Being with you

Chapter 5 - Harvest Festival

It was the most exciting time of the year in Quinqui. It was time for the harvest festival. This was a 7-day-long festival with parades, performances from acrobats, and a grand fair. Every year anyone related to Quinqui, no matter how far from home he might be, would make it a point to come. Even visitors from all over would gather here.

Bai Xian, the Celestial Tribe's crown prince Ye Hua and their little son Ah-Li had also come to the fox den for this celebration. Ah-Li and Gungun were both super excited to go to the fair. Mi Gu was trying to keep them interested in other things long enough so that they could go only after the sun would start to go down a little. Bai Xian was so not wanting to walk around in the hot sun and had tasked Mi Gu with this duty.

She herself had come to Feng Jiu's room and was helping her bathe and get dressed. Feng Jiu had recovered quite a lot, but her wound still hurt if she tried to move quickly or even tried to make her long hair. So Bai Xian had taken it upon herself to look after her favorite niece.

Dijun had ventured to the kitchen asking his mother-in-law's help to cook something tasty and nutritious for his wife. His mother-in-law was only too happy to oblige. Finding not much else to do by himself Ye Hua had joined in too. They all chatted and cooked away a whole feast with sweet and sour fish, noodle soup, congee, various types of vegetable dishes, and cakes. All of them were feeling very accomplished. Dijun and Ye Hua loaded two large trays with all the food and decided to go to Feng Jiu's room so they all could eat together.

When the two reached Feng Jiu's room, she had finished bathing and getting dressed. Bai Xian was combing her hair and they were chatting. "Please don't tell whatever I am about to say, to Dijun. I don't want him to feel any more guilty than what he is already feeling.", Feng Jiu was saying. Dijun signaled to Ye Hua to stop and not enter the room. They both placed the food trays on a nearby table and waited. Ye Hua signaled to Dijun that he will be back soon and left in search of their sons.

"Ye Hua is a true gentleman!", mused Dijun and continued to eavesdrop. His wife was about to tell something to her aunt that she thought would make him feel guilty. So? It wasn't going to be pretty. But he was quite thick-skinned and he could handle it. At least that's what he told himself at that time.

Feng Jiu continued reminiscing and talking to her aunt. She was talking about some of the hardest days of her life and it wasn't easy for her. But this was her aunt and she was one person Fengjiu did not mind just being herself with.

"I waited for Dijun for 73 days. Each day was harder than the one before, but I waited. Everyone told me he had chosen to go to the demon realm with Ji Heng. I chose not to believe them.  I went to the demon realm with Chong Lin to look for Dijun. There they told me that they had in fact seen him be with Ji Heng. I was heartbroken.

I returned home here and was crying inconsolably in my room when Uncle Zhe Yan walked in. He sensed something off with me, checked my pulse, and told me that I was pregnant. That moment. It changed my whole life.

I remember, that night I did not sleep at all. But by the time morning came, I had made up my mind. Uncle Zhe Yan had left me two pills - one that would abort the baby and another that would preserve him. He also left a note saying he would support me no matter what I picked.

This was my baby. Mine and Dijun's. The only man I have ever loved. This baby was a symbol of my unconditional love for Dijun. I knew he had loved me sincerely too. Maybe after seeing Ji Heng in trouble, he had decided to spend the rest of his life with her. But I knew when he had told me he loved me, he had meant it. I would keep this baby and live for the baby. This baby would be my whole universe from then on.  I ate the pill that would preserve my baby.