Ten Miles Of Peach Blossoms

Chapter 6

I worked really hard after that, spending all my days in my room, studying and thinking deeply about immortal magic and Taoist practice and reading the immortal classics left by the older generation of immortals in my spare time. My fellow apprentices were comforted by the transformation in my attitude.

Every time I learned a new skill, I stood outside Mo Yuan's cave and practiced it. Even though he did not know I was doing this, it brought me peace of mind.

I was sitting in meditation in the peach grove on the back peak of the mountain one day when First Apprentice sent a messenger crane telling me to hurry to the front hall, where a guest was waiting for me.

I snapped off a branch of peach blossoms, as the one in Mo Yuan's room had started to wilt.

He was still in confinement and had not been back to his room, but I wanted to keep it tidy and pleasant so that he had a comfortable place waiting for him when he came out of his confinement.

I walked to the front hall, twisting the branch of peach blossoms in my hand.

I went past the central courtyard, where Thirteenth and Fourteenth Apprentices were sitting under the date tree, taking bets about whether the guest in the front hall was male or female. I assumed that it must be Fourth Brother come to visit me, so I took out my night pearl and hesitantly laid my bet. The person sitting in the front hall looked nothing like First Apprentice had described. It was that member of the Demon Clan: Second Prince Li Jing.

He was sitting in a graceful upright posture in the pear-wood imperial tutor's chair, his eyes half closed as he sipped his tea. He gave a start when he saw me come in.

Mo Yuan had carried out a massacre in the Purple Light Palace, and I assumed that Li Jing was here to take revenge.

Instead he rushed over and grasped my hands with affection. "Si Yin, I've thought it all through. I want to spend my life with you."

My peach blossom branch clattered to the floor. "Give me money, give me money, it is a girl!" Thirteenth Apprentice yelled loudly from outside the door.

I was extremely confused. I thought about it a moment before opening the front of my gown and giving him a flash of my chest. "But I'm a boy," I said. "You have such a good relationship with all the wives in your bedchamber. You aren't this way inclined."

I was not really a boy. The fist-sized fox heart under my skin and flesh was not as broad as boy's; it was a girl's: slender, gentle, and delicate. But Mother had tricked Mo Yuan into taking me on, which meant that I was stuck in my male form until I had finished my studies.

Li Jing stared at my flat chest in surprise. "I've been thinking a lot since I left your room that morning. I was scared by my desire for you, and I spent my days surrounded by beautiful women, trying in vain . . . trying in vain to numb myself. It worked at first, but I didn't expect to miss you so much, to think about you day and night. Si Yin . . ." Overcome by emotion he walked over to embrace me. ". . . I will be homosexual if it's for you."

I looked up at the peach blossom wood rafters, not knowing what to do.

Fourteenth Apprentice's laughter drifted over from the distance. "Give you money? Who exactly is meant to be giving who money?"

Li Jing had walked for miles and miles to the remote Mount Kunlun to confess his feelings to me, but in a boy's form, I did not feel that I could return his love. I tried to let him down gently.

It was getting dark and already too late for him to take the mountain path, so I allowed him to spend a night on the mountain. When First Apprentice heard that there was a homosexual Demon Clan member who had come up the mountain to kidnap me, he beat him up and drove him away.