Mei Hua cried on her husband’s chest for a long time.

Jin could tell her spirit was in a state of relief, frustration, and sorrow. She sobbed so hard he could feel her tears soaking through his hanfu robe.

“I missed you so much!” She bawled out, hands clasping onto his back tightly, “How could you leave me alone for so long? Didn’t you say you’d be with me forever? Liar!”

Jin wrapped his arms around his wife and hugged her gently.

“Mountain Flower, I’m sorry I slept so long and left you alone, I’m sorry….”

“Don’t you dare apologize!” One of her hands let go for his hanfu and smacked him repeatedly. “I know how important it is for you to rest, I know! I just need to vent! Let me vent!!!”

“En, en. I won’t apologize. I was wrong.”

“You weren’t wrong!”

He gave a small smile at her unreasonableness. It’s not that he took joy in seeing her this upset or contrary, but this kind of anger was also proof she cared.

“En, en,” He agreed light heartedly, “I wasn’t wrong, you're just right.”

Mei Hua gave a hug sniffle and suddenly chuckled. She pushed herself away from his chest, curling herself into his lap, her head resting just under Jin’s chin.

“I missed you.” She said again, this time more calmly.

“En.”

They didn’t speak after that, but simply enjoyed being near each other.

After a while, Mei Hua spoke, “Jin?”

“Hm?”

“Pei Pei… she… she died. Wu Tengfei too.” She shuddered pressing herself into Jin, as if by doing so she could melt into him and ease the pain somehow. “I could bear under anything else... but their deaths, without you… it hurt, it hurt so much...”

Jin stroked her hair, resting his chin on her head. He felt a vague kind of loss at hearing of the Wu couple’s death. It was a little surprising to him to realize he was sad that they were gone, and not simply sad because his wife was sad. It turned out that somewhere over the years he’d come to like them a bit more than the average human.

But his sense of loss paled in comparison to what Mei Hua felt. She was far more attached.

He thought about what to say.

“They… were good people... good friends.” He paused, “I will remember them, always.”

To be remembered by Jin was to never be forgotten. Even if the world turned to ash and all humans vanished, as long as the mountains remained so would Jin. And thus, the memory of a person would live on infinitely through him.

Mei Hua gave a shaky breath and whispered, “Thank you.”

He wanted to do something else to honor his wife’s friend. He stretched out his hand and thought carefully of Pei Zhi the last time he’d seen her: laughing, with her head tilted slightly. A milky jade statue formed on his hand, exactly matching the image in his mind.

Mei Hua’s eyes widened in surprise as he handed it to her.

“Oh!” She immediately took the statue, staring at it in amazed astonishment. “It looks exactly like her!”

“En.”

“When did you learn to do this?”

Jin scratched the side of his cheek in thought, “Just now.”

“Just now?!”

“I make you jewelry all the time. This is like that.”

“Is it really…?”

“En.”

When making her jewelry, he would simply think of the design, pick out the materials, and order things to arrange themselves. Statues were, technically, easier than jewelry because they were one material instead of several materials combined.

Making something other than jewelry for his wife had never occurred to him until this moment. Seeing that his wife liked these kinds of statues, he’d definitely make more in the future—

Mei Hua held out his new creation appreciatively and then frowned. “Why did you make her old?”

“..ah?”

“At least make her young looking!”

His lips twitched.

Apparently the future was now.

A moment later another statue was formed, this time of Pei Zhi during their first meeting.

Mei Hua separated from Jin, holding the two statues in each hand, propped up on her knees to closely examine. She hummed happily for several seconds as she admired the craftsmanship. She then grabbed both statues, and hugged them to her chest.

“Thank you Jin. These are wonderful.” She smiled brilliantly while tears fell down her face.

This lasted only a few seconds before she wiped her tears away roughly with her arm and laughed. “It’s not right for Pei Zhi to be alone. Can you make a young and old Wu Tengfei too?”

He squinted at her. Hadn’t she just hugged the Pei Zhi statue? Would she do the same for Wu Tengfei?

When he didn’t immediately respond she looked up at him and rolled her eyes, “You can’t possibly be jealous of Wu Tengfei after all these years!”

“Of course not!” He hastily denied, unwilling to be caught holding the vinegar jar. Clearing his throat, he produced two statues of Wu Tengfei.

