Mei Hua, Little Shan, and Ye were all brought to the palace. The adult and Fairy were greatly surprised while the toddler (having no frame of reference) simply looked around with lazy curiosity.

“Did you know about this?” Mei Hua asked Ye accusingly.

“No! I was told specifically to scram!”

“Ha…” She could only nod dumbly. She’d only been to one human town, so her view of human buildings was somewhat limited. Even so, she was pretty sure this place was amazing.

It was neatly square, with a massive outer wall and a single front gate with thick metal doors that were currently open. On each door were strikingly designed wolves, that glared viciously at anyone in front of them, and in the smallest wolf’s mouth was a great metal door ring. Above the doors, and on each corner of the outer walls, were towers (which she supposed were for security purposes).

Inside was a wide bricked path, with two smaller paths leading to the right and left. At the first intersection, two bronze guardian lions stood at attention, their mouths open with a snarl. The right lion had a gold ball under it’s right paw and the left lion had a gold cub curled under it’s paw protectively. They were as tall as Mei Hua and intimidating to walk past.

Just past the lions, a row of fifty people on each side of the path stood, bowing deeply. They wore simple outfits of black and tan, their hair piled up on their heads in a simple bun. She did a double take at the hair, for it was every color and shade of the rainbow.

With Little Shan in her arms, she leaned over to Jin and whispered.

“Jin, who are they?”

“Ah. They’re servants of the palace.”

“Servants—? Where did you find them and why is there hair so… uh… colorful?”

“They’re fairies.” Ye interrupted, having gotten a good look at them now.

Mei Hua gave him an astonished glance.

“Fairies?! But they look— they look—”

“Human, yeah. I noticed too.” Ye gave Jin a hard stare and said with a slight trace of bitterness, “How fortunate for them, that the Fairy Emperor should grace them with such a marvelous appearance.”

Jin’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Of course. Didn’t they serve him faithful for many years? Perhaps if you’d been as dedicated, he would have done the same for you.”

Hearing this, Ye was furious and immediately hopped on Jin’s head and started viciously pulling his hair. They fought for several minutes, with Little Shan’s bubbling laugh in the background.

Finally, Mei Hua could take no more of it and broke them up. Despite years of living together, those two would still periodically break out in (the equivalent of) a fist fight.

“Did the Emperor build this place too?” She asked as Jin straightened his hair and hanfu.

“En. What do you think of it?”

Mei Hua took a good look around. Dark green tiling lined the sweeping roofs, with small carved dragons and lions on their upturned corners. Each building that she could see was made of natural red wood, with painted green and white accents. Red lanterns, unlit, hung underneath the walkways and halls that linked smaller, individual courtyards. Farther away, she could see that similar colored buildings several stories high built right into the side of the mountain. Any empty space was filled with neatly arranged gardens, with beautifully shaped trees and ponds. Every where she glanced, she could see something new and amazing to wonder at.

She gave a firm nod. “This place is really amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Jin immediately felt like all the time and effort he’d put into the place was worth it.

“But what does the Fairy Emperor need a palace for?”

Jin stared at her dumbly.

“The Emperor?”

“Mm, what did he build this for? I thought he enjoyed living in the forest?”

“Ay, ay!” He slapped his forehead and then sighed. “It’s for us.”

Mei Hua’s eyes got so big she thought they’d fall right out.

“Us?!”

“En.”

“But why!?”

Jin thought for a moment.

“Because we’ve been very good servants?”

Her brow furrowed doubtfully.

“Have we?”

“We have.”

“…you’re sure?”

“Ah, that level of doubt hurts!”

“Sorry, you just didn’t sound like you knew either.”

There was no way Jin would admit he built the place just to get enough privacy for rolling in the sheets and eating her tofu. Instead he coughed and changed the topic.

“You get to name everything.”

“Hm? Name?”

“Yes, this palace needs a name. The servants need names. Even the individual rooms will need names eventually. This place is very big and without names for each place it will be difficult to instruct people where to go.”

