The Chilling Wind and Snow of That Year

There are cicadas in this world. They sleep through winter, lie dormant in spring, emerge in summer, and die once they have cried out all the injustice in their hearts. If cicadas are like that, what of humankind?

The first snow fell that year when Liu Zhichan, a young Daoist nun from Mount Helan, descended the mountain, like a spring cicada emerging from the earth. A man from the world below took her to see the splendor of the imperial capital and the brilliance of summer flowers. He painted her eyebrows, held an umbrella over her, and drew her into his arms.