Chapter 31
Thirty-One
Rain
I meet Big Wang and Mr Lee by the Pavilion of Reflection.
Mr Lee looks like his old self. A little tired, but his skin is plumped and no longer crumpled like a paper bag.
He smiles at my approach. Big Wang holds the staff I made, the chain swinging idly.
His expression, though, could pulverise wood.
For a moment, I fear I’m in trouble again.
But then he looks up and his expression clears.
‘How?’ I gesture to Mr Lee.
‘A little adjustment by Lord Black. He’s as good as new.’ Big Wang pauses. ‘Maybe even a little better than new.’
I raise my eyebrows, but Big Wang only chuckles.
‘Ready to go home?’ he asks. ‘Lord Black is taking care of a few things with the Jade Emperor. He’ll be here shortly to place the dragon pearl and you can portal back to yin Shanghai.’
I remember the nausea and quickly shake my head. ‘If it’s all the same, I’d rather take the slow option in the sampan.’
Big Wang inclines his head and pulls out a joss stick from his silwar pocket.
He lights it, propping it on the pavilion floor to summon Fisherman Lo.
Then he walks to the far edge of the pavilion and sits with his back to us, dangling his feet in the lake.
After a moment I hear the sizzle of a match, and the stink of Big Wang’s favourite cigar.
He puffs quietly, gazing out at the forest, giving Mr Lee and me a modicum of privacy.
A warm fondness fills me for Big Wang. He really has been looking out for me all this time, and I never knew it.
I turn to Mr Lee who is watching me with his usual dark gentle gaze. My heart seizes again, remembering him convulsing, dying before my eyes.
‘I’m so glad you’re okay,’ I say, my voice hitching. ‘It’s all my fault. I should never have run off—’
He wipes a tear from my cheek. ‘You saved my life. It’s me who should be sorry.
I was angry with you for lying, but I was also afraid.
Afraid that forming an attachment would make both our lives harder.
But when you disappeared through that door, the thought that I might never see you again – I almost lost my mind.
I will never say such foolish things again. ’
I grasp his hands, squeeze to let him know I feel the same. I stare into his warm, brown eyes, thanking the Cosmos for putting me in the path of such a kind, decent soul.
‘How did you come to be here?’ I ask. ‘What happened after I left? I thought you – I thought I’d lost you.’
‘You disappeared through the door, and not a moment later Gigi came flying into the room. She said she had a bad feeling.’ Mr Lee laughs, shaking his head.
‘She called Willie, told him what happened. At Big Wang’s behest, she and Ah Lang went to Mount Kunlun to speak to her father, in case we needed back-up.
I summoned Fisherman Lo to bring me straight here. ’
A sudden cloud of fog appears in the middle of the lake and through it comes a familiar sampan.
Mr Lee chuckles. ‘Speak of the demon.’
Big Want gets up and joins us to greet Fisherman Lo. Once docked, I hop aboard, looking forward to getting home, having some xiao long bao, and not having any excitement at all for a few days at least.
Fisherman Lo watches me, taking in my purple robe and my bare feet. His gaze stays on my feet for a moment, then snaps to my face. ‘You are in my sampan.’
‘Yes,’ I say.
He shakes his head, arm resting on his knee. ‘You are in my sampan, Lady Jing.’
Am I missing something? I realise Mr Lee and Big Wang are both staring at me. ‘Yes. Don’t I have to be in it to get back?’
Mr Lee ventures a quiet, ‘You are sure you’re well?’ And darts his gaze to Big Wang and back.
Fisherman Lo puts it more bluntly. ‘You are not screaming, or crying, or fainting, Lady Jing.’
I laugh. ‘Oh, that. Yes, I think I’m cured of my fear of water.’
Fisherman Lo grunts and positions himself next to his yuloh.
‘I’m glad to hear it, Little Jing,’ Big Wang says. ‘Maybe I can finally let the Ministry of Thunder send rain to yin Shanghai again. They’ve been badgering me for years. The paperwork is such a nightmare.’ Big Wang taps the ash from his cigar into the lake.
‘Thank you for stopping the rain,’ I say shyly. ‘I didn’t know you knew.’
‘Mmmgh,’ Big Wang says. ‘You seemed so determined to manage your fear on your own, I didn’t want to undermine your efforts.’
All those years. My eyes swim with unspoken gratitude. He waves away the words I don’t know how to say.
‘May sherrr,’ he says. ‘You catch up with Mr Lee. I’m sure he wants to hear all about Lord Black and your pearl.’
‘You knew about that too?’
Big Wang chuckles.
‘Are you not coming with us?’ I say.
Big Wang shakes his head. ‘I have some business with Lord Black. I’ll see you back home for your midnight snack.’ With that, he turns and strolls back towards the palace.
Mr Lee joins me under the canopy. He stretches in an awkward, dramatic fashion and then drapes his arm over the back of the sampan’s bench.
‘All that to put your arm around me?’ I ask.
Mr Lee’s cheeks pink. I laugh and snuggle into him. Fisherman Lo gives us his usual long-suffering look. He pulls on the yuloh and sculls through the water. The sampan rocks from side to side as we cross through the veil back to yin Shanghai.
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