Fu Jing watched Duke Lin Ye, otherwise known as Fairy Ye, sobbing his heart out and couldn’t help feeling compassionate.

“So you are the fairy she worried about all those years.”

Ye was too busy sobbing to be coherent and simply nodded his head instead.

“Well, that explains the green…” Fu Jing commented and then paused, a perplexed expression on his face, “...I thought… her fairies were always small… she described Ye as palm-sized.”

De Ming Yu was patting Duke Lin Ye somewhat briskly on the back in an attempt to comfort him. He really hadn’t expected his Uncle to burst into tears so openly and was himself a bit befuddled. Feeling responsible and knowing his Uncle couldn’t hold a proper conversation, he decided to keep the conversation going.

“Your brother-in-law changed his appearance.” De Ming Yu explained, “But Ye himself requested it.”

Fu Jing had never heard of a fairy wanting to change their appearance. Rather than saying they were proud or content with how they looked, it’d be more accurate to say they just didn’t care. As long as their Empress loved and cherished them, how they looked didn’t matter at all.

Thinking this far, Fu Jing realized that Ye had been left on these mountains alone, with hostile “relatives” for a very long time. There was no Empress to love and cherish him. It wouldn’t be at all surprising if he was unhappy, and not just with his appearance.

De Ming Yu had pulled a handkerchief from his sleeve and given it to Ye. The fairy didn’t bother with politeness and blew his nose noisily into it.

“So you really knew her.” De Ming Yu murmured, lips upturned slightly only to immediately form a straight line. He sat very straight in his chair and bowed to Fu Jing while seated. “Forgive me, Uncle, but some form of verification was needed. Uncle Ye was the easiest person to find that could verify if you truly knew Auntie.”

“A-Auntie--?!”

De Ming Yu, who had been suppressing his eye color from the beginning, allowed them to glow. They were a bright blue and out of them poured an aura that was distinctly inhuman and incredibly powerful. Because he wasn’t holding back, it had a suppressing force that would have brought even powerful people to their knees.

“It’s a late introduction, but I’m Huang De Ming Yu, Fifth Prince of Lanhua, son of the Fairy Emperor Huang Jin, brother of your wife, and Queen Consort Bao Mei Hua. And also... your nephew.”

Fu Jing stiffened in surprise. So he’d been sent by the Emperor himself, no wonder he’d laughed at Fu Jing’s guess earlier.

He then carefully examined the young man in front of him. Fu Jing was no low level cultivator. An aura like this wasn’t an easy thing to hide from him.

“You and your brothers hid yourselves well.”

De Ming Yu gave a laughing smile, his glowing eyes fading to an almost black and his aura dissipating like smoke on a windy day. Once again he was a friendly but odd young man with a bird on his head.

“All us princes were taught by an expert to hide our auras for our own safety. There are powerful people in the world who won’t be fooled simply by changing one’s appearance. It’s better not to make ourselves easy targets for them.”

Fu Jing nodded slowly and then asked, “So that brother is human now… with sons… does that mean… are you…”

He hesitated, wondering how to phrase the question without being rude. His own son had always been prickly about his origins.

“My Mother is fully human.” De Ming Yu explained in a lazy manner, “And to a degree, my Old Man is human as you guessed.” He pointed at his eyes. “His body was originally a member of the Blue Flower Villagers... a story I’m willing to tell you some other time. As to us Princes, we are a mix. Physically we tend to take strongly after the human side. As to our spirits, they are generally like the Old Man rather than Mother.” He looked thoughtful. “Perhaps in the way that matters most, we are the least human.”

Fu Jing had a lot of questions to ask, but for some reason the least pressing one forced its way to the top, “Is it true there are ten of you?”

“Ten of us? You mean ten princes?” De Ming Yu hadn’t expected to get asked that. “Yes, I have nine brothers.” He then paused and clarified, “All my siblings are full-blood, no half-siblings*.”

[*Author’s Note: In ancient China, and also in this world, wealthy powerful men often had a main wife, side/equal wife, concubines, and/or “bed maids” (the last being the most pitiful position). Ming Yu is politely indicating that Jin doesn’t have a harem or sleep around, there is only a main wife.]

“And she, your Mother, is alive?”

De Ming Yu cast him a look of mild shock and Ye glared watery daggers.

“Why would my Mother not be alive?”

Fu Jing realized he’d asked a bad question and had the grace to look embarrassed. “Ah, it’s just, childbirth is dangerous… after having so many children it would be...”

“...ah, that’s true. A fact easily forgotten in my family.” De Ming Yu’s brow wrinkled slightly, “There is no way she would be allowed to die. If you knew Auntie, you have some idea of the power involved, yes? Those loved by the Mountains won’t pass away so easily. Hn, in fact Mother is just as energetic now as she was in her twenties, and she’s considered old by regular people’s measure.”

