"Surely you don't mean —" Wen whispered.
"Of course she does," said the old man, now right beside where Wen knelt, holding Fengzi in a desperate attempt to keep her warm. "Hello, child," he said. "You have made me very proud; I thought you should know that.
"And you," he said to the Queen Mother of the West, "would do better to think more about what this young woman did not do than about what she did." Lao Zi reached into his robe and pulled out a ball about the size of a quail's egg. Handing it to Wen he said, "See if you can get her to swallow this. I apologize for the size, but that just seems to be the way they want to make themselves."
Lao Zi turned back to the Jade Emperor and his consort. "I would be lying to you if I said I had been watching her carefully, but I have not been unaware of this young woman's character. From a very early age she has devoted herself to the study of The Way; that in itself would commend her, when you consider how young people are these days.
"But she has studied for the sake of knowledge itself, where so many Daoists seem to be in it only for the immortality."
"There's a reason we make that so difficult to attain," the Jade Emperor said; the Queen Mother of the West snorted.
"Yes," said Lao Zi. "But despite the often fatal difficulty attached to immortality studies, most Daoists seem to end up studying in that direction. However, Yin Fengzi has steadfastly refused to waste her time on immortality; instead she has studied to increase her knowledge and, lately, to increase her ability to help others."
"She is helping others to steal; you do realize that," the Queen Mother of the West said.
"She does not steal herself," Wen said. Somehow his hand had begun stroking her hair. "She helps me and my crew"—my companions, he realized—"to steal from those who have in turn stolen from those weaker than they. In her way she is helping to ensure that the riches of Fusang are distributed more equally amongst those who help create them." Wen offered the ball to her, but she could not open her mouth wide enough to take it.
"And the ultimate end of her studies will, in fact, be freedom for others," added Lao Zi. "You may have to take extreme measures, young man," he said to Wen.
"Now, to return to my original point," Lao Zi continued, and now he pointed a finger at the Queen Mother of the West, a gesture that made Number One Grandfather smile, "from the moment she became aware that her young man's journey was going to take them into heaven"—at the words "young man" Fengzi stiffened a little, and Wen thought he saw a smile—"she took care to warn everyone in her party that they must under no conditions do anything to harm any peaches they found here. Far from molesting your peaches, Exalted One, Yin Fengzi has devoted herself to protecting them."
There was no doubt about it; Fengzi's mouth was curving up into a happy, if exhausted smile. Swallowing hard, Wen shifted her so that while her head rested in his lap, one of his hands was free while the other moved Lao Zi's huge pill near her mouth.
Then he thrust his free hand inside her robe and under her tunic...
...And began to tickle her ribs.
Fengzi squirmed, laughed, then opened her mouth in protest. Once her lips had parted sufficiently, Wen thrust the ball between them. Then, leaning over, he kissed her.
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