The brocade carp was jolted awake. The cloth that had been covering the jar had already been removed. It swam swiftly to the wall of the jar, only to find an unfamiliar scenery in front of its eyes.
A-Yi was eating grapes as he cocked his chin and said haughtily, "There, look ahead. Do you know where this place is? Fool, I bet you don't." He smiled wickedly. "This is a pool on the coast of the Eastern Sea. It's unfathomably deep, and an evil sea serpent lurks in its depths. It has not eaten for many years and is so hungry that it would eat anything, even humans. If I throw you in, you wouldn't even be enough to fill the gap between its fangs."
The brocade carp considered its figure and felt it was still possible for it to fill the gaps between the sea serpent's fangs. But it was not born to fill gaps between fangs, so it did not want to become a filler even if it could. Thus, it looked at A-Yi expressionlessly, thinking if it were to become a human in the future, it would pluck out the feathers on this brat's tail, hang his real form upside down, and make him wander around the world with his bare ass.
However, A-Yi could only see it staring blankly at himself, looking extraordinarily silly. He threw a grape at it and leaned forward to scrutinize it. "Although it is said that all the carps in the world look alike, I don't believe that Jing Lin would simply just rear one at random. Are you from Heaven? If you are, then you must be a spy! At present, Lord Chengtian has drawn clear the boundaries between the Three Realms1 and established a strict hierarchy of ranks, boosting the Ninth Heaven until it almost exceeds Heaven. In passing, he even trampled over our land, Zhongdu, and set up a Demarcation Division to put Zhongdu under surveillance. Anyone who descends to the Mortal Realm at this point in time must be a mole. Are you or are you not?"
(1. 三界 Three Realms refer to the Heavenly Realm, Mortal Realm and the Netherworld.)
The brocade carp let out a snort. A-Yi smacked at it again.
"Why are you so dumb and silly? You've stayed by Jing Lin's side for so long, and you can't even speak. It's obvious that you have no innate talents. You're really a fool all right."
You're the one who's the fool. All of your entire family are fools.
The brocade carp silently cursed him although it continued to put on a naïve and ignorant act as it cluelessly looked at A-Yi from the water. A-Yi found it boring. It would not fight back when hit or talk back when scolded; it was no fun at all. A-Yi sat cross-legged on the stone and waited and waited until he finally ran out of patience. He thought since it was already noon and Jing Lin had yet to come, he must not have cared. Thus, A-Yi jumped off the stone and raised a leg to push the jar to the edge of the pool.
"You hit me three times." A-Yi touched his cheek. "I've never forgotten it. In the past, I only endured it on Jing Lin's account, but it annoys me that you have seen him humiliating me. Now you have seen my sorry state, how can I allow you to continue living? Well, well, he doesn't care, anyway. All I have to do is plead with Ah-jie later. He has to give me face even if he doesn't want to."
A-Yi gave the white porcelain jar a kick, and it toppled over towards the chilly pool. The brocade carp dropped into the water and sank.
A-Yi felt a little uneasy and muttered to himself with his hands clasped behind his back. "You can't blame me for this. I gave Jing Lin time, but he was the one who didn't come. Such is the fate of this fool."
◈ ◈ ◈
The moment the brocade carp entered the water, it felt unusually cold. This pool was enclosed all around, and there was no way out. It tried to sink down a little more but was forced back up by the bottomless darkness. Having developed a little spirituality and intelligence, it could sniff out a massive creature looming underneath.