“The servants don’t have names?”

“They don’t. None of the Emperor’s fairies do.” Jin turned away and looked a little ashamed. “He never bothered with them, he didn’t think it was important.”

“I see…” She hugged Little Shan closer to her, rubbing her face on the top of her head while she thought. “I’ll do my best to give them good names then. Though I’m not sure how good I’ll be at it.”

Jin gave her a tour of the palace she was to name. They had a whole smaller courtyard devoted to just them, it even had a private kitchen and bathroom. Their room was huge, and the delicately designed canopy bed was of equal hug proportions. When Jin looked between the bed and Mei Hua, she saw that special glint in his eye and smacked him. But only lightly, because she too missed the taste of his tofu.

There were buildings for guests, for servants, and for family. The family buildings were currently empty, except for one. This was Little Shan’s room. When Mei Hua saw it’s beautiful decorations and abundance of toys, she was thrilled.

“Oh, but isn’t this room too far?”

“Too far?” Jin asked innocently.

“From our room. We had to pass through five other courtyards just to get to this one.”

He gave a ponderous expression while stroking his chin.

“Now that you mention it, all the family rooms are on the other side of the palace from ours. Tsk, tsk, the Emperor must have made a mistake. But we can’t possibly tell him that, especially after he went to all the trouble to build this place for us.”

“…right.” Mei Hua felt a little suspicious about Jin’s tone just then. She pursed her lips for a moment, but decided to let it go. “What are we to do then? Little Shan isn’t even three yet, how could he possibly sleep so far away from us?”

“Not to worry, not to worry!” Jin explained hastily and clapped his hands. Two fairy servants appeared. “These two will be Little Shan’s nursemaids! With them at his side, how could there be anything to fear?”

Mei Hua skeptically looked at the two small people before her. They barely looked fourteen. Seeing she wasn’t convinced, Jin continued to press.

“They’re primary duty is simply to be there at night, while during the day of course you will look after him. They will help you with anything you need as well. The extra help will make both of your lives easier, don’t you think?”

“Hmmm…”

“Mountain Flower,” Jin wheedled. “Little Shan can’t sleep with us forever. At some point he must learn to sleep on his own. He might not be three, but he’s also not so young that being away from you at night with supervision will harm him. Since the Emperor has gifted us such a luxurious home, we might as well start now. And should he so much as sneeze, these fairy nannies will definitely rush over to tell you, and then you can personally take care of him.”

Mei Hua stroked Little Shan’s back as he spoke and gave a faint bend of her head.

“I suppose you’re right.” She kissed the top of Little Shan’s head. “Do these fairy nannies not have names as well?”

Jin nodded.

“I suppose I should give them a name then. Let’s call the left one Xiao Ling and the right one Xiao Qing.”

Ling and Qing kowtowed and spoke as one: “This servant thanks your Ladyship for her benevolence!”

“Er, right, let’s not bow too deeply. Only the Fairy Emperor deserve that much respect.”

Hearing this, Xiao Ling and Xiao Qing glanced at each other and stood back up. They privately thought that her Ladyship was a wise Mistress. While she was the favored Lady of their Lordship, his Lordship reigned supreme above all. That her Ladyship put herself beneath their Lord as was proper, they could only think well of her for it.

Of the one hundred fairies, Ling and Qing were the most loyal to their Lord. Jin had assigned them to Little Shan for this reason: he did not trust Little Shan not to have a bad influence on the other fairies if left alone with them too long. But the personalities of these two… the brat would definitely have a hard time.

Mei Hua carefully lowered Little Shan, until he stood on too wobbly feet. Cheerfully she told him, “Say hello to Xiao Ling and Xiao Qing, Little Shan. They will help me take care of you and keep you safe.”

Little Shan simply turned his head away with a harrumph and clasped tightly to his Mother’s leg. He gave a vicious black hearted glare at Jin. He’d find a way to get back at the Old Man for this insult, oh yes he would!

