Prologue

Little purple sprite, little purple sprite, run into the rice jar and make the white rice grow. Little purple sprite, little purple sprite, one copper coin is enough for the whole village. Little purple sprite, little purple sprite, the world’s treasures rest upon your body. Little purple sprite, little purple sprite, please help all beautiful dreams come true.

From far away, someone came drifting slowly out of the thin, smoke-like morning mist, their footsteps very light, the nursery rhyme they hummed softly rising into the air and dancing among the rustling bamboo leaves. Simple, joyful, ethereal singing — yet from the city drawing ever closer, it called forth only a deeper desolation.

The city before her was filled everywhere with half-eaten meals and unfinished work, but not a single person.

By the roadside, a small girl crouched there — red clothes, red shoes, like a little red flower that had bloomed in the wrong place. A gleaming gold coin rose and fell in her hand. Before her, a man and a woman encased in golden bubbles clutched a pile of gold coins and kicked frantically at the walls of their prisons, their mouths screaming something, yet not a single word could pass through.

The little girl watched them with a smile, extended her fair, tender fingers, and poked at a bubble.

A very faint pop. The bubble vanished, and the person inside it was gone too.

She sat down and looked left and right, her small face filled with question marks.

This question had been born the very first time an angry stone, hurled by someone’s hand, had struck her. She had gone on bustling and toiling for the human world as she always had — so why had humans become more and more unlike what they once were?

She cupped her head in her hands and asked Xiao Leng: Why are there more and more people attacking me?

Xiao Leng thought for a long time before answering: You are too slow, too difficult. They want things fast — the faster the better. They want things easy — the easier the better.

She nodded and retreated into the darkness: And they call me stingy… I’m so tired. I don’t like this kind of human. I don’t like it at all.

A vague dark shadow quietly seeped into the always radiant Golden Toad Palace, slipping past every barrier with ease, landing upon its target…

Now, a cold wind swept up withered grass. She leaned against a wooden post at the roadside, pressing a hand over her faintly aching heart, yet wearing a satisfied smile, murmuring to herself: I have already learned to be generous with you.

Suddenly, a ball of golden energy rolled down from the sky and drifted swiftly to her side. Something inside it was speaking: Quick, run! Someone is coming!

I am already here. The figure in the morning mist stood smiling before her, looking her up and down. You are the god whose rank and appearance are most at odds with each other of any I have yet met — Jin Lao.

Do we know each other? The girl addressed as “Jin Lao” toyed with the gold coin in her hand. Or are you, like these others, here to beg me to grant you unlimited wealth?

I have always believed Jin Lao to be the most generous god in the world, the newcomer said with a smile.

I am very generous now too. The girl’s beautiful face flickered behind the spinning coin. Every person who comes to beg me, I give them, without the slightest stinginess, more money than they could spend in a lifetime.

No, the newcomer said, shaking their head with a smile, you have already become the most miserly person in all the world. You know what consequences the reckless use of the coins in your hands would bring upon humanity.

I only want to be a generous god. An unfriendly sharpness crept into the girl’s tone. If you disagree, I don’t mind making you disappear.

With that, her body suddenly dissolved into a keen wind and lunged ferociously at the other person.

But she did not even touch the hem of their robe before she drowned in a tide of purple radiance. The entire world turned purple. Countless tiny figures with purple skin crawled out from every corner, smiling as they leapt upon her and dragged her toward a deeper purple at the center. She could not cry out, could not break free, and watched as her strength slowly crumbled. The little figures’ laughter shifted into purple of different shapes, wrapping tightly around her…

No — please don’t kill her!

She does not need to die. She only needs to sleep for a time inside the Thousand-Measure Millet. The souls of the purple sprites will keep her company.

But… how long will she sleep?

Impossible to say.

Can I go in too? We have never been apart.

Going in is easy. Getting out again is far harder. Are you certain you want to enter?

No matter what Leng Leng becomes, she and I have never been separated.

Your name is… Xiao Leng?

Yes.

Very well.

The voices from outside gradually faded from her ears.

A golden toad the size of a fist leapt out from the mass of energy and bounded toward the cluster of purple crystals resting on a palm…

Chapter 1

The mountain forest of Shanqi County rose and fell in the night, the sound of the sea carrying steadily on the wind, the damp, briny smell diminishing much of the beauty the midsummer night might have held. The buildings arranged across a ground of gray-white square tiles — every upturned eave, every line — had perfectly inherited the style of China’s flourishing Tang dynasty: serene and far-reaching, with an ancient, secluded air, as though time had flowed backward. On the stone posts at the main gate, two large characters were carved: Deng Yin.

But a teacup dashed violently to the floor, and a newspaper torn to shreds, had destroyed every trace of beauty.

In a study where the light had been deliberately dimmed, a gaunt old man sat on his meditation cushion like a stone, coughing faintly from time to time. Everything above his chest was hidden in darkness, and the pure-black kimono he wore — blacker than the night itself — suited his present mood perfectly.

On the torn scraps of newspaper, words like “Watanabe Ichiro,” “competition,” “collapsed,” and “loss of both legs” could still be made out. A young man dressed all in white knelt before the old man, and behind him stood three subordinates who did not dare lift their heads.

As of today, this is the fifth client to suffer an ‘accident.’ Working backward through the timeline, the accidents began with our most recent client and went one by one in reverse. Watanabe Ichiro is the fifth-to-last client we took on this year. The most serious of the five is Professor Aso, who lost his head. After Watanabe Ichiro comes Nakajima Kaoruko of the Nakajima Conglomerate, and after her… The old man’s voice floated out of the darkness, calm in tone yet seething with barely suppressed fury. …is Finance Minister Yamamoto Ken.

The man in white kept his head bowed, his whole body trembling, not daring to make a sound.

Watanabe Ichiro alone had already caused an uproar. If everything above were to reach the media, it would become explosive news that shook all of Japan. As Japan’s most famous sprinter, hailed as the “Golden Feet,” Watanabe Ichiro had won five consecutive world championships before suddenly collapsing during a competition the previous day. On the morning after emergency medical treatment, he had woken to find his feet gone — no wounds, no pain; simply gone. Besides him, Physics Professor Aso Arima, the most valuable professor in all of Japan, had woken one morning the week before to find his head missing — though he was still alive. Such shocking and bizarre occurrences were beyond explanation no matter how vast his scientific knowledge. Naturally, this latter piece of news had been strictly suppressed; aside from them and the person involved, no one knew. But beyond them, three other individuals had also lost their hands.

Every person who had suffered these strange accidents was among their clients.

If Yamamoto Ken meets with trouble, the Special Affairs Division will certainly be alerted, and we will find ourselves in very serious difficulty. The old man slammed his fist on the floor and suddenly stood. The deeply wrinkled face of a man dried and shrunken to a living mummy was exposed in the light as he shrieked hysterically at the man in white: And yet you useless lot! You’ve been out there a month and you can’t even catch a single toad! If you hadn’t been so careless in the first place, how would that wretched creature have stolen the Thousand-Measure Millet from us?

Before the words had fully left his mouth, a thick leather whip flew from the old man’s furious hand, slashing through the air toward the man in white.

But before the whip could fall, the old man’s wrist was seized in an iron grip.

The man in white who had appeared beside him in a flash of lightning sneered: I’ve always hated dead old men like you who should’ve died long ago but still love to hit people.

The man in white’s face, in the light, had become someone else entirely.

Who are you?! The old man’s expression changed drastically. Guards!

The people outside have all gone down, said Ao Chi, glancing back at those three “subordinates.” Next time a job like getting whipped comes up, you all can do it yourselves.

I think you shouldn’t have dodged — letting the whip actually land on you would’ve shown far better acting! One of the plain-faced subordinates transformed into Jiu Jue, grinning wickedly.

The trembling just now was also terribly overdone, said Jia Yi, peeling off his black suit. Not cut out for acting.

A person who only watches Tom and Jerry has no right to discuss acting, Ao Chi cheerfully shot back.

Someone who watches Tom and Jerry has the purest soul! Jiu Jue declared righteously.

Right — I forgot to tell you all: Jiu Jue’s greatest love is the famous Tom and Jerry. He watches it every time until he’s rolling on the floor laughing, completely regardless of whether the gags are actually funny. So I must give an extra reminder to those girls who cry and beg to marry Jiu Jue: please think very carefully about your ambitions.

You’ve come from China? The old man evidently understood Chinese, and his face churned with all manner of complicated emotions. You… you’re not human?!

I stepped up before him and said with a smile: We have been threatened by a toad, and we’re here to take you to an old place.

Chapter 2

Time: N plus one day ago.

Location: A nameless stretch of the Atlantic Ocean.

Weather: Clear, hot.

“Little purple sprite… little purple sprite…”

I sat on the deck, eyes glazed, staring at the white clouds and blue sky, cycling those same words like a fool, the Fish King’s Tongue in my palm nearly squeezed to sparking.

We had been gone from the Dewdrop Market for several days now. Our ship continued east, destination still undetermined.

The Fish King’s Tongue was truly the most unsparing with words of all the stone gentlemen I had ever met — it had given me the longest hint in history:

Little purple sprite, little purple sprite, the world’s treasures rest upon your body!

But what good was it being long? I knew the world had Black people, White people, and those with yellow skin, and red-skinned people existed too, but where were purple-skinned people supposed to come from?

At this moment, the luxury yacht we had “taken over” from those Japanese men was moving forward at a steady pace across the jade-green sea with its white waves, steered skillfully by Jia Yi. No matter how we had interrogated those men, they had not said a single word about why they were heading to the island, or why they had attacked Shangshan and us. Since they were that stubborn, we’d give them what they wanted — they could stay tied to the posts, soaking up sunshine and sea breeze, with passing seabirds using the posts as a temporary restroom. Good luck to them.

Are you certain you’ve never heard of purple-colored people in the world? I asked Jiu Jue, who was busy applying sunscreen.

I only know there are purple sweet potatoes, Jiu Jue said, tossing the sunscreen to me. Sunscreen is the priority!

I stared at him — wearing nothing but swim trunks, his whole body glistening with lotion — and turned away in despair.

Come on, don’t be like that. I have a great figure! Jiu Jue patted his arms and stomach. Six-pack abs!

