To the Sky Kingdom

by Tang Qi

  Despite the fact that it was my first time coming to the Ninth Sky, I had a hunch that Xiwu Palace had not always been as dim and gloomy as it was now. It did not need anything as flamboyant as golden tiles and jade eaves, but Xiwu Palace could have done with a bit of brightening up.

  By the time I had recovered my senses, Ye Hua was leading me toward the back gate. He was carefully examining the low wall near the back door, making rough measurements. He pointed to one wall and told me, “Jump.”

  “What?” I said in bafflement. He frowned, put his arms around me, walked along the wall to the spot he had just been pointing at, and leaped over with me into the courtyard.

  Was jumping through walls what people did in the Ninth Sky rather than walking through doors? It seemed a strange habit . . . Ye Hua smoothed his sleeves, looked at me, and gave an awkward smile. “If we’d gone through the main door, it would have alerted everyone in all these courtyards of our arrival, and we would have had to put up with endless greetings and fuss. Jumping over the wall has saved us a lot of hassle.”

  A thought suddenly occurred to me. I tapped him on the shoulder with my fan and said, “We’ve arrived here very early today. It’s not yet even the time that Jia Yun usually delivers your documents. I assume you will have told him not to deliver any to Qingqiu today. You wouldn’t have wanted him to make a long journey for nothing. Entering through the main door would have alerted Jia Yun to your arrival, and that would certainly have given you some hassle.”

  I gave a chuckle. “Or to put it another way, it was very late when we got back to the foxhole last night. Did you manage to finish working on your last few days’ worth of documents?”

  He stiffened, and his face went red. He clenched his fists, rolled up his sleeves, and gave an awkward cough. I had been concerned about Ye Hua acting old before his time; at only fifty thousand, he seemed more serious and uptight than Dong Hua even. Seeing this display of youthful vigor came as a relief, and I gave my fan a joyful little shake.

  Ye Hua lived in Zichen Palace, located next to Dumpling’s Qingyun Palace. I was only planning to spend two or three days recuperating in the Ninth Sky, and since we had made this stealthy entrance and avoided all the pomp and ceremony that would normally be bestowed upon a visiting god or goddess, I did not wish to let Ye Hua go to the trouble of providing me with my own bedchamber. I was just about to bring this up meekly and explain that I would be happy to spend the next few days living in Qingyun Palace with Dumpling, but before I could say anything, he led me through into a special courtyard.

  I looked up and saw a plaque hanging high above the courtyard door engraved with calligraphy characters that read “Concentrated Beauty.”

  “This is your courtyard,” Ye Hua told me, his eyes twinkling. I shook my fan and mumbled to myself. It was only just beginning to dawn on me how extravagant they were up here in the sky. I could not help but compare it to the courtyard I had been put in during my months in the mortal world, helping Yuan Zhen through his calamity.

  I would be in the sky for only a matter of days, and yet I had been provided with my own courtyard. One was a mortal emperor and the other an immortal emperor, and apart from both being emperors, they were as different as mud and clouds.

  I gave a sigh and reached a hand to push the vermilion courtyard door. It creaked open, revealing a courtyard full of peach trees all in bloom. My eyes were filled to the brim with peach blossom pink. Overwhelmed by the sight, I muttered, “So you’ve tricked me into coming here to help the empress tend to her flat peach orchard!”

  Ye Hua’s expression froze, but I could see the corners of his mouth twitching. “I’m not sure exactly how big the empress’s flat peach orchard is, but it wouldn’t possibly fit into this courtyard. These are peach trees I planted myself two hundred years ago and have been tending ever since. This is the first time they’ve blossomed.”

  My heart gave an unexpected lurch. I stepped slowly out into the courtyard and used my fan to pick a branch of the blossoms.

  The peach blossom flowers on the branch were delicate and exquisite. I was just about to put the fan away when from behind me I heard a resonant and heartrending voice calling out, “Empressss!” I turned to see Ye Hua standing on a step to the side of the courtyard, his eyes obscured by a couple of locks of dark hair. A woman stood in the doorway behind him, and I assumed she was a palace attendant from the way she was dressed. She was holding an elegant vase in one hand while clinging to the vermilion door with the other. She gazed at me, her blinking eyes full of affection, two lines of tears streaming down her face.

