by Tang Qi
Waving his fan in my face, he said, “I am blown away by how attractive you are, Master.”
He looked like a scoundrel from a wealthy family. I gave a sigh. The alcohol fumes he was wafting over with his fan overpowered me and started to make me feel dizzy. I cupped my hands together to give a reluctant bow and uttered the words, “You’re too kind.”
I grabbed Dumpling’s hand to lead him out of the building, but the man leaned over, blocking my path. He grabbed one of my hands. “What beautiful, pale, tender hands you have,” he said with a snigger. I was stunned into silence.
My early experiences in the mortal world had taught me that women who went out in public often found themselves being lusted after and pestered like this, but these days even men were not safe. Dumpling was gaping at the man with the fan, a piece of mung-bean cake in his mouth.
I was gaping at him too. The man with the fan had been lucky today: he had managed to grope a goddess. It was the first time I had ever been accosted by a mortal. I did not plan to quarrel with him any longer than needed. I graciously took my hand back to give him a clear message. But the foolish man immediately drew even closer. “I’ve fallen in love at first sight. Would you . . . ?” The cheeky swine reached an arm to put around my waist.
Most of the time I was a merciful goddess, but encounters like this drained my mercy dry. I decided I would cast a spell to freeze him. I could tie him to a tree in a nearby forest for a few days and give him an experience that he would not forget for a while. As I was thinking this over, I sensed a movement from behind. Someone rushed over and swept me up into their arms. I lifted my head and greeted the owner of these familiar arms. “Ye Hua, you’ve come just at the right moment!”
Ye Hua grasped me with one hand. A few beams of cold light shimmered from the bright lanterns onto his black cloak. He smiled grimly at the perplexed-looking man with the fan and said, “You’ve been accosting my wife and seem to have been taking a lot of joy in it.”
As the future Sky Empress, technically I supposed I was his wife. And the fact that I had been accosted was obviously humiliating for Ye Hua. Still holding me, he grabbed the lecherous coward and reprimanded him, just as a husband should. I allowed myself to be held while he reproached this lascivious wretch, just as a wife should.
Dumpling had gobbled up half the mung-bean cakes by now and was licking the corners of his lips. “You’ve made Father really, really angry,” he told the man with the fan in an earnest voice. “Father hardly ever gets angry, so you must be really talented. It’s time for us to say good-bye to you now. So long!”
Dumpling took up position next to me. The man with the fan was outraged. “Do you know who I am, huh?” he sneered. “Huh—”
But he vanished before he had even finished speaking.
“What have you done with him?” I turned to ask Ye Hua.
Ye Hua looked toward the dim patch after the twinkling lights of the town petered out. “A haunted forest nearby,” he said calmly. I was stunned. Great minds.
Ye Hue gazed into the distance and then turned to scrutinize me. “Why didn’t you hide yourself when he started taking advantage?” he asked.
“It was nothing but a wandering hand,” I said meekly.
He lowered his head, his face expressionless, and planted a kiss upon my lips.
I was too stunned to react.
He looked at me, his face still impassive, and said, “And that was nothing but a pair of wandering lips!”
Something about today was making me feel lighter than when I was a ninety-thousand-year-old youngster. Little Dumpling stood to the side and covered his mouth to giggle. He started choking on the mung-bean cake so hard he could not breathe.
That night we took Dumpling to float lanterns on the lake. These lanterns looked like lotus flowers with small candles burning in their centers. Mortals placed them in the water to make wishes or prayers. Dumpling took hold of his lantern and mumbled his prayers. He prayed for a bumper grain harvest, thriving domestic livestock, and peace and harmony to all under the sky. Finally he was satisfied with his prayers and released his lantern into the water.
His little lantern managed to stay afloat despite the weight of all the prayers it was carrying. It spun in a circle, and when the wind blew, it swayed from side to side before floating off. Ye Hua handed me a lantern too. When mortals prayed they asked immortals for protection, but to whom did immortals pray to ask for protection?
