To the Sky Kingdom

by Tang Qi

  Phoenix Nine’s mother was from the Red Fox Clan. After she and my brother had married, I was expecting the birth of a mottled little half-red, half-white fox cub.

  Instead after three years of pregnancy, she gave birth to an exquisitely adorable little fox cub as red as pigeon blood with one white circle on her ear and four white paws. When she was a year old, she transformed into human form with a phoenix-feather birthmark on her forehead. It was a beautiful birthmark, but it made changing form difficult for her, because whichever human form she took, this birthmark was always visible. Second Brother was rather lazy, and due to this phoenix-feather birthmark and the fact that she was born in August, the ninth month, he gave her the rather unimaginative name Phoenix Nine.

  Yuan Zhen had impeccable timing, and before I had even left the courtyard to find him, there he was striding toward me, two scriptures in his hands. His eyes lit up when he saw me. “Master,” he greeted with reverence.

  Yuan Zhen was an inquisitive boy, and I was not able to just come out and ask about Phoenix Nine. I considered it for a moment before pulling him over to a stone bench and sitting down.

  Yuan Zhen gave a cough and said, “What’s wrong with your neck, Master? It looks as if . . . as if . . .” My hand flew to my neck, but I felt nothing. He pulled a mirror from his sleeve and handed it to me, and I saw a red mark, as if a mosquito had bitten me. What gall that mosquito had, daring to suck the blood of a goddess!

  What luck that mosquito had too. One suck of my blood would provide him with thousands of years of cultivated spiritual energy, enough to transform him into a mosquito spirit probably.

  I nodded and sighed in admiration. “You noticed this small, insignificant red mark. And I’ve heard that you are so kind you won’t even tread on an ant. These are extremely good traits.”

  Yuan Zhen turned red in the face. “What do you mean?” he said, looking at me.

  “Well,” I said, “in order to stop yourself treading on ants as you walk down the road, you need both a kind heart and a careful mind. A kind heart and a careful mind together make an integral whole.”

  Yuan Zhen stood up so that he could pay full attention to the information I was relaying. I stroked my chin, and in a wise voice I said, “Taoism gives rise to one being, one being gives rise to two, two beings give rise to three, and three to thousands and thousands of beings. These thousands of beings have originated from nothing, and the process is complicated and delicate. Studying Taoism is a complicated and delicate process too. As your current master, I wish to examine your awareness of the complex and delicate nature of the world.”

  “Please go ahead, Master,” Yuan Zhen said solemnly.

  Matching his solemn tone I said, “Before you turned sixteen, you lived in the Taoist temple, and after you turned sixteen, you moved to the imperial palace. It is not my intention to vex you with difficult questions, so I will just ask a couple of things, one about the temple and one about the palace.”

  Yuan Zhen pricked up his ears.

  “In the temple where you lived, there was a nun who always wore white,” I said. “This nun had a duster she used a lot. What kind of wood was the duster handle made of?”

  He thought about it a long time, but could not recall. It was just a nonsense question I had concocted on the spot, so of course he could not answer it. With feigned composure I continued, “Since you are unable to answer that, I have another question. You must listen carefully and consider what I am asking fully. There’s a woman in this imperial palace with a birthmark the shape of a phoenix feather on her forehead. What is her name, her ranking, and in which palace does she live?”

  He contemplated it awhile before saying, “Master, your question about the temple has highlighted my ignorance, but your question about the woman with the phoenix-feather birthmark I can answer. It is Honorable Concubine Chen, who lives in Lotus Bud Courtyard. Honorable Concubine Chen never actually used to have this phoenix feather on her forehead, but last December she fell into the lotus pond and was taken seriously ill. Her medicine wasn’t working, and for a while it looked like she might not make it. But then suddenly she recovered. Since then she has had this phoenix-feather marking on her forehead. A couple of the other honorable concubines asked a Taoist master to examine the marking, and he claimed that it was a goblin marking. My father, the emperor, didn’t believe it, but he’s been keeping his distance from her since then anyway.”