Mei Hua stared at them and then raised her eyebrows.

They were just as detailed as Pei Zhi, but instead of jade Wu Tengfei was made of some kind of speckled black and grey stone. What’s more, the young version of Wu Tengfei was when they first met. That is, when he was bowing in front of the forest pleading for help. The older one was sleeping in a chair ungracefully.

“They are accurate.”

Though Jin sounded confident, he didn’t look her in the eyes. All he could think was: she definitely wouldn’t hug them if they looked like this, right?

Mei Hua burst out laughing and, seeing her genuinely happy, Jin also chuckled.

Picking up the four statues, she walked over to a disheveled ornament shelf. The wind that had blasted from Jin had thrown the entire room into chaos. She didn’t have to move anything thanks to that and simply placed them neatly where she liked.

Jin furrowed his brow in displeasure. Everything in their room had been set up as a reminder of “them”. Though he’d been the one to make them, he felt these statues were intruding somehow and it bothered him.

Mei Hua turned to him and, apparently guessing what the expression he was showing meant, sighed in good humored exasperation.

“I’ll move them later, I’m just storing them temporarily.”

His face cleared at her words, causing her to smile again. It had been a long time since they’d had a silly conversation like this. Whether it was his gentleness, his generosity, or his unreasonable jealousy, she’d missed it all.

The ache of his absence still lingered. Unwilling to burst into tears again, she cleared her throat and changed the topic:

“I think I’ve hogged you all to myself enough, shall we go see our sons?” She nodded towards the door, which had been forcefully opened from Jin’s awakening.

Though the door was open, no one dared come in. This was done out of consideration for both of them, mainly to avoid annoying him right after waking up, and not because the rest of the family hadn’t missed him too.

Jin glanced at the door and nodded.

“En.”

***

Jin took exactly two steps before he was accosted by his sons. He wasn’t surprised, it wasn't as though they’d been hiding— not that they could actually hide from him, even if they wanted. They’d been standing a distance from the damaged door, clearly waiting in various stages of impatience.

The De Twins, by far the most enthusiastic and least restrained, got to him first. If he’d been a weaker man, he’d have been bowled over from the impact. They were shortly followed by his 9th and 10th son, De Zhou and De Qiang respectively. They weren’t as aggressive, for which he was thankful. De Tongran, the 8th son, followed right after. In a matter of seconds he had 5 full grown men hanging on him like monkeys.

This was the first time he could have them close and not feel agitated. Where the perpetual irritation used to be, a strong sense of fatherly affection took its place.

Jin marvelled at the feeling.

‘Is this what fatherhood is supposed to be like?’ He thought in bemusement.

“Old Man, Old Man!” De Tongran, the chattiest out of all the De sons, immediately began talking excitedly, “Do you feel better now? Has your soul properly rested? You’ve been sleeping so many years, ah! If you have not rested, when will you be rested? You must feel better after all this time! All your sons also had a good rest, though the youngest didn’t even sleep for a year. Apparently the younger we are, the less we needed soul rest. I guess it’s because we just aren’t as weary for having lived less. It’s good to be young!”

Jin hadn’t known this and opened his mouth to reply—

“You have missed so much, ah! Did you know 6th and 7th are married now? They even have a son each! Their wives weren’t even kidnapped, they came here willingly, ah! Why do all the women go for the muscle heads in the family first? Is there something wrong with their eyes— Arg! 6th why did you hit me!?”

“There’s nothing wrong with my wife’s eyes!”

De Taihua had, indeed, smacked De Tongran across the back of the head. How he managed to do this in the pile of men was a bit of a mystery, but it was an even greater mystery that De Tongran knew who’d hit him.

De Weishan, the younger twin, followed up his older twins smack with one of his own.

“My wife has beautiful eyes!”

De Tongran looked absolutely disgusted at their responses before turning to Jin with an expression of having suffered a deep grievance.

“Do you see what we’ve had to put up with? Just hint at speaking ill and they get ridiculously defensive! They were already impossible to live with be—mrgph?”

De Ming Yu, the 5th and oldest son of his generation, had walked up behind De Tongran and covered his mouth.

“You are going to talk his ear off!”

