After leaving the Empress Dowager's residence, Xiao Mo returned to the Hall of Mental Cultivation and once again entered the Hundred Lives Book.
He was sitting in the courtyard.
Xiao Mo drew a gleaming, translucent snake scale from the folds of his robe.
Bai Ruxue had already strung the scale into a necklace. It now hung around Xiao Mo's neck, carried with him wherever he went.
Xiao Mo set down the book in his hand and raised his head to look toward Sheshan.
It was about time he went to fetch her.
Yesterday Bai Ruxue had said she would pack her things and wait for him on that little path at noon the next day.
Judging by the hour, she should be on her way down the mountain by now.
"Sister, are you really leaving?"
At the mouth of the cave, Xiaoqing looked at her sister, her nose twitching with every sniffle.
"Don't worry, Xiaoqing." Bai Ruxue patted her sister's shoulder. "Sister will come back to see you often, I promise. Once I know my way around down the mountain, I'll bring you along too. Xiao Mo is a really good person."
"Fine." Xiaoqing wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. "Then you have to be careful once you're down there, Sister. Humans are all rotten! And you're so naive, Sister, anyone could fool you..."
"They won't." Bai Ruxue lifted her little white chin proudly. "Sister is very smart, and besides, Xiao Mo is with me."
Xiaoqing sighed. That's exactly what I'm afraid of—him selling you off, Sister.
"Sister, once you're down the mountain, whatever you do, don't show your true form in front of people. Remember. Remember." Xiaoqing warned her again.
"Mm-hm, mm-hm, Sister knows." Bai Ruxue nodded. "Xiaoqing, you eat plenty of mice too, and take good care of yourself. Sister will bring you down as soon as she can."
"Xiaoqing will wait for you, Sister..."
After saying goodbye to her little sister, Bai Ruxue headed down the mountain in high spirits.
Before long she reached the mountainside.
There, beside the rock on the little path, she saw him in his blue robe.
"Xiao Mo!" Bai Ruxue called out and ran toward him.
Xiao Mo turned around and saw that Bai Ruxue was carrying a chicken in one hand and a rabbit in the other.
"What's this?" Xiao Mo asked.
"It's our lunch!" Bai Ruxue swung her catch to and fro. "Once we're down the mountain, I'll cook it for you."
"Good." Xiao Mo smiled. "Then I'll look forward to Miss Bai's cooking."
"Heh-heh~ This young lady's cooking is excellent~~~"
"I believe you, Miss Bai," Xiao Mo said expectantly.
The two of them walked side by side down Sheshan and into the village.
"Mr. Xiao, that girl with you is a real beauty!"
"What a pretty little thing she is!"
"She looks like a fairy. Mr. Xiao, who is she?"
When Xiao Mo brought Bai Ruxue into the village, Aunt Li, Aunt Wang and the rest caught sight of her and all sang her praises.
They were not flattering her—they truly had never seen such a beautiful girl.
The girl was fair and soft, as clean and pure as snow, like a fairy out of the old tales.
"She's the daughter of a friend of my late father's. She used to live in the state of Chen. With the fighting in Chen, Ruxue fled with her parents, and not long ago her parents passed away. Today I went into town and recognized Ruxue; she had nowhere to go, so I brought her back with me for now."
Xiao Mo recited this long-prepared story to the village's legion of aunts.
Hearing how pitiful the girl's circumstances were, the aunts' hearts ached for her; they took Bai Ruxue by the hands and plied her with fussing and questions.
Before long, every villager in Stone Bridge Village knew that a girl had come to the village who was as lovely as flower and jade, prettier than any fairy.
"Miss Bai, I'm afraid you'll have to make do with staying here. If you need anything, just tell me."
Back at the courtyard, Xiao Mo led Bai Ruxue to a small wooden hut beside the house.
The hut had been used to store odds and ends, but Xiao Mo had cleared it out and cleaned it up, and the quilts and pillows were all new.
"Make do? Not at all, not at all." Bai Ruxue waved a hand and sat down on her bed. "So comfortable... normally I sleep on rocks..."
Xiao Mo: "..."
"I mean—what I meant was, my little sister's bed and mine are very hard, hard as a rock." Bai Ruxue hurried to patch it over.
"As long as you like it, Miss Bai." Xiao Mo went on pretending he knew nothing.
"I love it!"
Seeing how easily Xiao Mo was fooled, Bai Ruxue thought, How could I ever give myself away? Xiaoqing's worrying was completely unnecessary.
"Xiao Mo, I'll go get our meal ready."
"Then thank you, Miss Bai."
"Oh, don't mention it~"
Bai Ruxue went skipping gaily out of the room and dashed for the kitchen.
Xiao Mo sat in the courtyard with a book, leafing through it.
Yet before long, he caught a thick smell of smoke.
He looked up and saw Bai Ruxue come running out of the kitchen, soot all over her face, crying:
"Xiao Mo, fire! The kitchen's on fire..."
Meanwhile, in the kitchen of the rear courtyard of the Minister of Rites' residence, in Zhou.
Yan Ruxue was cooking.
Her maid Xiaochun stood at her young miss's side, helping out.
It was called helping, but there was not a single thing Xiaochun could help with.
Chopping the vegetables, tending the fire—the young miss did it all herself.
Watching her miss's practiced knife work, and the brisk, neat way she poked the fire and fed it wood, Xiaochun marveled every time: how could there be such a perfect woman in this world...
Equally at home receiving guests in the front hall and cooking in the kitchen, blessed with both beauty and talent.
And there was surely no one else like that but their own young miss.
Once the dishes were done, Yan Ruxue had Xiaochun carry them out.
In the courtyard sat a woman in a green skirt.
She was her young miss's friend, though Xiaochun had never learned where the woman came from.
She always came and went without a trace.
But Xiaochun said no more and asked no more.
She only knew that the woman's looks fell just a shade short of her miss's.
And that her miss called her "Xiaoqing"...
After setting the dishes on the table, Xiaochun bowed slightly and withdrew, as she always did.
Yan Ruxue sat facing Xiaoqing. A slender hand drew back her sleeve, baring a fair white arm, and she ladled out a bowl of chicken soup and set it before her:
"It's been a long while since Xiaoqing tasted Sister's cooking, hasn't it? Here, try it and see how Sister's cooking is—see whether my cooking has slipped."
"Sister..." Xiaoqing raised her head and looked at the woman before her with complicated eyes. "You haven't been back to the Dragon Palace in a very long time."
Yan Ruxue placed another piece of braised rabbit in Xiaoqing's bowl. "Once this matter is settled, Sister will go back."
"Sister! It's no use!"
There was a note of anger in Xiaoqing's voice.
"Even if you've found his third life this time, so what? In this life he's still an ordinary man. His lifespan is still no more than a hundred years. In the end he will turn to dust!"
Yan Ruxue said nothing, only spooning rice into her sister's bowl.
"Sister! Have you forgotten what he said to you before he died?" Xiaoqing shot to her feet, staring at her sister, her chest heaving violently.
Yan Ruxue: "..."
Looking at the sister who had held on for thousands of years, Xiaoqing seemed to drain of all her strength. "Sister... let it go..."
"Xiaoqing..."
Yan Ruxue lifted her head and looked gently into Xiaoqing's eyes.
"Sister can let go of anything. But him—him, Sister cannot let go of."
him, Sister cannot let go of."