The Buddhist Ascetic Fell from Grace for Me

Column completed: How to Soothe My Cruel and Jealous Husband: Truly Honest, Pretty Little Thing vs. Truly Cruel, Jealous Top. If you're interested, check out the author's page and give this poor author a little collection.

[From this day on, I shall leave behind the bell tower and Buddha hall,

And descend the mountain to seek a young master,

Let him beat me, scold me, talk about me, laugh at me. I have no wish to become a Buddha, nor to chant Amitabha or the Prajna Paramita!]

Si Fan, Nie Hai Ji

Innocent little demon who flirts without realizing it vs. Buddhist devotee who knows nothing of love at first, then goes on a killing spree, a truly lovesick lunatic

Zhaozhao is a silly cat demon who has cultivated for nine hundred years without learning how to take human form. His favorite pastimes are biting yarn balls and catching little fish. The tree spirit on the neighboring mountain has mocked him countless times for having no ambition.

Zhaozhao meows. Zhaozhao doesn't care.

One day, he wanders into a sacred mountain and falls onto a bodhi tree. Beneath it, a young man sits meditating, his eyes lowered, beautiful and compassionate.

Zhaozhao stares, spellbound. He loses his footing and slips from the tree, and, as luck would have it, transforms just then

Black hair, pale skin, and not a stitch of clothing. With a thump, he lands in the young man's arms.

Their eyes meet. Zhaozhao thinks: He's so beautiful.

Zhaozhao falls for him at first sight.

From then on, Zhaozhao follows him everywhere. When the young man goes somewhere, he goes too. When the young man meditates, he curls up beside him and sleeps. When the young man listens to lectures, he hugs his tail and keeps him company from the rafters.

Time flies. In the blink of an eye, five hundred years pass.

To Zhaozhao, five hundred years is merely the time it takes to grow from an innocent child into a young man. But for the young man, five hundred years brings a world of change.

The only difference for Zhaozhao is that he has become an ambitious cat demon.

So he gathers his courage and stands before the young man. His voice trembles, and his tail pops out with nerves. He asks, "Would you be my wife?"

"Wife" is a word the tree spirit taught him. He said it means a harmonious marriage, together for all their lives.

Zhaozhao asks him what a harmonious marriage is, and what it means to be together for all their lives.

Demons live for a thousand years. Shouldn't they be together for a thousand lifetimes?

The tree spirit says: Being together for a lifetime means you live in each other's hearts. You depend on each other, stay close, and even in death, you die side by side.

Zhaozhao thinks it over. He decides he doesn't want a thousand lifetimes. He only wants one.

The young man before him is still beautiful and solemn. His eyes are clear, but hold neither the world nor Zhaozhao.

He sighs and strokes Zhaozhao's head. "You are still naive. Let me teach you and answer your questions."

Zhaozhao doesn't know what it means to teach him and answer his questions, but he can't understand what lies in the depths of the young man's eyes.

Only later does Zhaozhao learn that the young man is a prodigy born with the bones of a Buddha, destined to transcend the seven emotions and six desires and become a true Buddha beyond all delusion.

His name is Xichen.

Xichen, Xichen: all things return to dust.

Even his name has already proclaimed his final destination.

Zhaozhao breaks down and cries his heart out. But as a demon with a thousand-year lifespan, he knows how to let go. Soon enough, he runs off with an oil peddler from the foot of the mountain.

Zhaozhao thinks he'll never have anything to do with him again. He still thinks so right up until Xichen shackles his spine and lifeline with a spirit-binding lock.

The man, whose features have developed a compassionate air, smiles gently. But the malice and desire in his eyes are terrifying.

He says:

Five hundred years ago, the moment you fell into my arms, I gave birth to a heart demon.

From that day on, I no longer cultivated Buddhism.

Zhaozhao is terrified. He invokes the true Buddha with solemn conviction. "You're a Buddhist devotee, the next true Buddha."

But Xichen smiles and strokes the innocent demon affectionately. "There is no true Buddha left in this world."

"I swallowed the true Buddha."

Reader's Guide:

1. Remember, the Buddhist devotee is a hypocrite. The Buddhist devotee is a hypocrite. The Buddhist devotee is a hypocrite. Important things must be said three times.

2. The top fell for the bottom first. Just imagine, a peerless beauty falling into your arms. Would you turn down that kind of luck?

3. The top is a genuine psychopath. If this isn't your thing, run now. If you wait too long, he'll attack everyone indiscriminately. Sob, sob.

4. If you're clear on these three points, enjoy the story!

Queued story. Check out the upcoming novel: Debt of Love

[My yearning has hollowed me to the bone. How could I withstand that parting glance he cast as he left? If I were to share a wedding bed with that charming young lady, how could I bear to make the bed for her?]

Xixiang Ji, a play

Carefree, peerlessly beautiful bottom vs. wicked, scheming top raised from childhood

The day Lin Lanfu first came to the Cui residence to beg for handouts, he leaned over the wall and used lines from a play to tease the beautiful young lady hidden away in her chambers. She was breathtakingly lovely, with a radiant, enchanting face, and Lin Lanfu fell for her at first sight. Only later did he discover that she was a delicate young master, and that teasing him had earned Lin Lanfu a beating from the Cui household's servants that nearly killed him.

He was the Cui clan's only legitimate son, born into an illustrious noble family. Lin Lanfu, on the other hand, was a shameful bastard born of an illicit affair. He thought they would never cross paths again, but just as he was about to be thrown out of the Cui residence, the young heir Cui Songyi, who was as lovely as a girl, appeared like a godsend and took him in.

From then on, he became Young Master Cui's dog. He ground ink while his master studied, made the bed while his master slept, and kept a lamp lit all night when his master was afraid of the dark. Eventually, his master grew taller than him and, with an impassive face, used the play Lin Lanfu had once used to tease the young master to tease him in turn: "Before I can speak, tears fall like pearls. I call out, 'Dear husband, little brother, little brother, are you satisfied now?' Hmm?"

Lin Lanfu knew this ugly secret would eventually come to light. To keep the clan elders from beating him to death, he slipped away under cover of darkness.

This romantic escapade should have been no more than a speck of dust recalled years later. Lin Lanfu was carefree and never gave a second thought to abandoning the young heir of the Cui family.

Until years later, when he ran into Cui Songyi again. This time, he was no longer the delicate young master hidden away in the inner quarters. He had a new identity: Cui Songyi, a treacherous official who wielded power over the entire court. The other man glanced at him coolly, seeming entirely uninterested in their past.

Yet that very night, Lin Lanfu was stripped clean and deposited on Cui Songyi's bed.

[Back then, I thought the clan elders had hidden you away. I had them tied up and pulled their nails out one by one, but I still couldn't learn where you'd gone. Every second after you left was an agonizing pain that time carved into my heart. Lin Lanfu, you truly have no heart.]

He didn't know that, over the years, the beautiful canary from back then had become a black lotus with the blood of thousands on his hands. Only when Lin Lanfu's hamstrings were severed and he could never walk again, leaving him dependent on the other man for the rest of his life, did he feel profound regret.

He shouldn't have provoked him. He shouldn't have helped this black-hearted lotus when he was at his most vulnerable. Only then did Lin Lanfu realize that the debt of love he'd incurred would have to be repaid in this life, bound together through life and death.

Theme: Though the sea of suffering is boundless, true love endures