Young Again

When she came in, Madame Lei thought she was in another land. She could see the moon above giving light to the plants and trees the same as anywhere but there was something different in the atmosphere but could not pinpoint what it was.

A nightingale, Kuaille, flew to her and pulled her sleeve… and brought her to a cavern. Inside, she saw a crystal bed with a blanket and pillow prepared for her.

Being in a new place perked her adventurous spirit, but exhaustion told her to sleep tonight. She needed the rest after days of travel, the fights with the black men, running after the man she thought her enemy turned out to be a friend, and the cliff that made her doubt the legacy. Her body was so tired and slept after her head hit the pillow.

The next morning, she woke up and stretched out but stopped halfway when she had a clearer view of her cabin. She couldn't believe what she saw because the whole room was anything but ordinary.

Walls made of colored Ilumi crystals known for its properties of self-producing light at night and averting any evil attacks. A bed carved out from cool yellow stone that replenishes one's strength while you sleep. Just a piece as big as a fist was already worth a hundred gold coins. With this big, she couldn't fathom its cost.

Then her eyes went to the shining blue silk blanket and pillowcase she used and yelled in awe. "Oh, my goodness. I'm sure, this is from the rare thread of the Meinu spider's web."

Madame Lei once saw a hanky created out of this, and great men died just to have it. They said it had an effect same as the fountain of youth of which could make you look younger when you used it to wipe your face and body with it daily.

After witnessing these, her excitement to explore intensified. She hurried outside expecting to see a vast open land but… stood in a cave as large as a cathedral with a huge white crystal covering the roof illuminating the area.

"I'm sure I saw the moon last night," she wondered. After deep examination, she concluded that the whole top was of moonstone. This stone was famous for becoming transparent when the moonlight touched it. "There's no other explanation for this."

As she strode around, Madame Lei couldn't stop saying, "Ooh, ahh, wonderful, oh my, wow," and so forth to see rare herbs, flowers, birds, and many more. "Goodness gracious. This place is a treasure trove, no doubt about it." She bent down and touched a circle reddish-green plant which looked as normal as other plants but, "This is crazy. This Moon Fuyen herb is worth a thousand gold coins if sold in the market." It meant one of this could feed a family of five for a year.

This was the famed herb known to heal wounds in seconds and hard to reproduce due to its planting requirement. The moon stone's effect and the zero sunlight were the reasons that Fuyen propagated in this place. In fact, city markets never sell this herb because the royal family promised the farmers a handsome sum for every plant sold in the royal pharmacy. However, here, there were hundreds of it.

It was not only Fuyen she saw, there were more, but she had no time to check each when she heard a girl's peals of laughter. Her heart raced, thinking it could be Xinyi. She walked quickly to where the sound came and halted to see vines with expensive gemstones of various colors as its leaves hanging on the entrance. It was her first to see this plant.

Madame Lei experienced great things in life, but this place was something else. However, she didn't forget her main reason for being here, to meet Xinyi and bring her back. She popped her head in and saw a beautiful young lady with shining skin wearing thin clothing playing in the pool with a big deer and a bird, while a big panda stood guard at the door.

Suddenly, the panda's appearance changed in front of her and reverted to its original form in seconds. To know the expert she met last night was a panda surprised her. No wonder he said he couldn't speak to her. She also understood his reappearance was a warning and thought of asking the reason from stopping her from mentioning Ming, but…

"Hello!!! Oh my, I'm so glad there's another girl here," Xinyi shouted and ran to Madame Lei with glee, bouncing while beaming like a child as she held Madame's hand with her dripping hands. "I thought I was the only girl here. What is your name, big sister? I'm Xinyi."

"Big sister?" Madame Lei looked at her with a big question mark on her face.

Unknown to Madame Lei, what Xinyi saw was a lady with shiny black hair, deep-set eyes, fair-skinned, cute button nose, and delicate lips that had a faint smile.

The once old lady couldn't comprehend what she heard from her daughter-in-law. 'Was she lacked teachings about manners to call me big sister? I don't think so.'

She smiled awkwardly. "Dear, I'm glad for the compliment, but I think you should call me Ma or older," she told Xinyi, who didn't mind her statement and jumped back to the waist-deep pool.

"Elder? Nah, you're still young for me to call you, but Ma will be fine even though you could pass as a big sister than my mother."

That's it. Those words were quite disturbing than a compliment to Madame Lei. So, she looked down to her once rough and with big veined hands… and flabbergasted to see them fair and smooth looking. She hurriedly went near the water to check her reflection and gasped to see her face as young as she was in her early thirties.

"Oh, my great ancestor!" Madame Lei yelled and covered her face at the same time. Then slowly her shoulders trembled and muffling sounds came out from her hands as if she cried.

Xinyi stopped playing and got worried. "What happened? Is anything wrong, big sis?" But out of the blue Madame Lei screamed, tilted her head up, and threw her hands up in the air.

"Ahh!!! I'm young again. Wahaha, I'm young again. I'm young again. I'm young again. This is amazing." And leaped to the pool with her clothes on and jumped up and down with Xinyi. Both of them roared in laughter like little girls playing and splashing water with each other.

The watching panda shook his head. 'Shameless. Hoy! You're still old. Stop acting like a child. That is only a brief effect of the blanket and this place.' He continued to shake his head and left to guard the cave entrance.