To the Sky Kingdom

by Tang Qi

  I looked up at the sky, gave three loud cackles, and cast a spell to freeze her. I took my fan out, and carrying her under my arm, I marched all the way to Li Jing’s court. I pried the Jade Soul out of her palm and placed it in front of him.

  He lifted his head to look at me, his beautiful face blanching. His mouth opened, but no words came out.

  I flung Xuan Nu into his arms and took a step toward the door. With a bitter smile I said, “My biggest regret has been coming to the Purple Light Palace to visit you, Demon Prince. You two are a perfect match. One has the cruel heart of a wolf, the other the cowardly lung of a dog. From this day forth, Si Yin and the Purple Light Palace are bitter enemies.”

  My youth and pride stopped me from just grabbing the Jade Soul and taking it. Instead I left the Purple Light Palace empty-handed, kicking and punching everyone I passed on the way.

  Returning to Mount Kunlun, and seeing Mo Yuan’s increasingly dismal color, I did not really know what else to do. At dusk I stole into the alchemy room. I took whatever medicine I could lay my hands on and mixed it in with my fellow apprentices’ food.

  In the middle of the night, while they were all sleeping heavily, I hoisted Mo Yuan’s body onto my back and carried him off Mount Kunlun and back to Qingqiu.

  Fengyi Mountain was a small mountain to the north of Qingqiu. Halfway up the mountainside was a cavern in which a large amount of spiritual energy had gathered over the years. Father had named it Yanhua Cave. I placed Mo Yuan’s body onto an ice chest inside Yanhua Cave. I was worried that the next time I took blood from my heart, I might be too weak to carry it over to him, so I simply lay down by his side.

  Mo Yuan’s body was wracked with injuries. I needed to feed him some blood every day until these were better, and a cup every month after that.

  I really did not know how many nights I could sustain such intense feeding, but what got me through was the thought that if I died, he would not return either. Instead we would be buried together and would travel through to the Netherworld side by side. That was why I had brought him to Yanhua Cave. It was a place I had chosen as my own final resting place sometime before my sky calamity.

  I spent seven days like this and was on the verge of death when I opened my eyes and saw Mother, her eyelids red and swollen.

  She had come to transfer to me half of her own spiritual energy. That was what brought me back to life and returned me to my female form. Although I still needed to plunge a knife into my chest every night to get heart blood to feed Mo Yuan, being in Mother’s care greatly eased my suffering.

  I shook my head and saw that Li Jing had crossed the bamboo bridge and was walking toward me. I remembered that I had fallen into this underground cavern where I had happened upon Demon Emperor Li Jing having a secret tryst with this she-goblin.

  He took my hand. “Si Yin, I’ve been looking for you for seventy thousand years,” he said in anguish.

  I glanced in bewilderment toward the she-goblin in the straw pavilion. I had heard of creditors chasing debtors, but never the other way around. Especially strange was the case of a debtor who came over specifically to remind the creditor what he owed. However you added it up, Li Jing was the one who owed me.

  I shook off his grip and took a step back. He took a step forward, staring at me the whole time. “Do you still resent me? Back at the Purple Light Palace all those years ago, you told me that from that day forth, we would be bitter enemies. But you must know how much I . . .”

  I gathered up my sleeves and forced a smile. “Demon Emperor, you needn’t be concerned—those were words spoken in the heat of the moment. Nowadays the Demon and God Clans have a peaceful coexistence. All these years haven’t been for nothing. I have learned to be reasonable. I will not create trouble where there is none, nor will I disturb the peace at the Purple Light Palace. But you and I should continue to keep our distance.”

  He looked shocked. “Si Yin, I abandoned you back then because you weren’t a girl,” he explained quickly. “So I . . . these last seven thousand years, I heard that you had . . . had . . . but I didn’t believe them. I’ve thought about you for all these years, Si Yin . . .”

  Hearing the name Si Yin floating around and around my head was starting to make me dizzy. “Who says I’m not a girl?” I asked angrily. “Open your eyes and have a proper look. Do men tend to look like this?”

  He was about to come over and take my hand, but his hand stopped in midair. “So you are a girl?” he asked in astonishment. “So back then, back then you . . .”

