Chapter 2

I first met Ying Que three years ago.

He had descended to the mortal world for a trial, lost control of his powers, and fallen from the sky—straight onto my roof.

That little thatched house and its yard were something I’d bought at ten, with money saved from serving a brothel’s most sought-after girl.

Shabby though it was, it was the first real home I’d ever had.

I’d just returned from the market with Pea Pudding, carrying red cloth for my wedding.

I found that my house had collapsed and Ah Jin, whom I was to marry the next day, had been knocked unconscious.

I broke down, sobbing so hard I could barely breathe.

That was when Ying Que emerged from behind the door.

In white robes, he stood as straight and graceful as a pine or cypress.

His face was luminous as jade, an immortal stepped out of a painting.

Even his limp couldn’t hide his unearthly grace.

I stared, lost in wonder. Ying Que didn’t notice; he was entirely occupied with apologizing.

Once his injuries healed and his powers returned, he promised, he would fix both my house and Ah Jin.

We spent two days together like that.

Although he was an immortal, Ying Que never put on airs.

He tended the medicine simmering on the stove and fed my three chicks in the yard whenever I went out.

The auntie next door teased that each husband I brought home was handsomer than the last.

I ran away blushing.

He wasn’t a husband. He was an immortal.

On the day his injuries healed, Ying Que repaired my roof with a wave of his hand.

He waved again. Ah Jin didn’t stir.

Meeting my suspicious gaze, he said awkwardly, “Ah Jin is badly hurt. He’ll need seven days before he wakes.”

Despair washed over me, and I couldn’t help crying.

Flustered, Ying Que asked what was wrong.

I told him a river demon had arrived a year earlier. It demanded a virgin girl from the village every year, threatening to poison the water so no one could drink if it wasn’t obeyed.

An orphan girl with no one to rely on, I was very likely to be its next sacrifice.

That was why I’d decided to marry Ah Jin, whom I’d found outside the village six months earlier and taken home.

He was simple-minded, but honest and well-behaved. He was also handsome. Even if I kept him in the house just to admire, I wouldn’t be losing out.

But now he lay unconscious, and the sacrificial ceremony was only two days away.

“Ah Fu, why are you afraid of one little demon? You’re standing in front of an immortal!”

After reassuring me, Ying Que picked up his sword and headed straight for the river.

The demon called itself a river god. It was sixty or seventy feet long, shaped like a loach, with a mouth full of fangs.

Beside it, Ying Que looked like no more than a handsome little stone at its feet.

After a fierce battle, he won a resounding victory.

Blood spattered his white robes as he stood in the wind and shouted to me where I hid in the distant grass. “Ah Fu, I’ve passed Heaven’s trial!

“I’m sorry about your house and bridegroom. Once I return, I’ll make it up to you!”

He’d barely finished when ten more shafts of celestial light spilled down, gathering into a stairway to the heavens.

I watched him disappear into the clouds.

That was the first time I’d ever seen one of the immortals people spoke of.

Probably the last, too.