The sunscreen bottle bounced in my hand, ready at any moment to fly at his head: Think harder. In Cyan Amber’s eyes, every stone is connected to a god from the past. Are you certain you’ve never heard your colleagues mention purple little people?

Sleep a nap and then think about it, he said, and dropped flat on his back instantly.

You insufferable lout — has talking with me really become this boring?!

Over there, Ao Chi’s snoring was already rolling along in fine variation. This man was treating a journey that concerned the safety of the entire East Sea Dragon Clan as one blissful sunbath?! From the moment I met him, he had always been like this — with the sensitivity of poured concrete, treating every difficulty as a non-issue. Maybe that was a virtue, but it was also the reason I wanted to tear his ears off. Looking at his drooling sleeping face, I suddenly found myself worrying for our yet-unknown little one: could a child actually grow up healthy with a father like this?!

I curled my lip, went over, and pinched Ao Chi’s nose, dragging him bodily out of his beautiful dream.

What is it? He rubbed his eyes.

I want a purple little person! I glared at him.

He anxiously felt my forehead: You’re not sick, are you?

Go find me a purple little person! I kept glaring.

There, there — I’m the purple one! He smiled apologetically. Hmm? Is this you being coy with me? Shall I transform so you can see?

I want a purple little PERSON, not a purple dragon! I lowered my head dejectedly, touching my belly. Unknown, did you see that? Your father really does have an intelligence problem. He has absolutely no idea what your mother is talking about.

Since when is our baby called “Unknown”? Ao Chi’s voice shot up an octave. Didn’t we agree on Jiang Fu?

No father in the world would name his own child “Congee”! I twisted his ear. Do you have even the slightest concern for the future of your East Sea Dragon Clan? All you do is sleep!

Ao Chi scratched his head and, utterly shameless, laughed, even patting my belly to say: Little Congee, look how fierce your mother is! If you’re a girl, whatever you do, don’t take after her!

I forced down the urge to kick him into the sea: Do you think a child who hasn’t been born yet can’t see what you’re doing? As parents, couldn’t you at least set a decent example?

I have finally understood just how tortuous and unpredictable the emotions of a pregnant woman can be, said Ao Chi. He curled a finger and lightly flicked my forehead. You and I should both be quite clear: many things do not stop happening simply because we worry about them. Do you really think I’m tracking down those twelve broken stones to prevent the old ones of the celestial realm from using them as a pretext to cause trouble and threaten the East Sea Dragon Clan?

His sudden shift to rationality was so unexpected I wasn’t accustomed to it: Then why?

No matter how much I dislike someone, if I once made a vow to protect something and that thing was lost, then naturally we are responsible for finding it and returning it. That is our true purpose. Ao Chi smiled, bowing his head to speak toward my belly: Little Congee, you must remember — to be a member of the noble East Sea Dragon Clan, the most basic requirement is this: once you have promised something, you must not break your word.

I seldom got to observe Ao Chi from above, and now a few plain words, a smiling face — his “poured concrete” became instantly the softest, finest thread, winding me round and round. I dared not move, afraid of ruining this rare moment that had nothing whatsoever to do with tantrums, arguments, or fighting.

He raised his head, drew me into his arms, his chin resting on my shoulder: So relax a little. For me, this is nothing more than a journey the three of us are taking together as a family. All along the way I’ve watched you leaping and flailing about like a madwoman — how could I not understand what all of it is for? I understand your abilities, and I understand your temper. Whether for yourself or for others, you are not the kind of monster who is content to stay in one place forever. Besides being a mother, you are still capable of so much more. I may be going on too long about this, but I will never truly stop you from doing anything. You can be the protagonist at any time — but in the places the camera doesn’t reach, I’ll be there.

Oh — what was this — my eyes were getting a little warm… I absolutely could not handle Ao Chi suddenly switching modes like this!

Speaking in good conscience, the seemingly brash and rough Ao Chi could always see the most delicate places inside my heart. With his abilities, he could have forcibly ended my journey at any moment. Those twelve stones — if the East Sea Dragon Clan threw everything into the search, they would find them. Yet he did nothing, letting me run all over the world. Each stone I gathered added one more color to my life.

He even understood, more clearly than I myself did, that a tree spirit’s life could not consist only of diapers and milk bottles.

He loved me — but he had never used that love as a reason to change who I was.

I had to admit: in this regard, he had always been very generous.

An inexplicable wave of emotion came running through my heart. I crawled out of his embrace: You said you’d always be there — you’d better keep your word! But just as the words left my mouth, I felt something was off. Wait — you’re not just making excuses for your laziness, are you?

Before Ao Chi could answer, someone nearby had already started clapping.

Haven’t seen such a heartfelt scene from you two in ages! Jiu Jue sat on the deck, wiping his eyes in emotion, the sunscreen shinier than his tears. And not only him — Jia Yi was there too, one hand propping his chin, just finishing a yawn.

My embarrassed gaze swept left to right — and then swept back, stopping on a small object to Jia Yi’s right.

Three spectators?!

Half a second later, I yelped and leapt up: How did a toad get here?!

I hadn’t imagined it — squatting beside Jia Yi was unmistakably a pale-golden toad the size of a fist! The most infuriating part was that it was grinning at me… grinning at me! Its wide mouth was producing a laugh indistinguishable from a human’s.

I just came to tell you we might have a bit of a small problem. But seeing how absorbed you two were, I didn’t interrupt. Jia Yi pointed at the toad. It’s been hiding in the ship’s cabin all along. And it can speak.

I was not by nature fond of soft-bodied creatures or reptiles — especially not a toad that was laughing its head off at me.

I retreated behind Ao Chi and stuck my head out: You can talk?

Haha ha, the toad laughed again. Little purple sprite, little purple sprite, the world’s treasures rest upon your body.

I was startled.

You’re looking for a stone connected to the purple sprites, aren’t you? The toad hopped one step forward.

The words were out before I could stop them: How did you know?

The toad stared at me: I nearly fell asleep listening to your discussions all the way here.

I frowned: What else did you overhear?

You are the proprietress of a tea called “Fu Sheng,” though you’ve barely sold any tins of it so far, and I heard you secretly praying to the heavens about it. The toad replied earnestly. Also: you are a tree spirit, your husband is a dragon, the blue-haired seductive man is a celestial wine-brewing official, and the one wearing dark glasses is your assistant.

The four of us exchanged glances. We had apparently given away so much personal information without even noticing…

The toad extended one “hand” toward me in a very gentlemanly fashion: Pleased to join you.

The four of us fought a long battle with our eyes, and in the end Ao Chi stepped forward as our representative, extending one small finger for a cordial handshake with Master Toad.

Tell me about the stone and I’ll overlook the offense of sneaking aboard someone else’s vessel without permission — deal? I had actually resorted to threatening a toad.

Isn’t this yacht one you seized from Deng Yin’s henchmen? the toad shot back with perfect righteousness. Your offense is far greater than mine.

Deng Yin? Something seemed to surface in Jiu Jue’s memory. You’re saying those three sorcerers were Deng Yin’s people?

Correct. The toad rolled its eyes.

I tugged at Jiu Jue: I’ve heard of “Dengying Beef” — what on earth is this “Deng Yin” you’re talking about?

A lineage of Onmyoji practitioners, said to share a founding master with Abe no Seimei, though they later vanished into obscurity. It was only in the past century or so that the Deng Yin family reappeared in the world, with the current heir living in Kyoto, Japan. Jiu Jue recollected. Almost no negative reputation whatsoever. You know that for my brewing, I often travel the world in search of ingredients — some ten-plus years ago, passing through Kyoto, I had a brief encounter with members of this family. A monster had harmed someone in the small inn where I was staying, and the Deng Yin family stepped in to subdue it, and was generous enough not to take a single coin from the innkeeper.

Understood. Let’s set the Deng Yin family aside for now. I walked up to the toad. Only tell me about the purple little people, and I won’t tie you to a rock and sink you to the bottom of the sea.

You have absolutely no technique when it comes to interrogation, said the toad, looking at me. It raised one “hand” and pointed behind us. Someone has already caught up. If you can guarantee they won’t take me away, then I’ll have the chance to tell you the story of the purple sprites.

I was being threatened by a toad?

Right in the middle of my frustration, with a tremendous roar, a column of seawater shot skyward. An enormous black creature erupted from the sea behind our stern without any warning — long and sinuous, its smooth, slick body impossible to divide into torso and neck, with eyes the size of headlamps that looked down at us. Fine, sharp teeth glittered in its triangular mouth, and short, hard fins stood from its spine like blades.

This was not a snake. This was an eel — a truly enormous eel!!

Something stood atop its head — a person? Short white hair, long white trench coat, white shoes, white face, even paler than me, as though they had never seen sunlight in their entire life — and combined with the eel below, the pair of them could grace the cover of any fantasy magazine.

Hand that toad over to me, the man said, not even giving me a proper look. Do so, and I will not trouble you.

Here, have this instead! The toad belched and, utterly without loyalty, hopped into the ship’s cabin to take refuge.

Ao Chi looked furiously at himself — soaked through by the seawater — and said loudly: What is your background?

I come from the Deng Yin family of Kyoto. His long, narrow eyes tilted very slightly upward. I am under orders to pursue and apprehend a wicked creature guilty of monstrous crimes.

From the perspective of a senior old monster: a creature whose monster energy we could not detect was either not a monster at all, or far too powerful. The toad was clearly not the latter.

I beg your pardon — just before you arrived, I had struck a deal with it to protect it from being taken away. For the sake of my purple sprite, I raised my chin and enunciated every word: You may now take your eel and leave. I will not trouble you. This toad, from this moment, is mine.

What arrogance!

The pale-faced man’s expression shifted. The neck of the eel creature beneath his feet suddenly arched. In about one second, its great mouth would probably swallow the entire yacht whole.

Go to the cabin, said Ao Chi, moving me behind him.

Jia Yi calmly watched every detail of the enemy, his fists quietly clenching.

Darling, I’ll go to the cabin with you! Jiu Jue shamelessly bounded over.

If you get eaten by an eel, I’ll burn paper offerings for you. I kicked him back. Get out of here and help!