  I moved to the side, dodging him. “Master didn’t accept female apprentices, so my mother changed my body into a boy’s,” I told him. “Since you’ve brought up the past, Demon Emperor, I have a couple of words to say to you. When you abandoned me and got together with Xuan Nu instead, four qilins welcomed her into the Purple Light Palace, and you celebrated for nine days straight, that was your official wed—”

  He waved his hand to interrupt me. “Back then when you were so upset, why didn’t you tell me you were a girl?”

  I completely forgot what I had been about to say. I wondered how best to respond. “I must have been very upset back then, although I can hardly remember it now. And you adored Xuan Nu, loved her interests and her character, not just her face. It was over between us. What difference would it have made if I’d told you?”

  He pursed his lips.

  I had been unbelievably unlucky this evening, but now I saw that I had managed to fluster him with my words. I took my opportunity, bidding him a hurried but courteous farewell before turning and casting a spell, taking to the wind, and flying off. On my way up, I made myself invisible to avoid any further entanglements.

  All I could hear behind me was his panic-stricken yells of “Si Yin!”

  But there was no one left in the world named Si Yin.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  I didn’t go straight home. I decided to pop in on Third Brother on the way and deliver his peach blossom wine. Third Brother and Third Sister-in-Law were not home, however, and after accepting a little bite to eat from their immortal servant, I entrusted the jars of wine to him and summoned a lucky cloud to take me back to Qingqiu.

  I passed Xiazhou on the way and decided to go and pay my respects to Tian Wu, who was buried in the cemetery there. Most of the ancient gods had outstanding faces, but Tian Wu had been the exception. However, what he lacked in quality, he made up for in quantity: he had a total of eight heads. We had been good friends while I was studying at Mount Kunlun under Mo Yuan. However, later, when the inexorable doom was meted upon the residence of the ancient gods, he perished in the fire and lightning. I hurried from Qingqiu to Xiazhou as soon as I heard about the inexorable doom, but by the time I arrived, it was too late. All that was left of him was a heap of bones.

  It was noon by the time I arrived back at Qingqiu.

  My feet had only just touched the ground when I saw a glossy little green-clad figure crawling out of the foxhole.

  Mystic Gorge came over to me, a self-effacing look on his face. “You’ve taken your time, Your Highness,” he said anxiously. I rubbed my eyes.

  The little figure gave a squeal and leaped over to me, his eyes brimming with tears. “Mother, your words are meaningless,” he blurted out in anguish. “Yesterday you said you would come back to the Sky Palace with us!”

  Mystic Gorge had his eyes to the ground, but he glanced in my direction every so often, clearly holding back the questions. I looked at him and waved my sleeve, giving him permission to speak. He cupped his hands together in thanks and bowed down in front of me. “I deserve to die, Your Highness. I have failed you and your instructions to take proper care of Qingqiu. But what else could I have done with this little immortal? It would not have been appropriate to block the heir to the Sky Throne. And he told me he was dropping off Your Highness’s child. Someone of his status, what choice did I have but to let him into Qingqiu? I am sorry that I did not manage to get a message to Your Highness to ask for i
nstructions first, so please punish me as you see fit.”

  I was astonished. Prince Ye Hua had been here? Had he come simply to pay me back for the scene I had caused during his tryst with the princess?

  I had retreated from that scene in great haste and had no idea how things had been left between the two of them. Princess Liao Qing was clearly deeply devoted to him, and in my befuddled state, I had allowed his son to convince me to stir up trouble between them. If Ye Hua had wanted to win her back, he would not have found it hard. To come here just to teach me a lesson seemed unnecessarily mean, and I found myself trembling at the prospect.

  Little Sticky-Rice Dumpling hugged my arm and lifted his head. “Father Prince told me that you didn’t want to come back with us, Mother,” he said with a pout. “He said you were worried you wouldn’t like living in the Sky Palace. Well, Mother, you don’t need to worry about that anymore. Father Prince and Ali have decided to move over here and live with Mother instead. As long as I’m with you, Mother, Ali can live anywhere.”