Ye Hua gave a faint smile. “Just make any old wish. You don’t really think that saying a prayer and placing a lantern in a lake will make everything run smoothly, do you?” he said, sounding very logical.
I awkwardly accepted the little lantern and walked over to Dumpling to release it with him.
It had been a perfect day.
By the time we were finished with our lake lanterns, Dumpling was so tired he could no longer keep his eyes open. He still had enough strength to mutter, “Let’s not go back to Qingqiu tonight. I want to spend a night in the mortal world, see what mortal beds and quilts feel like.”
The watchman’s clapper sounded, signaling nightfall. We wandered around the streets and alleys, but all the doors with two lanterns hanging on them and with the word inn written on them were shut.
The town center was small, but it was a popular place with visitors. We knocked on the doors of two inns before finding one that had a vacant room. Dumpling was fast asleep in Ye Hua’s arms by then.
The innkeeper was half asleep himself. “You two men won’t mind sharing a bed together for one night, will you?” he asked with a yawn. “There are only three inns in this town, and innkeepers Wang and Li are both fully booked. Lucky for you someone just checked out here, so we have one room free.”
Ye Hua gave a barely perceptible nod, and the innkeeper shouted inside for someone. The porter ran out, his arms flailing wildly as he tried to thread them into their sleeves. He ran to the front to take us to our room.
He led us up to the second floor and around a corner and pushed open a door. Ye Hua put Dumpling on the bed and asked the porter to bring us some water so we could wash. At that moment, my stomach rumbled. Ye Hu gave me a meaningful glance and said, “And could you make us a little something to eat while you’re at it?”
The porter looked exhausted and clearly wanted to finish waiting on us so he could get back to bed. He quickly reappeared with the water and the food. They were very simple dishes: beef cooked in brine, salt and pepper spare ribs, and spring onion with tofu.
I picked up my chopsticks and took a couple of bites, but that was enough. I was not usually a fussy eater, but Ye Hua’s cooking had obviously given me a more discerning palate.
Ye Hua sat under the lamp, reading. He lifted his head to look at me, and then down at the three dishes on the table. “Don’t eat them if you don’t want to. Just have a wash and go to bed.”
It was an average double room with one bed. I looked at the bed and hesitated before lying down on it fully clothed.
Ye Hua had not mentioned sleeping arrangements. He was so decent that it probably had not even occurred to him as a problem. If I were to bring it up, I worried I would come across as uptight.
I moved the soundly sleeping Dumpling toward the center of the bed, placed the big quilt to the side, and lay down on the wall side of the bed. Ye Hua was still sitting under the lamp with his documents.
In the middle of the night, foggy from sleep, I felt as if I had a pair of arms wrapped around me. I could feel someone holding me and sighing into my ear. “I’ve always known about your temper, but I had no idea how obstinate you were. If you’ve forgotten the past and former happenings, you’ve forgotten them. I both wish you would remember and hope you never do . . .”
Assuming it was just fragments of dreams, I turned around and scooped Dumpling into my arms, and stroking him, I fell peacefully back to sleep.
It was already fully light outside by the time I crawled out of bed the next morning. Ye Hua was sitting in tha
t same position, reading his documents. The only difference was that the candles were no longer lit.
I was confused. Had he been reading all night? Or had he been asleep, woken up before me, and sat back down to continue reading?
Dumpling beckoned me over to the table. “Mother, Mother, this rice porridge is nice and thick. Ali has ladled some out for you.”
I stroked his head and called him a very good boy. I had a wash and then tucked into my porridge. It was identical in taste and consistency to the porridge Ye Hua made at home.
I lifted my head and gazed at him. With his head still lowered, he said, “You didn’t seem very enthusiastic about the food here last night, and I was worried Ali wouldn’t like it either, so I used their kitchen to stew us up some porridge.”
“I didn’t like the food the Eastern Sea Princess cooked when we were on Junji Mountain either, but Father Prince never made food just for me then,” Dumpling mumbled. Ye Hua gave a cough.
