Chapter 37

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He, as the eldest son of the Emperor of Kongsang, had the blood of the Royal lineage passed down from the ancient Xingzun Emperor, and even though he was far from the court and alone in the Valley of the Gods, he could not pretend that he saw nothing, like everyone else, and just enjoy the current glory of the world, ignoring the enormous storm that was approaching from the sky.

He spent several years chasing that track of the evil return, from Jiuyi to the Western Wasteland, and from Susa Haru back to Yecheng – and now, finally, he is approaching that ethereal illusion step by step.

“If nothing doesn’t work, let’s kill all the sharks in Yecheng.” After a long time, a low and cold sentence escaped from the corner of his mouth, freezing into the ice of the early spring breeze… “In the future, between Kongsang and the Sea Kingdom, only one can survive.”

While sending the housekeeper to collect the Danshu deed for the new slave, Zhu Yan was lying bored on the soft sofa, teasing the small child across the room with a piece of candied fruit.

“Sumo, come here! Here’s some candy for you!”

She was holding a plate of candied sugar cubes, but the child on the sofa didn’t even bothered to look at her, he just leaned back in the comfortable armchair and looked up at the sky outside the window with an expression that didn’t match his age; his eyes were gloomy, his eyebrows furrowed, and a lifeless expression appeared on his small face.

“What’s wrong?” Zhu Yan was not angry, “You are not a bird, still want to fly out?”

The child did not speak nor looked at her, but simply stared at the sky.

“Hey, don’t put on that frowny face, will you? It’s not that I’m holding you captive and not allowing you to go.”

She sighed, stroked the child’s head, and said gently, “You are too young, and your health is really bad, if I let you leave now, I’m afraid you’ll die fast – I have to find a good doctor to take care of all your illnesses before I can safely release you, otherwise how can I live up to your mother’s dying wish?”

The child was still staring blankly at the sky, ignoring her.

“Hey, you little brat! Are you listening to me?” Zhu Yan got suddenly annoyed and “patted” his head with her finger, “If you keep doing this, you should be careful, one day I will really make an iron ring around your neck!”

The child’s head was tilted a little by the pat, and he suddenly stretched out his finger to the sky and said one word in a clear voice: “Bird.”

Zhu Yan froze for a moment and followed the child’s arm to have a look out. The Red King’s palace towered over the deep courtyard, leaving only a glimpse of the clear blue sky. In the evening sun at dusk, a huge white bird could be vaguely seen hovering high in the sky, with four crimson eyes shining like gems in the setting sun, staring intently at the earth below.

“Four… four-eyed bird?!” Her whole body shook as she gasped out loud, “Oh, my goodness!”

Zhu Yan was stunned and jumped up, slammed the window with the back of her hand, and pulled the curtain over with a “brush”, then thinking that this was not enough, she ran fast to close the door and pulled over a heavy curtain, then quickly drew a complex charm on it.

Sumo remained in the chair, watching her jumping up and down in the room, circling around, his eyes finally showed a trace of curiosity, and could not help but ask: “You… are afraid of that bird?”

Hearing his thin voice, Zhu Yan couldn’t help but freeze – for the first time in a long time, this little brat took the initiative to ask her a question.

“It’s not that I’m afraid of that bird…” She drew a spell and the whole room suddenly lit up for a moment, Zhu Yan then sighed in relief, “That four-eyed bird is my Master’s Imperial spirit guardian… Since it’s here, my Master must be nearby too! We can’t be caught by him!”

“You’re afraid of your Master?” The child looked at her, puzzled, “You’ve done something bad?”

“Well…” Zhu Yan was a little embarrassed and said sarcastically, “Sort of.”

“Oh, so…” The child looked at her, a sneer suddenly appearing in his eyes, as he added, “Your Master must be very powerful.”

Zhu Yan gave the child a blank look, “He certainly is.”

After a pause, she sighed and said: “He is very powerful… When I see him, my scalp goes numb and my legs go weak, and I can’t even speak smoothly – if I don’t answer correctly, I might risk to get beaten! Hey, last time I was beaten up without any reason, and my butt still hurts!”

“…” The child looked at her and couldn’t help but show a tiny smirk, “A spanking?”

“Hey, everyone has to get beaten up sometimes, right?” Zhu Yan grunted, feeling humiliated, suddenly shaking up again, “Little brat, don’t laugh at me! Otherwise, I’ll beat you up!”

The child sitting in the armchair turned his head away, but the corners of his mouth curved slightly upward.

Zhu Yan closed all the doors and windows, lit all the lamps and candles in the room, but found that there was still some time before the dinner; she was bored, so she went to fetch a box from the cupboard – it was an exquisite lacquer carved Eight Treasures box, filled with various colors of candy, an expensive product from the market of Yecheng, which obviously this child of peasant origins had never seen before.

She picked up a honey marzipan wrapped in thin red paper and handed the box to the child again, asking nicely, “Here, want one?”

The child pondered for a moment and finally reached out his tiny fingers and picked up a candied fruit from inside.

“Kang Kang fruit from Shenmu County? So, this is what you like?” She smiled as she watched the child squeeze up the candy, but became suddenly worried, “Will this be a bit too sweet for you? Do you sharks get tooth decay too?”

