Hell to Heaven by Kylie Chan Read Free Book Online

‘Now that we’re finished, I think it’s time to move to general matters at hand. There aren’t many cases for you to hear; I’ll provide you with a list in the morning.’
    ‘Is Sang Shen still going on about me living in the wrong part of the palace?’ I said.
    ‘No,’ Yue Gui said. ‘I talked to him and offered him a compromise.’
    ‘Which is?’
    Martin cut in. ‘Emma, if we move the fittings from the Serpent Concubine Pavilion into the Pavilion of Dark Celestial Bliss, will you move there?’
    ‘That’s what I’ve been asking for! It would solve the whole problem, but they said the fittings couldn’t be moved without disrupting the fung shui of Dark Bliss. The pavilion was designed to be occupied by a human not a snake.’
    ‘We have a fung shui master who says it can be done with some alterations to the layout to counteract the excessive yang of a snake presence. It will mean making the northern part of the pavilion larger, adding a water feature of some sort and choosing more turtle motifs in the decoration.’
    ‘Sounds very nice,’ I said. ‘How much will it cost?’
    He hesitated. ‘Ten jin of Celestial jade.’
    ‘ Ten jin ?’ I said, horrified.
    ‘That’s, like, ten ounces, isn’t it?’ Simone said. ‘About a million dollars? That’s a bit over the top.’
    ‘No,’ I said. ‘It’s ten kilos. A hundred and sixty ounces. Ten cattys !’
    ‘That’s…what…sixteen mill?’ Simone said. ‘To add one room and a water feature? That’s ridiculous.’
    ‘We could have the whole goddamn pavilion knocked down and rebuilt for that,’ I said.
    ‘It’s made of aged Celestial teak and ebony from the plantations on the southern shores of the Northern Heavens—the trees from there take five hundred years to grow,’ Martin said. ‘The fittings are Earthly black and white jade trimmed with pure silver. The multicoloured floor tiles are semi-precious stones—topaz, garnet and tourmaline—and it will be hard to find stones that large again.’
    I rested my head on the table. ‘I’ll just stay in the concubine quarters. It’s only Sang Shen who’s making a fuss about me moving.’ I raised my head. ‘Look, tell him that I’ll be happy to move into the Empress’s quarters, but he has to pay the ten jin to have it altered.’
    Yue Gui nodded. ‘Good idea. I will tell him.’ She smiled slightly.
    ‘You really love tormenting him, don’t you, Jie Jie,’ Simone said.
    Yue Gui shrugged. ‘He is in my custody to serve a sentence. And serve a sentence he will.’
    ‘Speaking of living quarters, there is one other matter, and then we have nothing else until tomorrow,’ Martin said. He pulled himself upright and spoke more formally. ‘Lady Emma, now that the Northern Heavens have been restored and are no longer a frigid wasteland, it would be most fitting to harmonious Celestial alignment if your family—your parents—were to be living in these Heavens rather than those in the West. This is where they belong as your family, and it is your filial duty to serve them closely. This is best achieved by them moving here.’
    I stared at him, shocked. My parents had been living in the West for ten years and now he wanted them to move to a completely new—and strange—place?
    ‘I can’t see Nanna and Pop wanting to do that,’ Simone said mildly. ‘They’ve made a lot of friends in the West over the last ten years, Martin. I really think they’re more comfortable in the West.’
    Martin opened his mouth to argue but I cut him off. ‘I will take the matter under advisement and discuss it with my parents.’
    He nodded. ‘Very good, ma’am.’

CHAPTER 4
    T hat evening Simone and I spread out on some beanbags in the Serpent Concubine Pavilion and watched a DVD together, she in her pyjamas and me stretched out next to her in serpent form. When the movie finished, she switched off the DVD and spread her arms. ‘Hug, Emma.’
    I slithered next her and she held me close, my head