Chunhe is a young nun at Cheng'en Temple on Mount Qingcheng. She lives in poverty and has angered the old nun, so she spends her days washing clothes, scrubbing floors, and hauling water. She's constantly scolded and punished, and never gets enough to eat.
As she ate spoiled rice from a chipped bowl, tears streaming down her face, Chunhe thought bitterly:
Just you wait. When she rose from the branches and became a phoenix, she would make everyone who had ever bullied her kneel at her feet and beg for forgiveness!
The new emperor came to the temple to pray for blessings and burn incense.
It was the perfect opportunity, Heaven-sent. She would climb into the emperor's bed, become his favorite consort, and take her revenge.
Chunhe meant to go to the emperor's quarters, but she entered a guard's room by mistake and spent a night of passion with a handsome young guard who had been drugged.
A guard? A guard would do, as long as he had money.
The young guard regretted to tell her that he was lazy, had squandered his family fortune, and was broke.
Chunhe's last shred of hope died at last. Wiping away her tears, she could only say they should end things here. He was poor, and so was she. Neither of them was ambitious, and if they lived together, they'd only starve.
*
Not long after ascending the throne, the new emperor went to Cheng'en Temple to pray for blessings.
After paying his respects to Heaven and Earth, he slipped away from his attendants that night and went alone to the bamboo grove behind the mountain to enjoy the quiet moonlight. He heard muffled sobbing from deep within the grove and hesitated before walking toward it.
A little nun in blue robes stood with her back to him, holding a chipped bowl and eating spoiled rice. She looked so pitiful, as though she had been terribly mistreated.
The new emperor couldn't help feeling sympathy for her, and was about to approach.
The little nun said, "I'm going to climb into the emperor's bed..."
I'll show you all.
After sleeping with someone while under the effects of an aphrodisiac, the new emperor thought he could simply give her a title. That was until he opened his eyes and saw the little nun who had boldly declared she would climb into the emperor's bed.
He suddenly changed his mind.
*
At first, he only wanted to see how this greedy, lustful little nun would ingratiate herself with the powerful, as if she were a cat or a dog he was keeping.
Later, she had a cat in her arms and was practically walking all over him. He thought, Since she's already his empress, what harm would it do to spoil her a little more?
Theme: Live life with optimism, and never abandon one another.
