From the Start of Journey to the West, Guanyin Is the One I Love

All eighty-one trials were illusions. The true ordeal was Guanyin averting her eyes. Xuanzang tore away Lady White Bone’s disguise, only to drown in the Bodhisattva’s flower-picking smile. The moment he knelt in the Thunderclap Monastery, the chants of the nine heavens fell silent. The Buddha had lost, defeated by the clamoring cicada-song of a mortal heart beneath the kasaya.