Jin purposefully didn’t look at his son, knowing perfectly well what the little brat was thinking. But he didn’t care! A year of abstinence was about to end, and he was willing to suffer whatever to make that happen!

Thinking that her son was acting shy, Mei Hua knelt next to the toddler and kissed his cheek.

“Don’t be afraid, little one. These two servants are gifted to us by the Fairy Emperor. If he sent them to serve us, then they will serve us very well. So let’s give them a little greeting, alright?”

Little Shan begrudgingly turned his head to the two fairies. A slight shiver ran down their backs at his baleful gold and blue eyed stare. Even though he was obviously holding back, the threat was still there: don’t mess with me, weaklings, or I’ll make you suffer.

“Hey’o.” He faked a sweet greeting for his Mother’s sake.

The fairy nannies blinked as one and replied respectfully, “Greetings, Little Master.”

They thought, the son of the Emperor was fierce and powerful. He would be difficult to serve, but that was not too surprising. They remembered their willful and selfish Lord and would not have expected any less from his son. In any case, they knew how to make their Lord happy, so dealing with this Little Lord should not be too much of a problem.

——

For the rest of the day, Mei Hua spent naming things. Her naming schemes weren’t very original, she knew, but who thought it was a good idea for her to name things? She certainly wouldn’t have picked herself to do it!

The palace she called Blue Flower Palace. After the trees inside and outside the palace that glowed faintly during the spring nights, when the moon was full. She’d heard that long ago the trees use to glow so bright you could see them for miles. But that was when Xuiying lived on the mountains. Now they were almost ordinary flower trees. Beautiful, but ordinary.

The side of the palace that sat against the mountain was called Qiang Shan Hall, while the west, south, and north were given the names Ri Lou Hall, Lu Se Hall, Bai Se Hall respectfully. The kitchens she called the “Hou (Fire) House”.

Naming 98 fairies was no small task. To simplify the task, she gave them all surnames based on their jobs or where they worked. The bulk went by Wen (Genial) and Chun (Pure), with the kitchen staff going by Dao (Knife) and the nursemaids going by Xiao (Little).

When it was time to give them first names, she realized something.

“Jin,” She whispered awkwardly to her husband. “Which ones are boys and which ones are girls?”

“Ah?”

“Well, they’re all dressed in pants, but they still look really girly too. I can’t tell but I don’t want to offend them by asking.”

“Eh? What about the Xiao fairies though? You named them without knowing.”

“What do you mean ‘without knowing’? They’re nursemaids, so obviously they’d be girls, right?” She gave Jin a ‘Are you stupid?’ look as she explained.

“R-right! Ha! Ha ha ha!”

Jin then turned silent, internally raising a palm to his forehead. He’d totally forgotten about defining their sex. Even Ye was a boy, not that he looked much like one. Since he didn’t have any time to think deeply on the subject, he split them 50/50, with the Xiao Nursemaids being girls.

At once, every fairy in the Palace shivered as their bodies changed on them without warning. They then stared at each other in a mix of blank astonishment and horror. Several were feeling their own bodies in puzzlement.

“…are… are they alright?” Mei Hua asked, seeing their odd behavior.

He cleared his throat. “They’re fine, just fine. Ha Ha Ha. Just a bit of a cold breeze made them shiver, I’m sure. Half are boys, half are girls.” He hastily rationalized before calling aloud. “Everyone who’s a boy, step to the right, girls to the left.”

Even though the fairies were still VERY confused about what just happened, they could sense where their Lord wanted them to go and followed his guidance without any resistance. Once they were clustered together, they more or less understood what Lord Jin had done to them and were then able to calm down.

Mei Hua looked at the lines, feeling relieved. Now she didn’t have to worry about offending the Emperor’s fairies. Phew! She earnestly named all 98 of them, but by the time she got into the 20s she was getting haphazard. She fervently hoped no one carried a grudge for her poor naming schemes once they began comparing their names.