“…” The child looked at her, peeled off the outside paper, took a bite of the candied fruit and tasted it, showing off a mouth full of teeth as tiny and white as a few shells under the moonlight neatly arranged on the beach.

However, after eating the candied fruit in one bite, the child just stared at the candy paper in his hand – a thin sheet of silver paper, beautifully printed with twinkling stars and water ripples. It was a Snow Light paper made in Beiyue County. The child smoothed out every crease on the sugar paper with his small hands and took it delicately into his hands.

“Oh, so you like this candy paper, huh?” Zhu Yan looked in front of the child, stretched out her hand and picked out all the Kang Kang candies in the sweets box, a total of seven or eight. She picked them off one by one, poured them into her mouth and ate them quickly, then shoved a whole handful of candy papers to Sumo, puffing out her cheeks and muttering, “Here… it’s all yours!”

“…” The child looked at her in astonishment and suddenly laughed.

“What are you laughing at?” She got a little upset and bulged out her cheeks, saying wickedly, “I’m going to hit you, eh!”

“How can you eat so much, are you a pig?” She heard the kid say, “It’ll decay your teeth…”

The child looked across the candy box, tilted his head to watch her wretched appearance, and suddenly laughed. That smile was so bright and radiant, like countless stars in the dark night instantly sparkling; looking at him, one could forget everything for a while. Zhu Yan originally wanted to get angry, but after seeing such smile on his face she instantly calmed down, and just struggled to swallow the mouth full of sugar, which indeed felt too sweet and greasy, so she rushed over to pour a cup of tea and drank it in one gulp.

However, looking back, she saw Sumo flattening out the candy sheets one by one, leaning back in his chair, holding them up against the draped lamp frame and pasting them in front of his eyes.

“What are you doing?” She approached with a bit of curiosity.

“Watching at the sea.” Sumo whispered, placing the thin sugar paper over his eyes.

The brilliant lights in the room penetrated through that thin layer of paper into the child’s azure pupils – Sumo was looking so intently that he seemed to have instantly gone to another magical world.

“Watching the sea?” Zhu Yan got curious and couldn’t help but also took a piece of candy paper and placed it on her eyes following suit.

“Did you see it?” Sumo asked from the side.

“I see it, I see it!” Zhu Yan opened her eyes and screamed in surprise for an instant, “For real, hey… it’s almost exactly the same as the sea! So amazing!”

The light penetrated through the thin silver foil, haloing a patch of it and creating a dreamy wave of light in front of their eyes, like an infinite sea – and on the sea, countless stars were shining in the distance.

“Ah-Niang taught me that.” The child placed the candy paper over his eyes and murmured into the light, “I asked her once what the sea looked like and she peeled a piece of candy and gave it to me, saying that I could see the sea that way.”

Zhu Yan was suddenly moved, unable to speak for a moment. In her life, she thought, Yu Ji was just as helpless as any other shark slave, with a child, bouncing from master to master. Her last dozen years were spent in the Western Wasteland, ending in tragedy – how could a shark in the desert not yearn for the sea?

And this child, what kind of lonely and isolated childhood did he have?

“What about your father?” She couldn’t help but sigh, “He doesn’t care about you?”

Sumo was silent for a long time, and just when she thought the boy would not answer again, he opened his mouth and said in a thin voice, “I have no father.”

“Huh?” Zhu Yan was stunned.

The child, whose eyes were covered with candy paper so that she could not look at them, whispered, “My mother said that she gave birth to me… when she swallowed a bright pearl that floated out from the bottom of the sea at the full moon…”

“How is that possible? She lied to you, didn’t she?” Zhu Yan couldn’t help to laugh, but as soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them – Yu Ji’s face was so beautiful that she had been tossed around from one master to another throughout her life, so maybe she didn’t even know which man she had this child with? Maybe she didn’t even know whose man the child originated from, so she made up a story to deceive the child?

“Nonsense, Ah-Niang wouldn’t lie to me!” Sumo’s voice grew sharp, tinged with hostility, “You… forget it if you don’t want to believe!”

“I believe, I believe.” She took a deep breath and rushed to reassure the child beside her, racking her brains to try to make up for the lie, “I heard from my Master that in the ancient times of the Middle Kingdom there were women who swallowed a Yanyan bird’s egg and became pregnant, and there were even women who gave birth to a child after stepping over the footprints of a giant on the ground – so it is probably true that your mother swallowed a pearl from the sea and gave birth to you.”

She explained hurriedly and half-heartedly that she was convinced of this strange theory, only to have Sumo’s clenched little fists slowly loosen up and whisper, “Of course Ah-Niang didn’t lie to me.”

“So, you have no father and no home to return to?” She gazed at the glimmering sea of light in front of her and sighed, lifting her hand to take the boy in her arms, “Come.”

“Hmm.” The child squirmed and struggled a little.

“The name Sumo, was the Moon God in the ancient Tianzhu legend… it is said that he was extremely beautiful and had married more than two dozen wives, which was extremely auspicious.” Zhu Yan remembered that the Master had taught her the mythological texts of the various parts of the world, and smiled, “Your mother gave you this name, must have loved you very much.”

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