  My hand started to shake, and the branch I was holding pinged up into the air. Half the petals dropped off it, and some came tumbling down onto me.

  The woman stumbled over to me and wrapped her arms around my legs. “Empress, it’s you!” she said through her tears. “Nai Nai has been waiting for you for three hundred years. You have finally returned . . .” Laughing and crying, she turned to Ye Hua and said, “That soul-binding lamp really is a sacred object—Empress hasn’t changed a bit.”

  From her expression I realized she had mistaken me for someone else. I could not extricate my legs from her grip, but I used my hands to try and push her off me. She lifted her head to look at me, her eyes misty with tears, but behind those tears I could see pure joy.

  As she reached out to touch the white silk around my eyes, I felt the need to say something. “You must have mistaken me for someone else. I’m Bai Qian from Qingqiu, not this empress of whom you speak.”

  This young immortal attendant, Nai Nai, looked taken aback, but she continued to hug my legs. I threw Ye Hua a helpless look, but my white silk was in the way, stopping me from communicating with my eyes, so I raised a hand and beckoned him over instead.

  He came over to help Nai Nai to her feet, his eyes remaining on the peach grove in front of him the whole time. “This is Goddess Bai Qian from Qingqiu Kingdom,” he said calmly. “She will be staying in this courtyard for a few days under your care. You mustn’t call her Empress again. Instead you shall refer to her by her honorable title, Goddess.”

  Nai Nai, still clamped around my leg, looked in confusion first at him, then at me. I gave her a reassuring smile, but she did not react, just took her sleeves up to her tear-stained face to give it a wipe before nodding to Ye Hua’s request.

  I had brought along only two changes of clothes, so I did not have much to unpack. Ye Hua sent Nai Nai off to get me a bathing robe and other accessories and told me to lie down for a bit while he went to Qingyun Palace to fetch Dumpling.

  Ye Hua had been extremely perceptive. He could see that my injuries were making it hard to walk and that the long trip had left me exhausted. He could also tell that I had been missing Dumpling. I felt very touched by how sensitive he was being to my needs.

  Dumpling had been missing me too, it would seem. Ye Hua carried him through, and as soon as he saw me, he leaned out of his father’s arms calling, “Mother,” in a sweet little voice, which was delightful to hear.

  The vase into which Nai Nai was sticking peach blossom branches suddenly smashed to the ground. I realized that little immortal must have been on familiar terms with Dumpling’s mother. Dumpling’s mother had been cut down in the prime of life, never again to experience the joys of motherhood. Her passing had allowed me the pleasure of becoming a stepmother, which was obviously a painful thing for this little immortal attendant to have to see.

  What a brave and loyal immortal attendant she was.

  Ye Hua said that Dumpling had been in a state of shock following the incident at the Purple Light Palace, but that it had not been too serious. I gave him a little inspection and saw that he was still as pale and plump as ever, and when he smiled, those two little dimples appeared as before. He did not look as if he had been scarred by the experience, which was a great comfort to see.

  He clearly wanted to come over to me, but his father held him tightly. He struggled for a while, looking frustrated when he
found he was unable to free himself. He flattened his mouth in displeasure and looked at me and pretended to cry without tears in his eyes.

  I stroked his hair lovingly and said, “Mother’s not very well. Let Father Prince hold you for the time being.”

  He blinked, his little face suddenly turned red, and he gave a little wriggle. “Ali knows. Mother’s having another baby, isn’t she?” he said quietly.

  “What?” I asked in astonishment.

  He fiddled shyly with the seams of his clothing. “That’s what the book says,” he explained. “That a lady isn’t meant to play with children from other families when she’s pregnant, in case it harms the . . .” He thought about it for a while, and struck one of his little fists against his palm as he remembered the word. “Yes, the embryo,” he finished in an assured tone of voice.