De Tongran made a noise of objection, which was ignored by De Ming Yu. Eyebrows raised slightly, the 5th son gave a faint smile and said to Jin, “It’s good to see you up and about, Old Man. I would have come sooner but I’ve been taking your place at the Court and that held me up.”

Jin ruffled the hair on all the head’s of his sons he could reach, saying in a joking manner, “So you’ve replaced me while I was resting?”

De Ming Yu’s amused expression immediately turned serious.

“Only temporarily. Imperial Father naturally deserves to take the crown now that he is well rested and able!”

Jin narrowed his eyes, the corner of his lip curling up slightly at this sudden politeness.

“Was it the decrees, court cases, or meetings that broke you?”

De Ming Yu sighed, looking bone weary.

“All of them! How can a man live with this kind of workload! I am lucky if I get a day off, much less two days in a row! Everyone else gets holidays but where are mine?! This is not living, ah! I have resorted to using Beasties as decoys just to let me sleep in!”

“That just means you’re letting those officials bully you. Perhaps a few more years on the throne to thicken your skin—”

De Ming Yu looked like he’d collapse on the spot over such a suggestion.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Old Man, how can you treat your own flesh and blood this way?!”

Not feeling guilty at all, Jin laughed heartily at him.

Jin’s style of ruling was overbearing and sometimes tyrannical. This was not necessarily because he enjoyed lording over people. His natural state was the type who simply demanded deference from those underneath and then let other people fight out the details. But with the rise of actual governance and culture in Lanhua, thanks to his wife, he couldn’t behave in such a carefree manner anymore.

Whatever else could be said about how he ruled, his method earned absolute respect and allowed him to set his own schedule. His sons, having spent their whole lives doing whatever they wanted, never had to deal with the demands of an entire nation. They were, in that sense, spoiled.

When he thought that far, it suddenly occurred to him, he’d been too soft on them. Unexpected things happened, what if he needed a replacement again? It wasn’t fair to force only one son to bear the burden, he should have them all thoroughly educated….

While he was thinking this, another son came over.

“Aya, you little brothers have had your time, share the Old Man!” This was Lu Shao, the 4th son. He’d gotten impatient and was starting to pull his brothers off, like an orange peel, and tossing them aside. They protested as they were tossed off, but didn’t seriously fight him.

Lu Shao, the most artistic out of all Jin’s sons, was still dressing outrageously. Currently he was wearing a long hanfu that was asymmetrical from top to bottom, with one side being black and the other white. Rather than having patterns of nature, there were simple shapes of contrasting colors. As if this design was not strange enough, he’d also braided his hair in such a way that it’s length was uneven.

Whenever Jin looked at this son, he felt a slight headache. How was it possible for someone to be so obsessed with appearance and still come out looking ugly? He didn’t understand his 4th son's sense of style at all.

But there was no point in criticising him. The boy only changed what he wore if Mei Hua said something, but even that had lost effect over time. The stinky brat had been smart, he’d slowly numbed his Mother to his crazy fashion choices. Now, Mei Hua didn’t take a second glance at any weird thing her 4th son wore. That being the case, Jin kept his comments to himself.

Once Jin was freed of his younger sons, Lu Shao grinned widely and embraced him heartily. Unlike his younger siblings, he didn’t hang on to his father like a monkey on a tree branch, but let go after slapping his father on the back enthusiastically a few times.

Behind him was Shi Ji, the 3rd son who liked to draw arrays on everything, including his own skin. Jin noted that more tattoos had been added, or perhaps more accurately he’d improved the ones already there. He could tell because their glow was sharper and brighter.

Not that this glow was visible to the naked human eye. Jin was simply seeing this with his spirit sight, how his original form saw the world.

“Old Man, it’s good you are awake again…”Shi Ji took a step forward and hesitated.

His hands were raised awkwardly, as if he wasn’t sure whether to do a proper fist solute or give a hug as his younger brother had done.

This confusion was to be expected.

Jin’s older sons were not in the habit of being physically affectionate with each other much less with him. Lu Shao was the exception because his outgoing personality allowed him to adapt quickly.

Jin knew his sons’ familial cluminess was his fault.