  Hearing this made me feel dizzy. “You’re telling me that you and Father Prince are planning to move in with me?” I said, my face turning pale.

  Sticky-Rice Dumpling gave a rapid, childish nod. My knees went weak, but Mystic Gorge, as considerate and intuitive as ever, came over and took hold of my arm. “Stay calm, Your Highness,” he whispered.

  We were both aware of an antecedent to this.

  While he was still heir to the throne, the current Sky Emperor had been something of a ladies’ man. To curb this, his father, who had been Sky Emperor at the time, had arranged for him to marry his cousin. When he had protested, his father had issued a sky decree sending him to his aunt’s for a month of confinement. While he was there, he and his cousin grew very close and married as soon as he returned to the Sky Palace. It was a story people loved to share.

  Prince Ye Hua’s wish to reside with me in Qingqiu was therefore completely justified, and no one could deny him his right to do so. Unfortunately, all this visit would do was cause me trouble, and I was starting to feel worried.

  Mystic Gorge explained how Ye Hua had thrust Little Sticky-Rice Dumpling onto him and clearly felt comfortable leaving him here alone, as he himself had returned to the Sky Palace. As the man who would reign over all the immortals of the Four Seas and Eight Deserts one day, Ye Hua spent his time dealing with chores relating to this role. Although he was planning to come and have a short stay in Qingqiu, it seemed he would still need to travel regularly to the Sky Palace for work.

  Little Sticky-Rice Dumpling looked up at the sky, and then at me. “Ali is feeling a bit hungry, Mother,” he told me anxiously.

  It had been a long time since the foxhole fire had been stoked. “Is there anything to eat at your place?” I asked Mystic Gorge.

  “No . . . no there isn’t,” he responded bashfully.

  “Have you not been eating with Phoenix Nine recently?” I asked. “Doesn’t she come over every day to cook for you? Surely she hasn’t gone back to the cave of her parents?”

  “Half a year ago she told me she had to visit the mortal world to repay a debt of gratitude,” he said, looking despondent. “She packed up her things and left and hasn’t been back since. I’m starting to wonder if the person to whom she owed the favor might be holding her back. When she does finally come back, it might be with a little fox cub in tow.”

  “Ah,” I said with a nod. I was worried that once Little Sticky-Rice Dumpling discovered there was nothing to eat, his eyes would start welling up with tears once more. I had only known him for a day or two, but I already had a good sense of his temperament. He would often stare with this pitiful, moist-eyed expression, but he never seemed to cry. Seeing those tears within the rims of his eyes made me feel like there was a cat clawing at my heart. My neglect made me feel utterly inhumane.

  Finally Mystic Gorge could bear the pitiful expression on his little face no longer. He grasped hold of Little Sticky-Rice Dumpling’s hand and said, “Would you like Big Brother here to take you to find something to eat? Does Your Little Majesty like loquat fruit?”

  I felt my mouth start to twitch. Little Sticky-Rice Dumpling was no more than three hundred years old, while Mystic Gorge was about to turn one hundred thirty-seven thousand. By genially referring to himself as Big Brother, he was doing his usual trick of putting himself down.

  I followed them to the market in the east of town. As soon as they saw me, the young immortals in the fruit stall stopped what they were doing. “Good day, Your Highness,” they greeted reverently, all of them well versed in etiquette.

  There were a number of old-looking folk among them, with white hair and wrinkled skin, but most were positively young compared with me. When Sticky-Rice Dumpling heard the way they were addressing me, he was extremely put out. He ran over to the pine tree spirit selling pine nuts and placed his hands on his round little hips to say, “My mother is young and vibrant and beautiful. Why do you call her by an address that makes her sound so grand and old-fashioned?”

  The pine tree spirit’s jaw dropped. He finally managed to say, “Your Highness? When did you have a child, Your Highness?”

  “Yesterday,” I said, glancing up at the sky.

  It had been a good year for loquat, and there were mounds of them stacked in bamboo baskets, brightening up the marketplace. Sticky-Rice Dumpling was beside himself with joy to see so many of them.

