All things in the world, everything that exists, are enlightenment itself, the wondrous and luminous original mind.
How can there be a way to have it both ways, to betray neither the Buddha nor one's beloved? Ling Yuan learned this from the books he read as a child. He prides himself on being clear-minded, like an elegant scholar playing the zither atop a mountain. Yet he schemes at every turn, a blade of ice on a winter night.
Gu Ruoqing is someone hidden beneath a cool exterior. She should have been a rose peeking over a wall, vivid and radiant in midsummer. But in this chaotic world, the tangled vines of her troubled past coil tightly around her.
The Buddha says, "The Buddha saves all living beings." All living beings are Buddhas. That is, everyone can save themselves. Xie Chu'an often heard his father say this, and he would always wonder: If he is a Buddha, why can't he save Gu Ruoqing? At first, he didn't particularly like Gu Ruoqing. He is someone who insists on calculating everything precisely, but this is the one thing he can't figure out.
Theme: Seek the way to resolve one's fate, stay true to one's heart, and protect all living beings.
