Sea Emperor’s Water Crystal Palace had undergone a complete transformation and was now glittering brightly.

  I was speechless.

  The power my cloud fan yielded was completely dependent on the immortal power of the person in whose hands it was held. I had not expected this young sticky-rice dumpling to have such impressive powers.

  I wanted to clap my hands and praise him, but I held back.

  Sticky-Rice Dumpling tumbled to the floor and landed on his bottom. He looked at me in utter shock. “Oh no, have I caused a catastrophe?” he squealed anxiously.

  “Relax,” I told him. “You haven’t caused a catastrophe. I was the one that gave you the fa . . .”

  Before I had finished my sentence, I saw Sticky-Rice Dumpling’s eyes open wide. I assumed seeing the strip of white silk covering most of my face must have frightened the young child and was just about to put my hand up to cover it, but he rushed over and grabbed my leg, shouting, “Mother!”

  I was stunned and silent.

  He continued to hug my leg and give these heartrending cries. “Mother, Mother!” he wailed. “Why did you abandon me? Why did you abandon Ali and Father Prince?” He stopped to give his streaming eyes and runny nose a good wipe on the corner of my skirt.

  Cowed by his crying, I racked my brains, trying to recall if I had ever, in all my thousands of years, done anything that could be construed as abandoning a husband and child. As I was considering this, I suddenly heard a deep voice behind me. “Su Su . . . ?”

  Little Sticky-Rice Dumpling jerked his head up and called out, “Father Prince,” in a quiet voice. He was still clinging to my leg so tightly that it was impossible for me to turn around. Since I was so much older, it felt wrong to bend down and pry his fingers off me by force, so I just stood there with him clinging to me like that.

  Father Prince came around and stood in front of me. He was so close that with my head lowered, all I could see was his black-soled cloud boots and the corner of a black cloak embroidered with a faint cloud motif.

  “Su Su,” he sighed. I realized he had been addressing me before. Fourth Brother often complained about how forgetful I was, but I could still remember all the names people had called me over the last tens of thousands of years—Fifth Cub, Si Yin, Little Seventeenth, and most recently Your Highness—but never had anyone called me Su Su.

  Luckily, Sticky-Rice Dumpling let go of my leg at this point to rub his eyes, and I was able to take a hasty step back. “Your eyes seem to be giving you some trouble, immortal friend,” I said raising my head to give him a smile. “You must have mistaken me for someone else.”

  He said nothing, but having a proper view of his face gave me a serious jolt. Little Sticky-Rice Dumpling’s father was the spitting image of my revered master, Mo Yuan.

  I lost my train of thought. He looked so similar to Mo Yuan, but he was not Mo Yuan. He could not possibly be Mo Yuan. He was much younger, if nothing else.

  During the Demon Clan Revolt seventy thousand years ago, the Sky Rivers flowed with turbulent waters while the air danced with scarlet flames. Mo Yuan had locked Qing Cang the Demon Emperor inside the Eastern Desert Bell on the bank of Ruo River, and in so doing he used up all his cultivated spiritual energy, and his soul scattered. I did everything I could to protect his body, stealing it away and taking it back to Qingqiu. I placed him inside Yanhua Cave, where I fed him a cup of my heart blood every month. His body was still lying there inside Yanhua Cave.

  Mo Yuan was Father of the Universe’s eldest son, and the Four Seas and Eight Deserts’ God of War. I had never imagined that one day he might die. Even now I still found myself waking up in the middle of the night from time to time and having to remind myself that he was actually gone. I still fed him this monthly bowl of my heart blood with the conviction that one day he would wake up again, give a faint smile, and call me by my old name, Little Seventeenth. I had spent day after day waiting for him to awaken. It had been seventy thousand years now.

  I was so lost in a haze of painful recollection that I didn’t notice Sticky-Rice Dumpling’s father reaching an arm in my direction until his wide sleeve flapped against my face. I instinctively shut my eyes. He forcefully untied my white silk, stroking my forehead with his cold fingers, and then stopped suddenly.