With that, I dove into the cabin. One dragon plus one immortal demon plus one Daoist — if they still couldn’t beat one eel, I’d jump into the sea and drown myself! Though I was fairly certain drowning wasn’t really possible for me…

I knew I found the right people. The moment I entered the cabin, the toad squatting on a chair grinned at me. Thank goodness you lot suddenly showed up on Nameless Island — the wild but powerful aura coming off all of you disrupted the people hunting me.

What wild aura?! I shot it a vicious look. You couldn’t beat them, so you deliberately drew your enemies our way, didn’t you?

Ah? You figured it out? The toad apologized with a smile. Those people chased me for a very long time. I fled from China’s Gobi Desert all the way to a little island in the Atlantic, and they still tracked me down. I couldn’t fight them. Heaven brought you along, and I had a sudden inspiration…

A “sudden inspiration” to send a hail of bullets raining down on us? I wanted to thrash this shameless toad. Let’s call the old score settled. Starting now, you belong to me. I only want to know where the purple little people are! And also — you have no monster energy whatsoever. What exactly are you?

Suddenly, the ship lurched violently several times. Something had kicked off outside.

The toad rolled off the chair like a ball, talking as it went: You expect me to explain in these conditions?

I sat on the floor, steadied myself, and grabbed a long pen that had rolled nearby. Poke, poke — straight into its fat belly. Talk!

Ribbit ribbit ribbit, don’t tickle me! All right, I’ll talk! I’m certain I’m not a monster. I was once, like Blue Hair, a celestial official of the heavenly realm…

Chapter 3

A full day’s heavy rain gradually ceased in the deep of night. The sliver of a crescent moon was slim as a curved line, breaking into silver points in the bottom of a large, old, battered water vat. A stray cat darted in over a crumbling wall into the dimly lit little temple. Not much lamp oil had been left before the Buddha’s seat, and a rat was greedily gnawing at the base of a half-burned incense candle.

A boy of fourteen or fifteen was kneeling on one knee beside a white stone near the water vat. Fresh wounds marked his grimy face. He carefully cradled a few copper coins in his hands, looked up at the sky, took a deep breath, and tossed every coin into the bottomless-looking vat.

Amid the splash of water, the boy knocked his head to the ground three times before the white stone and murmured: May the spirits bless me — please, from tomorrow, let me receive money every single day! He repeated it three times, then thought again and changed his wish. Every day isn’t necessary — just one month. One month will do! If you refuse to show yourself, this poor little life of mine probably won’t last much longer! Look — I’ve generously given you every coin on my person. Surely you can’t in good conscience refuse to help me, can you?

Speaking to the spirits that way is liable to get you struck by lightning, a voice suddenly emerged from the other side of the large vat.

The boy was badly startled. He hurriedly drew out a small knife and shouted at the vat: Who’s there? Come out!

A fair, round, plump little face gradually moved out from the other side of the vat. A girl of five or six — fine brows, large eyes, red lips and white teeth, with golden-yellow irises of rare color — wore a small jacket and trousers in red scattered with gold flowers, with a round bun tied on each side of her head. She was as adorably festive as a doll that had leapt off a New Year’s painting. But the one incongruous detail was the pale-golden toad squatting on her shoulder.

Just a little girl — the boy relaxed, tucked away his knife, and scolded her: Which family’s child are you? Still not home this late! And wandering around with a toad!

You threw in all your money? The little girl stood on her toes curiously to peer into the vat. What a shame.

What do you know, child! The boy rolled his eyes at her, then said with great piety: Can’t you see what that white stone looks like? It looks like a gold ingot! As long as you throw coins into the vat on a moonlit night and make an offering to this “Wealth Stone,” the spirit who oversees money on Tianshan Mountain will grant your wish. Someone I know already tried it — it actually worked! The very next day, they stole — I mean, they came into several silver ingots!

He had not yet finished basking in his envy when his ears caught an unusual sound of water — the little girl had crouched before that stone and, entirely without ceremony, relieved herself.

What are you doing?! Every possible expression twisted across the boy’s face.

Shh! The little girl stood, pulling up her trousers, tilted her head and listened, then grabbed his hand. Over here. Don’t speak.

The little girl was ferociously strong and dragged him with perfect ease, running to hide behind the temple gate.

Then, from beneath the white stone, a wisp of smoke suddenly billowed, and the stone began to tremble — even the vat rocked slightly, as though something was about to burst through the earth.

The boy’s heart seized.

Suddenly, the white stone split apart with a crack, and a fist-sized mound rose from beneath. A fat, green caterpillar — not a small one — pushed through with a head caked in mud, crawling out in a state of bewildered panic. Looking closely, one could see that this worm’s head bore an entire chubby human face, and from some apparent stimulation it was frowning and retching as it crawled its way out.

A monster?! The boy’s legs went completely soft.

When this foot-long human-faced worm had fully emerged from the ground, the little girl shot out in a flash and planted her foot on its neck.

The human-faced worm squirmed its tail wildly, its mouth producing a stream of sounds the boy could not understand.

Was it fun, pretending to be a spirit? the little girl asked the worm pleasantly.

The worm shook its head frantically, squeaking and croaking.

Will you do it again? She added a bit more force underfoot.

The worm’s head was nearly shaking off.

Do not arbitrarily fulfill other people’s wishes — you are not a god, she said, her brow faintly creasing. Even if you were a god, you could not.

The worm began nodding frantically again.

The little girl snapped her fingers. A gleaming gold coin materialized from the air and dropped squarely onto the worm’s head, dissolving into golden powder that swiftly seeped into its body.

I won’t kill you. I’ll only destroy one hundred years of your cultivation and send you back to the mountains to reflect. The little girl lifted her foot. And before you leave, return everything you should not have taken!

With a series of whooshing sounds, a bolt of golden light shot from the worm’s mouth and fell to the ground, where it transformed into a heap of gold, silver, and copper coins. The worm’s previously plump body deflated suddenly and shrank, the human face on its head vanished entirely, and it became an ordinary caterpillar barely an inch long — which promptly scurried away.

The boy was completely stupefied. He stammered: You… what exactly are you?

The little girl tilted her head, smiled cunningly: I’m a god from heaven. Do you believe me?

Yeah, right! the boy blurted, slapping his face hard to clear his head. You learned some sorcery from a Daoist or Buddhist monk, didn’t you? I’ve heard storyteller Wang Da Tou say that some people have exceptional gifts — even at a young age they can master a fine set of skills and subdue demons and evil without any trouble.

Take your coins and your friends’ coins and go home, the little girl said, ignoring his questions. She walked to that pile of treasures glittering in the moonlight. The easier something comes to you, the more dangerous it tends to be.

The boy’s gaze was completely glued to that pile of valuable gold and silver. Hearing he could take it back, he threw all caution aside, rushed forward, and began stuffing handfuls into his shirt.

Suddenly, something ice-cold gripped his wrist. The little girl seized him: I said you may only take your share and your friends’ share. The rest does not belong to you.

Those eyes held a resolve far beyond her years. The boy, very reluctantly, returned two silver ingots to their place.

Why are your hands so cold? He tucked away the coins that were his and eyed her with suspicion.

It’s almost winter, she said, stifling a yawn. Go home.

What about you? The boy stared at this tiny creature keeping company with a toad.

She smiled brightly and pointed into the temple: I still want to chat with the Buddha for a while.

Strange little thing… the boy muttered, and turned to leave. He took two steps, then turned back and corrected himself: Actually — never mind “see you around.”

The little girl shrugged her shoulders and turned to walk toward the temple gate. A few stray raindrops floated down and landed on the tip of her nose.

Suddenly, someone came running back from behind her, and a half-worn oil-paper umbrella landed at her feet.

I found it on the way here, the boy said, pointing at the umbrella. It’s for you. It has flowers painted on it — for women — I don’t want it.

You have so many wounds on you, she said, picking up the umbrella and opening it. A single peony.

The boy was caught off guard and waved it off: Fell.

You were beaten, she said, twirling the paper umbrella playfully.

Goodbye! No — don’t come again!

Why was he saying so much to a girl he’d only just met? If he didn’t go back soon, there would be trouble again.

As he walked, the rain grew heavier. He couldn’t help looking back once — the little girl had already vanished, and the temple gate stood empty.

He was wondering whether to tell Wang Da Tou about the strange events of tonight, so the storyteller would have more tales to spin — and whether that might give him a more righteous argument for listening without paying.

Inside the rundown little temple, voices were speaking.

You’ve taken a liking to him?

What do you think?

Not bad. Will do.

Then go and look into his background.

Chapter 4

Ow! Yin Xiu, be gentler! More gentle! What is this medicine, it’s burning me alive!

Your wounds are too numerous. Bear with it.

In a humble room, Shen Liu lay face-down on the bed, grimacing, the whip-marks across his lower back crisscrossing in all directions.

If you hadn’t returned that silver ingot you’d gotten your hands on, your quota for the month would’ve been met and you wouldn’t have taken this beating.

That old man was practically blind — and it was such a small amount of money. I figured, forget it. Shen Liu struggled to sit up.

You get beaten just about every month, Yin Xiu sighed. He was fifteen but looked like he hadn’t yet grown into a proper shape — thin and slight, without even a hint of color on his face and lips, though his eyes seemed permanently threaded with red. Yet his “results” were the best in all of Ju Bao Hall. He was missing one palm, but the remaining five fingers were finer and more slender than any woman’s — and when it came to relieving people of their coins, he never missed.

Ju Bao Hall — the name sounded fine enough. The people inside it, however, made their living by picking pockets, extorting and kidnapping, and practically every crooked trade you cared to name, short of outright murder and arson.

Shen Liu had joined Ju Bao Hall right after his fourteenth birthday. He had poured the last of his money into a gambling den in Huolu Alley. He had given everything — because if he could not make his money breed more money, he would soon have nothing left to eat but cold steamed buns. What was the fastest, easiest way to become rich? The only answer Shen Liu had arrived at was: gambling.

That day ended with him gambling himself into the possession of the “Hall Master” — a man with the alias “Yao the Blind.”

Yao the Blind said the same thing to every one of his underlings: as long as they followed him, earning money would be the easiest thing in the world, and if they obeyed, within a few years they would be tossing gold around like it was nothing.

