Lord Houyi rose beside the tree by the riverbank, and walked toward Lord Hebo. He was still the ascetic in flowing, ceremonial robes and hair as I had remembered him, but his soft face no longer seemed as smooth as it had been. He stepped quietly upon the yellow waves as though they were solid ground, and stood before the River God.

Suddenly, he slapped him.

And the side of Lord Hebo’s handsome face began to redden in injury.

The mirror room was filled with outrage.

‘The gall of him!’ ‘How dare he!’ ‘Get him back, Lord Hebo!’

Lord Hebo was shaken by the strike, but before he could fully flare in indignation, Lord Houyi had spoken.

‘I have seen how you’ve neglected your governance of the river domain in the past many days. I was curious what business had taken up all your time in the River Palace, so I came all the way over to check up on you.’ His voice was even, and calm, but I could tell from the coldness of his gaze that he was, in fact, furious.

‘... But your guards denied all entry on absolute orders that you wanted no interruptions to your… honeymoon with your new wife. I had to reach you by arrow, and even then you leave me waiting half a day up here—and the first thing you say when you show up—is casual banter?’

Lord Hebo shook away from his accusing gaze.

‘You have no right telling me how I should be taking care of my responsibilities! Who do you think you are—the Jade Emperor?’—

‘You’re right!’ Lord Houyi raised his voice. ‘As a fellow god, I have no jurisdiction over your actions. But as a human being, and also your brother, it is not only my right, but also my responsibility, to rein you in.’

The colors flushed upon Lord Hebo’s face as he listened to all this, and his golden robes rippled, and his form elongated and transformed into that of a dragon.

‘...Nobody tells me what to do!’ the dragon roared.

But before it could do anymore, an arrow had arrived upon one of its eyes.

I shrieked, and put my hands before my mouth.

The dragon roared in pain.

Lord Houyi stood before it, holding a long, wooden bow under one long sleeve.

‘Houyiii!!!!’—

‘I saw that it was difficult for you to see reason, so I thought it necessary to lend you some help lifting that scale off your eye. But don’t worry, it should only take you a couple of days to heal from that with your draconic regeneration.’

‘You dare injure a fellow god!’—

‘You were no god the moment you took that form in response to my questioning—when you neglected your responsibilities, and allowed the tides and currents to shift out of order, and monsters to roam your waters unchecked!’

Lord Houyi raised another arrow before his bow.

‘...Do you even know how many innocent lives have been lost to the rivers in these past days?’

The dragon fell silent. It plucked the arrow out of its eye with one large golden claw, and threw it into the swirling currents of the Yellow River.

Then it shrank, and transformed back into the Lord Hebo that I knew.

He growled grumpily as he examined the red scar on his upper eyelid.

‘You’re the one who was always lauding meritocracy, brother.’—

‘That’s right!’ Lord Hebo spat. ‘That’s why I was not pleased when Yao decided to pass his throne to that eugenicist Shun, who will only pass his throne onto his own children!’—

‘So be of merit to the heavens, Brother,’ Lord Houyi sighed impatiently, wishing to keep on track, ‘before they take away the powers and privileges they have invested in you.’

Lord Hebo glared at him. ‘Do not act like you are my older brother anymore! Our bond ended the moment I ascended into godhood, and I will not take kindly to anyone who presumes to be overfamiliar with me again!’

At this statement, Lord Houyi flinched.

‘... You’re right’, he said with a touch of melancholy. ‘You are no longer the little Menmen who only used to run around, finding trouble to be amused at.’

As a smile began to spread over Lord Hebo’s face, he continued his words.

‘So you’d better act like it.’

To that final remark, Lord Hebo swung a fist in the air toward Lord Houyi, and a yellow wave rose from the river surface in tandem with it.

The literary god withdrew his weapons into his sleeves, and leapt out of the way of the wave, onto its peaking crests, allowing himself to be carried back to the riverbank as it crashed.

The two gods looked at one another in silence, until Lord Houyi finally turned away, and entered into the trees of the forest, outside of view.

Some time after that, Lord Hebo receded into the waves, and all was normal upon the Yellow River again.

‘How dare he disrespect our Lord like that!’ cried the armored merman beside me.

And all of the guards within the room cried out in unified support of the River Palace pride.

Everything that had happened had been a shock to all of us within the mirror chamber, not least of all to me.

The encounter today was the first time I had seen someone I had known from my life before, and it was even Lord Houyi—

Lord Houyi whom I had loved.

…And yet he was not simply the Lord Houyi I had known. He was colder, stricter—

I rushed outside of the mirror chamber, and ran into the open courtyard.

Sure enough, I caught Lord Hebo descending from the invisible dome of the River Palace.

‘Lord Hebooo!’ I cried, holding back a tear from falling out of my eyes.

—and he had hurt the man that I loved.

‘Xuanzan!’ Lord Hebo said as he put his arms around me. ‘Why are you crying?’

I dug my head into his broad chest. ‘I was so scared!’ Looking up, my eyes went blurry as I traced my fingers along the edges of his wound, careful not to make it hurt again—

He caught my hand and frowned. ‘I see you have been watching in the mirror chamber…’

The sad look in his eyes made me burst into tears. ‘I’m sorry!—this is all my fault! You’ve been hurt because of me!’—

‘Nonsense!’ he said as he embraced me. ‘If anything it is my fault for making you cry.’

‘B-But because of me—your brother!’—

‘Shsh! What happened between the two of us was going to happen anyway—and whatever he does is his doing!’

He swept me off my legs, and cradled me within his arms again.

‘And what you’re going to do is help me forget all about it!’ he grinned mischievously.

As he carried me away, I could hear the older, robed merman yelling.

‘But Milord! What about your court!?’

Lord Hebo simply grunted: ‘I’ll get back to it immediately—after I let off all my steam first.’

When he ushered me back into our bedchamber, I found out that steam was a very tangible, and violent thing.

For in spite of all the softly whispered words of love that he continuously poured into my ears, I could tell with each of his movements, that he was being rougher to me—to himself.

There were times that I could not distinguish between the pain and the pleasure—and yet because the one who had given it to me was Lord Hebo—I loved it all anyway.

We ended collapsed upon the wrinkled sheets of our grand bed, and I could barely will myself to move.

I could tell that Lord Hebo was similarly exhausted, but he silently stood and dressed himself anyway.

‘Milord’—I tried to utter.

But he was lost in thought, as he simply exited the chamber.

And I was alone again.