Being with you

Chapter 2 - Memories of the Mortal Realm

The Bai household was bustling with activity today. The former queen of Quingqui and the future queen of Sky Kingdom, Bai Xian was visiting after a long time. Her son Ah-li was with her. Ah-li had always been quite close to his Fengjiu Jiejie. Knowing that Fengjiu was in a coma had had both Xian and Ah-li worried. So they had come to check on her.

Bai Xian and Dijun exchanged pleasantries. Dijun introduced Gungun. After the initial shock and surprise, Bai Xian and Ah-li took an instant liking to this little silver-haired boy.

Bai Xian checked on the sleeping Fengjiu and then excused herself. She went on to look for her mother.

Ah-li and Gungun took a seat at the window, watching the birds outside, and started chatting. Dijun busied himself with preparing medicine for his wife. He could hear the little boys talk excitedly nearby.

"So, where have you lived all this while, Gungun? What's your home like?", asked the ever-curious Ah-li.

"Mother and I lived in the mortal realm. Not in any one place though. Mother says I grow much slower than mortal children so to avoid people talking and making more trouble, we move every few months or every couple years.", Gungun explained. "We still do get into plenty of trouble anyways, but at least we have gotten better in the last couple years", he added.

That just piqued Ah-li's interest immensely and his eyes shone brightly. "Tell me all about it. I know when I went around with Fengjiu Jiejie we often got into trouble, but she always made an adventure out of it."

Dijun was listening, he did get worried when Gungun said trouble, but on hearing Ah-li's response, a tiny chuckle escaped him. Yes, that was true. His Xiaobai could turn trouble into an adventure any time. That was one of the many things he admired about her. Curious to learn more, he diverted his attention back to the little boys by the window.

"Well, my earliest memory is of Mother fighting a bunch of roughs. Their leader wanted to hold Mother's hand and take her away. He said he had never seen a beauty like her. Mother tried to reason with him to leave her alone. But when he just wouldn't listen, she kicked him. They all came to fight with her. Out of nowhere mother took out a knife, made it into a sword, and fought them all by herself. But the leader guy was sly. He picked me up and started threatening her. She was furious. She did something with her hand, a bright red light shot up and the guy holding me went flying backward, while Mother caught me. That scared them all and they ran away shouting. But all that fighting had injured Mother too. She was bleeding all over and was also spitting blood. I was very scared. But Mother is brave. She smiled at me, told me not to worry, collected just a few things from home, and took me away." Gungun's face showed all kinds of emotions as he spoke. But most of all, you could feel the pride that little boy felt for his Mother. She was his hero.

Listening to all this perturbed Dijun's heart. He should have been there for her. She had been all alone while he was still alive. He had promised her, over and over, that he would never leave her alone. That he would always be with her. He had failed miserably to keep that promise. No wonder she had not believed him. She had walked away even when he had said no one was more important to him than her. After what she had gone through, after what he had inadvertently put her through, how could she ever believe him? Why should she believe him? His heart broke at the thought. The ring on Xiaobai's finger glowed again.

Ah-li's eyes had grown as big as saucers. "Wow, what an amazing story! I am so proud of Fengjiu Jiejie. Tell me more.", Ah-li said leaning closer.

"More? Well, there are so many stories like this. A few months later, Mother had started covering up the Phoenix feather on her forehead with something she called cosmetics. She had also started dying my hair black so we could both look more like mortals. At that time she ran a small tea stall in a different town. One day it started raining heavily and before we could wrap up our stall and go home, we were both drenched. Her cosmetics had washed away and the Phoenix feather on her forehead glowed. I thought it looked so pretty, but there was a mortal nearby who saw and told everyone she was a demon. People gathered around us and wanted to throw all kinds of things at us. The bad guy jeered at us, he told everyone to capture Mother and hand her over to him. Mother did something clever this time. She did some magic to make the black snake come out of his sleeve. And then she told everyone that the guy himself was a bad wizard and he kept black snakes as pets. That scared everyone long enough and we ran away.", Gungun recalled.