This gaunt man who called himself blind had eyes keener than anyone’s, and his judgment in recruiting followers had always been spot-on. The fronts of gambling dens and pawnshops, the doors of moneylenders, and the reeking gathering places of beggars were all spots his Ju Bao Hall scouts watched year-round. Yao the Blind had said: people mired in difficulty weren’t necessarily willing to join Ju Bao Hall, but people mired in difficulty who burned to reverse their fortunes overnight — those people would always come.

But behind the promise of “easy money,” Yao the Blind had also laid down strict rules. Based on length of membership, he assigned a mandatory quota to each rank of follower. Failure to meet it meant a beating. Over the years, those beaten to death for missing their “quota” had numbered more than one or two.

Shen Liu, had he not had such a tough hide, would likely have been beaten to death long ago.

Inside Ju Bao Hall, he was closest with Yin Xiu. Half a year ago, if he hadn’t found Yin Xiu seriously ill by the roadside, this person would have become a wandering ghost in a foreign land.

Shen Liu had once asked him where he was from, because Yin Xiu’s accent was very strange — unlike any dialect Shen Liu had ever heard.

Yin Xiu had only said “a very faraway place — an island surrounded by the sea on all sides,” and would speak no further.

Shen Liu didn’t press the matter, only saying he also wasn’t from around here — his home was in a small town in the Jiangnan region.

Having no home and no kin, Yin Xiu naturally became a newcomer to Ju Bao Hall, and soon became Yao the Blind’s most valued underling. Every time Shen Liu saw Yin Xiu return laden with spoils, he would tease and say she was born for the “easy money” life.

By the way, I heard Xiao Guluand Li Qi are both sick? Shen Liu took a drink of water and tried to smooth down his rolled-up clothing.

Yes — vomiting and diarrhea for days now, their faces gone quite green, medicines not helping. They’re saying they’ve been possessed by something malevolent. Yin Xiu said. A while back, those two were bringing in quite a bit of money several times running, and were terribly pleased with themselves.

I heard them say their luck came from going to worship some sort of Wealth Stone deity, Shen Liu frowned. How strange that they’d both fall sick at the same time.

A deity? Those few good runs were all they had — they’ve barely brought anything back since. Once Li Qi nearly got caught. Yin Xiu said dismissively. I think it was just a fluke of good luck.

At these words, a thin, quiet voice inexplicably sounded in Shen Liu’s ear: The easier something comes to you, the more dangerous it tends to be.

What’s wrong? Yin Xiu patted him — he’d gone into a daze. Speaking of which — how come you came back so late the other night? Lucky the Hall Master had been drinking and fallen asleep, otherwise, the trouble you’d be in!

He came to himself and said casually: The rain was so heavy, it held me up getting back.

The little girl — he hadn’t told a soul about her, not even Wang Da Tou.

Yin Xiu looked at him, nodded, and smiled: Be more careful in future.

Just then, a commotion erupted outside, and an excited voice could be heard: We’ve reeled in a fat fish!

Chapter 5

Her?!

Shen Liu’s heart gave a lurch.

Half a small body poked out of a burlap sack, the girl trussed up in rope so she couldn’t escape even if she tried.

In the main hall of Ju Bao Hall, the fellow who had brought her in was waving his arms and describing how he had spotted this little girl in the city — how lavishly she spent money, how she’d pressed a whole silver ingot into an old beggar’s hand without a second thought, the very picture of a pampered young lady from a wealthy family, and most crucially, without a single attendant at her side.

The little girl seemed very frightened, trembling in the sack, utterly unlike that night’s version of herself.

As long as you tell us where your home is, we’ll send word to your mother and father. They send silver to ransom you, and you can go home, Yao the Blind said, making every effort to look kind as he patted her head.

If I have silver I can go home? she asked timidly.

Do I look like I would deceive you, little one? Yao the Blind smiled, flashing a mouthful of gold teeth.

But my parents have gone on a long journey and I don’t know where they are. I do know, however, that they keep their silver in a storehouse in the northwest of Zijing Mountain. The little girl looked close to tears.

Hearing this, everyone but Shen Liu and Yin Xiu exchanged knowing smiles. A child — coax her a little and she’ll tell you everything.

Was it her? That woman who had subdued a worm-demon barehanded like a little adult? Shen Liu studied her hard. She looked like her, yet not quite like her.

He tried to communicate with her through eye contact, but the girl gave no reaction whatsoever, as though she had no idea who he was.

Just before dawn, Yao the Blind’s trusted lieutenant returned. He and his men were hauling a heavy box, and before they even entered the room, they were heard shrieking: Hall Master! This time we’ve hit it big!

The box was carried to the center of the hall and the lid flung open with a crash. A blinding golden light illuminated every face crowding around it.

Everyone was stunned. Even Yao the Blind.

Not silver ingots — but a full box of solid gold bars. More money than Ju Bao Hall could earn in ten years of hard work!

Everyone went wild with shouts and tears and laughter.

Is it all here? Yao the Blind said, once he’d calmed himself.

We searched the entire storehouse — every single bar of gold is here. The lieutenant nodded vigorously, then pulled Yao the Blind aside and murmured: This little girl is no ordinary background, and she looks sharp as a tack. If we release her and her family won’t let the matter rest, we could end up with a great deal of trouble. Better to be clean about it and save ourselves the bother…

Yao the Blind thought for a moment, then nodded.

Little girl, because you’ve been so well-behaved, we’re sending you home right now. The lieutenant nicknamed “Buck Teeth” went through the motions of kindness as he walked to the sack, pressed her head back inside, tied the sack shut, and then broke into a trot and carried the sack out of the main hall.

Sensing something was deeply wrong, Shen Liu slipped out quietly, taking advantage of everyone’s frenzy over the gold.

Sure enough: Buck Teeth ran straight up to the deep pool at the back of the mountain. Before getting down to business, he even dragged over a large rock and lashed it firmly to the sack.

Shen Liu crouched in the shadows, panicking. With his abilities, there was no way he could take on Buck Teeth in a fight — Buck Teeth was a formidable hand-to-hand fighter. To rush out rashly now would only mean one more unjustly dead ghost in that pool. He looked away for just a split second — the splash of water came. The sack and the rock were pushed in without mercy by Buck Teeth. He watched the chain of bubbles that rose, then waited a little longer to be absolutely certain, slapped his hands together in satisfaction, and left.

Shen Liu’s heart pounded wildly. The moment Buck Teeth’s footsteps vanished, he leapt out from behind the brush — no time to even take off his clothes — and dove into the foul-smelling, ice-cold pool. Heaven be merciful: please let the little girl still have a breath of life left! He pinched his nose and plunged down hard, feeling through pitch-black water for that life-saving sack.

One breath used up, nothing to show. He whooshed back to the surface — and was so startled by the small figure at the edge of the pool that he choked on a mouthful of water.

Aren’t you cold? The little girl was perfectly unharmed, not even a pant leg wet, arms folded across her chest, watching him with a cheerful smile — and the toad was back on her shoulder.

You… Shen Liu stared at her, lost for words.

You’re one of the thieves? The little girl crouched down, watching him swim toward her.

Shen Liu clawed his way out and shook with cold: Yes! I’ve stolen money from many people. I’m not a good person.

Why do you steal? She widened her eyes.

Stealing is the only way I know to make money, Shen Liu said, getting to his feet. Whether you’re a person or a ghost, since you’re safe, go quickly.

Is that place where you just were your home? she asked suddenly.

Of course not! he said impatiently. That’s Ju Bao Hall’s hideout.

Then why do you keep going back?

Such a simple question — and yet it left Shen Liu completely speechless.

Do you know why this place is called Zijing County? she asked.

Because there is a Zijing Mountain here.

And why is that mountain called Zijing Mountain?

How should I know? Go home and ask your parents! Shen Liu, exasperated, turned to leave.

Because there was once a country here called Zijing — a nation of purple people, whose bones were all made of purple crystal, she said, unhurried. These sprite-like little people were by nature generous and kind, and they loved to appear in places of poverty and want. If one jumped into a rice jar, even if only a single grain remained, that grain would swell to a full jar overnight. If a silver ingot was placed inside, by morning there would be a jar brimming with silver. If they were willing, they could fill an entire house with treasure. But later, the purple little people discovered something wrong. They no longer helped humans the way they once had. Humans grew to hate them, and at last summoned a sorcerer with dark arts who, by trickery, captured all the purple sprites and forced them to fill every granary and produce endless wealth. But the purple little people refused. The furious sorcerer, with the support of all the people, burned them all to death. Many years later, in the place where the purple sprites had been executed, a cluster of purple crystals no bigger than a palm grew up. Later, someone stumbled upon this cluster of crystals and carried it away from the mountain. It was said that if you buried it in the earth, the harvest that year would be extraordinarily good; if you placed it in a granary, the grain inside would double. So people called this cluster of purple crystals the Thousand-Measure Millet. However, before long, the stone vanished without a trace. Those who knew of its existence longed desperately to find it and bring it back — but none ever succeeded. She finished in one breath and looked at Shen Liu. I know that stone is hidden in Zijing County. To find it, I need an obedient helper. If you are willing to do everything I say, then once I have found the Thousand-Measure Millet, I will naturally help you fulfill your heart’s wish.

Shen Liu had nearly forgotten the cold, turning her words over and over in his mind, weighing how much of them to believe.

A girl of unknown origin, with strange behavior and command of sorcery — if he took her at her word, it would be the greatest laughingstock of his fifteen-year life, wouldn’t it? But…

Is the Thousand-Measure Millet real? He still asked it.

The little girl’s large eyes curved into two happy arcs: It is.

What do you want me to help you with? The moment the words were out, Shen Liu wanted to hit himself in the mouth.

She bounced over to his side and grabbed his hand: Just come with me.

Where to?

Come.

That won’t do! I still need to go back to Ju Bao Hall and pack up my things! I have money hidden under my bed! And my brother!

The little girl rolled her eyes and said: All right. I’ll wait here for you until dawn. If you’re not back by then, I don’t want you anymore.

Shen Liu seriously doubted this little spook in front of him was really only five years old.

What are you, exactly? He looked back before leaving, unable to let it go.

The little girl’s face instantly bloomed into a smile: My name is Leng Leng. From a very faraway place here, and back to here from very far away. She pointed to the toad on her shoulder. This is Xiao Leng, my assistant.

The toad split its wide mouth and ribbit-ribbit-ribbited at him cheerfully.

Shen Liu instinctively shuddered. Two strange creatures!

