Fanfiction3: A-Li's Three Lives, Three Worlds - Chapter 66 (Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms 三生三世十里桃花)
Chapter 66
written by LigayaCroftedited by kakashi
A-Li returned to Huo Zheng from his meeting with Lian Song with a heavy heart. It had been late when they had headed out for discussions and so it was no surprise that his wife was now in bed, lying on her left side with a pillow tucked between her knees, her chest rising and falling in an even pattern of breathing.
He hated to disturb her but she was such a light sleeper, he had expected her to open her eyes the moment he sat down on the bed beside her and began pulling off his boots.
The smile that greeted him from her lips was soft and sleepy, the fingers of one hand that caressed the side of his cheek soothing.
“How was it?” she asked.
A-Li took her hand from his face and enfolded it between his as words momentarily escaped him. How could he even think of leaving her at a time like this? And for what, a party?
“Are they summoning you to go back? Was that why your granduncle is here?”
He nodded, and with a worsening heaviness in his heart, his right hand moved to stroke across her belly.
His baby kicked in response.
“Oh, A-Li, don't cry,” she comforted, the pads of her thumbs pressing at the inner corners of his eyes.
“I—” he choked then tried again. “I have to show up to help my Father save face in front of the clan leaders of our Kingdom.”
“Then you have to go.”
Of course, somebody as responsible and selfless as Huo Zheng would say that.
“It is your filial duty, and something you will expect your own child to do for you too.”
“But I will be gone for a month or two,” he moved forward to assist his wife to sit up. “Who is going to take care of you and the baby?”
Huo Zheng rubbed her palms along his arms, then laid her forehead to rest against his.
“We’ll be fine,” she assured him, her voice calm as she would use with one of her patients. “I happen to be the best midwife in all the lands. And I have Nǎinai. I can take care of us,” she rubbed her hand along her belly and on habit, A-Li followed suit. “Just… just come back before I am due.”
“Since I am already there, I will talk to my parents about us. Then I will surely be ordered to come back to get you,” he said without pause, like a desperate prayer.
“It’s not as if you didn’t try to tell me many times before.” Huo Zheng said, cupping his face in her hands. “No, it was I who didn’t want to listen. The stories you have told me in the months we’ve been together made it seem like you have a lot of people who love and care for you, and the more I knew, the more it intimidated and frightened me. Because of me, you are married to this village. Because of me, you are away from them. But these past few months, I’ve realized more and more that I belonged to you… with you. So, go to your great grandfather’s party while I attend to my grandmother here and prepare her for our departure. When you return, we can finally go together.” She promised, dropping a kiss against his cheek, rubbing a hand along the side of his neck.
“Do not step outside of Huicūn,” he reminded her again. “The baby… its presence. You’ll be so easy for immortals to find.”
She nodded and leaned the side of her head against the top of his shoulder.
They sat together in silence for quite a while. A-Li contemplated the simplicity of his current surroundings against the grandiosity of what he was going home to. He remembered his childhood in Junji-shan, and that tiny hut where he and his Father Lord had lived for months at a time. It contained his happiest memories with his Father.
Maybe once the baby was born they could also come back to Huicūn every now and then as a family and provide their child with happy memories to call its own.
“Gun Gun and I will take tomorrow to ensure we don't leave anything for you to clean up after us. We’ll line up activities to keep the men busy until we come back.”
He felt her bob her head in a nod. A-Li dropped a kiss on top of her hair, stunned that he was still with her and yet already missed her.
How would he ever survive the couple of immortal hours ahead without her?
***
“Zhūzhu,” Huo Zheng called out as she entered the dining room where everyone had gathered together to partake of the breakfast that she had prepared. She had in her arms a jiǎndú as tall as her and wider than a big mortal man.
“Xiăohŭ!” A-Li jumped from his seat to take the load off his wife. “I thought we had already agreed that you're going to stop with the heavy lifting? What is this?”
“My huílǐ.”
“I didn’t ask for a dowry,” A-Li’s brows furrowed but he lifted the gigantic scroll nonetheless. Huo Zheng pointed for him to place it on the wall close to Mei Lin, which he did. He turned the scroll in his hands. The big bamboo strips looked old but still gleamed with a sheen that spoke of Huo Zheng’s care. “Xiăohŭ, what is in this scroll?”
“It’s part of the twenty-one volume compendium on traditional herbal medicine that I have owned since I was six. It was given to me by my teacher, Zhū Lǎoshī, and he claimed the knowledge within came from the god Shennong himself.”
Lian Song stood up and approached the scroll, signaling for A-Li to open it. A-Li did as was told and started unrolling a part of the scroll against the wall.
“Child,” Lian Song said, as his eyes took in the characters written within. “I am not familiar at all with the Primordial God Shennong’s codex because they were written in the most ancient of scripts — one that only one person in our kingdom had limited knowledge to decode and understand — but this is fascinating. If this truly contains a translated version of Shennong’s text, we could use this as a reference for translating the rest of Shennong’s works. Who is your Lǎoshī and how do I find him?”
