Riding Through the Flowery River, Returning with Wen Ruo Shui

Rebirth and redemption + a physician consort’s rise + a lifetime of devotion | To Xiao Yi

Chun Ruoshui is the most beautiful woman on the banks of the Liuhua River, and the Han Prince’s residence’s most famous living widow. My moonlight, Jun Wuji, gave me a luminous cup and said, “Take care,” then turned and walked away beside Shen Yaoxian. Zhu Gaoxu tried to touch me, so I hung a sword from the canopy and kept watch for five years, until he died. I thought this was how my life would end: slowly withering away in a grand estate, until I became a handful of earth no one remembered. Then I met Lin Qiqi.

That physician who was always saying, “Your hands are so cold,” held them and warmed them little by little. “Ruoshui, let’s go home,” he said.

Later, when apricot blossoms filled the courtyard, our son asked me, “Mother, what does it mean to have a perfect life?” I looked at my husband grinding herbs beneath the tree and suddenly smiled.

So this is what a perfect life means: someone finds you in the wind and snow, plants you in spring, then stays by your side year after year, waiting for the flowers to bloom.