“Jin,” Mei Hua was standing in the middle of their bedroom, looking down at herself. She was picking at her clothes very meticulously and making a flicking motion. “Didn’t I tell you not to push your yang onto me?”

Small soft glowing gold lights that looked like fluffy cotton balls were currently sticking to Mei Hua. Unless she concentrated, she couldn’t see them. So it was only at the end of the night that she noticed them. She’d spent the last few minutes or so grabbing them and flinging them off, only to have them drift back towards her and cling to her in a new spot.

Seeing her efforts were in vain, she knew this meant she’d just have to absorb them. There weren’t a lot, fortunately, but there were enough that it meant her time to sleep was going to be cut short.

Jin had gotten in bed and been staring at his wife with a wolfish expression, which got more and more intense as she touched those bits of spirit clinging to her. But when he saw her getting annoyed, he immediately tried to rearrange his face to look innocent.

This only partially worked. After so many years of being married, how could Mei Hua not understand the glint still shining in her husband’s eyes?

He motioned her to come closer. She narrowed her eyes slightly at him and didn’t move. Besides the yang annoying her, she was still a little upset at him for stalking her all day and then trying to push the blame on Guilei’s husband for it.

If he’d wanted to bath with her, didn’t she offer to do so already?! But hadn’t he turned her down? Yet he dared to embarrass her in front of her soon-to-be-daughters by acting like a peeping teenage boy!

When it was clear she wasn’t going to come any closer, he began to look extremely pitiful and forlorn.

“…Mountain Flower…”

He even made his eyes wide and watery, as if he were a frail woman being wronged by her husband.

Mei Hua turned her head and tried not to laugh. That particular expression always got to her. They both knew the moment he gave her that look, she wouldn’t be able to stay mad for long.

Finally giving in, she walked over to him and sat on the bed. When she was within reach, he grabbed her hand and kissed her palm.

“Is this hand, you?”

“What?” Came her naturally confused reply.

He kissed her wrist. “Is this wrist, you? How about this arm? This elbow?”

He’d kissed his way up her arm, pulling her down into the bed so he could kiss her shoulder. His kisses were slightly ticklish causing her to giggle like a little girl.

“Well, are they you? If they disappeared, would you cease to exist?”

His face was now very close to her, a slight playful smile lifting the corner of his lips. She could even feel his warm breath on her neck. It made it hard to concentrate.

“Hm… um… Of course not. Even though they’re a part of me, they aren’t me… not exactly.”

Jin wrapped his arms around her, pulling her down onto the bed with him. Her head was resting on his chest and she could feel his heart thumping excitedly underneath her.

“That’s right, they’re a part of what makes you who you are but they aren’t actually you.” He kissed the top of her head and enjoying the feeling of her in his arms. “Even if I’m not human, there’s still some similarities. There are things the body does whether you want it to or not. You breathe without thinking about it, your heart beats without you trying, even the ability to feel things in your hands isn’t something you have a choice about. The mountains and I are often like that, things happen without me being directly involved, even though it and I are one.”

“So you’re saying…” She pulled a random bit of yang off her and held it up. “You weren’t doing this on purpose, it just happened? Like an instinct?”

“Hn.”

“…has this always been happening?”

“Well…” He cleared his throat and tried to ignore the slight thrill running down his spine when she touched that small bit of his spirit. “Usually there’s so much of my spirit in you that there’s no room for small stuff like this to cling to.”

Earlier that morning Mei Hua had sat down and had a serious discussion with him about his spirit being too smothering with its affection. It had actually stunted her spiritual growth to an unhealthy degree.

Jin hadn’t realized his behavior was doing her any harm. To him, human spirits were all very small. If he could use a comparison, it was the size difference between a human and an ant. If a human was taking care of a single ant and saw the ant was very active and happy, they wouldn’t think anything was wrong with it. Perhaps it was a bit smaller than other ants but who was to say whether that was normal or not? Ants had a wide variety of sizes, perhaps this one ant just happened to be small?

He only now just realized it wasn’t normal.

Of course he’d felt bad about it!

Even after all these years of care, who knew he’d still managed to hurt her, even if unintentionally? He promised to keep his spirit to himself, unless she requested otherwise.