I’ll be waiting, she said, climbing onto a large rock and sitting cross-legged. She closed her eyes. The moon and darkness were the only backdrop at this moment, and only in this light did Shen Liu notice a wisp of golden radiance, like flowing silk, gently coiling around her body.

He rubbed his eyes and looked again — the golden light seemed to be gone.

Full of questions, he strode quickly toward Ju Bao Hall. If the Thousand-Measure Millet were real, he absolutely had to bring Yin Xiu along — no matter what, following an old crook like Yao the Blind, there would eventually be catastrophe. In truth, even without the little girl seeking him out, the moment Yao the Blind had so casually decided to drown a child, Shen Liu had already made up his mind to leave Ju Bao Hall.

Thinking of Yin Xiu, Shen Liu ran even faster.

A cold wind swept through. Leng Leng kept up even, quiet breathing, letting the grass and trees thrash in panic all around her, letting the howls of wild animals rise and fall. Her whole person seemed to have sunk into a peaceful, contented dream. Xiao Leng hopped down from her shoulder and crouched at her side, eyes wide open, looking left and right.

Come out, Xiu Yi, she said suddenly, opening her eyes and looking toward a shadowed patch nearby. Fancy finding you here too.

Chapter 6

One year earlier. Kyoto. Winter.

This snow had been falling from dusk until now, and the garden had already become an entirely silver-white world — even though the buildings in that garden were nothing but burnt-out frames, and the one kneeling on the ground had become a snowman that still drew breath.

Useless — the most frequent word Deng Yin Xiu Yi had ever received from his father.

But from this point on, he would never hear that word again.

Half a month ago, his father had died. No matter how skilled his father’s sorcery, he could not escape the limits of life — old age, illness, death.

One garden, enough money to last a lifetime, and a few volumes of esoteric sorcery texts he’d never had the slightest interest in reading: that was the sum total of what his father had left behind.

But now even those things were gone. Because against the Fujiwara family, he was no match in any regard. When Fujiwara’s son, not yet ten years old, used a sheet of white paper to conjure ropes that bound him and then easily beat him into total helplessness, he suddenly found himself hating his father. What was remarkable was that no matter how many times his father had called him useless, he had never once felt anger.

The household servants had scattered and fled. In the great clash between Onmyoji lineages, the Deng Yin family had been utterly routed.

His father probably had never imagined that even after retreating all the way to Kyoto, even after the Deng Yin family had half-withdrawn from the world of sorcerers, even after he had been generous to every person around him — the enemies who needed to come would still come.

His father had bequeathed him mountains of wealth, yet had not left him a single fist capable of fighting back.

He had been kneeling in the snow for a full day. His hands — the right one missing its palm from birth — were numb and braced against the ground, purple with cold.

Suddenly, the snow behind him crunched rhythmically underfoot, and from the sound of those steps alone, he knew who it was.

You’ve come back? he asked.

To say goodbye. A small, ice-cold hand brushed the snow from his head and face, and his blurred vision was gradually cleared. A small, red-cheeked face drew close to his. I’m going home.

She had come to the Deng Yin family when he was eleven; he was now fourteen — yet she still looked five years old. The golden toad that always followed at her side was no different than before, squatting in the snow at her feet and staring at him with wide eyes.

Her neck and the toad’s leg had once both been bound with a thin blue thread — not a decoration, but a prisoner’s mark. His father had said she was not human and must be kept bound within the Deng Yin family forever.

The old servant had said she had been vomited out by a great sea monster with legs, landing together with the golden toad directly on his father’s ship. His father had called them monsters and intended at first to execute them, but later changed his mind, bringing them home and using binding incantations to keep them there. For three years, the Deng Yin family’s garden had been their inescapable prison.

She had not shown particular resentment toward this situation. She had said to him directly that even if his father had not bound her, she wouldn’t have known where to go. Her memory was entirely blank — only the name “Leng Leng” remained.

He had been born with a disability. Every time his father looked at his broken hand he would sigh at length, and when he’d had a drink, he would call him useless over and over — useless for not measuring up, useless for dragging the Deng Yin family down, useless for failing to master even ordinary sorcery.

In truth, he had worked very hard to practice. He had always been improving — but his father had always been so impatient.

Whenever his father flew into a rage, he would go and talk with Leng Leng. This girl who remembered nothing was remarkably entertaining. Everything in this household was fresh and interesting to her, and she could spend an entire day scooping goldfish from the pond. Only, no matter how many she scooped out, the fish in the water never grew fewer — seeming to multiply day by day.

His father was not unkind to her, but every evening he would have her locked in the small room on the western side. That room, besides a floor mat, contained one large trunk. Every morning, his father would have the trunk carried to his own room, and at nightfall have it carried back.

His father never told him why, but he had vaguely sensed that since Leng Leng’s arrival, the money his father brought in had grown more and more. And he had been sternly warned by his father never to mention Leng Leng’s existence to anyone outside.

As wealth accumulated, the increasingly old father flew into rages with him less and less. Just before his father died, his father had seemed to be in rather good spirits, and had actually stroked his head and said: Even without me, you will live very well.

He recounted his astonishment to Leng Leng, but she only smiled, not chattering away as she usually did.

In truth, from half a year ago onward, Leng Leng had become different from before. She no longer played with the goldfish, no longer ran wild through the garden, and spent every day sitting quietly in some corner, her chin in her hand, lost in thought, occasionally frowning or whispering to her toad. When he asked what she was thinking, she would not say a word.

And on the very night of his father’s death, Leng Leng and her toad vanished together from this place they had spent three years. The blue threads that had lost their binding power broke into several pieces and fell in her room.

I thought I would never see you again. He looked at her, suddenly wanting very much to cry, yet laughing instead. The Fujiwara family took everything. Their youngest child can crush me underfoot. I have nothing left now.

She looked at his reddened eyes and said: That may not be a bad thing.

He shook his head and sank helplessly to the ground: Have you remembered your past?

She nodded.

Then go, he said with a sigh.

Very well. She stood and walked in the other direction, treading through the snow. Xiu Yi — your father was not a generous man. Don’t become another version of him.

He turned and stared blankly at her retreating figure until it disappeared in the wind and snow.

He collapsed entirely into the snow, spreading his limbs wide. Despair, humiliation, grief — they poured in with even greater abandon, letting the ice and cold invade every inch of skin and flesh.

Suddenly, something fell from his loosened belt, chiming softly a few times.

He came to his senses and picked it up. It was a protective charm hung with a small bell. He only then recalled: before his father died, he had entrusted him with one animal-tooth necklace and this otherwise-ordinary-looking charm, telling him to carry both at all times, and that if ever the Deng Yin family faced a matter of life and death, he should burn this charm.

His father surely had not imagined that day would come so fast. Yet burning any number of charms could not bring back what the Deng Yin family had lost. Still, he followed his father’s wishes. It was all he could do now.

He staggered to his feet, found a somewhat dry spot, and struck a fire. In the bright firelight, he took up the white charm and threw it into the flames…

Three days later, something bizarre occurred in Osaka. The Fujiwara family — its principal members, led by Fujiwara Yoshitoyo — vanished every one of them overnight. The night before, they had reportedly still been excitedly dividing the vast fortune brought back from Kyoto. But the following morning: the money was gone, and the people were gone.

Chapter 7

In the brightly lit main hall, absolute silence.

Shen Liu stared in astonishment at the room — empty. Just moments ago, every single member of Ju Bao Hall had been crammed in here!

The full box of gold bars was also gone.

Shen Liu searched every corner of Ju Bao Hall, shouting Yin Xiu’s name, but found no trace of her anywhere.

He quickly ran through the possibilities: a falling-out over the loot? But there were no signs of a fight. Yao the Blind had taken everyone and fled? Even less likely.

He returned to his room, dug out a few broken pieces of silver from under his bed, and fled in a panic from that hideout, now quieter than a tomb.

By the time he stumbled back to the rear of the mountain, hoping to beg the strange girl for help, the person who flashed out at him gave him yet another massive fright.

Yin Xiu?! He threw himself at her, gripping her by both arms. Are you all right? Every last person in Ju Bao Hall is gone!

I’m fine. Yin Xiu smiled and glanced at Leng Leng beside them. Thanks to you, I’ve reunited with an old friend I haven’t seen in a long time.

Yin Xiu? Leng Leng stretched lazily atop the stone. Better than your original name.

Shen Liu stood blankly between them: You… know each other?

We’ve known each other for many years. Yin Xiu suddenly bowed very seriously toward Shen Liu. I am deeply sorry — not wanting to complicate matters, I never told you the truth. I am not from China. My real name is Deng Yin Xiu Yi.

Leng Leng hopped off the stone and grabbed the dumbstruck Shen Liu by the wrist: Time to go.

Where? Shen Liu instinctively took a step back.

Leng Leng looked up with a smile, grabbing one of them with each hand: To run into each other, separated by a thousand miles, in this little place — clearly our fated connection is no shallow thing. So then, let’s all go together. With luck we’ll have the Thousand-Measure Millet in our hands before long. She glanced at Deng Yin Xiu Yi. You already heard my conversation with him quite clearly while you were eavesdropping?

I’ll go with you! Deng Yin Xiu Yi said without the slightest hesitation.

Good. Leng Leng clapped her hands happily. But I want to be clear upfront: wherever I take you, whatever I say goes. Otherwise you can get lost. Can you do that?

Yes! Deng Yin Xiu Yi nodded vigorously.

Shen Liu was still in deep turmoil, pulling a long face: Little ancestor, what in the world are you?

I am very, very old — old enough that I should long since be in the grave. She stuck her tongue out at him. Anyone afraid of heights, close your eyes. The words had barely left her mouth when Shen Liu felt his body go weightless — both of them were dragged skyward by this little sprite, lifting into the air. Behind them followed a toad, legs stretched out flat, no wings, yet flying with perfect ease…

Chapter 8

Shen Liu felt he had been thoroughly and completely swindled!

And this swindle had gone on for five full years! Five years of youth — vanished so bitterly in this ranch on the Gobi Desert! The divine Thousand-Measure Millet that could turn a single grain of rice into a full jar? The dream of overnight riches? All lies! That wretched little girl had clearly used sorcery to trap him on this “ranch” surrounded by fence posts, and he was one of the “livestock” on it.

