We've Met an Immortal

The four children stared wide-eyed.

Zhao's Second Son looked at his hands, then at the living donkey braying in front of him. He froze for a moment, and only after several breaths did he react.

"A donkey!"

"Where did this donkey come from?"

"Is this the magic trick Uncle told us about? How did you make it appear?"

Zhao Eldest Son looked at the donkey, unable to hide his amazement and astonishment. After staring at it for a long time, he finally found the courage to reach out and touch its coat.

It was warm.

A little like the horses outside.

Yet just moments ago, he had watched with his own eyes as someone cut this donkey out of paper.

The paper was Xuanzhou Paper, the kind he used to practice his calligraphy. The scissors were the ones his mother used to sew clothes. They were both things from his own home, things he had seen hundreds, even thousands of times.

"Could an immortal have come?"

They looked again toward the doorway, where the gentleman had stood.

All they saw was the carriage receding into the distance.

Zhao's Second Son immediately chased after it and ran off.

Zhao Erniang shouted, "Mother! Mother!"

"Father!"

"Something's happened! Come quickly and see! The paper turned into a donkey! The paper Big Brother was practicing his calligraphy on turned into a living donkey!"

"We've met an immortal!"

When Village Master Zhao, Lady Zhao, and the Old Matriarch hurried over, they saw the donkey lowering its head to nibble at the camellia leaves by the entrance. A servant had brought Zhao's Second Son back by the collar. His chubby body wriggled this way and that, his face full of indignation.

Village Master Zhao examined the donkey carefully and even reached out to touch it.

It really was a living donkey, grayish brown, with a large head, long ears, and sturdy limbs. There were several donkeys just like it at his manor.

"...It really is a donkey."

Lady Zhao furrowed her brow. Seeing it with her own eyes only made it seem more miraculous.

She looked at the four children.

"Did it really turn from paper?"

The four children started chattering all at once.

"That gentleman said he saw how much we liked horses, so he gave us this treasure."

"Exactly! We saw it with our own eyes. The gentleman borrowed paper and scissors and cut it out. He didn't do a very good job, either. Big Brother didn't say anything at the time, but I know he thought the paper cutting was crude and not much fun."

Zhao Dalang glared at his younger brother.

He said, "Second Brother reached out and touched it, and we saw the paper donkey float down."

"When it hit the ground, it became a living donkey."

"Your son watched it happen. It was exactly like a real donkey... Father, who exactly was that gentleman?"

Village Master Zhao's eyes were full of wonder. He lowered his head and met four pairs of sparkling eyes gazing up at him. He was still marveling at the extraordinary immortal, while the little ones were thinking about the donkey.

He stroked his beard and pondered for a moment.

"Don't call him 'gentleman' anymore."

Zhao's Second Son looked up at him, confused.

"You should call him an immortal!"

Zhao's Second Son lifted his head again, his eyes shining.

Village Master Zhao patted the child's head and scolded them, "You little rascals have no respect for your elders."

The more Zhao's Youngest Son thought about it, the more he regretted it.

"Then why did you have people stop me, Father? If it weren't for them, I might have met the immortal and begged him to take me as his disciple. Once I learned his magic, I could cut out a few cows, so you wouldn't feel so pained every time you bought one. And once I'd mastered it, maybe I could even turn grain into gold. Then our family would be rich!"

Village Master Zhao didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

The little boy's wish was simple, and he had the family's interests at heart.

He felt a little awkward and cleared his throat before scolding him.

"You can't even understand your books, and you want to learn immortality?"

"We have a guest today, so I let it go, but you still stammer when reciting the Classic of Filial Piety. When your big brother was your age, he'd already started studying the Great Learning."

"Tomorrow, you'll copy it out properly. You're not allowed to touch this paper donkey until you've finished..."

As he spoke, the donkey vanished with a bang.

Village Master Zhao hurriedly stopped talking and craned his neck to look.