Mei Hua let the yang fluff go, only to watch it drift back towards herself. She ate it in exasperation, “If you concentrate, can’t you make it stop?”

His whole body stiffened and he asked in a hurt voice, “Do you dislike me touching you that much?”

Even though he’d agreed to keep his spirit away from her, it was still hard. Having her right there but not being able to snuggle close made him feel lonely and restless. If she objected even to such a tiny bit of his spirit being attracted to her…

Hearing how upset he sounded, Mei reached around his waist, hugging him and rubbing her face in his chest. “I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just… your spirit… is a little heavy when too much accumulates on me.”

He sullenly replied, “Even if you say that, unless you want me to hate you, I don’t know how to stop it completely.”

“Hate me?” She looked up at him in surprise. “Why would you need to hate me?”

He grabbed a bit of spirit fluff off her and flicked it. This time it sulkily kept its distance. “Why do you think these smaller bits of the mountain’s spirit are so attracted to you? It’s because I love you, so the mountain does too. It’s instinct. It’s like…” He paused, thinking. Then he reached his hands over her shoulders and smoothly traced them all the way down to her hips. A slight shiver of pleasure ran down her spine at this touch, causing him to grin slyly. “…how your body can’t help responding to my touch. The only way for that to stop is if you’re disinterested or hate me, right?”

“That—”

He leaned down and started to kiss her, preventing her from answering. Even though his kisses were gentle, he didn’t stop for a long time.

When he finally released her lips, allowing Mei to get some fresh air, she said breathily, “…Jin, what you were saying before, I more or less understand. But…”

“Hm, but?”

She pulled her body up, so that she was looking down at him, her eyes hazy. “…if you think you can flirt with me like this and have it end there, you’re going to be sorely disappointed.”

He’d been refusing her very obvious advances the last few days, which had gotten her progressively more and more frustrated.

“Hehehe, Mountain Flower, this husband of yours wouldn’t dare flirt and run. He’s not that stupid.”

“He better not be.” Mei Hua tilted her head, the blue in her eyes starting to glow like hot magma. “Hm… If your yang is going to be clinging to me anyway, we might as well have some fun with it, don’t you think?”

He had an idea of what she was planning and attempted to half-heartedly dissuade her. His self-control was at its limits too.

“Mei… Mountain Flower… we need to take things slow…”

“Slow? Ah…” She licked her lips and leaned down until their noses almost touched, “We’ll take it slow, I promise. Very. Very. Slow.”

———

The next day, Mei Hua woke up late into the morning. She gave a big stretch, kissed her sleeping husband’s cheek, and got ready for her day. The Wen fairies, specifically her handmaidens, wanted to help her with her morning routine but she shooed them away. They looked disappointed; she laughed and promised to let them help properly tomorrow. The baby foxes waited outside as well, and when they saw there wasn’t anything they could do for her, they simply loitered around and watched her curiously.

Putting on some simple clothes, she did a light workout that involved mostly stretching in the courtyard. Compared to her current spiritual cultivation— no, even compared to her strength before being in a coma, her body was stiff and weak. She had almost no stamina. Her spiritual body was strong but her physical body was pitiful.

Last night’s fun had proven as much. They’d had to retire much earlier than she wanted, because her body just couldn’t take it. She’d been so frustrated she almost cried. So even though she’d intended to do training anyway, this particular morning routine was filled with more vigor than usual. In her heart she vowed: Last night would never be repeated!

Once she was finished with her Blue Flower Mountain Arts routine, she took out the Divine Sword she’d gotten from Shuya a few days ago. It hummed at her, apparently pleased to be put to use. This sword, just by holding it, imbued her with the knowledge of a Master’s swordsman. If she wanted, she could just leave it at that; but the idea of depending entirely on the sword’s abilities rubbed her the wrong way.

So she went through some very basic sword motions, the kind of techniques a beginner needs to learn. After doing only a few, she nodded and felt more confident in her decision to practice. Even if she had the knowledge, her body had no experience with holding a sword. No amount of knowledge could make up for a body unaccustomed to swordsmanship. If she didn’t practice now, she’d be severely lacking later if she needed to use this sword for a long amount of time.

She had sweat buckets and was completely drenched by the time she was done with her sword practice. Even though she’d shooed them away earlier, the Wen fairies still hovered nearby. They had water ready for her before she could ask.