He had asked Leng Leng countless times: if she had said the Thousand-Measure Millet was in Zijing County, why had she brought them thousands of miles away to this completely unrelated stretch of Gobi Desert? Every time she gave the same answer: We already agreed — whatever I say, you do.

Well. Consider what he’d been doing these past years. Every day before dawn he had to get up — if he dared sleep in, snake spiders that bit your rear end would materialize inside the quilt. Not enough venom to kill you, but the itch lasted an entire day. After being bitten twice, Shen Liu was up earlier than the roosters from that point on. The first thing after getting out of bed was to strap on impossibly heavy sandbags, then run ten laps around the ranch. After running, he would go to a building on the other side of the ranch and spar with bizarre wooden mannequins that moved and threw punches. In the early days he went to breakfast looking battered and bruised more often than not.

The rest of the morning was spent entirely on reading. Leng Leng had apparently tracked down every book she could find — histories, pig-farming guides, business manuals, medical texts, astronomy and geography — and made not only him but herself read them, memorize them, with random spot-checks at any time. Fail to answer, and: no lunch, ten more laps, snake spiders on supervision duty. Slowly, Shen Liu discovered with sorrow that “reading ten lines at a glance” and “never forgetting what you read once” were apparently skills that could be trained…

By comparison, the afternoons were considerably more relaxed. He only had to converse with “people” of different complexions, personalities, and ages who appeared at the ranch, then try to buy back various goods from them at the lowest possible price, and sell them the next day to a different group at the highest price — bargaining and haggling, working all manner of social graces, day in and day out. Of course, all the “people” who appeared at the ranch eventually transformed back into a pile of coins in Leng Leng’s hand. After so long, he was doing business deals in his sleep.

Five years of this. The Thousand-Measure Millet had come to feel like a forgotten dream. The only thing Shen Liu had gained was that he had grown up, grown tall, could run ten laps without losing his breath, had come to know something about everything under the sun, and had become thoroughly adept at dealing with all kinds of people.

Deng Yin Xiu Yi’s life had been identical to his, with the single difference that he had none of Shen Liu’s complaints. From the very beginning, he had done everything Leng Leng said with single-minded focus, utterly unconcerned with whether he was livestock being kept in a pen.

The Thousand-Measure Millet — she hasn’t even mentioned it. Liar!

At dusk, Shen Liu sat at the edge of the ranch, gazing out at the vast, empty Gobi ahead. At this hour, the world outside was all golden — like her eyes. This lying little demon had tormented them for five years. When would it ever end?! He wanted to leave — but that thought was quickly pushed back down again.

It definitely exists, Deng Yin Xiu Yi said, leaning on the fence post, staring outside with a gaze full of hope.

What on earth is she? Shen Liu scratched his head fiercely. You don’t think she’s fattening us up and planning to cook us, do you?

If she wanted to eat us, she’d have done it five years ago, Deng Yin Xiu Yi said, smiling and shaking his head.

The sun continued to sink. Deng Yin Xiu Yi watched the golden world before him and quietly clenched his fists. Five extraordinary years had transformed a helpless, half-handed boy into a man who could punch through a wooden mannequin’s arm with one blow.

Will you go back? Shen Liu asked suddenly, very seriously. If we find the stone?

Yes. He nodded, his gaze suddenly sharpening. The Deng Yin family cannot simply disappear like this. What the Fujiwara family took, I will take back! He glanced at Shen Liu. What about you? All these years, you’ve never once mentioned why you left home.

Shen Liu was silent for a good while, then suddenly burst out laughing: My father’s business went under, and I was no help. He said I was useless, a waste of the Shen family’s rice, and threw me out. I swore that the day I had money to burn, that was the day I’d go home. He laughed more and more outrageously. You don’t know — I jumped into a river once. Didn’t die. I figured, maybe heaven wants me to live. So I’ll live. But the money I’d brought with me was dwindling fast. I tried applying at a shop as an assistant, they said I was too slow with numbers. Selling cloth — they said I wasn’t glib enough. Don’t laugh — I tried to haul night-soil buckets and even they didn’t want me, said my arms were too weak. So I hardened my heart and went gambling, fell in a daze into a thieves’ den. If the Thousand-Measure Millet were real, would I have had to suffer through all this?

The light around them grew darker and darker. The wind howled across the Gobi, sounding sometimes like laughter, sometimes like weeping.

I have no grand ambitions. I just want to walk back to my father with fistfuls of money, stand tall, and tell him: Your son did not eat the Shen family’s food for nothing. Your son is not useless. Shen Liu rubbed his eyes, the laughter fading. Ah — sand in my eye.

Deng Yin Xiu Yi said nothing, just patted him on the back.

In another corner of the ranch, Leng Leng watched from a distance at those two men standing side by side. Perhaps because the night was so heavy, her complexion looked far worse than usual, and even the color had drained from her lips.

One hundred and twenty-nine — including these two. The Xiao Leng perched on a wooden post suddenly spoke in a human voice. You cannot continue.

What an excellent memory. Worthy of my personal assistant. She stroked its head. If only there could be a few more.

There are already so very many. Xiao Leng hopped onto her shoulder, pressing its cheek to hers with tenderness.

Those little sprites seem still to be alive — I can always hear their voices. Leng Leng pressed her fingers to her heart and smiled wearily.

Xiao Leng shook its head: That is your own voice. The you that existed from the very beginning was, at your core, the most generous of gods.

Generous? She smiled bitterly. If I had not grown miserly with my patience and time, the demonic obstruction would never have had the chance to erode my mind. And humans who had only temporarily strayed from their path would never have disappeared at my hands.

At the very least, you have been generous to one hundred and twenty-nine people, Xiao Leng said. All those you have ever “confined” — any who are even slightly clever will understand what they have already received.

Let us hope so. Leng Leng tipped her head back and looked at the sparse stars above. Xiao Leng — you have had countless chances to become a higher-ranking celestial official, yet you have always stayed at my side. Why?

Hmm… Xiao Leng rolled its eyes. Because you, as Jin Lao, oversee all the wealth in the world, and yet you’ve always muddled your accounts — how could you manage without me?

Leng Leng stuck her tongue out at it. The two of them burst into laughter.

Chapter 9

The following morning brought magnificent weather. Scarlet-gold light turned the entire Gobi into a kingdom forged from pure gold.

You may go now. With a wave of Leng Leng’s hand, the fence posts that had confined them for five full years suddenly vanished entirely. Her red jacket was especially vivid against the scene — and against it, her face was especially pale.

A bolt from the blue. Shen Liu and Deng Yin Xiu Yi stood frozen.

We can really go? They said it at the same moment, after a long pause.

Five years, she said with a smile. Enough.

And the stone? The Thousand-Measure Millet that multiplies a hundred-fold?! Shen Liu seized her arm at once. A chill stabbed straight from her body into his palm, and he let go instantly. Why are you so cold?

Because it’s almost winter, she said, shrugging, and turned to gaze into the distance, pointing in a certain direction. Walk that way. In half a day you’ll reach a river, and at the river’s edge there will be a boat with enough water and food. Follow the river west — in ten days you’ll be back among people again. After that, go wherever you like.

With that, without so much as a goodbye, she turned and walked in the opposite direction.

Hey! You still haven’t told us about the stone! You promised! Shen Liu shouted.

She stopped and turned her head, smiling: I’ve already given it to you. What you do with it is your concern.

With that, she walked slowly forward, and with each step she took, a piece of the ranch disappeared.

By the time the two of them shook themselves free of their bewilderment, they were standing in the middle of the Gobi, nothing around them in any direction.

You liar! Shen Liu cried out with all his soul.

Her figure grew smaller and smaller. The flying sand became a whirlwind and covered every last trace of her.

At this point there was nothing to be done. After a brief stretch of desolation, Shen Liu stamped his foot hard and yanked Deng Yin Xiu Yi along: Let’s go!

Deng Yin Xiu Yi sighed: What else can we do?

From now on I will never again trust those things that look like children but are full of rotten schemes! Shen Liu gave himself another slap. What was wrong with me! How could I have believed a thing like that! How could I have believed there was such a stone in the world!

Come now, let’s go, Deng Yin Xiu Yi said, patting his shoulder.

But just as Shen Liu turned around, he felt a numbness at the back of his neck. The bright morning sunshine instantly became pitch-black night. With a thud, he toppled onto the faintly warm sand.

Behind him, Deng Yin Xiu Yi lowered his hand and looked calmly at the unconscious Shen Liu: I still believe this stone exists.

Chapter 10

The sun had already climbed high, blazing so brightly one could not open one’s eyes.

Before a great clump of camel-thorn on the Gobi Desert, Leng Leng sat cross-legged. Xiao Leng crouched directly opposite her, keeping its vigil as close to her as it could manage.

It had once kept busy with her in the glittering Golden Toad Palace. It had once traveled back and forth with her through the human world. It had once spent unknowable ages with her in a world of purple, among a group of purple little people both real and dreamlike.

It clearly remembered the little people laughing and singing nearby, tools of every kind materializing in their hands, using purple mist as raw material to craft all manner of food, coins, and dwellings. The little people had told them: increase was their power. Therefore, they could not only bestow humans with boundless grain and wealth in a single night — they could “increase” an infant in its swaddling clothes to a full-grown person of twenty within a day, “increase” a person’s brief life to several times or dozens of times its length, “increase” someone with no strength at all into a titan who could shake mountains barehanded. Whatever thing humans hoped would be “increased” rapidly, they could accomplish. And they had for a time believed that helping these people in need was the most precious form of generosity. But later they discovered that many of those who had been helped had not found the happiness they had expected. The farmer who had received grain without effort stopped working the land; good fields ultimately became a swampy ruin, producing nothing ever after. The person who had become rich overnight did not keep his promises to improve his family’s life but spent his days in debauchery and oppressed the poor. Parents who did not want to endure the hardships of raising a child begged them to let their infant son grow up overnight; when they got their wish, they found the grown child felt nothing for them, and at the slightest displeasure would raise his fists against them, causing them endless suffering… All manner of wishes for “increase,” and the little people’s “generosity,” had turned the world into a terrible mess.

The members of the Zijing Nation began to reflect, and arrived at a conclusion: things that come too easily also tend to be dangerous.

