“Fate, your grandma!” Chen Wuya snapped, glaring. He’s following me! No doubt!

Nearly at the same time, Fen Long tilted his head. “Are you following me?”

“What? Don’t be ridiculous! You’re the one who…” Chen Wuya’s protest died on his lips. He frowned. He’s following me? He always arrives first, how could he be following me? No matter how I look at it, I’m the one who’s following him.

But… it really is a coincidence.

Fen Long laughed. “I’m only teasing you. You also heard about the crisis here and came to help, no?”

The what? Chen Wuya started to shake his head, then froze. If I admit I didn’t come here for ‘the crisis,’ whatever that is, isn’t it the same as admitting I’m following him? He turned the shake into a nod. “Right.”

Before they could continue their conversation, an elderly woman, white-streaked hair bound up in a bun, bustled out of the next room. Her eyes lit up at the sight of Chen Wuya. “Another guest? What a night, what a night! Oh, and you’re soaking! Stand right there. I’ll fetch some towels and a fresh set of robes.”

“She doesn’t get a lot of guests,” Fen Long whispered with a wink.

Not hearing Fen Long, the old lady smiled at Chen Wuya. “I don’t get many guests. Not anymore. Not since the poison resurged. Oh, my. Two guests. It’s two coins a night, two coins a night. Includes dinner and breakfast. For one coin, you only get breakfast. Though… if you can’t pay, don’t worry about it. This old inn won’t last much longer, anyways.”

“Granny?” Chen Wuya asked, tilting his head.

She shook her head. “I’ll be right back.”

Chen Wuya frowned at her back, thoughtful. “The poison resurged?” That shouldn’t be possible.

“That’s the crisis, isn’t it? The town is dying because of the poison. Isn’t that why you’re here?” Fen Long asked. Chen Wuya almost missed it, but a faint spark of mischievousness flickered in his eye.

“Of course, of course. I simply… the town was poisoned before?” he asked, feigning ignorance.

Fen Long nodded. “The evil Qiu Xuanwu’s fortress is a hundred li from here. Centuries ago, he spread poison from his fortress to deter mortals from drawing near. The poison reached all the way to the edge of this town before Kai Bailong defeated him. It faded away after his death, but it seems to have returned recently.”

Nodding, Chen Wuya furrowed his brows. It shouldn’t have. I’m not spreading poison any longer. What’s poisoning the land, if it isn’t me?

“The satsuma tree will save us,” the old lady said firmly, returning with spare robes and towels for Chen Wuya. He accepted them gratefully.

“The satsuma tree?” Fen Long asked.

The old lady turned and nodded. Fen Long and Chen Wuya looked where she indicated.

At the back of the house, a shrine held a single, withered branch atop a golden claw. All around it clustered mirrors, candles, and a few fresh satsuma, offered to the branch.

“A long time ago, a satsuma tree grew at the edge of town. No one thought anything of it, at first, not until Heroine Meiling rested under it. After she passed through, the tree began to absorb Qiu Xuanwu’s poison. It drew all the poison out of the town and out of the fields, and allowed my ancestors to remain here.”

Staring at the branch, the old lady shook her head. “I won’t leave. This is the land the satsuma tree gave us. The land my ancestors clawed back from Qiu Xuanwu, god of calamity. To abandon it now is nothing short of spitting on our ancestors!”

Annoyed, a young woman turned the corner, carrying a baby on her hip. “Grandmother, please. Again? Our ancestors would understand. All the other families have already left—oh. Excuse me! I didn’t know we had guests.”

She bowed to the two young men.

Fen Long bowed back, cupping his hands. Chen Wuya shivered, then sneezed.

“Go on, go on, get dry before you catch a cold!” the old lady ordered, shooing Chen Wuya into a room. He let her push him away, uninterested in the family squabble.

As he passed by the shrine, his eyes narrowed. That satsuma tree… He wrinkled his nose in disgust.

The door shut behind him. Chen Wuya stripped out of his wet robes in silence, drying himself. In the distance, the old woman and the young woman quarreled.

“Grandmother, you have to leave! The satsuma tree is dead! It can’t do anything to stop the poison!”

“No! I won’t abandon the land of our ancestors. You go. Go with your husband and your baby. I’ll stay here, and you can come back when it all clears up.”

“Grandmother, please.”

Clapping the cloth over his head, Chen Wuya scrubbed vigorously, blocking out the sound of their bickering. He sighed and frowned. That damn satsuma tree.

That fucking awful life!

The sun rose. The sun set. It rose again, and fell again. Circling overhead in an endless cycle.

