The road stretched on without end, but to Immortals, a hundred years passed in the flick of a finger. The bustle of the year's end held no appeal for them—a year in an Immortal's long life was like a week. And if you had an easy job, arrived late and left early every day, and saw no difference between Monday and Sunday, would you still look forward to the weekend? Immortals felt much the same about the "weekend" of year's end. Yet time marched on, and while people lived long lives, the things they used did not.
Broken plates and bowls had to be replaced, as did damaged tables and chairs and torn curtains. Every ten years, the palace had to buy a fresh supply of furnishings. As the day for the buying trip drew near, the narrow old eyes of Ha Dehai, the palace's Chief of Internal Affairs, narrowed into slits. Eunuch Ha had spent three hundred years in the palace before working his way up to this position. He had overseen only one purchasing trip since taking office, and back then, newly appointed, he had not dared to embezzle or take bribes on a grand scale. Even his modest haul had come to several million High-Grade Immortal Jade.
By now, Ha Dehai had stopped worrying, and his nerve had grown fat. What was there to fear? This time, he set out from the palace brimming with "fighting spirit," ready to dive into the five oceans and catch a turtle.
Royal procurement covered everything the Supreme Pure Emperor needed in his palace, as well as separate shares for Zhu Ke'er and Xie Tang. After all, neither woman had married. This time there was another share: Xu Hu's. He was effectively the crown prince. Although no formal decree had been