"Do you want to go to the Nine Heavens Cold Palace?"
"Nine... Nine Heavens Cold Palace?"
In a bathroom shrouded in mist, resembling an Immortal Realm, next to a bathtub, two women of vastly different statuses were having an odd conversation.
A breathtaking young girl with wet black hair down to her waist, stark naked, stood in the tub.
Warm droplets fell between forests, snowy mountains, and secluded valleys.
In the bathtub, amidst the dense white steam, a vague expanse of pure white shimmered.
One hand was tightly clutching a hot towel draped over the edge of the tub, the other forcefully gripping the thin wrist of a maid with a stunned and puzzled expression, missing several front teeth.
Luo Xiu nodded slightly, gazing intently at Little Fish.
The latter pondered this extremely odd question and shook her head.
Luo Xiu’s gaze turned perplexed, "Why?"
It was astonishing that a woman from Li Territory did not yearn for the Nine Heavens Cold Palace, for this was the faith of all women from the Music Workshop in Li Territory.
Little Fish, looking at the seemingly high-status exquisite young girl’s strange reaction, timidly said, "Little Fish can’t fly, and she’s afraid... afraid of heights, she doesn’t even dare to go onto the ship’s roof."
Luo Xiu persisted, "What if you could fly? And... weren’t afraid of heights anymore and had the opportunity to go to the Nine Heavens Cold Palace, would you, want to go there?"
Little Fish’s eyes lit up, but the next second, she still said, "I won’t go."
"Why! Do you not know that the Nine Heavens Cold Palace is the place we Li women dream about, the dream that has lingered around our ancestors from Li Territory for a thousand years!" Luo Xiu spoke hurriedly and confusedly, pausing before murmuring, "To ascend to the Moon Palace, to be bathed in moonlight, to solidify Divine Beauty and Soul, sever all sentimental hindrances, immortal and free from worries..."
The maid flinched backward in fear, staring at her wrist held by the peculiar fairy in front of her, biting her lip in silence for a while before she softly and truthfully said:
"I know, how could I not know? It’s just that Little Fish thinks... they often mention the Nine Heavens Cold Palace is too far. And look, the moon is so pale and desolate, cold and quiet, it must be lonely and isolated there..."
"You know, are there... are there any fish? If there are, they probably won’t let us eat them. The fish raised in the Moon Palace must be more precious than the spirit fish in Xingzi Lake, a thousand Little Fish wouldn’t equal one of them, it’d be more like it eating me. And once you go up, you can never come down again. What they say about immortality..."
"Doesn’t that mean you have to stay there forever? It’s similar to Little Fish’s situation, always staying on this ship, only a much bigger place, but the place is full of Goddesses and Fairies, the rules must be stricter than here, yet it lacks the liveliness of the Zuixian Building."
The maid paused, looking up at Luo Xiu who suddenly seemed frozen, compressed her lips tightly, and then mustered the courage to say:
"I... I don’t want to be alone, I want friends, I want liveliness, if I could fly... if I could..." Amid the lingering mist, her bright eyes dimmed a little, she lowered her head to look at her patched toe, "it’s just... who could actually fly? Little Fish can’t even swim, and being so thin, to grow wings and fly like a magpie, wouldn’t she need to eat a lot of meat to build up..."
Seeing the somewhat strange-bodied and somewhat peculiar fairy in the bathtub intently listening, Little Fish felt more emboldened, and she felt a kinship to her, chattering nonstop.
At that moment, Lola Xiu, whose alias the breath-taking young girl was using, her gaze filled with sudden realization and disillusionment of faith, she leaned back, sinking back into the water, splashing water around, equally disturbed, with a miserable appearance, "All... all just people from the ship, just switching from a small ship to a bigger one, unable to escape the same fate, all just people from the ship!"
"Boring, too utterly boring..." The next second, the numb expression on Luo Xiu’s face vanished, and she broke into a splendid smile, loosening her painful grip on Little Fish’s thin wrist, her voice sweet:
"Wash away the crescent moon pattern. All of it."
Little Fish and another maid hesitated, following the instruction of the Moon Lady, who had asked them to wash away two marks on the fairy in front of them with a special method she had taught, while leaving one behind.
However, remembering how respectful and cautious they had to be in front of this peculiar fairy in the bathtub before the Moon Lady, the two maids exchanged glances and started to wash her as instructed.
Behind the screen, the bathtub was no longer enveloped in mist and was now empty.
In the warm boudoir in front of the dressing mirror, Little Fish and the other maid were busy dressing the cleansed and bathed exquisite young girl, meticulously preparing her.
Suddenly, the silent Luo Xiu pressed down on Little Fish’s hand as she reached for the jade hairpin.
She gently shook her head at her, then took out a butterfly hairpin, emanating a faint green glow under the lamplight, and gently inserted it into her beautiful sleek black hair, giving a light laugh.
The exquisite young girl, personally named ’Cicada’ by the Empress Dowager of Great Li, sat quietly in front of the dressing mirror, watching the purely beautiful and charming reflection that resembled a man’s first love.
She slightly tilted her head and softly said:
"If you don’t want to go to the Nine Heavens Cold Palace, then do you have anything you want to do, something you find interesting?"
Her tone was calm and casual.
Little Fish was startled and took a moment to realize she was being addressed. She scratched her head, "Yes... there is."