Chapter 1

My master returned from the mortal realm with a woman.

Senior Brother Bai Yi looked at her, then at me. His breath caught, and he coughed until his face turned scarlet.

I patted his back. What was the fuss? So she looked a little like me. Was that really worth choking over?

The woman stared at me in equal astonishment and quietly slipped her hand into Master’s.

I clicked my tongue inwardly. Sister, there was no need to stake your claim. We were both substitutes.

Master led her over. “Bai Yi, A-Yuan, this is An Nian. She will live with us on Mount Wu from now on. Settle her in Suiwu Court, beside mine.”

Bai Yi nodded in a daze. He watched Master walk away hand in hand with An Nian, then turned to me with grief written all over his face.

“A-Yuan, y-you mustn’t be upset.”

Tears immediately began pattering down my cheeks. “Senior Brother, sob, my heart hurts so much. But I still have to copy the Moonlike Scripture. Sob, sob…”

Bai Yi patted my shoulder. “I’ll copy it for you. I’ll take your cleaning duty at Fallen Blossom Hall tomorrow and the day after, too.”

I wiped my tears. “You’re the best, Senior Brother!”

Then I tore off for the Matchmaker’s shrine with all the grace and speed I could muster.

The Matchmaker’s face lit up with gossip the moment he saw me. “Your master brought back another mortal?”

I nodded like a chicken pecking grain.

“And she looks like you?”

More frantic pecking.

“That Di Qing. Honestly.” The Matchmaker heaved a mighty sigh and drew a red cord from inside his robe. “Little A-Yuan, I braided this one myself. Take it and win your master’s heart back.”

I accepted the cord. “Can I have another?”

Generous as ever, he pulled out a second. “Here. Two will bind him tighter.”

I returned to Mount Wu in high spirits and found An Nian sitting beside a stone post at the foot of the mountain. She looked as if she wanted to say something but couldn’t bring herself to begin.

I finally asked, “Lost?”

She shook her head. After a long silence, she said softly, “I truly love Di Qing.”

Master’s face did tend to be popular with young women, but why was she telling me?

I drew out the red cords and handed her one. “The Matchmaker gave me this. Cut it in half and wear one half each. It will keep you devoted to one another without doubt.”

An Nian studied me, then took the other cord from my hand instead.

Well, excuse me. She didn’t believe me, did she? I rolled my eyes and headed for Fallen Blossom Hall.

Behind me, I faintly heard her murmur, “So you truly don’t love him.”

I didn’t turn around. Of course I didn’t. I had known from the start that Master wanted nothing but this face. I would have been delighted if he found someone else and forgot me in a corner.

I sat on the roof of Fallen Blossom Hall with a delicate box beside me.

Before long, someone settled at my side. I offered him the box as proudly as a child presenting treasure. “Immortal Xu Bai, this is the new poison I made yesterday.”

Xu Bai opened it. “It’s very pretty. Does that mean it’s twice as deadly?”

“You know me so well.” I rocked my head smugly. The prettier my poisons were, the more vicious they tended to be. “Don’t worry if it kills you.”

“Did you make an antidote?”

I smiled. “No. If you die, be more careful in your next life.”

Xu Bai snorted and popped the pieces into his mouth one by one.

I stared at him, lost in thought. He was an old friend of Master’s. When Master first brought me to Mount Wu, I had only just transformed from a stone into human form. Master was often away, so I became a girl left alone on the mountain.

Perhaps Xu Bai took pity on me. He taught me spiritual arts and medicine. Unfortunately, being a stone, my medical studies went slightly crooked. I became obsessed with poison-making. After I killed the hundredth rabbit on Mount Wu, Xu Bai finally lost patience and ate the poison I had just finished.

I had been horrified. If he wanted to die, why drag me into it? But half a day later, he remained perfectly well. That was how I discovered his peculiar constitution made him immune to every poison. From then on, I made poisons with abandon and fed them to Xu Bai with equal abandon.

Except when Master was on Mount Wu. Every so often, he remembered he had a disciple and summoned me for a lesson or two.

I was so deep in memory that I failed to notice Xu Bai’s handsome face turning black.

He nudged me twice. I blinked at his dark expression and jumped. “Is that a side effect of the new poison?”

Xu Bai rubbed my head. “I heard you gave the mortal woman a red cord.”

I nodded, and his expression eased. “The Matchmaker said you took two.”

“I did.” I pointed toward the two carp swimming side by side in the pond by my herb garden. “I tied the other one around Big Yellow and Little Red.”