His internal fire hadn’t been stable. Not only did it make him hostile to any being like him, such as his sons, their presence worsened his condition by adding to the heat he was already struggling to control. It took him many years before he was able to work around this problem, allowing him to show his love without sinking further into the heat-induced madness.

By the time he figured out a solution, his oldest four were already adults. Even if they’d wanted to change, it was difficult. Habit had already made them distant towards him. It didn’t help that the stronger they became, the more they could feel his instability in their own spirits.

Knowing his son was stuck, Jin took the initiative and made the decision for him: he stepped forward and hugged his 3rd son. Shi Ji noticeably stiffened at Jin’s embrace. After several seconds, the younger man gave Jin exactly two pats on the back.

Jin let go before his son stiffened right into stone. He wasn’t surprised to see, after letting go, that his son’s chronically pale face was beet red. It was hard to say whether it was from shyness or embarrassment or extreme happiness. Jin could tell that Shi Ji himself wasn’t sure what he was feeling.

This reaction was funny and a little sad because Jin knew why he was behaving that way: It was the first time Jin had hugged him.

Clearing his throat, Jin talked to help ease the young man’s jumbled emotions.

“I see you have refined your array tattoos.”

This was the correct thing to say. Nothing distracted Shi Ji quicker than talking about arrays.

“You noticed?” Shi Ji’s face brightened, or perhaps more accurately paled, “Of course you knew! What am I saying?” He chuckled, “Yes, I’ve refined several formulas. The one that produces fireballs is now 100% accurate and can melt everything within 8 chi* radius. The ice array now freezes for 6 days, no matter the weather conditions. The vine traps can now be set to trigger for one person or a group of people, between specific times and—”

*Author’s note: Chi = About 1 Foot

“Huang. Shi. Ji.” Mei Hua spat out behind Jin, glaring at her son. “Didn’t you promise me that you wouldn’t add more of these scribbles after I found out you’d added them to your butt?!”

For a moment everything went silent. Shi Ji had the look of a man who realized he’d done something foolish. Then several snickers were heard from various sons.

Shi Ji’s whole face went red again, “M-Mother, I didn’t, just- just refined—”

“Don’t you dare give excuses now! How is anyone going to marry you with arrays on every part of your body!?”

She walked over and grabbed Shi Ji by the ear, pinching hard. The days where she was too weak to do any real damage were long over. When she pinched a son, it hurt. He buckled sideways, face scrunched in pain.

Jin felt he’d missed some very interesting events in the family and couldn’t help asking Mei Hua, “How did you find out he’d added them to his butt?”

“Old Man!”

“What?” Jin was completely indifferent to his son’s suffering, “It’s a weird thing for your Mother to find out about isn’t it? It’s not like you bath with her like you did as a boy.”

Shi Ji’s face puckered at his Old Man’s heartlessness.

Mei Hua lifted her chin, son’s ear still in hand, a smirk on her face.

“I have spies.”

“Oh?”

She glanced in the direction of the sons who were now openly laughing at their 3rd brother’s misfortune.

“Ah…” Jin nodded in understanding. ‘Betrayed by one of his own brothers.’

It went without saying that all his sons tattled on each other at one point or other. There were instances where not tattling was used as leverage to get what they wanted from each other. Revenge tattling was also common.

The petty tattling never went into viciousness because Mei Hua would get upset and Jin had no tolerance for such behavior. Basically, all the sons knew their parents’ bottom line and were smart enough not to touch it.

As to how his sons knew what was etched onto the rear of Shi Ji, the palace bathhouse was still heavily used by everyone in the family. It was now properly split between men and women, with a private room for Jin and Mei Hua. All Jin’s sons used the men’s side of the bathhouse. Naturally they’d have stumbled upon this curious detail at some point simply from that.

Mei Hua let Shi Ji’s ear go. While he was rubbing it, she threatened, “I’m dropping it now because of your Father, but don’t think I’m letting this go…”

“...Mother…”

While everyone on one side was enjoying watching Shi Ji get scolded to death, Shan Hui had finally stepped forward.

“Old Man.” He gave a formal bow, hands cupped, towards Jin.

Yes, Shan Hui had been there the whole time. But unlike his younger siblings, he didn’t rush forward and had simply watched them act rambunctious.