And so they no longer helped humans as they once had. They would rather spend far more time teaching a dull child to farm diligently than give him a store of ready-made grain. When humans discovered this change, they grew furious. Accustomed to “ease,” accustomed to “being given,” they decided the purple little people were no longer the unlimited, always-generous spirits they had once been, but demons who had flung them into all manner of hardship.

Xiao Leng had once asked the purple little people if they hated the human sorcerer.

They said they did not. They blamed only themselves for misunderstanding the word “generosity.” A wrong act of giving was precisely the food that the monster called “greed” loved most — the more it was fed, the larger it grew. In the end, one could say they had died by their own hands.

Leng Leng, drifting in and out, listened to the little people and Xiao Leng’s conversation, turning over the past in her mind. As the celestial Jin Lao, she had always insisted on her own way of doing things. The sight of gold coins showering down upon the world — that was only a human fantasy. She never directly gave gold to humans; she only taught them how to accumulate wealth by their own efforts. She had written any number of business guides, farming manuals, and more, and taught these money-making methods to humans. She always said: wealth should be earned through careful, diligent effort — not prayed for effortlessly.

But as time went on, some humans grew restless. They did not want to toil and rush about anymore. They felt that a god of wealth ought not to be this way — she ought to stuff their rooms full of gold overnight, not teach them something as troublesome as how to sell southern fruits up north. Humans no longer trusted her, no longer worshipped her. Shoes and stones replaced reverent incense. On her divine statues, words were carved: What heaven-sent god? Only a miser. She was disappointed — very deeply, profoundly disappointed — and even began to doubt whether she had truly been wrong. And it was precisely in this wavering of her spirit that a malicious, formless beast that had crept in from some unknown source turned her into a different person altogether. She came to the little city where her statues had been smashed to pieces, carrying countless gold coins, and gave them out without limit to the city’s people. Everyone who received a coin was ecstatic — yet no one knew that the “generous” god’s coins would trap everyone who took them inside golden bubbles. A single movement of her finger would make those bubbles vanish forever along with the people inside.

She had spent half a morning playfully popping those bubbles one by one, and in the end, the people of several cities and towns were dissolved into nothingness by her hands. Xiao Leng had known she was in trouble, but beyond staying constantly by her side, it could do nothing.

If that person had not gathered her into this purple crystal — if she had not heard the voices of the purple little people’s souls — how many more people in all the world might have lost their lives to her “generosity”?

A crushing guilt dragged her into a long, long sleep. The songs of the purple little people brought total peace to her heart. Just before she lost consciousness, she thought: if I can return to the human world once more, there is one thing I must do…

A gust of wind blew past. Xiao Leng watched unblinking as her small body grew gradually translucent.

When they had come back to this world — when they had remembered, in that garden ten thousand miles away, the many things of the past — when they understood they were no longer heavenly gods — the first thing she had said to Xiao Leng was: Let me be Jin Lao one more time.

Entrusting the “Thousand-Measure Millet” to one hundred and twenty-nine people she judged to truly need it — the consequences of this, she had known better than anyone. Xiao Leng had known too. But it had not stopped her.

Xiao Leng… The figure before it slowly opened its eyes.

I’m here, Xiao Leng said, straightening its back.

You can take care of yourself very well on your own, can’t you? Her body had become a faint, smoke-like outline, no longer quite like a person — more like a considerably large… toad.

I can. After all those years with you, I dare say I am the most survival-savvy creature in the world. It grinned.

That’s good…

It knew Leng Leng must have had so much more to say. But there was no time. The god who had always worn red and never grown up — she was gone from before it entirely. A cluster of half-translucent purple crystal, glittering and gleaming, was left where she had been.

But before it could grieve or reflect, a figure flashed past, and a white paper covered in talismanic script landed squarely on its head.

It could not move at all. Its body felt as though it had been tightly bound by a rope.

Xiao Leng stared with startled eyes at Deng Yin Xiu Yi before it, and at the cluster of crystals gripped firmly in his hand.

So the stone was hidden inside her body all along. Deng Yin Xiu Yi let out a long breath. And here I thought I’d have to dig around much harder after following all the way here from Kyoto.

You— Xiao Leng glared furiously.

Deng Yin Xiu Yi smiled slightly: Father left me a protective charm and instructed me to burn it when a great matter arose. In fact, it was Father’s way of using fire-inscription sorcery to tell me everything about the Zijing Nation. When we first encountered Leng Leng on the ship, Father had already detected the energy of the Zijing on her. He therefore concluded that the missing divine stone Thousand-Measure Millet was connected to her — only, she appeared to remember nothing. However, in the three years she spent in our family’s home, she brought no small benefit to the Deng Yin family. But Father’s ultimate aim was still to find that stone. With it, the Deng Yin family would certainly be able to restore its glory. Yet Father ultimately did not live to see that day. As for how she came to leave the Deng Yin family — Father had in fact engineered it deliberately. Long beforehand, he had planted a thousand-mile tracking curse on Leng Leng. As long as I activated the curse by Father’s prescribed method, I would know her whereabouts. Father and I both believed that by following her, we would certainly learn where the Thousand-Measure Millet was.

How could your father have detected the Zijing energy on her? Xiao Leng demanded, furious yet deeply bewildered.

The animal-tooth chain passed down in our Deng Yin family had at some point come in contact with the ashes of a Zijing person. The moment Leng Leng appeared, the tooth broke free from Father’s neck as though it had found its master, and latched onto her. Deng Yin Xiu Yi ran his fingers over the animal-tooth necklace now hanging at his own throat. On its own, that was not yet enough for Father to be certain. But after bringing her home, Father discovered by chance that her presence caused wealth to multiply rapidly — which confirmed to him that Leng Leng was connected to the Zijing Nation.

So you didn’t simply wander by chance into Zijing County? Xiao Leng had never noticed the iciness in those eyes.

Deng Yin Xiu Yi smiled: I knew she was there. And she had always assumed I knew nothing about her situation. She was so perceptive — had I appeared out of nowhere, she would surely have grown suspicious. In order to make her believe my life was truly going badly, I chose that little thief, then feigned illness, and had him bring me to the thieves’ den. I had planned to spend a few months there before “coincidentally” appearing before her — but who knew she would actually seek out Shen Liu herself. It worked out perfectly. I took advantage of that opportunity to reunite with her in a manner completely above suspicion.

No wonder you were so thin back then — it all went into scheming. Xiao Leng sighed, then suddenly asked: Why would your animal-tooth chain have come in contact with the ashes of a Zijing person?

The founding ancestor of the Deng Yin family was a great sorcerer. Deng Yin Xiu Yi smiled faintly, tucked the glittering crystal cluster into a cloth pouch, and said: Farewell, useless little toad.

Chapter 11

Ten years later. A certain estate in the Jiangnan region.

A pillow was flung squarely at the well-dressed man’s face. An irate young wife sat before her carved canopy bed, jabbing her finger at his nose: Shen You, you promised me you’d bring back the newest perfumed powder from Tianzhu! You forgot again!

Next time! Next time! The man smiled apologetically, hurriedly scooping up the young child playing nearby. I’ll take Fu’er to buy sweets. You calm down.

And so he fled the room. The small boy in his arms blinked his bright eyes and giggled: Mother’s pillow-throwing aim is so good!

How dare you mock your father! He tweaked his son’s nose. No sweets!

I don’t want sweets anyway, the child said, kicking his legs. Just finish the story from last time! Did the one called Shen Liu find the Thousand-Measure Millet?

The man sat down with his son in the bamboo chair in the courtyard and said: He did. He left the Gobi Desert by boat, and because of the Thousand-Measure Millet, he made a great deal of money in business. He went home in the end, married a wife with a very loud voice, and had a son.

What about the others? And Leng Leng? the child pressed. Was she a monster? Why did she never grow up?

The man opened his mouth, and could not help but sink back into those memories full of strange and wondrous experience.

There had never been a Shen Liu in the world. He had once given up being a member of the Shen family, and had given up his real name, “Shen You” — a man thrown out of his own home had no dignity in using his real name while making his way in the world.

His son’s questions, he could not answer. Ten years ago, parting at the ranch, he had completely lost track of both Leng Leng and Deng Yin Xiu Yi. Though to this day he still did not understand why Deng Yin Xiu Yi had knocked him unconscious, he had never because of it suspected or resented this “brother” who had appeared and then vanished.

As for Leng Leng — he had long since stopped seeing her as a liar. In the years after leaving the Gobi Desert, as he went from a watermelon vendor to a merchant earning a fortune every day, he finally understood with a sudden clarity: Leng Leng had never lied.

The Thousand-Measure Millet — she had given it to him.

He only regretted they had never had the chance to meet again. If they could meet once more, no matter what he had to do, he would prepare a fine table of food and drink, and from the sincerest place in his heart, say to her: Thank you.

But where in the world had they gone?

Father! You’re daydreaming again! His son yanked his ear. Is the story over?

He snapped back to himself: Ah! Yes, it’s over!

Father, Fu’er also wants a stone like that! It could produce endless money — and Mother’s perfumed powder too, couldn’t it? The child tilted his head and daydreamed innocently.

Is that so… He nodded. Father will take you to find one.

Really?

Of course. Father knows where that divine stone called the Thousand-Measure Millet can be found.

Wonderful! Father is so amazing!

Don’t get too excited yet — have you finished the lessons your teacher set you?

Yes. Teacher taught us a saying yesterday.

What saying?

The truly generous do not give fish — they teach how to fish.

Oh, you know this one? Then do you know what it means?

Yes — it means that instead of giving someone a fish, it is better to teach them how to fish. That is what it means to be truly generous.

In the courtyard, the cheerful conversation between an ordinary father and son drifted away in the westward-shifting sunlight…

Many years later, Zhu Yuanzhang established his capital in Nanjing. Shen Fu, the wealthiest man in Jiangnan — also known as Shen Wan San — contributed an enormous sum to help the emperor rebuild the city walls, for which he was greatly rewarded and became renowned across the land. People all said that the Shen family’s great wealth had been aided by some treasure-gathering divine object — some said it was a magic money-bowl, some said a divine stone, others said there was no divine object whatsoever, only that Shen Wan San’s father had excelled at teaching his son. Whatever the truth, the real and the false had all become an enduring mystery.