  “Ahhhh! Ahhhh! Deviant! Deviant!” Sticky-Rice Dumpling started to scream in a shaky voice. Deviant was exactly what it was, and the veins in my forehead were pulsing with fury.

  “Learn some restraint!” I yelled at him. I had not used such a phrase in years, and it came out sounding strange.

  I could not remember the last time anyone had dared to treat me with such flagrant disrespect. I must have scared Sticky-Rice Dumpling, as he yanked the corner of my skirt, bleating, “Mother . . . Mother, why are you angry?”

  His father was still for a long time.

  Sticky-Rice Dumpling looked first at his father, then at me, before wordlessly adhering himself to my leg, which felt like having a whole fried dumpling stuck to me.

  Sticky-Rice Dumpling’s father was silent for a few moments before tying my white silk cloth back up for me. He took a couple of steps back. “You’re right,” he said evenly. “I have mistaken you for someone else. The girl I knew wasn’t as imposing or as forceful as you. Nor as alluring. I apologize for any offense I have caused.”

  Now that we had some space between us, I could see that the lapel and sleeves of the black brocade cloak Dumpling’s father was wearing were embroidered with a dark dragon pattern.

  Nowhere other than the Sky Emperor’s household would immortals have the time or patience to embroider such intricate dragons onto their cloaks. Father Prince was certainly someone extremely influential, his wardrobe alone said as much. I took another look down at Little Dumpling, who Father Prince was attempting to pull off me, and suddenly it all became clear. This black-cloaked man was none other than the Sky Emperor’s pride and joy, his grandson Prince Ye Hua.

  Half of my anger dissipated immediately.

  Prince Ye Hua. Of course. My father’s ideal son-in-law. Extremely young. Possibly my husband-to-be.

  I felt extremely apologetic toward him, and despite how offensive he had just been toward me, I felt I should be the one saying sorry. He was an exquisite young man of fifty thousand, and he was on the precipice of being tied into a marriage with me, a one hundred forty thousand-year-old woman. It was a lamentable deal for him to have been dealt. I managed to suck the other half of my anger back into my belly. I worried that my stance was not placid enough and my smile not as pleasant as it might be. “Let’s not get into a discussion about who has offended whom,” I replied. “Things between immortal friends should always remain courteous.”

  He regarded me with calm and cool eyes.

  I moved to the
side and let them both pass. Little Sticky-Rice Dumpling was still sniffling and calling out, “Mother.”

  Realizing that I would actually become his stepmother in the future, I gave him a smile and accepted this address. Little Sticky-Rice Dumpling’s eyes shone, and he lifted a foot, getting ready to leap back over, but his father held him.

  Prince Ye Hua gave me a strange look, which I responded to with a smile.

  Dumpling was still struggling to break free. Ye Hua scooped him up, and the two of them walked around the corner.

  In a second they had vanished completely, not even a seam of clothing left in sight.

  I suddenly remembered the great banquet. I was still lost, and I had let the two of them go. Who was going to lead me out of the garden now?

  I quickly gave chase in the direction they had just headed, but I could see no sign of them.

  CHAPTER THREE

  I rounded the corner that Ye Hua and his son had disappeared down, and glanced in both directions. From the north I saw a woman striding toward me who, judging by her clothes and her makeup, did not seem to know there was a party at all.

  Squinting in her direction, I saw that fate really was up to no good today.

  Despite being heavily pregnant, this woman still managed to look light-footed and spritely. I took out my broken-cloud fan and held it in my palm, wondering if a wave from left to right might send her flying back to the Northern Sea. But seeing her pregnant belly, my heart softened and I put it away again.

  She walked over and slumped to her knees right in front of me. I moved to the side, not wishing to receive her praise. Looking perplexed, she followed after me on her knees, and I was reluctantly forced to stop. She looked at me and burst into tears. She did not look very different than she had when I last saw her fifty thousand years ago, although her face had become plumper.