  Mystic Gorge spent a long time looking around, tasting the products of one vendor after another. Finally he decided on the contents of one dark-green bamboo basket. “Choose half a basket of these,” he instructed us, pointing at the basket.

  Phoenix Nine had taught Mystic Gorge how to choose fruit and vegetables, and therefore I trusted his judgment. I nodded and crouched down next to the bamboo basket he’d chosen and carefully started to pick out the loquat I wanted.

  Sticky-Rice Dumpling ran over and tried to do the same, but he was too small, and crouching down, he was completely obscured by the basket. He hung around begrudgingly, whining. He stood on tiptoe and leaned over the top of the basket, picked one loquat and made a gesture of looking at it carefully before taking another and doing the same with that one.

  I had been so focused on picking out fruit that I did not notice anyone approaching until a very slender hand with angular bones was thrust in front of me. I thought at first that it was Mystic Gorge and shifted to the side to make room for him. I was surprised when the hand started to jostle with me and grab for the fruit I had chosen. I realized there was no way it could be Mystic Gorge. I followed the jet-black cloak sleeve upward and found myself staring at Sticky-Rice Dumpling’s father, who I had expected would still be busy with his duties in the Ninth Sky. He bent down and gave me a cheerful smile.

  Ye Hua looked extremely dashing when he smiled.

  I did not really want him to stay in Qingqiu, but he was here now: an uninvited guest. I was always extremely courteous to guests and naturally was not about to get into an argument. Instead I switched on my hostess charm.

  I flashed him a bright and gracious smile. “Ah, so if it isn’t Prince Ye Hua,” I said. “We are just buying loquat. If you haven’t eaten yet, please join us for lunch!”

  The smile froze on his face. He regarded the loquats in my hand with disdain. “Ali’s a growing boy,” he said. “Is that all you’re planning to feed him?”

  I gave Sticky-Rice Dumpling’s face a light pinch, asking, “Don’t you want to eat this lovely fruit?”

  Sticky-Rice Dumpling gave a bashful nod. “Yes, please,” he said quietly.

  Ye Hua stared at me in silence, his hand on his forehead, before grabbing my hand and saying, “Where do you find meat and vegetables around here?”

  Before I had time to gather my thoughts, I was being dragged off. “Your Highness, do you still want this loquat?” Mystic Gorge shouted after us, Sticky-Rice Dumpling in his arms. Ye Hua was striding along at a fair pace. Gesturing for Mystic Gorge to catch us up.


  “Of course!” I shouted back to him. “We’ve spent all this time choosing them. It would be unfair not to buy them now.”

  In no time at all, those from the north, south, east, and west marketplaces all knew that a handsome young man with a small child had arrived in Qingqiu and was staying at Emperor Bai Zhi’s cave, and that the chubby little boy had been calling me Mother and the man Father Prince.

  Qingqiu had been at peace for a long time, and even the disappearance of Fourth Brother’s bird steed, Bi Fang, had been a subject of gossip among the local young immortals. Hearing this news about me caused them such excitement they did not know what to do with themselves. A gray wolf selling fish in the north of town gave me a whole basket for free. “It’s just a couple of fi-fi-fish, but if you stew them up, Your Highness, it-it-it’ll be very good for your heal-heal-health,” he stuttered.

  Ye Hua took the basket and gave a chuckle, “Yes, giving birth to a son takes its toll on a woman’s body. She’ll need plenty of replenishment.”

  The gray wolf scratched his head and gave a dim-witted laugh.

  Hearing them echo back and forth with their crazy talk of postnatal replenishment was starting to addle my poor brain.

  We returned to the foxhole, and Little Sticky-Rice Dumpling gorged himself on so many loquats he gave himself hiccups. Virtuous Mystic Gorge picked up the broom and swept all the fruit peels from the floor.

  Helping himself to a cup of cold tea, Ye Hua looked at me and said, “Go and cook us something then.”

  I threw an impassive glance in Mystic Gorge’s direction and sat down to pour myself a cup of cold tea. Little Sticky-Rice Dumpling patted his stomach and reached out a hand. “I want some too, Mother,” he said petulantly. I walked over and helped him to a few sips of the cold tea.