“You will have a hard time finding him, Diànxià,” Nǎinai answered. “One cannot find Zhū Gē on one’s own will. Instead, he finds you. He helped my husband and son build this village, and when all things were settled after the birth of Xiăohŭ, he moved out. He sends word for us as to where to find him and when, and we merely come.”
“Well, that sounds suspicious.”
“He was my husband’s childhood friend. I have known him since I was a bride coming to Huicūn for the first time. He supported my late daughter-in-law’s familial affinity to healing, and made sure my Xiăohŭ grew up a learned woman with the same level of education as any man,” Nainai cut back sharply, looking terribly displeased. “So watch your tongue. I trust him more than I trust you, Diànxià.”
Lian Song stilled, and bowed. “I apologize for my hasty tongue.”
“Anyway, Zhūzhu,” Huo Zheng called back the attention to herself, “can you have this Zhe Yan verify if the compendium I have is the real one?”
“If it is so, the texts you possess are priceless,” Gun Gun remarked, his eyes also fixed on the jiandu. “Who wrote this? Your Lǎoshī?”
“Maybe? I never asked.”
“Xiăohŭ,” Mei Lin nudged between A-Li and Huo Zheng to embrace her friend from behind, her palms fondly stroking Huo Zheng’s belly through the tunic. “I told you there was no need for me to bring this so that Old Phoenix could confirm. I have memorized the books —”
“I know, but I want you to return sooner. So just attend the celebration, leave this at Zhe Yan’s doorstep, and come back as fast as you can, alright? I don't want to give birth without you.”
“As if I will let that happen.” A-Li assured his wife. “One month. Two, at most. And then we're coming to get you.”
“Come with us when we return to get Xiăohŭ, Nǎinai,” Gun Gun cajoled as he put his arm around the old woman’s shoulders.
“Ha! No thank you! I want to die and be buried beside my husband here in Huicūn. I would appreciate though if you could put in a good word to make this my last mortal life. I think having met all of you makes for a wonderful finale, don't you think so?”
“Nǎinai, don’t talk like that,” Gun Gun reprimanded.
“This was indeed my best life, I just know it,” The old woman looked at all the people in the room and smiled a grin that made her face appear younger. “As long as you take care of my Xiăohŭ, I will be at peace.”
Mei Lin and Lian Song tied the jiǎndú closed while A-Li sat his wife down.
“One month or two,” he promised, his throat suddenly tight, knowing that for him it was only a couple of hours but would be weeks for Huo Zheng. “We will all come back.”
“We will be fine,” she sighed, her hand covering his which lay over her belly. “We will all be together again before you know it.”
A-Li tried to say more but with sadness eating his heart alive, he opted to embrace her. That she leaned on him and embraced him just as tightly made A-Li feel better, even if only by a bit.
She had a big smile on her face when they broke their embrace. A-Li cupped her face in his hands, his eyes feasting on her radiance.
“How could you smile at a time like this? Are you glad I will finally be out of your sight? Shouldn’t you be sad?”
Huo Zheng shook her head, her right hand reaching out to cup the side of his cheek. “But I am happy, A-Li. Come find me when you return,” Her eyes twinkled. “I will see you soon.”
“I would bring you now if I could — you know that, right?”
“Yes, and I’ve lost count how many times you have said that already,” she laughed as her fingers stroked the side of his cheek. “It is not manly to be this emotional, you know.”
A-Li took his wife’s hand from his face and dropped a kiss on her rough palm.
“I wish our copper mirrors worked here.”
“But they don't.”
He nodded bitterly. “But they don't.”
“A-Li,” Lian Song called out. “It's time to go.”
It had been agreed beforehand that between Huo Zheng’s pregnancy and Huo Mao’s half-blindness and age that the Huo women would not go to see them out as their group exited through the zào jiá thicket from where the three of them had initially entered Huicūn, as the distance to regain their powers was shorter than it would be if they exited somewhere else.
Hence, this moment in the Huo kitchen was their goodbye.
For now.
With one last embrace and a kiss that he hoped could satisfy him during the immortal minutes that lay ahead, A-Li followed his family with Gun Gun leading the pack, the jiǎndú hoisted over one shoulder. A-Li walked backwards, like he had always done in the mornings since he got married, his eyes fixed on his wife, his heart full at the mere sight of her beauty emphasized by her timeless smile. His hand waved goodbye every now and then until they turned the corner and the Huo women disappeared from his sight.
Only then did he turn forward and caught up with the pack.
“Ready?” Lian Song asked, his gaze soft.
“To the Sky Kingdom for two hour changes,” He said as he took one last glance at the path behind him. “Two hour changes and not a breath too late.”
Chapter 67