How Deep Is the Courtyard?

At dawn I hear a wanderer sing a song of farewell; last night, the first frost fell as I crossed the river.

The wild geese are too sad to hear; how much more so among cloud-covered mountains, as I travel far from home?

The trees by the pass hint at the coming cold, while the palace garden's pounding laundry grows louder toward evening.

Don't look to Chang'an for a life of pleasure; it will only let the years slip wastefully away.

A peaceful, prosperous age, a world of dazzling splendor.

Jiang Huaiyun had thought his life would be nothing special. Perhaps he would become a powerful minister like his father, able to turn the clouds with one hand and summon rain with the other, then leave only a few brief lines in the history books.

But one day, he met a child in the back courtyard.

Chu Yunshan believes he was born to a miserable fate, with neither father nor mother. Everyone who treats him well meets an untimely end, and perhaps he will spend the rest of his life in pain and struggle.

That is, until the day he meets someone who walks toward him, graceful as an immortal descended from heaven.

They escape the many layers of courtyards, see past the splendor that dazzles the eye, pass through palace gardens and imperial halls, journey across the southwestern frontier, witness the sky filled with yellow sand, and hear the calls of horns and the clash of war drums. Hand in hand, they will be together forever.

With this heart set on you, may we never part in this lifetime.

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