(1) A Scheme of Her Own Making

Only yesterday had the threat of the nine-headed serpent demon been lifted from the people of Qingxi Town, and today the town had already returned to its familiar bustle, thick with the smoke and clamor of everyday life. Mortals, fragile as they were, proved just as tenacious—no sooner had one crisis passed than they righted themselves and returned to the ordinary rhythm of things, as though nothing troubling had happened at all. Even the matter of Manchun's marriage was quickly brought up again. But Manchun was plainly unhappy with the match her parents had arranged.

　　Even before the nine-headed serpent demon had come to trouble Qingxi Town, her parents had already begun making arrangements for her marriage. The matchmaker went back and forth, and the man in question was the magistrate of Shuishi City. Shuishi City was the liveliest and most prosperous city in the region, and its magistrate had taken a wife at twenty and already had sons and daughters—yet he seemed still unsatisfied, and so had sent the matchmaker out again to find him a young, pretty girl to take as a concubine. Whenever the matter came up, Manchun felt wronged, for her parents seemed to think that having a daughter bought up for a fine price was payment enough for years of raising her; that she would marry into a household where she'd never want for food or clothing seemed, to them, more than satisfactory, and so they had nodded their agreement early on. Had the nine-headed serpent demon not come to cause chaos, a small palanquin might already have carried her away.

　　But truth be told, wronged as Manchun felt in her heart, she had no real power to resist. After all—"a parent's command, a matchmaker's word"—what could a dutiful daughter say against that? Anu and Xing'er, however, thought otherwise. Asura women were by nature possessive to the bone—it was written into them—and the idea of sharing a husband with another woman was simply beyond what they could accept. Xing'er, having spent so long at Anu's side, had picked up the same view. Both of them were deeply indignant over Manchun being forced into concubinage, but Xing'er was timid by nature, and though she disapproved with all her heart, she could only sigh helplessly. Anu, though, could not swallow it. Why should it be this way? Her temperament had always run hot and impulsive; she knew well enough that the immortal and mortal realms were separate, that the mortal world had its own way of living and its own threads of fate that she ought not meddle with too much—but she could not simply stand by and watch her little sister suffer such an injustice.

　　"Could you make a living if you left this place?" Anu asked abruptly. "If you can, I'll help you."

　　Manchun and Xing'er both froze, staring at her in disbelief. "What did you say?"

　　The moment the words left Anu's mouth, Xing'er felt a stab of alarm—what mischief was this girl cooking up now? Slaying demons and vanquishing evil could be called upholding the order of Heaven, but the marrying and giving in marriage of mortals had its own rules, and for Anu to go meddling in that—was she not afraid of overturning the order of Heaven itself? Worry filled Xing'er's eyes. Manchun blinked, at a loss for how to respond—this was something she had never once considered, and how could she know the answer to something she'd never thought to ask?

　　"I…" Manchun turned it over in her mind for a long while before she managed to force out a sentence. "I… I do have someone I care for…"

　　The reply seemed to come from nowhere, and yet Anu understood at once what was in Manchun's heart.

　　"Well then, that settles it—go ask him whether he's willing to run away with you, far from here. Bow to Heaven and Earth as your witnesses, take Heaven as matchmaker and Earth as betrothal gift, and put down roots somewhere new. As long as the two of you hold each other in your hearts, no hardship will bring regret—far better than living bowed-headed, watching another's face, sharing a husband with someone else."

　　Anu spoke with such righteous heat, as though she had experience of her own to draw on—but what did she truly know of love between man and woman? Though she had been cherished by thousands from childhood, that love had come from father and brothers, from elders, from the little spirits of the Mist Forest. Even Xiaoyi's feelings for her, though real, had never been spoken aloud, and so she had received his affection half-unknowingly, passively, without truly understanding it herself. But she understood well enough how, generation after generation, Asura women who married into the Celestial Court had brought war and calamity down upon themselves through jealousy—she had grown up hearing such histories, and was it not for that very reason her father and mother had kept her sealed within the Mist Forest? So even in her ignorance of romantic love, Anu somehow felt she could understand it all the same.

　　What was more, she wanted to right this wrong herself.

　　That was simply the kind of person she was.

　　Xing'er shook her head, wanting to counsel caution, but she knew Anu would never listen—there was no point in speaking. Besides, it was her own fault for bringing up Xiaoyi carelessly in the first place; she had rushed Anu off to find Manchun precisely to distract her, and now it was too late for regret. If she didn't let Anu meddle in this business, Anu might start thinking of Xiaoyi again, and there'd be no comforting her then—a disaster either way. Caught between two evils, whatever words had risen to her lips were forced back down again.

　　"Could I… could I really? Go ask him? Even if he agrees, what would happen to my parents?" Manchun looked embarrassed. Even if her own heart got its wish, her parents had already accepted the betrothal gifts—and if their daughter simply ran off with another man, the thought filled her eyes with fear and worry.

　　"At a moment like this, you're still fretting over that? Just go and ask the one you love—if he's willing, nothing else matters. Who do you take me for? The only worry is whether the boy is willing at all. As for putting on a little show, switching heaven for earth—that's nothing. I'll make sure your parents come to no harm, that's what I'm here for!" Anu thumped her own chest. As a true princess of the Asura Clan, what could mere mortals do to stop her? "Besides, once enough time has passed and the talk has died down, you can send word to your parents that you're safe. Right now the only thing that matters is confirming how the boy feels."

