A few days after the arrival of Jin, Ye was dozing off for the evening. His MeiMei and Jin had fought over who slept where again, and he’d made sure to gloat at the end, just as he’d done the night before. At this rate, it would be a bed-time habit for all three of them.

His mind was wondering, as it often does before sleeping, when he had a revelation. He had to cover his mouth to keep himself from yelling at his discovery.

Ye finally remembered where he’d seen the body the Emperor had “borrowed”! The man had definitely been part of the Blue Flower Village, meaning that corpse was centuries old. No wonder the Emperor had expended so much energy to revive it!

The body was Bai Ju Yi! That notorious philanderer and lady’s man. Bai Ju Yi was a born flirt and seemed to have an unquenchable desire to sow his seed. In a small Village filled with expert martial artists, Bai Ju Yi had stupidly thought he could get away with such behavior indefinitely.

So he’d flirted and slept with every eligible lady in the village and then started in on the ones that weren’t. Things took a turn for the worse when he went after the Chief’s wife, the most beautiful woman in the village. But not because her husband found out.

The Chief’s wife was arrogant and vain. Bai Ju Yi was much younger than her and already he was counted the most handsome man in the village. She quite liked the attention of such a good looking man, considering it natural due to her beauty, until she realized he was giving that same attention to everyone else. The idea of being a “notch in a man’s scabbard” absolutely infuriated her. She would never allow herself to be used, and only use others.

So, quietly and without much fuss, she lured Bai Ju Yi out onto a beautiful section of the mountains in the south. There was a high cliff there, and it had a gorgeous view of the surrounding area. They drank wine deep into the night, until Bai Ju Yi was completely plastered.

She’d spiked the wine with a special kind of poison. It was rare and only used to punish people who broke village law. It weakened the body, reducing the drinker to mortal strength.

And then she brought him to the edge of the cliff and pushed him off.

He’d died instantly upon impact with the ground. The isolated location at the bottom, paired with the dry air of that place, had apparently mummified his broken body.

Ye had not been witness to Bai Ju Yi’s death, no one had, in fact. The Chief’s wife had never admitted where she took him, only that she’d used wine to poison and kill him. Ye, having seen the corpse, had pieced the rest together. The great mystery of Bai Ju Yi’s missing body was finally solved, but there was no family to tell about it.

How very tragic, Ye thought.

It had been one of the few times a genuine evil act had been committed in Blue Flower Village. The only reason the Chief’s wife was caught was because several fairies saw them leave together. They hadn’t followed, assuming Bai Ju Yi was up to his tricks again (fairies didn’t find the mating practices of humans terribly interesting after one or two viewings).

No matter how frivolous Bai Ju Yi’s behavior, he’d never done anything forcibly. He was a flirt, not a rapist. If anything, more women used him, than him using them. The Chief’s wife had killed him unjustly, for no other reason than she was vain.

Ye pondered this history quietly in the night. If he recalled, the Chief’s wife had been forced to drink the same poison and then was driven off the mountain to fend for herself. The Chief had been so heartbroken, he’d drank the same poison and followed after her.

Humans could be so foolish. What was the point in chasing after a woman like that? If she’d murdered once for such a shallow reason, surely she’d do it again! How did the Chief know if he wouldn’t be the next victim?

Ye quietly mocked the Chief for his behavior before returning to the pertinent point: The Emperor had taken over the body of Bai Ju Yi.

That…. That shouldn’t be a problem, should it? Bai Ju Yi had been a horrible womanizer, but surely that was just his personality and had nothing to do with his body, correct?

This worried Ye. If it was just Bai Ju Yi, that was one thing. But Ye was a scholarly fairy. He understood the human body well enough. Male humans sometimes had very high reproductive drives, to the point that they’d turn out stupid. Usually such males were also hyper aggressive, but Bai Ju Yi had never shown such tendencies. So maybe it was a moot point.

But if, by some slim chance, Bai Ju Yi had a body like that and the Emperor took it over… Would the Emperor be able to control those human impulses? Would he even know what they were?

A cold sweat ran down Ye’s little face at the thought.

He was no longer ambivalent about Jin’s sneaking into his MeiMei’s bed. That behavior was now absolutely unacceptable. He’d have to be careful, otherwise who knows what that stupid Emperor might do! With that thought as his only assurance, he managed to get to sleep.

Days passed, flowing into weeks, turning into months.

Despite a very rough start, Jin proved he was not the idiot Ye claimed him to be. He was actually a fast learner.

Dressing and undressing became a simple task. He steadily increased his vocabulary too. His balance had improved greatly and he could now stand and sit like a respectable human being. Going to the bathroom was now done alone and without a mess, much to Mei Hua and Ye’s relief. And he waited patiently for food to cool down (that one he was extra cautious about).

If anything could be counted against him, it was that if he didn’t understand the reason for why a thing was a certain way, he would ignore it. He did not understand, for instance, why Mei Hua and Ye kept insisting he needed to give her space.

Oh yes, when she was doing things, he knew to stay away because it impeded her efforts. But why should he not stay close otherwise? She wasn’t doing anything, so it shouldn’t matter.

In Jin’s mind, the only reason you kept a distance from family was if you were angry. This had been the case for him, and he’d come to regret it. So, now that he was Mei Hua’s family (despite the fact that no one had bothered to inform her of that), he would not keep his distance. He would stay close, to prove that he wasn’t angry, that she wasn’t alone, that she didn’t need to leave.

For Mei Hua’s part, she’d given up on the idea of having personal space by the end of the first month with him. She’d lectured, yelled, pleaded, but nothing worked. Not even Ye pulling his hair had helped. Jin would just sulk or cry and go right back to his old behavior. In short, she was just too tired to fight it.

Even if he was an extremely stubborn and sometimes aggravating person to deal with, Mei Hua also found him interesting and fun too. His view of the world was very childlike and filled with wonder. He was eager to learn and he laughed and cried freely, never feeling any kind of shame.