Watercolour
11.7″x8.27″

This is the second episode of my Rising Sun series.

Contrary to popular speculation, Houyi 后羿 didn’t care much at all about being banished from Heaven but he couldn’t bear the fact that he and Chang’e 嫦娥 would one day die and become nothing.

Houyi sought help from the merciful Queen Mother of the West, Xiwangmu 西王母. After he scared the dragon away from her palace, Xiwangmu gave Houyi two things. One was the elixir of immortality; the other was a warning.

“Drinking half the elixir will grant everlasting life. The entire elixir, however, will make one ascend to heaven as a full-fledged immortal.”

Half for himself; half for Chang’e. It was all Houyi could have hoped for. Houyi kept the secret and planned to tell Chang’e the good news on their wedding night.