Jin hesisted for a moment before he took a step forward, arms raising slightly as if to initiate an embrace. Shan Hui hastily took a few steps back, shaking his head in alarm.

“I don’t need it!”

Jin dropped his arms and cleared his throat, feeling embarrassed.

Two mighty tigers don’t like sharing a single territory. So it was with Jin and his oldest son. A high level of patience and tolerance was needed for the two tigers to live in harmony. They barely managed in the past.

The necessary virtues required to get along were severely hindered by Jin’s chronically raging inner-flame. It caused spiritual pain to all his sons. Shan Hui was the most sensitive to it, being the strongest and most “like him”, and naturally responded with the most aggression as a result.

If these two issues weren’t enough, Shan Hui had the personality of a durian fruit. A durian fruit was prickly on the outside, stank when ripe, but tasted surprisingly good. Shan Hui was arrogant and overbearing but underneath that was a good person.

That was what Mei Hua had insisted on anyway. As Jin was not in the position to be objective, being the type of person who found durian fruit stinky, he’d simply gone along with it.

Jin had thought that without the raging flame being a hindrance between them, they could interact in a... more friendly manner. Perhaps this durian fruit of a son would be less…. stinky. Alas, he’d expected too much!

In the past this would have irritated Jin, but now that his inner flame was calm, his temper had calmed substantially too. Other than the initial embarrassment, there wasn’t any anger.

He was honest enough to recognize he was not exactly the most lovable person when he was younger either. His son took after him. That meant Shan Hui wouldn’t learn to soften his edges with anything but experience and time.

Anyway, Shan Hui wasn’t looking at him like he was an annoyance at least. Jin felt that, in and of itself, was an improvement.

Jin put his hands behind his back and then asked as if nothing unusual had just happened,

“You have been well?”

Seeing that his father wasn’t going to continue trying to hug him, Shan Hui returned to his original spot.

“I have been well. While you’ve been gone, I’ve been patrolling the East.”

“Not Jianghu?”

“Sometimes, but mostly it’s Uncle Fu going over there now.”

“Ah.” Jin frowned, “Then he is not here at the moment?”

Shan Hui nodded.

Jin couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed. The remnants of his sister still echoed in him and, knowing how important this man was to his other half, it bothered him immensely he’d barely had a chance to talk with him.

Seeing his father looking unhappy, Shan Hui showed some consideration by explaining, “He is there looking for clues about Aunt.”

“In that place?” Jin furrowed his brow. “Is there anything but devils and demons there? What does he hope to find???”

“Before it was the land of cultivators, it was the resting place of the gods.” Shan Hui shrugged, “Or so the Bloodstone Seal claims. Whatever the truth, there is something unusual about those islands. Otherwise why would cultivators live there? Uncle Fu hopes to find some answers that way since you weren’t around to ask.”

Jin felt Shan Hui was accusing him of being negligent.

“It’s not like I didn’t want to have a proper conversation…”

“Why are you being defensive, ah?” The younger man rolled his eyes, “Anyway, I sent him a message saying you were awake. He’ll come back soon. Yan Li was sent a message too. Second will be here before Uncle, I imagine, since he’s only a little to the east of here.”

Jin had obviously noticed Yan Li was not in Lanhua, much less in his courtyard.

“Is he patrolling too?”

“En. When we sensed you’d wake up soon, we decided to keep as much of the family in Lanhua as possible. Yan Li and I have been switching out patrol duties since we’re the strongest and fastest.” He explained casually before smoothly moving into complaining, “Let me tell you, we’d have all stayed except that those damn eastern territories only know how to make trouble! Ignore them for a little bit and who knows what stupid thing they’ll scheme up! Do they think I enjoy subjugating them? I have better things to do with my time!”

Jin wasn’t really listening to Shan Hui’s complaint.

His durian son had gone out of his way to wait for him to wake up! And what’s more, he admitted it openly like it was normal.

There had never been a time Shan Hui had shown that level of affection. The few times he’d been close to it, the boy would rather die before letting anyone know it.

This casual confession of familial care was real proof that something fundamental had changed in their relationship.

Jin was so moved his nose felt sore and he almost shed a few tears.

Really, this oldest son, it was worth letting him live!

Shan Hui noticed his father's expression had changed and narrowed his eyes.

