At the entrance to Stone Bridge Village, Xiao Mo stepped down from the carriage and walked quickly back into the village.
"Well now, Brother Mo, you're back! How did the exam go?" Aunt Zhao, who was down by the water beating the laundry clean, was delighted to see him.
"It went all right," Xiao Mo answered.
"Brother Mo, did you pass and become one of those gongshi? I hear even the worst gongshi can at least be a county magistrate." Aunt Niu had only the haziest notion of what a gongshi was; she just knew that once you passed that metropolitan examination, you got to be an official.
"I passed. But the appointments from the imperial capital won't be issued for another two months."
"You really passed? Oh, that's tremendous! Tremendous! Our Stone Bridge Village is going to produce a high official!"
"Ruxue was carried off by an immortal to become an immortal maiden, and now you're going to be a high official too—Stone Bridge Village really has turned into a blessed land!" Aunt Wang said happily.
"Aunt Wang, what did you say? Ruxue was taken away by an immortal?" Xiao Mo wondered if he had misheard.
"Eh? Didn't Xiaoqing write and tell you, Brother Mo?"
"No, she didn't." Xiao Mo lowered his head, a thoughtful look on his face.
Just as Aunt Wang was about to say more, Grandma Qian took her by the hand and said to Xiao Mo, "Mo'er, you go on home first. Xiaoqing should be waiting for you there."
"All right. Grandma Qian, aunties, I'll be off then." Xiao Mo made a bow with his hands and headed for the courtyard.
Once Xiao Mo was far enough away, Grandma Qian scolded Aunt Wang: "You and your big mouth."
"How is that a big mouth..." Worry showed on Aunt Wang's face. "A living, breathing person is gone—how could Brother Mo not notice? We should at least let him be prepared."
Aunt Suniang stepped forward. "Ruxue becoming an immortal is a good thing, but they say immortals and mortals live in separate worlds. Even if Brother Mo becomes a high official, I'm afraid that from now on the two of them..."
"Ai..." Grandma Qian sighed. "Nothing to be done. Nothing to be done..."
"At least Miss Bai has a younger sister. Little Xiaoqing seems to..."
Grandma Qian glared at Aunt Qin. "Don't talk nonsense about that!"
In less than the time it takes to burn half a stick of incense, Xiao Mo was back at the courtyard.
Inside the yard, a girl in a blue skirt had her sleeves rolled up, hanging out the laundry and the bedding from the rooms.
But that graceful white figure was nowhere to be seen.
"Xiaoqing," Xiao Mo called softly.
At the sound of his voice Xiaoqing gave a start, then spun around, overjoyed. "Brother Xiao! You're back..."
"Mm." Xiao Mo nodded and stepped into the yard with a smile. "Where's your sister? Gone to buy groceries?"
"Sister, she..." Xiaoqing's eyes flickered. "An immortal said Sister had talent and took her away to cultivate. She said she was Elder Fuchen of the Tianxuan Sect... Sister said you'd know her, Brother Xiao..."
"That can't be." Xiao Mo stepped closer and shook his head. "Your sister—she would never leave."
Xiaoqing: "..."
"Xiaoqing, just tell me the truth. Has something happened to your sister?" Xiao Mo asked calmly.
The girl lowered her head, her fingers clenched tight.
Miss Xiaoqing, there's no need to hide from him, and no need to deceive him. Xiao Mo already knows that Miss Bai and you are of the demon race.
Just as Xiaoqing's eyes filled with hesitation, Fuchen's words suddenly echoed through her mind.
She drew a deep breath and looked up at Xiao Mo. "Brother Xiao, let's go up the mountain."
Xiao Mo was stunned for a moment, then nodded. "All right."
After locking the door, the two of them left the courtyard and headed up the mountain.
"Brother Xiao, you know... you know that my sister and I get sleepy in winter..."
Walking along the mountain path, Xiaoqing nervously watched his profile.
"Yes, I know. I've known for a long, long time... since back when your sister was still a girl."
Xiaoqing lowered her head. "So you really did know that Sister and I are..."
"It doesn't matter what you and your sister are," Xiao Mo said with a shake of his head. "To me, you're family."
Xiao Mo stopped walking and looked seriously into Xiaoqing's eyes. "So, Xiaoqing, whatever it is, I want you to tell me straight."
Xiaoqing pressed her thin lips tightly together.
Xiao Mo was in no hurry; he simply waited for her answer.
After a long while, Xiaoqing's lips parted slightly:
"Last year, in early the eleventh month, Sister started getting drowsy.
Sister's cultivation is higher than mine. I wasn't drowsy at all, and yet she was. That isn't normal.
I kept telling her to go to sleep, but she said this hibernation felt different from the others, and she was afraid that once she fell asleep she wouldn't wake up...
So she kept forcing herself to hold on.
Until a few days after you left, Brother Xiao, a Daoist priestess came. Her name was Fuchen..."
Word by word, Xiaoqing told Xiao Mo everything that had happened during these months.
The two of them walked on, step by step, up the mountain.
The girl talked, and he listened quietly.
By the time Xiaoqing spoke her last sentence, the two had arrived before the cave blocked by the boulder.
"Sister fell asleep in there." Xiaoqing's head was lowered, her eyes full of loneliness and desolation.
"Mm."
Xiao Mo looked at the boulder blocking the cave mouth.
Seeing the look on Brother Xiao's face, Xiaoqing felt her heart twist with pain.
Brother Xiao and her sister were no more than a few zhang apart, and yet they could not see each other.
"Brother Xiao... it isn't that Sister didn't wait for you. If you want to blame someone, blame me..." Xiaoqing raised her head.
"I don't blame you, Xiaoqing. If it were me, I'd have done the same." Xiao Mo patted her head the way one comforts a little sister. "You did the right thing."
"..." Xiaoqing kept her head down, fists clenched, tears already wetting her eyes.
In truth, Xiao Mo knew that these past months Xiaoqing must have been blaming herself—blaming herself for making that decision on her sister's behalf, for ruining the promise between her sister and him.
"Did Elder Fuchen say when Ruxue will wake up?" Xiao Mo asked, changing the subject.
Xiaoqing shook her head. "Elder Fuchen said it might be thirty or forty years, or it might be..."
"Or it might be my whole life," Xiao Mo finished for her.
"Xiaoqing, could you go and pick some Qinglong flowers and Ziyang Grass for me?" Xiao Mo asked gently.
"Of course, Brother Xiao..." Xiaoqing wiped her tears and hurried off to search for the plants.
After Xiaoqing had gone, Xiao Mo sat down on the ground like a traveler weary from a long road who had finally come home.
Gazing at the boulder before him, Xiao Mo's thoughts drifted.
"No wonder you, who never ate anything spicy, were always gnawing on chili peppers and insisting your mouth just had no taste."
"No wonder you, who always hated the cold, kept washing your face with ice water."
"No wonder, all those days, you never let yourself sit idle, saying that the moment you were idle you'd fall asleep."
"You fool... why did you have to put yourself through all that?"
The spring wind brushed past Xiao Mo's blue robe.
This was the robe she had stitched for him needle by needle and thread by thread, carrying the smell of earth and green grass, and the faint sweetness of Qinglong flowers.
"Ruxue, you don't have to wait anymore..."
Xiao Mo reached out and stroked the boulder.
"I'm back."