Pure Love / Widower Literature / The Cold and Desireless Fall Madly in Love
Also known as: After Being Reborn, I Became My Nemesis's Dead Wife
A Xia was born in Southern Xinjiang, where she raised a collection of idle, lazy gu.
The day the heavens changed, she died beneath a cliff in a dense forest. When she awoke, her appearance was unchanged, but she had become a young Taoist at the Star Observatory in the capital.
Read palms? She couldn't.
Tell fortunes by shaking a tortoiseshell? She couldn't.
She could neither observe the stars nor see through fate.
But when it came to love and matters of the heart, her readings were uncannily accurate, never wrong.
Even the haughty eldest princess of the imperial palace sought her out in secret for a reading. "Is there any chance between me and the Imperial Preceptor? I hear that with you, even if there's no fate between two people, you can still turn it into a happy match."
The Imperial Preceptor?
A Xia ran a finger over the copper coins and gathered her thoughts.
She had heard that this powerful minister had the looks of an immortal, but was cursed to outlive his wives. His first wife had died young.
It was hardly a good match.
*
A Xia agreed to the eldest princess's request.
On the day of the spring hunt, she first met the Imperial Preceptor of Northern Zhou. His eyes were covered with white silk, yet he seemed able to see. He climbed the steps to the observatory with steady strides.
The next time they met, she had yet to plant a love gu in him, but his spirit was already in disarray. He shed his aloof, desireless facade and trapped her within the palace's grand inner halls.
He lowered his eyes and asked in a quiet voice, "Have you read it? My fate in love."
Her face flushed. She bit her lip and whimpered, unable to answer.
*
No one in the capital knew that the Imperial Preceptor Ning Qingshang, a man who had risen to the highest offices, had once been a young priest among the three thousand Miao villages of Southern Xinjiang.
He was her fated nemesis. They had once shared a gu, too, as he claimed her to his heart's content, without rest.
Purpose: She first sought a peaceful life for herself, but in the end, wished for all living beings to be free from suffering.
