Winning Over a Beautiful Human-Demon

“Drooping Begonia has a beauty all its own. Who would say it pales beside Sichuan crabapple? The wind stirs a world of vermilion beneath the Jade Emperor, while the sun warms the Purple Emperor’s robes. Too languid to stir, it remains drunk on spring; waking, it gathers its wits to put on its morning face. I offer these new lines to the old man: let’s see if those peaches and apricots dare claim they can match it.” Drooping Begonia’s supple branches sway in the breeze, its blossoms hanging like the lustrous hair of a young girl veiling her face. With its tender warmth and lovely grace, I have named it the Beauty Tree. Seeing it on a spring day moved me to write this piece. A change of dynasty sparked by the Beauty Tree, a tale of love and hatred entwined by it. The Beauty Tree is also called the Homesick Tree, but when home is gone and all that remains has changed, how can one give voice to homesickness... Only now did he understand: it was not that unfamiliar homeland he longed for, but the person who had shared all those years with him. The Beauty Tree is also called the Heartbreak Flower. It is, after all, a flower of yearning that rends the heart...