Xu Bai coughed for a long while before bursting into laughter. “That stone heart of yours.”

I nodded before I could stop myself. Well, of course. I was a stone spirit.

“Immortal Xu Bai, is the mortal realm fun?” I tilted my head at the man before me. “I’ve never been there.”

I sprang to my feet, eyes shining. “Why don’t you take me to see it?”

Xu Bai gave me a sidelong look. “I suppose I could.”

“But once we’re there, you do exactly as I say. No casting spiritual arts whenever you please, and no poisoning people whenever you please.”

I blinked furiously. “Understood. I’ll obey your every word.”

Xu Bai took me to Huichun Town. It was small but wonderfully lively. The streets were packed, hawkers cried out their wares, and the warm smoke and bustle of mortal life rolled over me. Xu Bai let me play for days. I carried nougat, green bamboo wine, and a painted parasol in my arms, with a bamboo hairpin, a jade ring, and tiny earrings stuffed inside my robe.

Just as I was losing my mind with happiness, Xu Bai tapped my forehead and said there was one last place he wanted to show me before we returned.

I counted the days. He was right. If I stayed away any longer, Bai Yi would worry. When I asked where we were going, Xu Bai only looked mysterious and told me to put down my purchases and change clothes.

When I opened the door, Xu Bai stood neat and elegant before a bonfire in robes the pale blue-white of moonlight. I looked down at my own trailing, water-red embroidered dress and muttered to myself. It was far too pretty for easy movement.

Xu Bai caught my sleeve and led me toward a glow in the distance. From afar, I could already see a crowd singing and dancing.

I shook out my sleeve. “What dance is that?”

“The Tage. They’re making offerings to heaven and earth, giving thanks and celebrating the harvest.”

Listening to the songs, I kicked aside my troublesome skirt, grabbed Xu Bai’s hand, and pulled him into the crowd. I copied the men and women around us, swaying, turning my waist, kicking out my legs, and flinging up my arms.

I danced until sweat dampened my hair before Xu Bai finally drew me out. He handed me roasted venison. I ate until my lips shone with grease, took the wine he offered, and swallowed two mouthfuls with a blissful sigh.

What a fine way to live.

A boom split the air. Fireworks burst overhead, illuminating the night—and Xu Bai’s face.

My heart thundered. How could mortal wine be so intoxicating?

I crept back into Fallen Blossom Hall only for Bai Yi to seize me by the collar.

“Did you make aphrodisiac incense for that mortal woman?” he demanded.

I shook my head desperately. That incense was forbidden. How would I dare? “Not me. I’ve spent the past few days in the mortal realm with Immortal Xu Bai.”

Bai Yi hauled me all the way to Master’s hall. An Nian knelt weeping before it, and I stared in complete confusion.

“Master,” Bai Yi called, “Junior Sister did not make the incense for An Nian. She has been with Immortal Xu Bai these past few days.”

Master cast me a cold glance, then turned to An Nian. “Do you have anything else to say?”

Bracing herself on her knees, An Nian slowly rose and gave a hoarse laugh. “Di Qing, what is left for me to say?”

“I did it. I found the recipe in the library and mixed it in A-Yuan’s apothecary. Di Qing, I thought you brought me here because you meant to marry me. But even when I tied the red cord around your wrist, you refused to touch me.

“I never belonged among any of you, but I wasn’t afraid. I thought your love would be enough. Di Qing, do you love me?

“It was only ever my wishful thinking.” An Nian turned toward me. Great tears struck the floor. “A-Yuan, you woke up sooner than I did. You were always the clear-eyed one.”

She drew a knife from inside her robe and pressed it to her throat. I formed a spell to knock it away, but Bai Yi stopped me.

“Di Qing,” she said, “how could someone like you deserve to be loved?”

The blade flashed across her throat. “I want you to remember me forever. Even if you end up with that person one day, I want you to wake in the middle of the night and remember me. I want it to trouble your heart.”

Cold seized my hands and feet as An Nian collapsed into a pool of blood—another person who had run headlong into a wall and still refused to turn back.

I looked up at Master’s calm face. Of course. The foot of every wall was piled with the bodies of hopeless lovers.

I should not have known fear. Yet as Master walked toward me through An Nian’s blood, every hair on my body seemed to scream.

“A-Yuan,” he said, “have a few days of play made you forget yourself?”

I cleared my throat and bowed. “This disciple has not.”

“Then come tomorrow. You will study the inner arts with me.”