“Old Man, what’s with that stupid look on your face? Sleeping that long didn’t do anything to your mind, did it? If you’ve become mentally slow, tell me now, I promise I’ll help you hide it.”

“...”

***

After talking to his sons, Jin was able to leave his courtyard for the first time in years. Outside were his son’s wives, grandchildren, fairies, and beasties. When they saw him, they immediately kowtowed.

In the front was Ye, Shuya, Lu Fan, and his second son’s wife, Jia Ying.

It wasn’t surprising to see Lu Fan and Jia Ying kowtowing, those two had always been respectful. But Ye and Shuya getting on their hands and knees was unusual enough that he felt like he should make a memorial tablet recording the event.

He’d only just recovered from his surprise when Ye spoke:

“We, loyal subjects, greet the Emperor!”

As if on cue, the crowd said in unison: “Blessings to the Emperor! All honor, glory, and might are his! Praise to the Emperor! Creator of Nations, Conqueror of the East, Leader of the Mighty! Fairy Emperor, the only Sovereign of the Nations! We greet you!”

Jin’s spirit trembled slightly at their heartfelt, genuine welcome. He could see into everyone but the Blue Flower Tree Spirits and knew that every word was heartfelt. As for the Tree Spirits, they never did anything they didn’t want to do, the fact that they were there at all was enough to show their respect.

Respect came in many flavors and Jin was the first to admit he liked all of them. But if he were honest, the best kind of respect came from sincere admiration. It’s not that Jin didn’t get respect of that sort, but it was never in such a concentrated quantity and all at once.

It felt all the more potent because someone like Ye was both leading this welcome and also participating in it as earnestly as the rest. It was enough to move him to tears.

He blinked several times to clear the water from his eyes before clearing his throat, putting his hand behind his back and trying to maintain his dignity.

‘I never thought I was the sort who was prone to crying.’ He thought to himself, helpless over the intensity of his own emotions.

“Rise.” He commanded solemnly.

As one, everyone rose at once. There was a moment of tense silence before, like a dam breaking, a great cheer rose up. All at once people were chatting excitedly around him.

Ye walked over to him and grinned.

“If you slept any longer, I was going to advise Mei Mei to put you in a coffin.”

Jia Ying had also come over and cast Ye an exasperated look.

“Uncle Ye, who are you kidding? You’ve been complaining the loudest about Father-in-law sleeping so long.”

Ye glared at her.

Lu Fan, despite being the oldest creature on the mountain, was crying openly like a child.

“My Lord, this old buck has missed you! The mountains just aren’t the same without your presence!”

“I’ll say,” Shuya naturally followed Lu Fan forward. “Do you know how bad the winters got here without you? I thought my roots were going to freeze!”

“Ah, Father-in-law,” Jia Ying was waving her hand to several people behind her, “Let me introduce 6th and 7th brother-in-laws wives and children…”

Jin listened to everyone speaking to him, greeting the new family and examining new workers of the palace, with interest and warmth.

Concerning Lanhua and his extended family, he’d previously had a sort of raw, unfeeling sense of ownership towards them. Beyond no one taking “what was his”, he didn’t care about their welfare. Because of Mei Hua, his heartlessness had been blunted and molded into something socially acceptable, but the underlying sense of harsh possessiveness remained.

Such a cold and cruel way of viewing those who were underneath him wasn’t normal for Jin. He had counted the deer as “his people” and had lovingly taken care of them for eons. If later on this affection had gotten warped into something else, that also wasn’t natural. If he thought back far enough, before something had broken inside him, he could remember a pure affection he had for those he counted as his own.

That pure affection had been twisted beyond recognition when his jealousy and hatred corrupted his nature. By the time he realized he’d erred and had the desire to change, he’d gotten to a point where he didn’t have the energy for it. Just loving his wife, his sons, occasionally Ye, took an enormous amount of effort. It felt like he had nothing left to give anyone else.

Now there was no barrier between him and other people.

Now that his fire was settled properly, like with the love he had for his sons, the love he had for “his people” also exploded.

Being surrounded by them, listening to their stories, tickled his heart and thought:

‘If only my sister could see all this, she would love it.’

And, for the first time in a long time, thinking of his sister didn’t make him sad at all.