I had been treated so well and did not want to cause any trouble, so I just lowered my head and focused on the delicious porridge.
CHAPTER NINE
Dumpling and I returned to Qingqiu that morning, while Ye Hua’s desk official, Jia Yun, came to accompany him back to the Sky Palace. There was an important matter that he needed to discuss with his court, apparently, which would take a couple of days. During this time, Dumpling and I lived off that basket of loquat and felt very sorry for ourselves. Dumpling ate so much of the fruit that his face turned orange. Tugging pitifully at my sleeve, he said, “Mother, when is Father Prince coming back? Ali wants to eat steamed mushrooms and a bowl of his cabbage and carrot soup.”
Mystic Gorge could not bear to see such a pitiful little face any longer. If it was only steamed mushrooms and a cabbage and carrot soup Dumpling was craving, it could not be too hard to make, he thought, stoically rolling up his sleeves and marching into the kitchen. Ye Hua’s steamed mushrooms and his cabbage and carrot soup were unbelievably rich and flavorsome, but they were so complicated and laborious to prepare that flowers wilted, trees shed their leaves, and the sky changed color during the process. Mystic Gorge turned the foxhole upside down in his attempt to replicate these two dishes, but still he failed to meet Dumpling’s approval.
Dumpling continued tugging at my sleeve. “Mother, Mother, when is Father Prince coming back?” he asked in distress.
Phoenix Nine often used to tell me her experiences of love when she was drunk. She had come to the conclusion that you did not really know what love was until you had tried it. Once you had tasted its sweetness, you could not live without it. There was nothing in the universe as beguiling. I agreed that there was nothing more alluring than love but felt that some things were equally enchanting, like Ye Hua’s cooking.
While I was not quite to the same extent as Dumpling with his incessant whining, I found I was missing Ye Hua and his cooking a lot too.
I remembered the first time I had ever seen Ye Hua, at the Eastern Sea Water Crystal Palace. I had only noticed how astonishingly familiar his face was. It was only recently that it had begun to dawn on me that he was the future Sky Emperor, with so many matters to deal with, and what it must have taken for him to get away for three months and do all our cooking for us. Ye Hua was so knowledgeable, kind, and considerate.
Dumpling and I would have to wait until he came back down from the sky before we ate another decent meal. Lucky for Mystic Gorge, I had an idea. As he came over to deliver loquat in time for our meal, I called him over to sit down and eat with us. With joy I explained how he would not need to make any more loquat deliveries.
After experiencing Mystic Gorge’s cooking, I realized how tough life without Ye Hua was. I bounded out of the foxhole the following day and put up a notice. I was looking to recruit a young Qingqiu immortal to undertake a cooking apprenticeship under Ye Hua.
The local young immortals were all very eager and formed two long lines in front of the foxhole. “I haven’t seen such a lively scene in Qingqiu for a long time,” Mystic Gorge exclaimed. “With this many people, it would be best to set up a stage and get the candidates to compete. We can choose the one with the best foundation to study His Majesty’s noble craft.”
I thought it was a wonderful idea and gave my permission. Mystic Gorge was an efficient organizer, so I left him to it while I went back inside for a nap. By the time I woke up again, the stage was set up.
Qingqiu became a mass of spiraling smoke. Dumpling stood salivating in the foxhole doorway. Ye Hua sat at the side all alone, lifting his eyes to glance at me every so often, a strange expression on his face. Seeing an empty bamboo seat next to him, I strolled over and sat down.
Dumpling launched himself straight up onto my lap. “Mystic Gorge tells me you’re choosing me an apprentice?” Ye Hua said, giving a light yawn.
I nodded.
He swept his eyes over the crowd of young immortals rushing around on the stage and the smoke and flames leaping into the sky. He leaned over to me and said, “Tell them they can all leave. They are all lacking the right foundation.” He looked me up and down and with a smile said, “You look like you’ll do. But you don’t really need to learn. As long as one of us can cook, we’ll be fine.”
He casually got to his feet and returned to his study. I was left there staring blankly, not sure what he meant.