Fu Jing stared down at his lap, his hands forming into clenched fists. What did he really know of his wife’s power? She was already a ghost of herself by the time he met her. Then she became human and her power was reduced even further. In the end, she sacrificed her own body to give birth to and raise a single son. She was a shadow of her real self from the very beginning, all because her brother threw a fit.

Yet her brother, who despised humans and threw her out, had turned over a new leaf? He had a human body, a healthy spouse, and ten sons… all the blessings his wife had deserved, somehow her bigoted, spoiled brother had acquired. Did the heavens have a sense of justice to allow such a thing? A choking bitterness rose in Fu Jing’s throat at the unfairness of it, making him temporarily unable to speak.

De Ming Yu watched his Uncle’s face darkened and coughed lightly at the awkward silence that ensued after his answer.

“If you don’t mind, what about you and Auntie? Do I, perhaps, have a female cousin somewhere in the world?”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Son.” Fu Jing snapped angrily. Then, seeing De Ming Yu’s raised eyebrow, forced himself to relax and unclench his hands. “We have a son. Only one.”

Ye’s tears had slowed though he was still struggling to regain his composure. At Fu Jing’s answer, he immediately choked out, “Son?! She had a son??? Why isn’t he here?!”

De Ming Yu, however, was shaking his head slightly. “Even the Yin Spirit didn’t have a baby girl. Mother will cry.”

“He wouldn’t come even if I asked him, that’s why he’s not here.” Fu Jing responded to Ye, his temper cooling somewhat at the thought of his stupidly stubborn son, and then asked De Ming Yu, “What do you mean by that?”

“Mother really wants a girl--”

“Not that, the Yin Spirit bit.”

“Oh, did you not know? The Old Man is the Yang Spirit of the Mountain and Auntie is the Yin Spirit. The Yin and Yang of the Mountains are not the usual kind found in humans and animals, but something like divine energy. As such, they quite easily overwhelm corporeal yin and yang energies. Though the body the Old Man dwells in should technically be able to produce daughters, the Mountain Yang blocks--no, more accurately dominates--so completely only males can be born. This is why Mother’s desire for a girl can only be viewed as an unrealistic dream. It won’t ever happen.”

“The only way for her to have a girl at this point is to make the Emperor wear a green hat.”

“Uncle,” De Ming Yu looked at Ye as if he’d lost his mind, “since when did you start having such suicidal thoughts?”

Ye blew his nose and squinted his eyes maliciously. Getting news of his precious Empress had inversely reminded him of his many grievances against the Emperor, putting him in a foul mood.

“It’s a joke as long as there’s no possibility of it happening. Who would kill a man for a joke?”

“Tsk, not just the Old Man, brothers and even Mother might beat you to death if they heard that kind of nonsense.”

Ye only muttered to himself, knowing he’d done wrong by Mei but unwilling to apologize for it since it’d been a jab at the Emperor.

Fu Jing listened to this conversation and couldn’t help but ask, “Is the Fairy Emperor really alright being called an old man and a Yang Spirit?”

Even Lan Jing, his own headstrong son, never called Fu Jing an old man. That would be too disrespectful. Yet the Fairy Emperor’s own sons, those he’d met so far at least, didn’t seem to mind it.

De Ming Yu eyes twinkled slightly. “Old Man is just an affectionate term us sons use for him. No one else would dare call him that, which is what makes it special.” He took a sip of his tea. “As to the other question, I’m told, as it happened before my time, that he did not much like being referred to as such. But Mother insisted and so eventually he just gave up arguing about it. He often does that with Mother. Did Auntie not like being called a Yin Spirit by any chance?”

“She never referred to herself as such, only calling herself a Mountain Spirit.” Fu Jing rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I did once mention it as a theory, that she could technically be something like pure yin. She got very testy with me and said that associating herself with the concept of yin was not a good thing. Too many men of the world would associate her with death, deception, weakness, and all manner of negative things.”

Ye nodded his head. “That’s right, she didn’t like a lot of the human philosophy and religions, said it poisoned men’s minds and rationalized their evil.”

Fu Jing’s eyebrows rose, indeed the Fairy Ye knew his wife’s temperament well. Even as an Empress, she only performed the minimum amount of official religious ceremonies required. It wasn’t that she was hostile towards the heavens so much as she disliked the human methods of worshipping the heavens. Some of the few arguments he got into with her revolved around her apathy towards state worship.

“Is that so?” De Ming Yu looked thoughtful. “And yet Aunt Shuya was so insistent on it, even dragging Mother to her side and pitting her against the Old Man...”

