by Tang Qi
Nai Nai giggled, bent down to curtsy to me, blew out the candle, and made a deferential exit.
There was nothing seriously wrong with Dumpling, but he was sweating profusely. From his face it was obvious how deeply he was sleeping, and he did look a little the worse for wear. I brought over a basin of water and cast a magic spell to warm the room slightly. I took the cloud quilt off him, stripped him completely, and wiped him down. I tended to him from two in the morning until Mao the Sun Prince took his post.
I did not get a wink more sleep, but for this I had no one to blame but myself. As I was putting Dumpling’s clothes back on him item by item, it dawned on me how much work it was having a child, and the admiration I felt for Ye Hua reached new heights.
I had just finished getting Dumpling ready when Nai Nai arrived with the porridge, and I had not yet had the chance to carry out the washbasin. Nai Nai looked at the basin on the ground in surprise before kneeling down, taking the white cloth, twisting the water out of it, and taking the basin out to empty the water.
By the time she returned, I had finished giving myself a wash and was having a taste of her porridge, which was delicious. Knowing that little children could be fussy when it came to food, she had used a little sugar to sweeten it. Telling her to go back so she could wake early to make the porridge had been a ploy; I had not really thought that Dumpling would wake up this early.
Since Dumpling was not yet awake, he was unable to appreciate this bowl of delicious, sweet porridge. I looked pityingly at the bowl in front of me, certain that if porridge could think, it would be mulling over all the hardship it had suffered, being tossed around the wok and stewed for hours on end, all so that it could be sitting on this table, piping hot in this bowl. To let it get cold and go to waste seemed a terrible shame.
I gave a disgruntled sigh.
Nai Nai pursed her lips and smiled. “Since His Little Majesty is still asleep, it would be a shame for the porridge to get cold, and you haven’t had any breakfast yet. If you would care to try your little serving girl’s cooking, please go ahead.”
Since she had offered, I did not feel I could say no, so I accepted with a laugh. I had just finished it when the eighteen immortal attendants who had stood in wait while I soaked in the water the day before made their dignified entrance into Concentrated Beauty. The two at the front were carrying trays of breakfast treats, while the other sixteen carried fruit, flowers, and wine, the same as yesterday. I gave a silent sigh. His Highness Ling Bao treated his guests with true Sky Kingdom hospitality, extreme kindness with no expenses spared.
I had eaten my breakfast by then and was about to tell the immortal attendants with the breakfast trays to take them away, but seeing all those cakes, I had second thoughts and asked them to leave the trays in my courtyard for Dumpling. He had been asleep for a day and a half and would need some food once he woke up. I left Dumpling in Nai Nai’s care and joined the procession of lively immortal attendants and headed toward Ling Bao’s sky spring for another day of soaking.
Most Ninth Sky roads were decorated with curious-shaped rocks and huge, sprawling man-made mountains. These enhanced the look of the area, but made the roads difficult to travel down.
I stopped walking when I heard two gossiping immortals mentioning Princess Liao Qing.
I had returned to my room last night before the matter between her and Ye Hua had been concluded, and although I had been bored by the way in which the drama involving Liao Qing and Su Jin had been playing out, I was still curious to hear how it had ended. It was like reading half of a predictable play script, you have guessed how it ends and could forgo the second half, but the possible ending turned over in your mind, compelling you to read on just to see if you were right.
“I knew when I first saw Liao Qing from the Eastern Sea that she wasn’t happy with her lot,” one of these work-shy immortal attendants said. “And sure enough, look what happened yesterday.”
“I’m not sure exactly what she did wrong. I went to ask Red Mandarin Duck, who was on duty with the prince last night, but she wouldn’t say, and actually scolded me for asking,” said the other.
“It has to be something really bad if the prince wants to send her back to the Eastern Sea,” the first one said. “Our empress went to beg on Liao Qing’s behalf last night apparently. She spent hours kneeling down in the prince’s study.”
