Crimson Qi, Exiled Beautiful Lady Falls in Love with a Shy Demon

Xi's Answer

The slums overrun the elegant gardens of his childhood home. At some point, they must have given up on building even the most primitive walls and set up canvas tents instead. How his mother managed to keep those she offered shelter alive through the winter, he could not fathom. To keep them warm, she had most of the trees cut, the trees under whose boughs he played as a child. Petty resentment welled up in him, looking at the stacks of the firewood, and the cooking fires burning.

Fires...

It was not the first time the mansion in Zushulin had fires. He hugged himself against the terror he should not have remembered, but he did.

"Xi!"

Drawn out of the spell of dread, Xi lifted his head to see his mother with her companions, all carrying giant baskets of laundry from the river. Once Imperial wives and concubines of Wo Jia's failed dynasty, the women looked unashamed of their labours and humble surroundings, making Xi envious. If he loved his place in the world, then why the contentment eluded him, why was his hisn thrown out of balance so easily?

Tien Lyn put her load onto the ground. "Take care of it for me, please, Xiangning."

It was not as simple as giving a command. Most of the ladies knew Xi as a child, and in the joyless times, all hearts crave respite. He had to endure clapping, being twisted around, and a few pinches of his cheeks. Tien Lyn beamed at the prevailing opinion that he turned into a handsome young man. She finally spirited him away to a stone bench under a survivor of the carnage - the shadowy plum tree.

Xi put his hand on its smooth bark. Last time he had seen it, it was a sapling. Now the giant umbrella of its crown opened up above his head. But he had seen it fully grown on a scroll. "This is the father's tree," Xi said.

Tien Lyn's hand joined his on the trunk. "How do you know? I planted it where the one that burned that night stood. Where your father died."

"It looks exactly like the one father drew. I have the scroll you gave me."

Tien Lyn took a closer look at the tree, but Xi could see that she did not understand, did not comprehend the exact match of the structure.

"It is, Mother. Father's magic lingered here and cleaved to you when you planted the tree. I did not understand it as a boy, I do now."

She cried wordlessly under her whispering tree.

Xi had returned to Zushulin to tell his mother that he had accepted her willful execution of Weynala, but the words he mulled over for days fled. "Tell me?"

"Yellow leaves carpeted the courtyard," she started. "I did not want to clean them up until all had fallen."

Xi looked into her eyes to see the reflections of the raiders bursting out of the night. There she was, his mother dashing to save him - a babe of a few weeks old - stopped by a rough hand. His father, Chong Ho, the merchant, casting the one and only spell in his life to protect them.

The fire - that fire devouring their shared past.

"Weynala sent them because she wanted Yu..." Tien Lyn swept away a tear still clinging to the end of her eyelashes.

"Yu? Why Yu?" He wondered aloud, wrapping his mother in a hug.

She stroked his cheek. "This is not something you need to know, baby."

Mourning under the tree brought them closer than they had ever been. At length, Xi told her about his journey with Sayewa to the Celestial Realm. Her thoughtful fingers through his hair, straightening out tangles only she could find.

"Be wary of faeries, Xi. The Celestials created them to love the human race, but they also made them appealing to us. I saw Sayewa talk a desperate robber into falling onto his own sword, smiling all the while. That serene smile of hers - it is poison."

His lips stretched into a serene smile of his own. "Oh, mama..."