  I wondered whether the preferred form for female immortals these days was delicate willows or buxom beauties. All the male immortals had seemed extremely taken with lithe-figured Princess Green Sleeves just now, which led me to believe that hers might be the favored figure.

  When confronted with people I was not too fond of, I had this quirk of blurting out things I knew they would not wish to hear. I gave myself a little pinch as a reminder to, whatever happened, not mention her weight. We had not seen each other for tens of thousands of years, and although I had my issues with her, she was a member of the older generation, and since she had observed etiquette so thoroughly, it would be improper of me to respond with an unkind comment.

  She was still looking at me through moist, twinkly eyes, staring so intently that a cold shudder moved up my spine. She lifted her hand to wipe away her tears and choked out, “Your Highness.”

  In the end I could not stop myself. “Shao Xin, how have you gotten so fat?”

  She stared at me in horror. Two red circles sprung to her cheeks, and her right hand moved to her bulging belly, and she gave it a vulnerable stroke.

  “I . . . I . . . I . . . ,” she stammered before it dawned on her that my words had been a form of greeting rather than a question she needed to answer. She rushed to prostrate herself again, raising her clasped hands in deference. “I was . . . I was in the garden just now when that wild wind blew me to the ground. As soon as I felt that seawater undercurrent, I thought that maybe . . . maybe it was the broken-cloud fan and Your Highness. I hurried over to have a look, and sure, sure, sure enough . . .”

  She looked like she was on the verge of tears once more. I was not sure why she was crying, and while seeing her upset like this did not exactly please me, I could not honestly say that it displeased me either.

  It would have been perfectly justified for me to storm off under the circumstances, but Shao Xin’s pathetic appearance softened my heart. I saw a stone bench to the side and sat down on it with a sigh.

  “It has been years since I have left Qingqiu, and I really did not expect to run into an old acquaintance quite so quickly. You must have known I wouldn’t wish to meet with you, yet you have gone out of your way to kneel down in my path. You clearly have something you wish to ask for. We used to be mistress and servant, and when you married, I never gave you a dowry, which is something I now have a chance to amend. I will grant you one wish. Tell me then, what is it you want?”

  She stared at me in shock. “I knew that you would be angry, Your Highness, bu . . . but why can’t you even look at me?”

  Before I had a chance to respond, she walked two steps closer on her knees. “You had never met Sang Ji, Your Highness, and you told me you didn’t think you’d like him,” she jabbered. “You and Sang Ji wouldn’t have had a happy marriage. Sang Ji liked me and I liked him. You may have missed on marrying Sang Ji, Your Highness, but you will marry a better man. Prince Ye Hua is a hundred times if not a thousand times the man Sang Ji is. And he is the future Sky Emperor. But if I were to lose Sang Ji . . . I would h-h-have nothing. He’s all I’ve got. I know that you are a wise and magnanimous immortal, Your Highness, and I think the reason you are angry with me is because I left Qingqiu without asking permission or saying good-bye, rather than because I married Sang Ji. Your Highness, Your Highness, have you not always said you wished for me to live a decent and dignified life?”

  I turned the broken-cloud fan over in my palm and stroked its surface. “Shao Xin, you feel hatred toward those family members of yours who tormented you in the reeds, don’t you?”

  She nodded, looking perplexed and suspicious.

  “You also know that some of them didn’t really want to torment you, but if they’d tried to protect you, they would have been tormented themselves. They had no choice but to align themselves with the strong and bully the weak, didn’t they?”

  She nodded again.

  I lifted my chin and looked at her. “Can you forgive those people who tormented you without a choice?”

  She clenched her teeth and shook her head.

  I had used such a circuitous route to express the way I felt, but I was pleased to hear my voice coming out sounding friendly and gentle. “That being the case, Shao Xin, you need to put yourself in my shoes and understand that similarly I don’t wish to see you, which, under the circumstances, is completely reasonable. I am indeed a goddess, but I have only risen to this rank recently, and I am not as wise and magnanimous as you give me credit for.”