“Heh, that Aunt of yours does things her own way. Who knows how many years of absorbing outside information it took before she came to her conclusions? And anyway, how she views the world is different from your paternal Aunt. Always keep that in mind, your paternal Aunt gave all her creations the privilege and ability to think differently from her. Unlike someone else,” Ye snorted arrogantly, though the effect was lost somewhat because his nose was still stuffy, “She never begrudged people for thinking differently than her.”

“Ah yes, I do recall that being mentioned.” De Ming Yu rubbed his chin. “But there is definitely some validity to Aunt Shuya’s theory. Putting that aside, their natures would indicate one should produce boys and the other girls. So how did the one produce a boy? That’s rather puzzling, no?”

Ye tilted his head. “Huh… I’ve no idea…? Without the source here, Shuya really is the next most qualified to answer that question, even if the source and her had some disagreements on the wording.”

Fu Jing was silent. He didn’t know for sure either but… wasn’t it likely because she was already very weak? After resurrecting Xuilan’s body, she’d said as much, that much of her power had been used in becoming mortal. It could simply be her yin, even if it was divine, just wasn’t strong enough to overpower his mortal yang. But then, carrying a baby boy to term, when her yin was so weak--

At that point, a horrible thought occurred to him. Was it possible that the real reason she’d wasted away to almost nothing wasn’t from getting pregnant, but getting pregnant with a son? If it had been a girl instead, would his wife be with him to this day? He knew so little about the process of keeping a human fairy mix alive, and the unknown made his fears seem even more plausible.

A feeling of suffocation rose up and he found he couldn’t breathe.

“--ncle? Uncle Fu Jing?” De Ming Yu had actually stood up and walked over, lightly touch his arm and frowning slightly. Fu Jing felt a strange warmth in the younger man’s touch but was too stuck in his head to realize there was anything unusual in it.

“Are you alright?”

Fu Jing was dazed for a moment and looked at his newly met nephew as if he didn’t know him. The bird on top of De Ming Yu’s head, which had been silent up until now, looked down at him and chirped in a distinctly concerned manner. Though it was a small thing, the sight was just ridiculous enough that it pulled Fu Jing out of his grief-induced stupor.

He suddenly chuckled. Shaking his head he motioned for the younger man to sit back down.

“My apologies, in my old age sometimes I get lost in the past.”

De Ming Yu’s eyebrow rose at the obvious rebuff. Rather than push, he asked curiously, “How old are you exactly?”

“The last birthday I celebrated was my 135th.” He looked a bit embarrassed as he explained, “I am older than that, but I’m afraid I lost track of the years while traveling.”

“Eh,” Ye gave him a long pondering stare. “You don’t look that old. Maybe not even... fifty.”

“Do I really look fifty years old?” Fu Jing asked, startled. He’d always looked like a man in his prime. To suddenly be told he looked like a grandpa… and right after cleaning himself up… he never counted himself vain but that hurt...

De Ming Yu cleared his throat, suppressing his laughter. “You don’t look much older than thirty. It’s just that Uncle Ye has problems judging human ages.”

Fu Jing couldn’t help feeling relieved.

Ye, on the other hand, smacked the table without any warning causing both men to jump. He had the look of someone realizing he’d been wasting time.

“What are we even talking about? Who cares about your age or whatever?!” Ye glared at De Ming Yu, “What are you distracting us from the main point for!?”

De Ming Yu could only look at his Uncle helplessly. Wasn’t he making conversation to give Uncle Ye time to calm down? Such an ungrateful fairy uncle!

Ye turned to Fu Jing, “Ming Yu said you had a book detailing her life after she left. We’re all family here, aren’t we?! And I’m more family than either of you, she made me with her own hands! Can either of you make that claim!? So take it out and let me read it!”

“And if I may read it as well.” De Ming Yu politely requested. As a second-generation, he wasn’t emotionally invested in his Auntie’s life and could, therefore, be objective about the information.

Fu Jing nodded slowly and pulled out the old book, both hands tightly gripping it. It’s not that he didn’t want to let them read it at this point, but this was the original copy. It had been personally written by her. Having it on him made him feel closer to her somehow, so handing it over was somewhat difficult.

Ye was not the slightest bit accommodating to his emotional distress and eagerly reached out and grabbed the book. Fu Jing instinctively resisted, causing Ye to glare at him in consternation.

“You trying to start a fight with me?” Ye asked pointedly.

Fu Jing realized he wasn’t letting go. He forced his fingers open, releasing his grip, but his eyes never left the little book. It was as if he was afraid if he removed his gaze from it, it might disappear.

Ye didn’t even cast him a triumph look at finally getting the book. He didn’t say anything at all, only promptly opening the little book, immediately reading it. De Ming Yu was forced to look over his shoulder when it became clear his Fairy Uncle wasn’t sharing.