"She is Wuxiang. The Queen Mother took away her name and locked her up in Cining Palace and asked her to adjust the scent of her heart."
"She used her fingertips to deduce the antidote, carved the formula with a bamboo stick, and pressed her forehead against the incense burner to judge the heat."
"She walked sixty miles of culvert to Taihu Lake every winter, squatting in the reeds and watching the mute boy punting the boat. It lasted for eighteen years."
"He didn't know her. But he carved the water level mark at Laofu every day, once a year, and never stopped."
"She carved the antidote formula of Suoxinxiang into the roots of ancient trees, broke off the bamboo stick and buried it in Wangchuan Ferry, left the silver needle to her junior sister, and carved the last words on the bark of the tree: 'Duzhou, stay alive.'"
"On the day he turned into ashes, he squatted in Laodukou all night. The water in Taihu Lake rose three times."
"He didn't know what he was waiting for - but from that day on he started drawing an extra circle next to the water mark every winter."
"He later traced the same location three times with a bamboo stick."
"She waited for him for eighteen years, and he didn't know until the end that she was the one who squatted in the reeds every winter to watch him punting the boat."
"She left the bamboo stick under the ancient tree and her name inside the incense burner."
"He traced the mark three times - walked her in the same direction again."
"That night when he started to call me 'Sister', the gardenia trees really finished blooming."
Intention: She saved the best part for those who come after her.