House of Aunts

Chapter 16

I stared at all the cakes on the website. It was so eerie. These bakers seemed to think that pink was a girl colour and blue was a boy's colour, but the truth is, I liked both. Aunty Blossom clicked on another bakery. The designs were cute, but did they have to all be unicorn cakes? I mean, I knew that unicorns were a thing and I liked them, but I didn't want a unicorn cake for my birthday.

"Well? What do you think?" Aunty Blossom asked. She was the one in charge of the cake.

"I, uh–" I sighed.

"You don't like any of them?"

I nodded slowly. I didn't want to seem ungrateful.

"I guess we'll have to make it ourselves, then," she said, grinning.

"Thank you, Aunty!" I smiled and hugged her. Immediately, she started sketching my birthday cake. It looked awesome! There was going to be a figurine of all of my aunts and me, and we would be wearing special robes. It would looke like we were in a peach garden, which I loved. It reminded me of something that happened a long time ago. Aunty Blossom also had this faraway look on her face while drawing the cake, but this was interrupted by Aunty Seven.

"Oh. That looks good! Now, Ruyi, we have to decide on your birthday wardrobe. What kind of dress would you like to wear?" she showed me her iPad screen, and I started swiping the dresses. It was the same thing. Poofy pink frills and glittery sparkles. Actually, what I wanted were my Chinese New Year robes from when I was seven, but I wasn't sure if my classmates would laugh at me if I asked for them.

"Um, this is very nice and all, Aunty Seven, but do you remember the time I was in the heavens? In this cloud-like place where I tried on the robes?"

At this, Aunty Seven's face paled.

"Uh–well–"

"We can't lie to her, you know," Aunty Blossom chimed in.

"Lie to me?" I asked. "Why?"

At this, Aunty Blossom laughed.

"No no no, my dear. When we adopted you, we made a few promises. One of them was not to lie to you." She stared at Aunty Seven pointedly.

"But you remembered. You're not supposed to remember."

"And we also said that–"

This time, Aunty Seven put a finger on Aunty Blossom's lips.

"What do you remember?"

"Uhm, I remember that one time we were in the clouds, and I was choosing Chinese New Year clothes. I remember the name of it! The hanfu! And I think I got a pink and purple one, which I liked. It was special, and I wanted to wear it again."

Aunty Seven looked confused, but she also looked like she wanted to faint. Instead, she smiled.

"Well, yes, that was true, but, uhm–"

"We did go to the heavens, didn't we? So this means that there are immortals who lived there!"

"Uh–"

"And you used to be an immortal," I said. It was at the back of my mind, and it felt real the moment I said it. I stood there, and my aunts' faces were even whiter now.

"I'll go get the dress to see if you can wear it," Aunty Seven said, scurrying to the room. Aunty Blossom turned to me.

"What else do you remember?"