  She opened her eyes wide.

  I had frightened her. She was such a beautiful, timid thing and pregnant, and as a goddess I should not have been so harsh. I felt immediately ashamed.

  I lowered my head and looked down at my legs, and my eyes suddenly opened wide too.

  Sticky-Rice Dumpling, who I thought had left the garden long ago, suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He started tugging gently at my skirt, a look of annoyance on his pale little face. “Why is Mother denying that she is a wise and magnanimous immortal? Mother is the wisest and most magnanimous immortal between the sky and earth.”

  I was speechless. “Where on earth did you spring from?” I asked when I had recovered from my shock. He raised his head and pouted his lips in the direction of the coral tree behind me.

  Sticky-Rice Dumpling’s father, Prince Ye Hua, walked out from the coral’s shadow, a faint smile playing on his lips, completely transforming his face. “I wasn’t aware that the girl I was talking to was Goddess Bai Qian from Qingqiu,” he said slowly.

  Hearing this fifty-thousand-year-old youngster calling me a girl made me shudder and gave me goose bumps. “Please don’t flatter me,” I said after some deliberation. “I am ninety thousand years your senior, and it would be more appropriate for you to refer to me as Your Highness.”

  He gave a little smile and said, “So Ali gets to call you Mother, while I have to call you Your Highness? Oh, Qian Qian, how do you justify that?”

  Hearing him call me Qian Qian made me shudder once more. It was said with a little too much affection.

  Shao Xin watched us in complete silence. The scene descended into aw
kwardness. It had been so long since I had been in a social environment that I was not sure how much of the awkwardness was due to my unfamiliarity with such exchanges and how much was the strangeness of this situation. Under these watchful eyes, I felt compelled to argue back with him.

  “You’ve been hiding behind a coral tree, eavesdropping on us all this time. How do you care to justify that?” I spluttered.

  Ye Hua remained calm and unresponsive, but his son slid down from my knees and pointed to the little lane obscured by the coral tree. “Father and I weren’t deliberately eavesdropping,” he explained. “Father noticed that you were chasing after us, so we turned around. But when we got near, we saw Mother talking with this woman here and thought it would be better if we kept out of sight.” He gave me a cautious look. “Mother, were you chasing after us because you couldn’t bear to part with Ali? Because you want to come back to the Sky Palace with me and Father Prince?”

  What an outlandish conclusion he had jumped to! I was just about to shake my head when I saw Ye Hua giving an emphatic nod and saying, “Yes, Ali, that’s correct. Mother couldn’t bear to be parted with you.”

  Little Sticky-Rice Dumpling gave a yelp of joy and looked at me through cheerfully sparkling eyes. “So, Mother, when are we going back to the Sky Palace?”

  “We’ll all go back there tomorrow,” Ye Hua replied for me.

  Sticky-Rice Dumpling gave another joyful yelp and continued looking at me through brighter and brighter sparkling eyes. “You’ve been away so long, Mother. Are you excited to finally be coming home?”

  Ye Hua did not respond for me this time. Instead I heard myself give an awkward laugh and say, “Yes, I’m very excited.”

  They had not given me the chance to explain that the only reason I was hurrying after them was because I needed to be shown the way out of this damned garden! I was in a far more complicated situation now, but at least I had a guide to get me out of this place.

  Shao Xin had been quietly lying prostrate on the ground this whole time, turning to Ye Hua every so often, looking aggrieved. If Sang Ji had not called off our engagement, he would be heir to the Sky Throne now, not Ye Hua. Everything that happened between the sky and earth could be explained through cause and effect. Sang Ji had sown the seed of cause, and the effect had naturally been his to reap. I could have caused him a lot of anguish; instead all I had done was add a few drops of water to the seedlings he planted, just a couple of extra drops of anger and hatred that had neither hurt nor stung him. The experience had allowed me to temper myself and become a more magnanimous person.