Divine Physician

That night, Kesi stared continuously into the mirror, hoping to catch a glimpse of anything at all. Her plans to make A'Hong drunk to fish out more details about his relationship with his father had been foiled by Little Seven's unexpected outburst, and she wondered when and what her next opportunity would be.

Deep in thought, she hadn't even noticed the creaking of her door and the quiet scampering of footsteps.

If this had been in her past life, she surely would have been dead by now. But now, she could instead blame her old age for her lack of awareness.

Plus, by the time she felt the heat radiate outward from her back, she already knew that she was nowhere near danger.

"Guess who I am!" A pair of soft hands gently wrapped around her eyes from behind. The voice was deep, but it was obvious that the person had been forcing his voice down an octave.

"Oh, could it be that you're the miracle doctor who is here to cure this old lady?" Stifling a laugh, Kesi forced herself to put on a straight face to play along. "I've heard of the wonders that you've performed on your old customers. All those people who jumped off a cliff and survived without a scrape. All of those young girls bit by a rabid wolf who turned out to be their soul mate…"

"Tis I, indeed. I am the almighty Divine Physician! How did you know!"

Kesi could tell that Mu Luming was struggling to contain his laughter just like her.

"Is there a chance that you could possibly reverse time for this old granny as well?"

The small hands slid off her eyes, latching onto her hands instead, and perhaps it was the period of temporary darkness, but Kesi saw the light in front of her brighter than she had ever before.

A little shadow whirled her around, and she came face to face with Mu Luming. The candles in the background cast a little halo of light around him, and his smile was so wide that the light reflected off his teeth.

"Of course the Divine Physician can cure you, my wonderful elder sister." He brought the mirror back up to her face. "Look! It's already done!"

The reflection showed her currently youthful features.

Looking at her expression, almost triumphantly, Mu Luming waved their entwined fingers in the air.

"I told you so!"

Instead of releasing his hands, much to his surprise, she instead tightened her grip on them.

"Sit."

Looking up with sad puppy eyes, he pouted, "What is the meaning of this madness! I'm the almighty Divine Physician! You can't treat me like this!"

"Don't you think I forgot now, you sneaky little kid. Just because I'm a grandma sometimes doesn't mean that my memory doesn't function properly." Pushing him into a chair, she leaned over until she saw him eye to eye. "You never told me the secret."

"What secret?" Squirming in his seat, he licked his lips.

"How do you control whether I age or not?"

He looked to the side, and she cocked her head to follow his line of vision.

He glanced to the other side, and she followed suit.

"Will you stop looking at me like that?" He protested, puffing up his cheeks until he looked like a little angry hamster.

"But I want to know, and you had promised to tell me earlier." She stated matter of factly, dodging every cute heart-shaped signal for pity that he mentally willed toward her.

"Fineeeee." Pulling out a little jade pendant from his inner robes, he handed it over to Kesi with a pitiful frown on his face.

The thumb-nail sized jade pendant was milky and opaque, almost like the soft glow of moonlight. To entwined clouds were etched over its otherwise smooth surface, and Kesi could feel the heat from it seep into her fingertips.

Whether it was the remaining traces of Mu Luming's body heat or some other mysterious life force, the stone had a certain sense of life to it.

Flipping it back and forth, Kesi examined every single crevice on the pendant.

Could this piece of stone be the source of her youth and not Mu Luming? If that was the case, would there still be a need for her to constantly stay by his side?

Letting go of Mu Luming's hands, she looked back into the mirror. Slowly, just as it had before, signs of old age crept up the sides of her face.

First, it was the wrinkles. Then, it was the age spots. And at the end, her clouded eyesight barely let her see that Mu Luming had crept behind her.

His little face popped up behind hers in the reflection, and almost as if a chastising adult, he scolded, "This is what happens when you don't like the Divine Physician finish his prescription."

Taking the little pendant back in his own hands, he put his little head on Kesi's shoulders.

Almost instantaneously, the familiar warmth shot through her muscles, and the face in the reflection shifted back.

"Now, look when I don't have the pendant." Setting the jade carving down on the side of the table, he resumed his position perched atop Kesi's shoulder.

Immediately, she withered like a rose in summer heat.

For a second, from the sudden changes back and forth between her old age and youth, Kesi felt like she was one of those popsicles that someone takes out of the fridge only to forget about it and then refreeze it.

"It's a two in one package! You can't just get rid of me!" He announced triumphantly, almost as if reading her mind from before.

"Don't worry, Kesi, I usually leave the pendant in the room, so even if I accidentally touch you outside, nothing will happen!"

Beaming, he looked up as if a little puppy asking for treats.

She nodded slowly, realizing that she couldn't simply take the pendant and run. But perhaps, as much as she didn't want to admit to it, there was a slight hint of relief mixed into there as well.