The second one gave a heartfelt sigh. “Oh, she didn’t really need to do that. But she is such an exceptional empress, so beautiful and kind. I can’t understand why the prince is so dismissive of her. He hasn’t been to visit her once since I’ve been working at the empress’s palace. And that awful incident with the Northern Sea ba snake’s good-for-nothing son. The Sky Emperor was livid, but when Snow Candle ran to Prince Ye Hua’s study to tell him what happened, I heard he didn’t even bat an eyelid.”
Now it was the first one’s turn to give a loud sigh. “I know that as serving girls we shouldn’t be talking like this, but our empress is the prince’s head concubine, yet he acts as if she doesn’t exist. He’s so cold toward her. Our empress doesn’t have it easy, she really doesn’t.”
The second one responded, “Now the prince has been bewitched by that nine-tailed fox from Qingqiu. I’ve heard that this is something they’re very good at. She is the prince’s future wife, but they’re not married yet, and she already has him twisted around her little finger. Who knows what it will be like once they’re actually married! He’s so infatuated with her that he’s been spending all his time in Qingqiu. The empress was terrified this affair would consume his mind and he would completely abandon all his official duties, so she sent her immortal attendant Qing Hua to Qingqiu to give him a friendly reminder about his sky duties. And how did they repay her concern and effort? By booting this attendant out of Qingqiu!”
The first one gave another sigh. “Oh, our empress is so kind and compassionate. I’m scared of the suffering this Qingqiu goddess is going to unleash upon her.”
The two of them were silent awhile. The eighteen immortal concubines standing with me on my side of the wall seemed to have practically stopped breathing. My two at the head of our procession were about to pass through the rocks, but I raised my fan to stop them.
They looked at me anxiously, and I responded with a pleasant smile.
The two immortal attendants on the other side of the rocks were obviously in excitable moods, and their period of silence, a time in which they were reflecting on the depth of their devotion to Su Jin, I imagined, was only short-lived. I remembered being that age and predicted that after this pause in the conversation, they would return to the topic of the nine-tailed white fox and her bewitching ways.
I had not lived in vain all these years; sure enough, the first little immortal attendant to speak again started by saying, “You must have heard that the Qingqiu goddess is one hundred and forty thousand years old.”
The other gasped. “Really? One hundred and forty thousand? D-d-doesn’t that make her an old lady? The prince is ninety thousand years younger. She is so much older than him—old enough to be his grandmother. How shameless she must be. I know they are engaged, but still. Trying to ensnare the prince at her age. It’s obscene!”
“Yes, it is, it is,” the first replied. “She is old and shameless. She must have used magic to bewitch the prince. I just hope that the prince sees through her sooner rather than later and comes to understand how devoted our empress is and comes back to her.”
Their conversation trailed off at this point. Presumably this was a topic they had been over again and again.
I had been interested to hear the gossip about Liao Qing but had unwittingly stumbled upon Su Jin’s girl servants telling tales about me behind my back instead. The tone of their conversation had been very snarky, and had I heard myself being discussed like that back when I was Little Seventeenth in Mount Kunlun, I would have dealt with them so severely that even their parents would have had a hard time recognizing them.
> Luckily for them I had devoted seventy thousand years just to the practice of spiritual cultivation and had reached a state of selflessness and egolessness. Nowadays I viewed worldly matters the way one might view clouds floating in the sky, and naturally I was keen to avoid clashing with these two. Instead I beckoned over the two immortal attendants from the head of our procession, the ones who had been about to pass through the rocks. I covered my mouth with my fan, and in a quiet voice, I said, “I recall that gossiping about gods and goddesses is forbidden by the Sky Kingdom regulations?”
The two immortal attendants looked surprised, but they both nodded. They both started jabbering at once. “Those two immortal attendants must have a death wish to risk inciting the wrath of gods and goddesses like that. We will definitely report them and have them disciplined in accordance with the sky regulations.”
