The young girl A Yu had lived on an island for fifteen years, innocent, carefree, and sheltered from the ways of the world.
The first time she secretly followed her father back to the Central Plains, she stumbled into danger and was captured by a band of Northern Frontier bandits.
Just as she was about to become prey for a pack of wolves, a young monk came to her rescue, and she escaped unharmed.
The monk had come from the desert. He was handsome and refined, with gentle phoenix eyes.
A Yu was grateful to him, and thought he looked like a celestial bodhisattva from a painting. As they traveled together, she told him all kinds of things about herself without the slightest guard.
After hearing her story, the monk lowered his eyes and smiled. “Your parents both wield great power, and are meticulous in their dealings. You’re nothing like them.”
“Maybe... because I was raised by my older cousin! He’s so carefree, and he’s always making me mad...”
Thinking of her family, A Yu’s expression softened and her eyes curved into a smile.
Later, Luoyang fell.
It was said that the man who led the army into the imperial palace had once been stripped of his surname by the former emperor and sent into a monastery.
Knowing she could not escape death, A Yu could only beg him to spare her cousin for the sake of their past affection.
The sinister man, his bodhisattva-like expression gone, gently brushed the girl's cheek with his fingertip, forcing her to look at him.
“Didn't you say he was always making you mad?”
“Then he truly deserves to die.”
Theme: Face hardship without fear and strive to live