A paper donkey fell to the ground, still looking just as it had when it was first cut out. The fibers of the paper were visible, and it had a faint bluish sheen.

Zhao's Second Son jumped in fright. With tears in his eyes, he cautiously reached out and touched the donkey.

When he saw it turn back into a living creature, he let out a breath of relief, wiped his tears, then turned around and glared angrily at his father.

Village Master Zhao was thoughtful.

He called out again.

"Paper donkey."

When he saw the donkey turn back, he tried it twice more. Everyone watched in wonder, from the Old Matriarch and the children to the servants. All of them looked astonished and hardly dared to make a sound.

At last,

Village Master Zhao carefully picked up the paper donkey and looked back at everyone.

He sighed, "I warned that gentleman the relay station was haunted. Now it seems I don't know who's afraid of whom. Hahaha..."

"Don't tell anyone about this. A donkey isn't anything rare, so it won't bring disaster upon the Zhao family, but if word gets out, you probably won't be able to play with it anymore."

"Understand?"

All four children nodded, their eyes fixed on the paper donkey in their father's hands.

Zhao Erniang tipped her head back to look at the light-as-air paper donkey. She thought of the immortal watching the cat sleep beside her, and the things he had said.

Village Master Zhao murmured,

"So this is an immortal's magic..."

On the official road.

They had all seen the miraculous donkey. They hadn't gotten a close look at how it was made, but they had heard Mr. Jiang ask the Zhao family to lend him scissors and paper.

Yuan Danqiu's eyes shone.

He respectfully asked, "Sir, what kind of art was that?"

"I came up with it on the spot," Jiang She said. "There's no special method behind it."

Yuan Danqiu was itching with curiosity. The more he thought about the connection between the paper and the living donkey, the more his heart felt as though it were being scratched by a hundred claws. He kept picturing the children's stunned faces, and wondering what the Zhao family would do...

What a rare treasure, what exquisite magic.

Immortals were actually this powerful...

They could give life to inanimate things and make them real in an instant.

But no matter how shameless Yuan Danqiu might be, he couldn't bring himself to share his own thoughts with Mr. Jiang. He could only force himself to hold back again.

Jiang She saw what he was thinking.

"It's fine for children to play with, but you couldn't use these paper donkeys or paper horses to travel."

He pointed out the paper donkey's shortcomings.

"First, it mustn't come into contact with water or fire."

"Paper soaks through in water and burns in fire."

"Second, its transformation is imperfect. It's a touch of spiritual essence from Heaven and Earth, relying on the paper cutting to take shape. Call it by its true name, and once someone exposes what it is, it will change back."

Yuan Danqiu and Li Bai listened with shining eyes.

The two servants had heard as well. They were both awestruck and envious.

They watched Jiang She sitting casually on the carriage, one leg slightly bent, the other hanging naturally, at ease and carefree.

This was a true immortal.

The carriage traveled all afternoon and reached the relay station by evening. An official ahead checked their travel permits, the Great Tang's documents for passing through.

Old Deer Mountain God didn't have one. The world had still been Han Land when he was young, so he simply reached out.

He pointed lightly in the air.

The relay-station postman swayed slightly and casually glanced over their documents. Seeing they were traveling together, he paid them no mind and continued chatting with his companion.

"What happened to that fellow afterward?"

"Who knows? Ever since his wife died and his child was gone, he went out of his mind. He spends all day babbling nonsense and is scared of everyone he meets. It's a shame. Wang San used to be a decent fellow. Every New Year, when people went to his house to slaughter pigs, they'd have to line up. They nearly wore his doorstep down."

"How does a perfectly good man go mad like that?"

"Who knows? Maybe he angered something unclean." As the middle-aged courier spoke, he thought of his own post at this relay station.

He cursed and hunched his shoulders.

He muttered, "I'll have to pay to get transferred somewhere else sooner or later. What an ill-omened place."