Danzhu knew that Bihua Lingjun had understood what he was doing. He had never intended to hide it.
He said, “Qingxi, when I asked whether you would become my immortal partner forever, what did you think I wanted from you?”
Bihua Lingjun smiled without stopping the jade comb in his hand. “Then what did Your Imperial Majesty want when you agreed to become my immortal partner?”
“Qingxi, I truly do like you,” Danzhu said.
“Mm,” said Bihua Lingjun.
“Qingxi, then why did you become my immortal partner?”
Bihua Lingjun stopped combing. “I told you that very day. I was willing because I liked you.”
Danzhu sighed. “Qingxi, just what sort of liking is your liking?”
“There is only one kind of liking I feel for you,” Bihua Lingjun replied. Danzhu opened his eyes and looked at him. Bihua smiled. “But all these years, I’ve done so much, and I still don’t know whether you can understand it.”
Danzhu stood up. “Qingxi, these thirty-odd years on the immortal isle have been very satisfying for me. But by now the days truly have begun to feel longer and longer, and I’ve grown lonelier and lonelier. No matter how long I soaked in the hot spring, I never became a phoenix chick again. What you said yesterday makes sense, Qingxi, and I imagine you’ve been thinking the same. Things have come this far. Let us end our relationship here.”
Bihua Lingjun nodded. “Very well.”
Danzhu sighed once more and went out into the courtyard.
Bihua Lingjun said nothing further from beginning to end.
The next morning, when Danzhu woke, the other side of the bed was empty. Bihua Lingjun had not returned to the bedroom the night before.
Danzhu rose and came into the outer hall, where Bihua was waiting beside a table holding freshly brewed fragrant tea.
Danzhu strolled to the other side of the table, sat down, and drank a cup. Neither of them spoke.
When he finished his tea, Danzhu said, “I was the one who said we should end things. So I suppose I am the one who began the affair and then abandoned you. I’ll go back to Heaven and explain it to the Jade Emperor.”
Bihua Lingjun replied, “Your Imperial Majesty needn’t take all the blame yourself. You said yesterday that you supposed I had been thinking along the same lines. Besides…” Raising his teacup, Bihua arched his brows with a smile. “Judging by, ahem, certain matters of position and sequence, Your Imperial Majesty could hardly be said to be the one who seduced and abandoned the other.”
The corners of Danzhu’s mouth rose. “I’ve always said I don’t mind whether I’m above or below, because as far as I’m concerned the two are the same. So it still counts as my seducing and abandoning you.”
Bihua Lingjun laughed. “I understand. So Your Imperial Majesty doesn’t want to play the resentful husband who was seduced and cast aside, and you’re handing that role to this humble immortal.”
Danzhu laughed heartily. “More or less.”
Just then a wildcat that Bihua Lingjun had picked up a few days earlier wriggled its way onto Bihua’s lap. Watching Bihua’s fingers stroke its head, Danzhu lifted his teacup again. “Qingxi, if that hot spring really had turned me back into a phoenix chick, what would you have done? Would you have raised me alone, or kept me alongside the other spirit beasts? Cats and my feathered clan don’t get on especially well. Raising us together wouldn’t have been easy.”
Bihua Lingjun did not answer. He merely smiled again.
The tea was finished. Danzhu rose to leave. As if from habit, Bihua Lingjun picked up his outer robe and draped it over his shoulders. Once Danzhu had put it on, Bihua straightened the front of his collar. Danzhu looked at him steadily. “Qingxi, I’m leaving.”
Bihua Lingjun stepped back a little and bowed slightly. “This humble immortal respectfully sees Your Imperial Majesty off.”
Danzhu turned with a sweep of his sleeve, and gorgeous crimson clouds flowed across the sky.
Immortal Emperor Danzhu returned to Heaven, convinced that he had courted Bihua Lingjun and then abandoned him. The news shocked the celestial court. The Jade Emperor said only, “Perhaps this was a trial of love, just as one might have expected.”
Bihua Lingjun was also summoned back to Heaven. Before the Jade Emperor he once again confessed his guilt and requested demotion to the mortal world.
But the Jade Emperor was remarkably magnanimous. “This was a trial for Purple-Void and may equally be counted a trial for you. There is no need to speak of wrongdoing.”
Bihua Lingjun said, “My mortal roots are indeed not yet purged. It was not merely a trial.”
The Jade Emperor answered, “One can strengthen one’s immortal nature through experience. Since you yourself request to return to the mortal world, go to its mountain forests and serve temporarily as an earth god.”
Immortal Emperor Danzhu resumed his exalted rank and returned to Danxiao Palace, while Bihua Lingjun was once again demoted and sent to serve as an earth god in a desolate mortal wilderness. The immortals of Heaven naturally had much to say about it, and all sighed over Bihua’s fate.
When Bihua Lingjun set out for the mortal world, Danzhu concealed himself beside the Southern Heavenly Gate and watched Bihua bid farewell to Emperor Donghua.
All the immortals were on good terms with Bihua, but they feared that if they all came to see him off, he might not be able to speak freely. So only Emperor Donghua accompanied him.
Stroking his beard, Emperor Donghua said, “Alas, take good care of yourself in the mortal world. I’ll come visit whenever I have time. The mountain forests may be desolate, but they’re bound to be full of rare animals. That will suit your tastes.”
Bihua Lingjun smiled. “Indeed. Who knows? This misfortune might turn out a blessing, and I might fall into a whole nest of good fortune.”
Emperor Donghua shook his head. “That habit of yours really is troublesome.” He lowered his voice. “There’s a fresh rumor in Heaven: that you lured Immortal Emperor Danzhu to the island so he would bathe in the spring every day until he turned into a phoenix chick…”
Bihua Lingjun lifted his eyelids. “Donghua, which of us is older, His Imperial Majesty or me?”
“His Imperial Majesty, naturally,” Donghua replied.
Bihua Lingjun answered lazily, “If that spring truly could make immortals young again, and I bathed in it every day with His Majesty, I’d probably have turned into a wisp of smoke long before His Majesty came anywhere near becoming a phoenix chick.”
Emperor Donghua looked astonished. Bihua smiled again and patted his shoulder. “Take care. Let us part here.” In the next instant he descended to the mortal world.
Carrying a drowsy tiger cub, Bihua Lingjun returned to the little earth-god temple.
Invisible in the empty air, Danzhu followed behind him.
After giving instructions to Envoy Heyun, Danzhu had walked out of Danxiao Palace, strolled beyond the Southern Heavenly Gate, and descended directly to the mortal world. Bihua was still carrying the tiger cub toward the earth-god temple, and Danzhu followed from afar, keeping his form concealed.
Bihua Lingjun no longer went by the title Bihua Lingjun. He had resumed his original name. In Heaven’s registers he was recorded as Earth God Shen Yan.
The mountain under his care was thoroughly desolate. More than ten li from its foot lay only a very small village.
As a result, the earth-god temple of Shen Yan had not been repaired for many years. It was dilapidated, neglected, and without worshipers, a cold and lonely place.
Shen Yan stepped into the temple with the tiger cub in his arms, and a white figure immediately rose from the corner. “Lingjun, you’re back.”
Danzhu followed him inside and saw Shen Yan sit in a battered chair. The silver wolf gently took the tiger cub by the scruff of its neck and carried it from Shen Yan’s arms to a soft cushion in the corner.
Shen Yan said, “Geyue, once the snow stops, help me find out which den this tiger cub came from.”