“Which one did His Majesty just choose?” Mystic Gorge asked, skipping over.
I shook my head in confusion. “He didn’t like the look of any of them. He said to send them all away.”
One morning a week or so later, I was nestled up in Ye Hua’s study, flicking through a book of folk stories and crunching on sunflower seeds, while Ye Hua sat with a couple of files in front of him, working through a pile of documents. I suspected that the old Sky Emperor had already started to enjoy the comforts of retirement. He no longer seemed to be attending to any of his matters, and the day-to-day grind had fallen entirely onto his grandson’s shoulders.
The lotus flowers in the lake outside the window were fully open and looked stunning. A breeze blew across the lake, and the dragonflies inside the flowers swayed along with the petals while a gentle fragrance wafted out. Mystic Gorge took Dumpling out into the middle of the lake in a little boat, and they picked lotus leaves to dry in the sun and make a refreshing tea. Mystic Gorge was not a dab hand at the stove, but he was good at making tea, another highly skilled job.
Ye Hua put down his document and walked over to the window to open the curtain fully. “You never bother to give the lotus flowers in your lake any attention. You leave them to live or die as they will, and yet they are so beautiful, as beautiful as those in the Sky Palace’s Jade Pool even,” he said with a smile.
I gave a quick laugh and then reached over to offer him a handful of sunflower seeds. He never ate them, but he took them from me anyway and stood in front of the window, shelling them before handing the kernels back to me. “I would give these to Ali if he were here, but his loss is your gain.”
I accepted them gratefully when I heard Dumpling give a sudden shriek from the lake outside. I stuck my head out the window to see Mystic Gorge rushing off the boat.
It looked from his reaction as if Qingqiu might be under siege!
“Come and get some sunflower seeds,” I called out to Dumpling, sitting alone in the boat.
He sat there in the middle of the lotus lake for a while, coyly wringing his hands, before turning red in the face and saying, “Ali . . . Ali doesn’t know how to row.”
I went back to my book. I had just come to the most gripping part when Mystic Gorge entered Ye Hua’s study and presented me with the broken-cloud fan. “Ah, it looks as if my second uncle’s wife has decided to make an appearance,” Ye Hua said coolly.
His family had such an extensive and mysterious lineage that it took a moment to work out which uncle he was talking about. It was only when I looked down at the broken-cloud fan that I put two and two together. His second uncle was Sang Ji, t
he man who had broken our engagement. And his wife was Shao Xin.
While in the Eastern Sea, I had promised to honor our former master-and-servant relationship by granting her a wish. I had told her that when she had decided what she wanted, she should come and see me in Qingqiu, bringing this fan. She obviously knew what she wanted.
Mystic Gorge’s face paled and then darkened as he led Shao Xin inside. I gave him a pointed look, reminding him that Dumpling was still in the middle of the lake in his boat. “Ah!” Mystic Gorge exclaimed, leaping out the window.
Ye Hua continued to read his documents in silence. I continued to read my folktale in silence. Shao Xin knelt on the floor in silence.
I finished the story and noticed I had run out of tea. I got up and went out to brew a new pot, picking up Ye Hua’s cup from his desk so that I could replenish that too. When I came back with the tea, Shao Xin was still kneeling there in silence. I took a sip of tea and watched her with bemusement. “You’ve come to see me, so I expect you’ve decided what to ask for. Why not just come out and say it?”
She lifted her head, glanced at Ye Hua, and bit her lip.
Ye Hua sat there, calmly drinking his tea and reading through his documents. I put down my cup. “Prince Ye Hua is not some stranger,” I continued calmly. “You’ll just have to be brave and say what you have to say in front of him.”
Ye Hua lifted his head and glanced at me with a faint smile.
Shao Xin hesitated before finally starting to speak. “Your Highness, Your Highness, can you help my son Yuan Zhen?” she asked in a timid voice.
I had to wait for Shao Xin to stop sniveling and crying before I understood what had happened and why she had been so reluctant to speak in Ye Hua’s presence.