Dinner was not rice cakes and herbal soup, like I had expected.

No, dinner took place in a massive dining hall, with a long table of fine, smooth stone. Upon which was laid rows of plates and bowls of exotic things that I had never seen before.

I called them things, because I couldn’t really think of them as food yet.

‘What herbs are these?’ I said with wonder once I was seated beside my host on one end of the long table.

It seemed that everything I uttered was an amusement to my host, for he laughed again.

‘These are not herbs’, he answered.

‘...Fruits then?’ I hazarded.

Only to be laughed at again.

Lord Hebo pointed to a bunch of irregularly shaped plates on top of the greater platter.

‘These are shellfish.’

Then to a finely crafted goblet with long, red things hanging from its sides, that had scissor-like parts like the people I had seen earlier.

‘These are crayfish.’

Lastly, to a long plate with a round thing with an opening and two glassy circles on each side at one end, a fan-like thing in the other end, and pieces of soft-looking, whitish, pinkish material in the middle.

‘And this is fish.’

The last term finally rang a bell in my head, and I put a hand over my mouth in a gasp.

‘I can’t eat this!’

‘Why?’ asked Lord Hebo with an amused and calm chuckle. ‘Because they would interfere with your ascetic growth?’

It wasn’t the first thing I thought of for a reason, but as what he’d said was also a reason I had been taught, and as I was very nervous in my newfound environment, I settled to nod to it.

My host simply chuckled. ‘That was what they told me too, when I was a human ascetic. But then I became the river god, and discovered that things were more complicated than that. The merfolk have very little to subsist upon, besides for creatures that are smaller than them, and yet they are still able to obtain human form. Better yet, every time they open their mouths, the Whale Lords of the Seas swallow millions of krills, which are essentially smaller, saltwater versions of these crayfish, and which consist of their entire diet—and yet they still ascend to godhood, given enough years.’

He picked up a piece of the pink fish flesh, and swallowed it as an example for me.

‘It’s a fish-eat-fish world.’

My eyes widened at all the wild things he had stated, and I stared at the table beneath in disbelief.

‘Don’t worry!’ the god tried to assure me. ‘These are all only a couple of years old at most, and are not sapient yet.’

But speaking about their age only reinforced the fact that they had been alive to me.

Finally, he sighed. ‘Of course, if it’s too much for you to get used to all of a sudden, we always have dishes of kelp that are fully vegetarian.’

‘Thank you!’ I immediately jumped on his offer, but then noticed that his fine face had been touched by disappointment.

Feeling bad about it, I decided to try and spark up some conversation.

‘...You said that you had been human before, Lord Hebo?’

At this the young lord regained his beautiful smile and confidence. ‘Why yes!’ he said eagerly. ‘I was deified in life for my meritorious contributions. Before that I was a human ascetic, who had grown up, and trained and lived among the humans—I even served an emperor who was not Jaded.’

He began to laugh, and I thought it best to follow in his suit.

His descriptions had instilled in me a curiosity about the human living, but before I could ask any further questions, it had become my turn to answer them.

‘What about you, fine Lady Xuanzan?’ he asked me sweetly. ‘Where is your domain in the Heavenly Realms?’

It was a hard question for me from the very start.

I fidgeted a little. ‘Why… would you think that I’ve come from the Heavenly Realms?’

Lord Hebo only smiled at the plate of fish before us.

Point taken.

I realized that my knowledge of the world was insufficient, and decided that I had to tell the truth.

‘I am…’ I hesitated, and could hear my own voice quivering, but resolved to forge through nonetheless, ‘...from the Lunar Realm. But I have no titles’—

‘The Lunar Realm!’ Lord Hebo stood up. ‘Lady Heng’e’s Lunar Realm?’

I nodded.

‘What is your relationship with Lady Heng’e?’ he inquired eagerly, which increased the pressure upon me.

But there was only so much I could say, anyway.

‘She is… my sister.’

‘Sister!’

I nodded.

And Lord Hebo’s sprightly form was contorted in a fit of laughter. ‘Why, that explains everything!’ he cried out in delight. ‘It explains why your skin is brighter than pearls and your hair darker than night itself!—your beauty rivals that of your sister’s, Lady Xuanzan!’

I was ashamed to be compared to my sister in such a lofty manner, but the warm praises he had directed at me were things I had never heard said of me before. They dominated my feelings, and the flush of my expression.

He cried out across the great hall: ‘What are you waiting for!? We have an honoured guest from Lunar Palace within our midst!’

At his command, a stream of people, of both genders this time, trailed into the dining hall.

A clap from the hands of the River God.

And the hall fell dark.

A smaller clap.

And a raised platform was lit in a hazy cloud of yellow.

Lord Hebo smiled upon me.

‘Some entertainment for my treasured guest.’

Music began to play, and dancers took to the stage.

He sat down again, even closer to me this time.

I could see his strong, handsome features reflected under the dim lighting.

…My heart was beating again!

The Lord River God urged me to eat and drink, and I found myself relaxed enough within his hospitality to begin asking questions about his youth and his exploits, and the heroic deeds that had won him his godhood.

He was a bit hesitant initially. ‘I have actually known about your Lunar Realm for a long time, actually, from my oath-sworn brother, Houyi… He’s the God of Arts and Humanities, but you probably already know all about that.’

I mustered all my strength to my face, and nodded, hoping I would be better at cards in this new form.

‘He and I had grown up together, studied together, and trained together. We both became ascetics, and when we gained power and knowledge, put it to service under the human emperor, Yao. Together we accomplished many things, and at the end of all our deeds, we were granted passage to join the ranks of the gods. The rest is an old story: he’s god of arts and humanities, and I’m Lord of the Rivers.’

‘...What exactly did you accomplish?’

This question brought a shine to his expression. He began telling me stories of how he had covered up the formerly great river Yayu, after it had been horribly polluted, and had become a menace to the health of all living beings;

Then he had researched a way to cure a tribe named the Zaochi, who were all inflicted with a supposedly incurable genetic condition, which deformed their bodies and gave them sharp, beastly teeth, that made the rest of society discriminate against them as being monsters;

Then he sealed off boiling geysers and leaks of gas deposits where a lot of accidents had happened, numbering nine in in total;

Then he domesticated the violent and recalcitrant boars and made them into livestock for humans;

He also prepared for the coming of a great tornado, and constructed barriers to withstand its fierce winds;

Finally, he taught the people ways to ward off snakes and pythons by managing their living areas, and popularized snake repellents, reducing the loss of many human and cattle lives.

There were other things he had done, but these were the six major deeds that people remembered him by, the deeds for which he was deified.

At the very beginning, I had only been curious about the story of Lord Houyi, whom I still could not forget about. But as I listened to Lord Hebo, I realized that he was a very admirable person as well.

On top of that, he was also someone who was often overshadowed by his more famous brother in heaven…

And I felt a deep kinship to that.