Snow Gathered at Midmonth

Synopsis for Snow Gathered Beneath the Moon:

1. At sixteen, Jiang Zhiyue went with her mother to make an offering in the mountains, where they encountered a bandit chief.

After the bandit chief tried to take her by force, her mother chose to end her own life. As the flames consumed everything, Jiang Zhiyue swallowed the Heavenly Thunder Orb her mother had left behind.

The bandit chief locked Jiang Zhiyue in a cage and took her up the mountain.

The Heavenly Thunder Orb held the power of lightning and protected her from being violated by the wicked. Whenever the bandit chief flew into a rage, all he could do was whip her to vent his anger.

One hundred and twenty-one lashes...

Jiang Zhiyue gritted her teeth and endured them.

A lotus spirit came to the mountain and said he would take her away.

She had no idea what kind of cage she would end up in next.

The lotus spirit treated her wounds and gave her two fruits, telling her, “Once we get there, you'll have all the fruit you can eat.”

She agreed. The lotus spirit taught the bandit chief a lesson, beating him until he resembled a lotus seedpod, leaving him unable to live or die.

The lotus spirit was named Lian Yu. He had a younger sister who was also a lotus. Jiang Zhiyue learned that Little Han looked exactly like her, but because she had fallen for an immortal from the Celestial Realm and burned his portrait, she was thrown into a raging fire and denied rebirth.

Lian Yu had brought Jiang Zhiyue to the mountain so she could take his sister's place and coax the sick Madam Hong Fu into taking her medicine.

Jiang Zhiyue fell in love with him, but his grandmother had promised him to another woman.

He also said that in this life he would regard her only as his younger sister.

Jiang Zhiyue had planned to give up, but a little demon came flying by and showed her a book recording her past life. It told her that Lian Yu had originally been her beloved husband.

In her previous life, she died on her wedding day, and Lian Yu held her in his arms, consumed with rage.

Jiang Zhiyue wiped away a tear. She would take back the man who belonged to her and rekindle their old love.

It snowed for an hour. Now dawn had come, and the ground was covered in white.

Lian Yu stood in the courtyard in his wedding robes, holding a snowman the size of his palm. Behind him rested a flower-decorated wedding carriage made of vines and wood, its roof covered with several branches of red plum blossoms. Red curtains were gathered beside each of its four pillars.

Eight white monkeys stood beside the carriage, ready to carry it.

Two more white monkeys held long-handled fans a zhang tall, their enormous fans embroidered with red lotuses.

Another white monkey held up a canopy.

Two others wore waist drums.

“She has come out,” said one of the white monkeys holding a fan.

Several white monkeys turned around and transformed in the blink of an eye, becoming men and women dressed in red.

Jiang Zhiyue walked toward him in her wedding robes.

Thunder roared, and the clouds on the horizon turned blood red.

2. Jiang Zhiyue went with her mother to visit the Lian family, where she met thirteen-year-old Lian Yu.

He didn't say much, but whenever she gave his cheek a light poke, his face turned red.

It was fun.

After that, every time Jiang Zhiyue's mother visited the Lian residence, Jiang Zhiyue went along. She would run to Lian Yu's room and poke his cheek.

Again and again.

Year after year.

But sixteen-year-old Lian Yu died on a snowy night.

When that night was over, no one remembered Jiang Zhiyue anymore.

Snow fell again that day.

The north wind howled.

Jiang Zhiyue stood in the snow wearing plain clothes.

She looked at the lotus pond, its surface covered with a layer of white ice.

A black cat leaped into the pond.

The black cat stepped onto the snow.

One plum blossom after another opened.

The white plum blossoms in the snow were not very pretty.

3. Princess Jiang Zhiyue of the Li Kingdom was confined in the palace. A young eunuch leaped into the lotus pond to save her and told her he liked her.

Ridiculous. How could she possibly like a mere eunuch?

Years later, after the eunuch died, she gazed at the lotus pond and slipped into a dream. In the dream, he was called Lian Yu. He hated her and suspected that she had caused his fiancée's death.

Theme: May twin lotuses bloom together, and may two hearts be joined for a hundred years.