Ascetic monk x noble heiress | Su Yaoxin x Qing Huan
*The full manuscript is finished, but it will take a while before I start posting it (June 2026).
Su Yaoxin spent more than ten years devoted to Buddhist teachings. With a discerning heart and sincere faith, she nevertheless did two things she could never face the Buddha over.
First, she shattered a blue lamp on the shrine that protected the nation.
Second, she took off the robes of the chief keeper of scriptures at the kingdom's foremost temple.
Ah Huan, we are like mayflies between heaven and earth, born at dawn and dead by dusk. Why should we lament that a spring night is so short?
[Plot version]
The first time they met was on a rainy spring night, when Su Yaoxin accompanied her family to pray at an ancient mountain temple.
He carried a red paper lantern, crossing bamboo groves thick with chanting and incense, and came to stand before her.
His voice was cold and quiet as a light mountain rain. "Devotee, the night is late and the rain is damp. The candlelight can help you calm your heart. Take this lantern to light your way."
That night, she remembered his Buddhist name.
Qing Huan.
.
The next time they met, Su Yaoxin had been appointed Princess Xincheng and was on her way to the Western Regions for a political marriage.
She traveled with a retinue of twelve marriage envoys, eighty-eight chests of Buddhist scriptures, and the most renowned chief keeper of scriptures in the kingdom.
Qing Huan.
It was another rainy night. Camel bells rang across the desert, and the night wind was thick.
He was injured protecting her.
This time, clutching the bamboo handle of the red lantern, she shattered the blue lamp and took off his monk's robes with her own hands.
·
Later still.
Soft rain fell by the clouds of Wushan, and the red paper lantern burned through a night of spring.
**
1. The blurb is provisional and may change, but the core will stay the same.
2. The heroine's name comes from Buddhist teachings: "The wind stirs the heart and shakes the trees; clouds arise, and dust rises with them."
[Blurb saved as a screenshot on August 29, 2024]
Theme: Keep living, striving upward and moving forward.