  I was right. Phoenix Nine had come after Dong Hua. I was impressed that this Taoist master could tell it was a goblin marking. Yuan Zhen looked at me anxiously. “It’s not easy to cultivate such close attention to detail,” I said with a nod. “You have the rare gift of a meticulous and attentive mind, which is the foundation of Taoist practice. But you need to cultivate further attentiveness. You can leave now. Rest from your scriptures today. Go away and think about your attitude toward Taoist study.”

  Yuan Zhen wandered off forlornly, his head drooped, a sight that made me feel very bad. Yuan Zhen did not need to be any more attentive than he was already. I watched him stumble off and then called over a serving girl and asked her to lead me to Honorable Concubine Chen’s Lotus Bud Courtyard.

  As Phoenix Nine’s Qingqiu family, we appreciated that she owed Dong Hua this favor, and as her aunts and uncles, we saw it as our debt too. Nevertheless, today I was going to try my best to convince Phoenix Nine to go back to Qingqiu.

  The courtyard I was staying in was a prestigious one, as it was not far from the emperor’s back palace.

  I had rushed straight there without thinking to write a note announcing my visit, but seeing a servant girl on duty in the main courtyard, I reported my visit to her instead. Not long after, a waiting girl led me inside.

  There was a pavilion inside where a round-faced girl was feeding fish. Apart from the phoenix-feather shape on her forehead she was unremarkable in her appearance. This was Phoenix Nine in her mortal form. I gave a sigh. Phoenix Nine, the Bai Clan’s only granddaughter, had been such a free spirit. It was distressing to see her in such a desolate place, demeaning herself by feeding Dong Hua’s fish.

  She heard my sigh and looked up from the fish.

  “Phoenix Nine, your Aunt Bai has come to see you,” I said, my voice filled with disappointment and frustration.

  She had been in the mortal world on her own for half a year now and had obviously been feeling very cut off and lonely. Hearing me call her name, she felt overcome with sorrow and rushed toward my arms.

  I opened them wide for her.

  Squealing, she rushed straight past me and to the serving girl who had led me in, and it was this girl who received her crushing hug. I was not sure whether to continue to hold my arms open or not.

  Her whole face was contorted in panic. She was crying and desperately shaking her head, saying, “No, Aunt Bai, don’t take me back with you. I love him and I can’t be without him. No one can keep us apart, no one!”

  I was so shocked by her reaction that I took a step back. This could not be the little red fox from our clan, surely? Phoenix Nine could be a silly girl at times, but she was always composed and had never been known to cry and fuss in this way. Even when she felt upset by her feelings for Dong Hua, she rarely let it show, choosing to drown her sorrows in Zhe Yan’s wine instead.

  Seeing her in front of me now, clinging to her serving girl and wailing to high heaven, I felt so shocked I could not speak. All I could do was shake my head.

  Seeing me shake my head only made her cry harder. “A-aunt Bai . . . please have mercy. Please don’t stand in my way! I’ll do anything you ask, but please don’t stand in the way of what I’ve come here to do!”

  The serving girl in her arms was trembling like a leaf in the wind. I felt the corners of my mouth twitching. Phoenix Nine suddenly squatted down, clutching at the front of her robe. Her serving girl leaped up into the air as if she had been stung and ran off yelling, “My mistress is vomiting up blood again! You, quickly go and tell the emperor! You, hurry
and fetch a handkerchief! You, rush and fetch a washbasin . . .”

  I covered my mouth to give a cough. “Come on, calm down. If you carry on vomiting blood, you’ll choke. I’ll leave you now if that will make you feel better. See, I am going now.”

  I found the serving girl who had led me here standing at the side of the courtyard with her mouth agape, and we both took our hasty leave.

  The whole way back to Purple Bamboo Garden, I thought about how unlike Phoenix Nine Honorable Concubine Chen’s emotional behavior had been. But she did have that phoenix-feather marking on her forehead, and she had recognized me as her aunt straightaway. As an immortal, all Phoenix Nine needed was to borrow a mortal body to live in the mortal world; she should not be affected by the emotions of the mortal whose body it had been. It seemed almost as if . . . No, but it couldn’t be . . . I stroked my forehead as I thought. She wouldn’t have used the two lives incantation on herself, would she? Not when it was forbidden in Qingqiu.