　　Privately, Anu was rather surprised—since when did this little thing have someone she cared for? And so quietly, never having said a word of it! But then again, they didn't come to Qingxi Town so very often, and such private matters weren't the sort of thing one blurted out casually. She didn't fully grasp the depth of feeling between the two—mortals were not like her; she didn't have to toil to survive or depend on anyone's goodwill, while mortal women mostly had to rely on a man to live. If the boy truly cared for Manchun, was willing to leave his home behind for her, unafraid of others' judgment, the two of them working hard together side by side would surely be better than a woman left to face life all alone.

　　The matter was urgent enough—the magistrate's household in Shuishi City had a small palanquin scheduled to fetch the bride in ten days' time, which meant everything had to be settled within those ten days. Though this sort of scheme flew entirely in the face of mortal propriety, with Anu's enthusiastic backing, Manchun—who had never wanted to be given away as a concubine in the first place—found her courage rising. Who was Anu, after all? She had annihilated the nine-headed serpent demon; surely a little sleight-of-hand trick like this, with Anu's full support, could not fail.

　　Fortunately, the honest young man named A-Gui, who lived on the east side of town and helped out at the Wang family's rice shop, agreed to it as well. Both his parents had died, and he supported himself through his own labor, diligent and frugal—not wealthy by any means, but he got by. Manchun often ran errands to the rice shop for her family, and over time the two of them had come to care for each other; A-Gui always gave her a little extra, and as the days passed, their bond only deepened. When he heard that her family meant to sell her off as a concubine to the magistrate of Shuishi City, he naturally couldn't bear it. Hearing that someone could help them flee together, he mulled it over for two days before making up his mind: he would take Manchun and flee to a large city fifty li away, to start a new life far from Qingxi Town and its surrounding villages, where the chance of being discovered would be much smaller. He had two able hands and a willingness to work hard—surely he could find work anywhere. As for how to elope without bringing harm to Manchun's parents and family—Anu's plan was to have the bride "seized" partway along the road during the palanquin procession. Bandits would carry her off and vanish, and the blame would fall on the bandits, with no fault attaching to Manchun's parents. If the betrothal gifts needed to be returned, that could wait until the young couple had settled into their new life and could make up the loss to her parents in due time.

　　A-Gui, for his part, only knew that he'd gathered a group of friends to pose as bandits and stage a mid-journey ambush; all he had to do was prepare clothes and travel funds as agreed and wait in the forest for the bride to arrive before setting off. He had worried at first that his friends might be pursued by the authorities for it, and it had unsettled him greatly—but little did he know, the "bandits" were nothing more than an illusion conjured by Anu's own sorcery. Even if the magistrate reported it to the authorities, they would never catch anyone in a hundred lifetimes.

　　This part, of course, was something Manchun could never breathe a word of.

　　A-Gui gave notice to his employer ahead of time, inventing a story about going to join distant relatives. His employer, though reluctant to see him go, saw his resolve was firm and could only agree, even pressing some silver into his hands for travel expenses out of regard for his honest character. Following Manchun's instructions, A-Gui never revealed his true destination, and even dropped hints pointing the opposite direction, before beginning his preparations to leave.

　　Watching A-Gui busy himself arranging everything, Anu found it rather amusing at first—even if he set out with empty hands, it hardly mattered, since providing for their future was no more than a flick of her fingers away, so long as the boy was sincere toward Manchun and never betrayed her, there was nothing else to worry over. But then she reconsidered—immortals and mortals belonged to different worlds, after all, and she truly could not go revealing her identity to anyone beyond Manchun. Besides, it was only right that a mortal man should provide for his own family, and the fact that the boy had the resolve to shoulder that responsibility was something that put her mind at ease. So she let him busy himself with it all, for in the days to come, it was on him, not her, that Manchun would ultimately have to rely.

　　Qingxi Town had always been a small hill town, and the road from Shuishi City wound through no small amount of rugged mountain terrain, the paths on either side thick with dense forest and ancient trees. That a band of bandits should suddenly spring from such woods was startling, perhaps, but hardly implausible. The wedding procession did have a few guards for protection, but they were no match for a whole gang of bandits—though the bandits, for their part, harmed no one, only making off with valuables and the bride. A-Gui had originally objected to looting the goods as well, but Anu pointed out that seizing only the bride would arouse suspicion—what kind of bandits would that be? Neither killing anyone nor taking any loot would leave too many holes in the story. So A-Gui had no choice but to agree, and the plundered valuables were set aside to help the newlyweds start their household.

　　Anu settled herself in a tree and idly worked her magic, clapping her hands in delight as she watched the staged robbery unfold below. She was a woman who could not go home, and to avoid drawing attention, she had spent long years confined to the Mist Forest, with little freedom and even less amusement—she could not remember the last time she had laughed so freely as this. Admiring her own handiwork, Anu was positively giddy. Once she saw the bride carried well clear of the wedding procession, she leapt down from the tree and caught up with them.

　　"Such a pretty little maiden—would you care to be this bandit king's lady of the mountain stronghold?" Anu waved her hand, and at once the bandits vanished without a trace as she teased Manchun with a bright smile.

　　"Don't even think it… my husband is still waiting for me!" Manchun blushed red, twisting the red bridal veil she'd already pulled off in her hands.

　　"Oh my, just look at this—what an ungrateful creature! The moment she gets what she wants, she turns her back on the one who gave it to her!" Anu gave Manchun a playful shove, her face still full of laughter. "Well then, shouldn't you hurry along?"