When Xiao Jiuyuan was just a young girl, her elder brother went far away to Shuofang and never returned. She stayed alone in the Xiao residence, drinking pot after pot of strong liquor and gazing at the endless stars, her heart faintly burning.
People said she was cursed by fate: everyone who grew close to her would leave. She was nothing but a bringer of misfortune.
Then, in the year she came of age, a fine rain fell outside the palace gates. The autumn wind carried the sweet scent of grass and earth, and that man knelt beside her, his voice hoarse as he said,