  There was nothing inherently wicked about the two lives incantation, all it did was allow you to change your personality for a certain amount of time. Sometimes young immortals doing business in the marketplace in Qingqiu performed the two lives incantation on themselves.

  Under its spell, it would not matter how many difficult customers they had to deal with; all they would have for them was looks of heartfelt sincerity and smiles as splendid as chrysanthemums. There were never any unpleasant exchanges or fights. But it was obviously not an honest magic, and it violated the immortal code of conduct. Later Fourth Brother and I agreed to forbid it.

  But why would Phoenix Nine have performed this incantation on herself? I spent a long time trying to work it out, but it failed to make any sense. I took a nap that afternoon, planning to return to Lotus Bud Courtyard in the evening.

  Phoenix Nine was considerate enough to save me the journey.

  I had a table set up in the back courtyard and was sitting out there eating dinner on my own. There were few stars, and the moon was bright, and with such a thick growth of bamboo, it felt like being in a lush forest. I had been enjoying my meal in these picturesque surroundings when all of a sudden she appeared on the courtyard wall, covered in bramble branches. She jumped over, landing on my dining table, and all the crockery smashed to the floor. I quickly leaped out the way, rescuing my cup.

  She climbed up miserably from under the table and straightened the crooked bramble branches on her body. She knelt down in front of me in a great show of etiquette. “Aunt Bai, your unworthy niece has brought you brambles as a sign of penance. I know that I have done wrong, and I am very sorry.”

  I wiped a couple of drops of oil from my sleeve. She had left Honorable Concubine Chen’s body and for the time being was back to her usual appearance, which was much easier on the eyes. “It appears that you’ve performed the two lives incantation on yourself,” I said. Her face went red. She gave an admiring sigh and told me how wise I was.

  I wanted to help her up to her feet, but when I saw all the oil on her body glistening in the moonlight, I changed my mind and just lifted a hand, instructing her to rise while I went over to the stone bench to sit down.

  I took a sip of tea from the teacup I had rescued. “I can understand why you’ve come here to repay Dong Hua’s debt of kindness, but why did you need to perform the forbidden two lives incantation on yourself?” I asked with a frown.

  Phoenix Nine’s mouth immediately opened out into a wide circle. “Aunt Bai, how do you know that I’ve come to repay my debt to Emperor Dong Hua? Si Ming the Star Prince said that Emperor Dong Hua’s mortal reincarnation was top secret, and only a few people in the whole of the Four Seas and Eight Deserts knew.”

  I took a leisurely sip of tea and remained silent, trying to look mysterious. She started to tremble violently. “Aunt Bai, all this concern and interest in Dong Hua, you haven’t fallen in love with him, have you?” She wrung her hands in sorrow. “Emperor Dong Hua is more attractive than the Northern Sea Emperor, his magic is more sophisticated, and he is a more suitable age for you, but you must know, Dong Hua’s heart is made of stone. If you’ve fallen in love with him, you have a very bleak future ahead.”

  I looked up at the moon. “Fourth Brother will be back from the Western Mountains soon,” I said casually. “He was the one to forbid the two lives incantation. One unthinking Qingqiu immortal thought the ban was just for show and continued to use the incantation regardless, and Fourth Brother ended up banishing him from our kingdom.”

  Phoenix Nine jumped straight up from the stone bench, and supporting herself on the bundle of bramble branches, she cupped her hands together and bowed down toward me with reverence.

  “When I was a serving girl in Dong Hua’s residence, I did a favor for Si Ming the Star Prince. Si Ming was very grateful to me, and when he discovered that Dong Hua wished to be reborn as a mortal, he arranged for an immortal disciple to let me know as a way to repay his favor. I have been feeling so unworthy. Dong Hua saved my life so long ago, and I still haven’t repaid him. When I found out he had asked to be reincarnated as a mortal, I knew it was my chance to repay him. I entered his dream when he was fourteen in his mortal form and asked him whether he had any unfulfilled wishes or desires.”

  “And what did stone-hearted Dong Hua say to that?” I interjected. “It couldn’t have been that he wished neither for riches, honor, nor land, just to find someone to love?”