As she was gulping down the water, they looked at her with great big expectant eyes. They absolutely weren’t going to leave her alone until she gave them a job. Chuckling, she asked them to pick out today’s outfit and then bring it to the bathhouse. After which they could help her put it on after her relaxing bath. The foxes also wanted something to do, but she couldn’t think of anything, so she simply affectionately pet them.

It turned out that petting just one kit wasn’t an option. They all wanted attention, making her spend more time than intended, petting small fluffy animals. Somewhere in the middle, three cats snuck their way into the mix. Even before she got to the bathhouse, she was thoroughly relaxed from being surrounded by so much fluffiness.

Foxes, like cats, have an extreme dislike of water. So even though she offered, not a single furry animal was willing to bath with her. So even though she was enjoying a nice long soak, she found the quiet a little bit lonely. In that strange world of hers, except for at the beginning, she’d never been alone. And even before the coma, she rarely bathed alone. Jin, Ye, or her children (or a combination of them) had been with her. Unless she was feeling testy, she’d never taken a bath by herself.

She frowned slightly. Her sons were all grown up now. Even Ye had grown up. She couldn’t ever bath with them again. She had Jin, her grandson, she had her soon-to-be-daughters to bathe with too. That should have been enough. It should have been but… she still felt dissatisfied.

Face scrunched up in thought, she began calculating how long it would take until her body had properly recovered. Even to the point of catching up to her spiritual cultivation. She guessed another year, two years if she wanted to play it safe.

What had Jin said all those years ago? He’d give her twenty children, all she had to do was ask…

As she thought about what he’d said in jest, her head lowered into the water and she chuckled craftily. Who said he could joke about that? She’d definitely keep him to his word!

Jin’s face scrunched up in his sleep as his arm moved the blankets closer around him to ward off the cold wind that disturbed his slumber.

When she was done she headed over to the Palace Kitchen for breakfast. The Dao fairies were so excited she visited that they kept giving her more food. She wanted to turn them down when she started feeling full, but their big eager eyes were too much forcing her to keep eating. By the end of it, she felt like she could be rolled out the door like a huge steamed bun.

She very slowly walked back to her room, attempting to digest at least some of her massive breakfast. When she got back she was pleased to see Jin still sleeping. Even though it was nearing noon, she let him continue to sleep.

Before Shuya had taught her to see Yin and Yang, she had no idea how bad a shape her husband was in. She’d been blissfully unaware of the constant scorching heat emanating from his body, slowly driving him insane.

But now she knew. With some concentration she could see it with her own two eyes. Not that she could look for long. It was like looking directly into the sun, he was so bright.

What Shuya had taught her was specifically how to absorb the excess heat he was producing. It was something like Dual Cultivating, a practice among cultivators who had a physical interest in each other. But it wasn’t quite that, since Dual Cultivating was two people giving AND taking. In this case, Mei was just taking. Since he was vastly more powerful than her and not even human on top of it, it didn’t do him any harm. However, if he’d been truly human… what she was doing would be considered quite evil and would have killed him.

It was all she could do to absorb his excess much less take enough to provide any form of a harmful effect. There was just so much heat. No matter how much she pulled, there was still more. Even though she was taking as much heat off him as she could, it still wasn’t enough. As her soul cultivation merged with her body she would be able to take more but…

To properly deal with his problem, she needed to be his equal. Not just Mei, even Shuya wasn’t sure that was possible. It would be more realistic to find Xuiying and bring back the natural order to the mountain.

Mei wished she’d put more effort into finding Xuiying in the past. If she’d known that Jin was suffering so much from having her gone, to the point he’d one day literally explode and take half the world with him, she’d have been a lot more insistent about it!

Of course, how does one find an invisible spirit? Surely Jin’s reputation had spread at this point… if Xuiying was still capable of hearing rumors, wouldn’t she have come back? If even at a distance to satiate her curiosity?

She wasn’t the type to hold grudges based off her own writings and what Ye and Shuya said. But she was exactly the type to take great risks for curiosity's sake.

Yet… she never came back. There weren’t even rumors or hints of her existence. It made Mei shake to think she might be dead—

In the middle of that serious thought, Mei Hua saw her three sons huddled together whispering to each other. Curious, and sensing mischief, she immediately walked over.