I frown at my empty cup. ‘I wasn’t imagining the taste, was I? Itwasdelicious, right?’
He too peers into his cup, nodding. ‘It took quite a few years before I figured out what she wanted me to understand.’
‘Okay, if you’re going to have conversations by yourself, I’ll come back later.’ I pretend to stand.
Big Wang calls my bluff. He tops up my tea. ‘After you tell me about Tony, I’ll tell you what Lady Longnu meant.’
He listens to the same prepared lines I recited for Old Zao, the red glint in his eyes growing more intense with every sentence. When I finish, he and I sit in silence.
‘Did he really say he didn’t want to be vampire?’ Big Wang asks gently.
I nod and whisper the words that haunt me every day, ‘He said, “I find them deeply abhorrent. I never want to be one of them.”’
‘Mmmgh,’ he says. ‘I can tell he’s hurting. Give him time to adjust. But after that, if he still behaves like a lout, I will personally send him to the lower levels of Hell.’
‘He’ll come around, I’m sure.’ Though I’m not sure at all, I pretend for Tony’s sake.
When I was fourteen, I hit a rough patch and went off the rails. I had no respect for anyone, much less myself, and took great pleasure in being destructive. No threat or punishment had any effect. In desperation, Horsey hauled me off for a visit to the lower levels of Hell, a place where the wicked were forced to relive the pain they inflicted on others, over and over again. I think Horsey only meant to frighten me a little. But I came back and was catatonic for a week. Big Wang was livid, forbade Horsey to ever take me down there again. It was truly an unspeakable place I wouldn’t wish on anyone, not even the demon hunter who killed my parents.
Thankfully, Big Wang changes the subject. ‘I was surprised to hear from Zhong Kui, the Minister of Rites, that Lord Aengus was returning for another visit so soon after his last.’
‘He bumped into the Dagda in Paris while he was recovering. Apparently, the Dagda doesn’t like him to travel, and now he knows that Lord Aengus was ill, Lord Aengus was afraid his father would forbid him to travel anymore. So he ran.’
Big Wang lets out a long sigh as he brews us a fresh pot of pu-erh tea. ‘Sometimes the only way to learn how to get up, is to fall down. I don’t envy the Dagda. He was a broken man for many years after he lost three sons at once.’
‘Tony’s staying with Lord Aengus, I assume?’
A nod. ‘He seems to be on good terms with the Durands, despite what he said about vampires.’ He holds up the pinmin cup. ‘What do you think this tea has helped me understand?’
I don’t bother to question Big Wang’s dizzying conversation style; it’s easier to roll with it. ‘That you should trust Lady Longnu.’
He gives me a look that says,Try again.
‘I guess the tea changes as it ages? It started out astringent and unpleasant but mellowed into something complex.’
‘Mmmgh. Very good, Little Jing. When you were young, I often wasn’t sure of the choices I made, whether I was helping or hurting you. During’ – he sucks his teeth – ‘let’s call it your Angry Era—’
‘Basically the last ninety years, give or take?’ I quip, and earn myself a rare smile from Big Wang.
‘Thereabouts,’ he agrees. ‘During that time, you were highly unpleasant. Much like the first four years of this tea.’
‘Rude,’ I mutter under my breath.
Big Wang raises an eyebrow. ‘Year by year, the tea slowly revealed itself. Its layers, its sweetness and bitterness, its colour, changing with time. Just as you did. The tea taught me patience; that initial astringency bloomed into a sweet complexity. You were the same.’
It’s a nice metaphor, apart from the initial mouth-puckering astringency. He hands me a small cloisonné jar; inlaid on the front is a nine-tailed fox.
I take it reverently. ‘Is this . . .’
‘It is. The same pu-erh tea, but harvested this year.’
The smile drops from my face. ‘But, didn’t you say for the first however many years, the tea was disgusting and undrinkable?’
He nods happily.
‘Can’t I have some of the delicious aged stuff?’
‘I know things are hard between you and Tony, but I can tell he still cares for you, even if right now his anger leaves no room for anything else. Brew this tea once a year, it will help you understand as it helped me.’