  My heart trembled. This little darling, a child no bigger than a garlic sprout, already knew about embryos! “Where did you lay your hands on such a book?” Ye Hua asked with a chuckle.

  “Cheng Yu lent it to me,” Dumpling said innocently.

  I saw the veins in Ye Hua’s temple start to pulse. Tut, tut, this Cheng Yu, who had soared from the mortal world, was obviously a wonder to behold, daring to defy the power of the mighty and pluck hairs from a tiger’s tail. I was full of admiration.

  “Why is your face so red, Your Little Highness?” Nai Nai asked, sounding confused. “Even if Goddess is pregnant, would that be so bad?”

  Dumpling reached for my face and gave it a big loud kiss, saying, “I’m happy, actually. If Mother has a baby, I won’t be the youngest member of the Sky Clan anymore.”

  “We’ll have one right away after we’re married,” Ye Hua said after a short pause.

  “If you want one then, I would be happy to oblige,” I replied meekly. Ye Hua opened his mouth, but no words came out.

  My reason for coming to the Sky Palace was to soak in the water of His Highness Ling Bao’s spring pool. And so, after having rested and settled in awhile, I rushed off toward His Highness Ling Bao’s Shangqing region.

  Since I intended to bathe in his sky spring, naturally I needed to be courteous and introduce myself first and explain and why I was there.

  It was not the best day to have arrived, as it coincided with the old Taoist master’s Taoist assembly, and since Ling Bao was the old Taoist master’s master, I was obliged to at least show my face at the assembly. Ling Bao was not inside his Jade Imperial Palace. Seven older immortal men who were waiting in the great hall told me that Ling Bao would pay me an official visit once the old Taoist master’s assembly was over. I presented them with a night pearl, and eighteen immortal attendants formed two lines, their hands full of fruit, flowers, and wine, and led Ye Hua, Dumpling, and me toward the healing waters of the sky spring.

  I had a basic understanding of Sky Clan rituals and knew that being led by eighteen immortal attendants was the courtesy bestowed upon gods and goddesses. A question suddenly popped into my head. I managed to keep it to myself for a while, but before long I found myself turning to Ye Hua and saying, “If I were your head concubine and I wished to soak in these springs, how many immortal officials would I have leading me?”

  He stopped walking, Dumpling in his arms. “Fourteen,” he said at last. “What of it?”

  I held my fan and gave a melancholy sigh. “Nothing of it. I just realized that marrying you won’t improve my status but will actually cause it to drop. It doesn’t seem like a very good deal from that point of view.”

  I could see him silently grinding his teeth. “As the Sky Empress, you would be led by twenty-four immortal attendants, and we would assign you another four dexterous attendants to rub your back.”

  I gave an awkward laugh, followed by a deep sigh. “Well, that sounds a bit better.”

  The sky spring tumbled down from a man-made mountain. It was a secluded spot, and the spring water and its surrounding mist were a clear emerald blue. In the chaos before yin split from yang, there had been nothing but mist between the sky and earth, apart from this shallow blue pool.

  Dumpling gave a joyful whoop when he saw the pool. He let an immortal attendant take off his little gown and cloak, and I watched his small, tender white figure as he leaped into the water. He bobbed up to the surface, where he splashed around making ripples.

  Ye Hua watched him awhile before inspecting all the different types of fruit, flowers, and wine that the immortal attendants had brought along with them. “These are all fruit wines,” he turned to me and explained. “Ali can be given a little, but make sure he doesn’t drink too much. He’s allowed to try one of each of these seasonal fruits too.”

  I nodded. He was both father and mother to this little boy. Not an easy job. Seeing this new side to him filled me with admiration.

  He looked momentarily taken aback, but then the icy look began to thaw, and a radiant smile appeared on his face instead. He took the fan from my hand. “This fan has been painted with romantic peach blossoms, but it has not been inscribed with a poem. Why don’t I take it with me now and write you an accompanying poem?

  “You stay here for a while and have a good soak, and when you’ve finished, come by my study to find me.” He gave such a bright smile that it dazzled my eyes, and before I had recovered my senses, he had taken the fan and was gone.

