The Big Buddha's Concubine

She Ji, meaning to give herself up, was the purpose of her existence in the Zhang family. She Ji, like Zhang Qiling, represented a status. Zhang Qiling was the husband, and She Ji was the wife. But when the Japanese invaded China and the land fell into ruin, the outbreak of the War of Resistance severed She Ji's connection with Zhang Qiling, even though she had never met him. The Zhang men were passionate and unyielding, yet they suffered devastating casualties in the war. The scattered survivors had no choice but to seek refuge with a collateral branch of the Zhang family led by the influential Zhang Qishan. From then on, the rise of a great warlord would be bound up with the knots in her heart. But the favor of a beautiful woman was not so easy for Lord Buddha Zhang to accept... "Zhang Qishan, I'm hungry. Where are the sweets?" "Zhang Qishan, the concubines in your house are too noisy. Can I get rid of one of them?" "Zhang Qishan, you should know that I haven't held many people in high regard in my life as She Ji. Zhang Qiling is one, my younger sister is another, and you, Zhang Qishan, are one too." "Zhang Qishan, I want you to marry me, so marry me. You keep making excuses to put it off. Are you even a man, acting so wishy-washy?" She Ji outranked Zhang Qishan by two generations. At home, they treated her like a revered grandaunt. To everyone else, it was an open secret that Lord Buddha Zhang was keeping a beauty hidden away, a concubine he had yet to marry. So people outside the household called She Ji "Lord Buddha's concubine"... And as the warlords struggled to conquer or be conquered, their feelings, like kindling catching fire, grew more and more impossible to contain...