When Half the Paulownia Blossoms Fall - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

When I was eight, days of relentless rain flooded the road from our village to town.

My little brother came down with a high fever, so my parents handed me a basket and sent me into the mountains to gather herbs.

In the grass, I found a little Black Snake curled up, covered in wounds.

The rain had soaked its injuries until they turned pale and swollen. A scale was missing from the tip of its tail.

Its little black-bean eyes were unbearably adorable, though it looked listless as it stared blankly at me.

It seemed almost human.

So I casually used a branch to move it somewhere the rain couldn’t reach, then sprinkled a little white medicinal powder over its wounds.

That night, I had a dream.

In a sea of flowers that covered the mountains and fields stood a delicate, beautiful young boy. Beneath one eye was a tiny tear mole.

He gazed at me in silence.

A black tail quietly slipped out from behind him. The tip of the tail was missing a scale.

It slowly reached toward me, then offered me a cute little flower that bobbed its head.

Surprised, I took it and accidentally brushed against the cool, soft scales.

The tail seemed to grow shy and suddenly shrank back behind its owner.

A faint pink spread over the boy’s ears. He smiled at me and stammered, “I like you. May I ask… can we get married?”

I frowned.

“Getting married the first time we meet doesn’t seem like a great idea.”

His face flushed crimson at once, tears welling in his eyes.

“I can protect you, do anything for you, and even give you half my lifespan.”

No wonder he had a tear mole under his eye, crying that easily.

I shook my head and turned to leave.

He panicked. With a bang, he turned into a little Black Snake so dark it seemed to shimmer with every color.

“You saved me. I only want to stay with you.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he began spitting gold from his mouth.

The gold glittered brightly, soon piling up into a little mountain.

He coiled around my wrist and pressed his head into my palm, rubbing against it gently.

“Everything I have is yours.”

I chuckled, patted him, then squatted down and started frantically scooping up gold.

“Well then. How do you want this wedding done?”

Black Snake didn’t respond.

He was so excited his whole body turned pink, and he fainted from happiness.

I thought it had only been a dream.

But when I woke up, there really was a pile of gold in front of me.

So it wasn’t just golden toads that could spit coins. Black Snake could too!

I pinched myself hard. It wasn’t a dream. Thrilled, I brought the gold to my father, only to receive a heavy slap across the face.

“You little wretch, learning filthy habits! You dirty-handed brat-who knows where you stole this from!”

I tried to explain, but another slap came down, leaving me dizzy, my mouth full of the taste of blood.

My mother took the gold, bit it, and, overjoyed, tucked it into her pocket.

“Pan’er, since we don’t know where this came from, I’ll keep it for you for now.”

That night, I was in too much pain to sleep. I felt my way through the dark to the courtyard and heard her and my father talking in the inner room.

“You shouldn’t have hit Pan’er during the day.”

I pressed my face against the door. Dim yellow light leaked through, carrying a trace of warmth.

“Next time, let her steal more. If someone comes looking for it, we’ll deny everything. Beat her half to death, and the owner will probably let it go for fear of someone actually dying.”

“Once we’ve saved up enough gold to finish building the house, it’ll be enough for our Yaozu to marry a wife too.”

The last bit of light went out of my numb eyes.

Tears ran to the corner of my mouth, and I tasted them.

They were bitter.

Black Snake seemed to have been nothing more than a dream I’d had.

When the dream ended, no one believed any of it had been real.

My parents used the gold to build a new house and moved in with my little brother.

There was no room in that home for me.

They gave me a choice: either stay in the old house, or live in the pigsty at the new one.

And so, I lived alone in the old house.