A devoted-to-the-cloister young prince x a frail, sickly, down-on-her-luck little ray of sunshine
[Rainy Town - A Healing, Sweet Romance About Secluded Daily Life]
Two people under one roof, three meals a day, through all four seasons, for a lifetime.
By clear springs and flowing stones, she waits for me in the emptiness.
Shan Jingshou is determined to become a monk. He shaves his head and flees the prince's estate, living in poverty in a little mountain hut.
Jiang Yuelian has been frail and sickly since childhood. A fortune-teller said she was born to attract misfortune, and her family drove her out without mercy.
One midsummer day, Jiang Yuelian, soaked by a torrential downpour, accidentally stumbles into Shan Jingshou's home in the mountains. Convinced this must be the Bodhisattva's guidance, she begs, "Please, little monk, let me stay! I'll give you all my silver!"
Shan Jingshou is compassionate and has no other thoughts. He merely glances at her. "There's only one room here. You can sleep on the floor."
She leaps with joy, and over the course of the summer, fills the place with all her belongings.
The house feels lived in for the first time, and with that comes a growing attachment.
"I'm so cold." As she sleeps, sickly Jiang Yuelian curls beneath his covers, pressed close to his warm body.
Shan Jingshou dares neither move nor speak.
Looking at her endearing face, he thinks of how strangely he feels. He cannot tell whether his heart is simply misbehaving, or whether he is falling for her and cannot stop.
Shan Jingshou still goes up the mountain each month, asking the abbot to accept him as a monk. But the abbot says he has not yet severed his worldly ties, and turns him away every time.
As the forests turn to a blaze of color, Shan Jingshou misses his appointed visit to the mountain for the first time, because she has fallen seriously ill.
So even someone who has set his heart on emptiness can come to care for another.
Before they know it, she has changed everything in the courtyard. The bougainvillea they planted together blooms most magnificently in the depths of winter.
"Look, don't you think I did a great job planting it?" Just recovered, Jiang Yuelian excitedly points toward the vivid red blossoms set against green leaves. Her little face is red from the cold, and she looks proud.
"I know our Yuelian did a wonderful job. But first, put on this cloak, all right?" Shan Jingshou comes out of the house and drapes it around her.
Spring is in full bloom, and it is time to go up the mountain again.
Now that his heart has been moved, how can he go back up there?
Theme: How can one dwell in emptiness? Even emptiness is worldly dust.