“No! I refuse! You aren’t allowed to do this to me. I’m a god! A deity! I belong in Heaven, not—not stuck in a tree!”

The sun fell again. Rose again. Rain fell. Thunder rang out. Bared to the elements, the tree grew slowly, spreading sprouts, bursting leaves. Buds formed, crumpled, producing no fruit. Too young yet.

“I’m a martial deity! An unrivaled swordsman! You—you—despicable, despicable thing! Righteous? What part of this is righteous? If you knew, if you knew! I was in the right. I was! Me!”

No sound burst out. The tree screamed only in its own mind, unable to make a single noise.

A plain-looking white bird settled on the young tree’s limbs. It adjusted its wings and preened, cleaning its feathers.

Winter came. Summer. Winter again. Summer. The tree grew tall and strong. Firm branches spread toward the sun. Fruits grew at last, plump and fat.

“What… what am I supposed to do? I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, everyone. I failed you again. Even with all the strength in the world, this… is this all I can accomplish?”

The white bird built a nest in the tree. It sat high in the branches and sang. Its song echoed over the wasteland, bouncing off the blackened corpses of the forest that had been, over the gray, poisoned earth. All around them, nothing but dust, dirt, death.

Except at the base of the tree. There, and there alone, the earth crumbled, moist and brown, rejuvenated. Slowly, the healthy brown earth spread from the base of the tree.

The crumpled remains of a town stood behind the tree. Poison climbed up the walls, marked the bodies of the pitiful residents. They stumbled along, filling their mouths with whatever scraps they could find, eyes dead.

The tree trembled. “I can’t even… can’t even kill myself.”

Winter. Summer. Winter.

Spring.

Blossoms burst from the branches. Fruits grew, green, yellow, orange. The residents clustered around. One picked a fruit and took a bite. They pursed their lips, squinting. “Sour.”

Thump.

White petals fluttered to the ground, blanketing the woman collapsed at the tree’s root. “Please… food…”

Again, the tree trembled. “You? You! You underhanded mortal, how dare you. After you trapped me and helped that filthy righteous deity kill me, how dare you land at my foot in this… in this life, and demand my—”

The force of its trembling loosened a fruit from its branches. It fell down and landed in the woman’s lap.

The tree screamed wordlessly, trembling from pure rage.

She blinked and looked up. “Are you telling me… to live?”

“No! Absolutely not! Die!”

In its branches, the white bird trilled.

Peeling the satsuma, the woman hauled herself upright. She put her back against its trunk. “I didn’t think we would survive. No one else has. Everyone else, all the other heroes who went before us, they… faced Qiu Xuanwu and died. There’s not even anything left of them to bury.”

“Good! Fuck them! And you, too!”

“I’ve wandered the lands for so long. All of us. We want to… to rejuvenate these lands. But how? The poison is so thick, the people are so downtrodden… Is it even possible?”

“You think I care? I’m the most downtrodden of them all!”

“But I—I won’t give up!” Tears leaked down her face. She choked, then wiped them away and bit into the satsuma.

Her face wrinkled. “Sour…”

--

“Argh!” Stuffing his face into the towel, Chen Wuya screamed with all his might, letting the towel muffle the noise. So embarrassing! So cringy! Ugh, that wasn’t me, tell me it wasn’t me.

To think I gave up on life so easily! Ahhh, and that pathetic, weak-willed me thought I was the ultimate being? Die, I want to die!

He pulled the towel away from his face, suddenly pensive. “No. I don’t want to die.”

“You don’t? That’s good.”

Chen Wuya whirled. Fen Long stood in the doorway, brows furrowed.

He grimaced and threw the towel at Fen Long, grabbing the dry robes and pulling them on. “Knock, pervert!”

“Pervert? What’s there to see? We’re both men.” Fen Long rolled his eyes and turned away.

“Pervert.”

“You’re the one screaming into towels naked,” Fen Long pointed out.

“You’re the one sneaking into my room, pervert.” Chen Wuya picked up his wet robes and put them over his arm. He pushed past Fen Long.

“It’s not your room, it’s ours. Granny only has one room. I didn’t expect you to be a nudist, but I’ve learned my lesson. Next time, I’ll knock,” Fen Long promised.

Chen Wuya wrinkled his nose, but said nothing. It’s not the first time I’ve shared a room. Inns are expensive. Poor folk like me share rooms all the time. “Granny! Do you have a place to hang clothes?”

“—go on, go on! Leave me behind, it’s fine. Ah? Of course! Over here, honored guest, over here…”