Chapter 12

I was extremely excited! From the moment I arrived in this place, the Fish King’s Tongue had been growing warm. What this toad had said was true — the Thousand-Measure Millet was nearby.

Poplar trees, camel-thorn — all standing full of life on this Gobi Desert. The dry earth and scorching sun had not diminished a fraction with the passing of time.

Things that come too easily tend to be dangerous. Xiao Leng stood before that clump of camel-thorn, watching the old man slumped on the ground, gasping heavily. A white lizard lay half-dead beside the old fellow.

Letting you live was my greatest mistake. A strange purple energy seeped from beneath that aged face. He clutched his chest, curling in on himself painfully against the ground. You useless creature — you actually sought help…

All these years, you worked to rebuild the Deng Yin family — subduing monsters for people without taking payment, and deliberately allowing word of this to spread, so that the world would be in awe of your family’s excellence and character, and hold your clan in even greater reverence. You used your “generosity” as the foundation from which to stand in people’s hearts — that plan, it must be said, succeeded. Xiao Leng looked down at the old man, whose condition was growing more and more feeble. But when you used dark sorcery to drive and transform the power inside the Thousand-Measure Millet — “increasing” whatever people desired at speed, and using that as your proprietary secret method for dominating all others — Deng Yin Xiu Yi, you never thought, did you, what would happen after losing that stone?

Deng Yin Xiu Yi’s hands shook violently, his breathing growing more and more labored: Those people…

I’m afraid your clients who lost their heads and limbs will never recover in this lifetime. Xiao Leng spread its hands with helpless resignation. A person who refused to think and learn and hoped to become a genius overnight — his head had no reason to exist; a person who refused to work hard and sat waiting for a fortune to fall from the sky — his hands and feet had no reason to exist either. You thought you had generously bestowed upon them everything they needed. In truth, you used the stinginess in your bones to leave them maimed for life. And you yourself — the life you “increased” with the Thousand-Measure Millet is also almost at its end.

You should have killed me… Deng Yin Xiu Yi said with bitter fury, …rather than go to such elaborate lengths to bring me here.

Xiao Leng hopped up before him and said: This place was once the starting point of a new destiny for both you and Shen Liu — yet you chose to go in the opposite direction from Shen Liu. Leng Leng hoped you would each live well. I don’t have her abilities. All I can do is bring you back to the starting point. If there is a next life, I hope you will remember this place, and walk the road that should be walked.

Deng Yin Xiu Yi’s hands clawed desperately at the ground, struggling to push himself halfway up: Bring me back! No — give me the Thousand-Measure Millet. I want to live. There are many people still counting on the Deng Yin family’s help…

The Thousand-Measure Millet has always been in your hands. You simply chose not to use it. Xiao Leng shook its head and turned away.

No… come back… come back!

From behind another clump of camel-thorn, I was frowning, watching that man who had lived several hundred extra years writhe in desperate agony. If at the time he and Shen Liu had walked the same direction — if he had chosen the “Thousand-Measure Millet” Leng Leng had given them and not obsessed over the actual stone — what a different story the Deng Yin family might have now… But as the most powerless word in the world, “if” is not worth bringing up.

The faster you try to go, the easier you want things to be — the more easily you fall into a pit. That is one of my life’s principles.

The white lizard scrambled frantically around the despairing old man. The monster produced by the mutated power of the Thousand-Measure Millet might have managed against small fry — but running into a group of old monsters like us, it could only blame its rotten luck. Power “increased” in so short a time, however dazzling the surface, could never compare with centuries and millennia of real cultivation, step by diligent step.

When the lizard spirit and the eel monster, reverting to their original forms, were casually stepped on by Ao Chi and Jia Yi, we deliberated for a full minute between “roast eel” and “release them” — and in the end, the majority voted to release them.

My parting warning to them was: From now on, cultivate honestly. Stop dreaming of achieving the Dao overnight. When you have truly cultivated to the point of being able to take human form, do us all a favor and pick a more attractive appearance.

At this, Jia Yi and Jiu Jue simultaneously tapped my shoulder and looked in a certain direction: Your toad is gone.

It was just here, wasn’t it?!

Ao Chi and I snapped out of the deep atmosphere of spectating an ultimate confrontation. That wretched toad — it had promised that once it brought the old man here, it would tell us where the Thousand-Measure Millet was buried! It had actually ditched us and vanished?!

A short-legged toad can’t outrun me! Ao Chi shot off in a flash.

But in the vast Gobi, with wind and sand rising on all sides — where was there any trace of that toad?!

We scattered in all directions to search. Besides mouthfuls of sand, we found nothing.

Had I really been outmaneuvered by a toad? It had promised me a stone — and I believed the story it told.

It told me: it and Leng Leng had spent many years inside the Thousand-Measure Millet, and when they awakened, they were inside the belly of a sea monster with legs, surrounded by something like jade-dust. They had run all around inside the sea monster’s belly and been vomited out, landing on the ship of Deng Yin Xiu Yi’s father. Perhaps this creature, which had an enormous appetite and liked to forage on land, had swallowed the stone sealing them inside at some point. I believed this.

It told me: it had tried to reclaim the Thousand-Measure Millet from Deng Yin Xiu Yi’s hands, but for a time it could not even get past the Deng Yin family’s front gate. So it had forced itself into deep mountain cultivation for several hundred years — though it hadn’t become particularly formidable — and at last was able to slip inside the Deng Yin family home and take back the Thousand-Measure Millet that had never belonged to them in the first place. This I also believed.

And facing someone who trusted it this much — how could it bring itself to deceive me?!

Behind me it was no quieter: Ao Chi blamed Jiu Jue for not giving chase immediately, Jiu Jue said he thought the toad had only hopped a few steps away to strike a pensive pose, who knew it would biu and completely vanish! Only Jia Yi, untroubled, said: Those who must go will go; what must come will come.

But I still couldn’t accept the heartbreak of a fat piece of meat biu-ing away right before it reached my mouth!

The air all around grew hotter and hotter. Even if I had to turn this entire Gobi inside out, I was going to find that toad!

Just as we reached a dried-up riverbed, something rolled out from among a cluster of stones — end over end — and came to rest squarely at my feet. A half-palm-sized cluster of semi-translucent purple crystal, with a uniquely shaped gold coin nestled inside it, gleaming under the sunlight, deeply enticing my eyes.

Not far away, Xiao Leng — covered head to toe in grit — stood on a low rock and grinned at me: It was buried too deep. I just dug it up. Lucky you hadn’t left yet — otherwise I’d have kept this stone.

I fought hard to contain the rushing elation of something lost and then found again, and picked up this stone that had cost such immense effort to obtain: You’re sure this one is mine now?

For me, carrying it around is too heavy. Xiao Leng smiled. Besides, its power has grown very faint by now. Unless another Deng Yin Xiu Yi comes along and uses dark sorcery to drive it again.

I smiled: I’m a monster who dearly loves gold. Who’s to say that one day I might use this stone to make myself rich overnight?

With your abilities, you could get hold of as much gold as you wanted without needing the Thousand-Measure Millet at all. Xiao Leng blinked. I’d guess that making money is your passion, but greed is not. Even though your tea hasn’t sold more than a few tins, you enjoy every moment of it. It gave a loud laugh, then added: But meeting me — that’s still a good deal for you. This gold coin should be more than enough to buy one tin of your tea, shouldn’t it?

Absolutely! I nodded at once, then stretched my voice to a shout: Jiu Jue! Get the cart out, bring the tea!

But very quickly, all of us grinned in awkward embarrassment.

On the rock, Xiao Leng looked at the tin of tea that was more or less its own size with great solemnity and declared: No problem — I can carry it!

The question is, where are you going? I asked.

Leng Leng once helped one hundred and twenty-nine people. I want to make that number grow a little more. Xiao Leng heaved the tin of tea onto its back and turned to flash a grin at me. If we meet again someday, I’ll tell you then whether your tea suits my palate. Goodbye.

Wait. Why were you always so good to Leng Leng? I called out to stop it — suddenly remembering the most gossip-worthy question of all.

No particular reason. We are both descendants of the Golden Toad, and I, as an official under Jin Lao’s command, was meant to work on her behalf. It paused, then smiled. There was no convoluted or dramatic story between us. It’s just that anyone would like to be around someone who is truly generous, wouldn’t they?

The answer really is that simple. I shook my head with a smile.

Being generous is not only about money. In future, if someone asks the people around you why they treat you so well, I imagine their answers would be the same. It gave me a meaningful wink, looked meaningfully at Ao Chi and the others, and then — huffing and puffing under the tea tin — rounded a clump of withered branches and hopped away without a backward glance, toward the direction of the sun…

Well then. I actually wouldn’t mind if a few more people ended up in that “ranch” of hers… Keep at it, toad!

Epilogue

A letter to Unknown, the Nth:

Dearest Unknown, Mother knows you must love the scenery of the Gobi Desert, because you gave Mother so many enthusiastic kicks. Hmm — or perhaps you’re unhappy that your father keeps calling you Little Congee?

Xiao Leng Uncle’s gold coin has been put away with great delight by Mother. In truth Mother should have given it an extra tin of tea — but forget it, it definitely can’t carry any more.

I don’t know when you’ll come into this world. Your father has said that after you are born, he wants to move the finest things from the entire East Sea and indeed the entire world to lay before you — we are going to be the best, most generous parents in the world.

But Mother knows his rare streak of good sense will not allow him to actually do this, so you need not expect endless gold or unlimited sweets.

Remember: your father and mother’s greatest generosity is to make your life not quite so “easy.” Mother certainly does not hope that one morning you wake to find your head or your hands have gone missing…

A healthy body, a clear mind, and one after another of interesting or dangerous journeys — that is the best gift in the world we can give you.

Neither time nor energy will we stint, until you learn how to get along in this world where light and darkness coexist.

There may be a time when you hate us — but this truly is the way your father and mother love you. Even if you hate us, we won’t be missing any pieces, hmph!

I’ll stop here for now. Because Mother needs to go and give your father a good beating.

Do you know what he’s doing right now?

He has put the Thousand-Measure Millet in a box, and is busy egging your Ninth Uncle Jiu Jue and Uncle Jia Yi into putting banknotes inside it.

Mother is suddenly filled with deep anxiety for your future again… Outrage! What kind of creature is your father, really?!