Beyond Zhou Xingzhi

“I gather the curled ears, but my basket is never full.”

She thought the poem was about longing.

Only later did she understand it was about the fate she shared with him.

He made her fall for him in seven days, then made her heart die over ten years.

When the tea of the south meets the snow of the north,

when she finally fills that basket with curled ears,

she discovers that all it holds are her endless tears.

Historical romance heartbreak × tea trade intrigue × a fate foretold in poetry

“This tea is called ‘Never See You Again.’”