  “Why is Father Prince going?” Dumpling asked, still splashing around in the spring pool. “Why doesn’t he stay and soak with us?”

  “The sky commander has a big assignment for Father Prince,” I said with a chuckle. “He has to go and find out what it is.”

  The alcohol was too much for Dumpling, who soon became tipsy.

  Ye Hua had made a point of telling me to allow Dumpling only one of each type of seasonal fruit, and assuming that the same applied to all the varieties of fruit wine, I allowed him half a jar of each. I had not imagined that he would be away with the fairies after two half jars, giving him an adorably naive and foolish smile, smiling and smiling until his head drooped to the side and he toppled drowsily back into the water.

  “His Little Highness has never drunk this much before,” Nai Nai piped up anxiously. “Maybe I should take him to the medicine prince’s residence for an examination.”

  I had been drinking alcohol for more than one hundred thousand years, always from that supreme being Zhe Yan’s supply of top-quality wine, and saying I was qualified to speak on the subject was a modest statement. All Dumpling had drunk was fruit wine, which was nothing more than immortal fruit stored for long enough to start fermenting. It was harmless stuff, and impossible to get drunk from, even if you consumed a lot.

  The only reason Dumpling had fallen into this drunken stupor was because he had never drunk before and his tolerance was low. After he fell asleep, I calmly checked his pulse and looked him over, but found the energy circulating in his body to be stronger than my own even. Taking him to the medicine prince’s residence just to dispel the effects of the alcohol would be making too much of a fuss. “It’s no good to coddle boys in this way,” I said, turning to Nai Nai. “There’s nothing seriously wrong with him. Take him back to his room and let him just sleep it off. He’ll sleep through until the middle of the night at the latest, after which he is bound to wake up naturally.”

  Two immortal attendants scooped Dumpling out of the water and put his clothes back on him, and Nai Nai carried him back to his palace. I ate a few pieces of fruit, drank the dregs of wine left by Dumpling, and drifted off into a hazy sleep. When I opened my eyes again, it was evening. I had really done a disservice to those poor eighteen immortal attendants, who had waited at the side of the pool for me all this time without a word of complaint. With much revived spirits, I smoothed my hair, knotted my robe, and, imagining that there would be further dazzling scenery between Yuchen and Xiwu Palaces, made the prudent decision to keep my white silk tied around my face.

  Our three-month cohabitation in Qingqiu had given me a basic understanding of Ye Hua’s living habits.
It was at this hour he would usually drag me over to play chess with him. I imagined he would probably still be in his study. Considering that my fan would be useful for swatting away mosquitos, I decided not to go straight back to Concentrated Beauty, but to nip into his study first instead.

  There was no one standing guard outside. I knocked on the door. Hearing no answer, I gave it a gentle push, and it began to open. There was no one in the outer room either, but I could tell that there were candles burning furiously on the other side of the door curtain, as I could see their shadows flickering.

  I heard a low-pitched female moan from inside, and my heart gave a thump against my chest. I felt at a momentary loss, and my ears burned. I had been walking in on one tryst after another recently. I couldn’t have been unlucky enough to find myself a door curtain’s width away from yet another couple’s boudoir activity, surely?

  I tempered myself.

  Ye Hua often came across as calm and aloof, but he was young, and naturally he would be hot-blooded. All the immortal attendants I had come across today had possessed delicate and charming features. Dealing with a desk full of documents night and day was obviously monotonous for the poor youngster. Lifting his head and setting eyes on a young immortal attendant with features as fine as those in a painting might well give him ideas as to how to sweeten the bitter pill of his bureaucratic drudgery.

  It gave me a strange feeling.

  It was a good thing if Ye Hua had shaken off that untoward way he had started thinking about me, and I should have been overjoyed. But instead I found myself feeling anxious about whether the young immortal attendant with features as fine as those in a painting was indeed beautiful enough for Ye Hua.

  I considered the sage Buddhist words: “It would be better to tear down ten temples than to destroy one marriage.” I pinched my ear, which was burning hot, and got ready to slip out quietly, taking such light steps that I would not disturb even a puff of cloud.