I gave a cough. “My wrath has not been incited,” I said. “You hear things like this being said every so often, and while it isn’t very pleasant to listen to, neither will it cause any lasting harm.” I closed my fan and patted them both on the shoulders. “I understand that rules are rules,” I said kindly, “but you two were too obtrusive back there. You shouldn’t interrupt people in the middle of a gossip like that. Can you imagine how ashamed and humiliated the two of them would have been had you actually passed through the rocks back then? Since they have been violating the Sky Kingdom regulations with their behavior, sooner or later they are certain to get caught and will be disciplined, but until then, why not let them continue to gossip freely? If they behave like this again in the future, please go ahead and report them, have them punished. These two immortal servants seem to be too spirited and irresponsible for their current positions. I suggest that they be reassigned to more suitable ones.”
The two immortal attendants nodded their agreement to everything I said and went off to deal with the reassignment of these two attendants, while the other sixteen immortal attendants stayed with me.
Soaking in the sky spring was dull without Dumpling playing beside me in the water. Two of my immortal attendants took out lutes and started to play, which passed an hour or two. But even if their musical abilities had been exceptional, they could not compare with Mo Yuan. When I first heard their music, I found it enchanting, but after a while it started to grate, and the first opportunity I got I told them to put their instruments away.
I continued to bathe but found myself becoming increasingly bored. I imagined that having something to read might make the time go by quicker, so I put my clothes back on and told my attendants to stay put while I returned to my courtyard to get a couple of books.
I was just about to push open the door to Concentrated Beauty when it was thrust open from inside. There was Ye Hua, the deeply sleeping Dumpling cradled in one arm, while his other hand rested on the door frame. Ye Hua did a double take when he saw me standing there and his brow furrowed.
The first time I had seen Ye Hua in the Eastern Sea Water Crystal Palace, he had looked like an unkind and cold youngster. Since getting to know him, I had not really seen that side of him again. Instead, his smile regularly made me feel as if there were a spring breeze on my face, and had actually made me forget about his inherent coldness. But his current facial expression quickly reminded me, and I gave a big shudder.
His pupils were dark. “Ali appears to be drunk,” he said somberly. “I’ve asked around and discovered that he’s been asleep since yesterday. Can you tell me what’s been going on?”
I looked at the rosy-cheeked Little Dumpling in his arms. “I let him have half a jar too much wine yesterday and he got drunk,” I said calmly. “That’s all.”
He frowned. “He got so drunk that he slept straight through until now? Why didn’t you tell me, or take him to the medicine prince’s residence for an examination?”
“You shouldn’t pamper children in this way!” I exclaimed. “I used to steal wine from Zhe Yan when I was a child, and I slept for four or five days straight once. Father and Mother never took me for a medical examination. And Dumpling’s a little boy. If you pamper him like this, he’ll turn into a little wimp.”
Ye Hua was quiet for ages. He walked over to me. “You haven’t been here to raise Ali,” he said hoarsely. “You see him as nothing more than a stepson. You’ve never loved him like an actual mother. Would you be speaking like this if he was your actual son?”
I was stunned. As soon as my brain caught up with my ears, I felt my blood running cold. In the past I had heard people talking about their hearts turning cold, but I had never known what it actually felt like, until now.
I may not have ever been a mother, but I knew that even if I were I would definitely not fuss over my child like that. The fact that Dumpling’s real mother had jumped off the punishment platform when he was still so small was a tragedy, and it was terribly sad that most of his life had been spent without maternal love or care. That was one of the reasons I felt so wholeheartedly devoted to him. And that was why it was such a shock to have my devotion called into question like this.
I shook my sleeve at him behind his back. “How could I have ever given birth to such an adorable and lively child?” I said with a sneer. “Sadly the amazing woman who gave birth to Ali jumped off the immortal punishment platform many years ago. During my apprenticeship at Mount Kunlun, I practiced the Taoism of freedom and flexibility, but I didn’t reach the Western Paradise, and I never obtained a bodhisattva’s heart, which obviously means that I lack the kindness to care properly for Ali. Compassion and kindness are qualities that your head concubine seems to embody, Prince Ye Hua, why not get her to bring up your precious child from now on? Don’t let him suffer under my inadequate care any longer.”
I saw his back stiffen. “Stop saying things just to make me angry,” he said eventually. “That wasn’t what I meant.” And with that he strode off to the medicine prince’s residence with Dumpling in his arms.