  “Aunt Bai, how are you so wise?” Phoenix Nine asked in astonishment. I snorted my tea out of my nose. Could Dong Hua have really become so . . . so trite? Phoenix Nine dabbed away the tea I had sprayed onto her face and continued bashfully. “During his mortal life, the emperor has experienced some very fickle women. So in the dream he asked me to pair him up with someone who would love him wholeheartedly and never leave or abandon him.”

  “So you decided to match him up with yourself?” I mused.

  Phoenix Nine gave a nod and then shook her head. “Matching him with me would be meaningless. Si Ming the Star Prince went through Dong Hua’s destiny for this life. He is not fated to meet a woman who will truly love him. Instead, on the first of Lunar June, at age thirty-seven, he will meet the girl of his dreams at the Vedic Dharma Festival. Sadly this girl will fall in love with his son, Prince Yuan Zhen. I may have come to repay my debt to Dong Hua, but I can’t rewrite his fate in the process. As it happened, half a year ago, one of his honorable concubines reached the end of her predestined life. After thinking about it long and hard, I decided to borrow her body and offer him true love. Before the emperor’s love calamity befell him, I wanted to fulfill his desire by giving him a brief taste of how it feels to be truly loved. By the time the woman he is destined to fall in love with appears, I would have accomplished my mission and would be free to go, not having altered his fate in any way.”

  I lowered my head and sighed. “Have you not been tormented enough by that man? Have you not suffered enough heartbreak? Now he wishes to find someone to fall in love with! If he’d had this desire when he was an immortal, with your infatuation you’d have fully repaid your debt by now.”

  “You’re right, Aunt Bai,” Phoenix Nine said in dismay. “At first I thought that I’d found a way. I was infatuated by the emperor for over two thousand years, and even though I eventually fell out of love with him, I didn’t think it would be hard to rekindle some of that former feeling. But how enigmatic true love is. It can’t just be brought out on demand. I spent a long time preparing myself, but when I borrowed Honorable Concubine Chen’s body and went to see the emperor, I didn’t feel even a glimmer of affection for him. I couldn’t even find it in myself to say a few kind words. I felt awful to have let him down.”

  “Dying embers are hard to reignite, and past loves hard to rekindle,” I comforted. “You mustn’t blame yourself.”

  “But I have made this journey down to the mortal world now,” she said, sounding grave. “I have incurred a large debt to the keeper of the Netherworld for keeping
Honorable Concubine Chen’s body fresh for me and stop it from rotting. Giving up without having repaid my favor to Dong Hua would be like suffering a double loss. I thought about it long and hard for a couple of days . . .” She paused. “And I decided I had no choice but to perform the two lives incantation on myself. I spend the days bound by this magic, acting in accordance with Honorable Concubine Chen’s former personality, which allows me to adore the emperor. It is only after the sun has set that I am released and return to my old self.

  “I had no idea what Honorable Concubine Chen had been like when she was alive. Each night when I recall what happened during the day, I feel extremely anguished and ashamed.”

  “You mustn’t brood over this and feel ashamed,” I told her against my better judgment. Suddenly I thought of something important. “You haven’t taken advantage of Dong Hua since turning into Noblewoman Chen, have you?”

  She looked shocked. “Honorable Concubine Chen wasn’t very favored at the best of times. After I took over her body, this birthmark appeared on her forehead, and that bastard Taoist master told them all that it was a goblin marking. Although the emperor didn’t leave me completely out in the cold, he hasn’t come to Lotus Bud Court to visit me since then either.”

  “Well, what’s the point of acting like you’re so in love with him then?” I asked in surprise.

  “Truly loving someone requires absolute dedication. I can’t simply love him when I see him and stop loving him when we’re apart.”

  I yawned. Seeing Phoenix Nine back to her usual calm self made me start to feel a whole lot better. If she could repay her debt smoothly and without a hitch, her uncles and I could stop worrying about her. It was all going to be fine. I thought it through carefully and was just about to tell Phoenix Nine to go back to her palace, clean off all the oil, and get ready for bed when an immortal wind started to bluster and propitious vapors to appear.