I watched him walking away, feeling utterly hopeless. I was just about to step inside the courtyard when Nai Nai came rushing out, her eyes bloodshot.
She looked at me as if I were a compassionate bodhisattva from the Western Paradise. She grabbed me by the sleeve, and with a tremble in her voice, she said, “Did you see who just left the courtyard?”
“What’s wrong?” I asked gently, rubbing my forehead.
Two shiny tears splashed down from the corners of her red eyes. “It’s my fault, Goddess. It’s all my fault,” she said through choked sobs. “You are so good to His Little Majesty, and if my last mistress was still alive, she would be filled with appreciation too. If His Little Majesty had fallen into Su Jin’s hands and been hurt because of me, I would n-n-nev . . .”
She jabbered on for a while, but I did not have the foggiest idea about what she was saying. Her sentences made no grammatical sense, and there was no logical order to what she was saying. I tapped the fan to stop her. “Let’s skip over the unnecessary detail,” I advised kindly. “You said something about Dumpling falling into Su Jin’s hands and being hurt. What did you mean?”
My advice gave her a focus, and she started telling me what had happened in a coherent way, speaking with much more clarity and fluency than before. It transpired that Head Concubine Su Jin had led four palace attendants to my courtyard this morning. She told Nai Nai that she had been taking a morning stroll when she had sensed some inviolable godly energy that she had followed all the way to Concentrated Beauty. She decided she had to pay a visit to the owner of this inviolable godly energy and greet Dumpling at the same time.
Aside from the fact that no immortal in the Four Seas and Eight Deserts had godly immortal energy that was not inviolable, I was generous-hearted enough to accept the slightly incongruous compliment. I did not know how long the drama between Su Jin, Ye Hua, and Liao Qing had played out in the end, but the fact that she had woken up early this morning with the energy to walk all the way to my place was impressive.
Nai Nai explained that Ye Hua had bann
ed Su Jin from seeing Dumpling and did not let her near Concentrated Beauty either. As the model concubine of the Four Seas and Eight Deserts, she had always abided by the rules, but for some reason today she had disobeyed two at once. Nai Nai had been unrelenting, and refused to let Su Jin into the courtyard, which was an extremely courageous way for a lowly immortal attendant housekeeper to deal with the Sky Palace’s head concubine.
Nai Nai managed to defend Concentrated Beauty, and eventually Su Jin gave up and left with her tail between her legs. After tending to Dumpling, Nai Nai had gone to the back courtyard to fetch some water. When she returned, Dumpling was nowhere to be seen, and she thought Su Jin must have come back to steal him away. She had been rushing out to give chase when she bumped into me.
I gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “It was Ye Hua who carried Dumpling off, nothing to do with Su Jin. You don’t need to worry.”
Nai Nai had described fending off Ye Hua’s head concubine the way one might describe fending off a plague of rats. I turned the story over in my head and fancied I understood what was going on. The most probable explanation seemed to be that Nai Nai’s former mistress had had a run-in with Su Jin before jumping off the immortal punishment platform.
Ye Hua seemed to treat Su Jin very badly.
Suddenly I understood. “The reason Dumpling’s mother jumped from the punishment platform has something to do with Su Jin, doesn’t it?” I wondered out loud, interrupting Nai Nai.
Nai Nai’s face turned white, and she fell silent. “The Sky Emperor issued a decree that expressly forbids us from discussing this matter,” she said at last. “The Sky Emperor sent all the immortal attendants who knew about the incident to an immortal mountain far away from the Sky Palace.”
I deduced that Su Jin had perhaps not always been the model concubine she was today. That to strive for favor, she might have actually forced Dumpling’s mother off the punishment platform.
Dumpling was three hundred years old, which meant that Dumpling’s mother had jumped off the punishment platform in the last three hundred years. Such a major incident and so recently would naturally have caused a big uproar. It was five hundred years ago that I had been injured by Qing Cang and had fallen asleep for three hundred years. The fact that I could not recall hearing any mention of such an incident in the Ninth Sky since waking concurred with what Nai Nai had said about the Sky Emperor suppressing it.