As the spirit of a Chinaberry blossom, Hua Jinfan always believed that falling in love with the immortal who tended her was only natural.
Especially since the immortal, Si Yuehuai, was noble and immaculate, and treated her true form with the utmost care. Whenever he looked at her, his eyes brimmed with tender affection.
Chinaberry blossoms drift across the steps, their delicate fragrance falling softly. Hua Jinfan confessed her feelings to Si Yuehuai, and he promised her in reply, "Don't rush. Once you reach maturity, we'll be together."
How could she not rush?
She cultivated tirelessly, longing for him day and night, only to learn a secret on the eve of reaching maturity.
Si Yuehuai had gone to great lengths to keep a chinaberry tree alive so he could use its mature flower spirit to revive his dead moonlight. The body the flower spirit cultivated would become a vessel for the remnant soul of his beloved.
She had heard that the woman Si Yuehuai loved was breathtakingly beautiful.
Hua Jinfan was only one ten-thousandth like that woman. She got a little reflected glory, was treated as a substitute, and received nothing but insincere affection.
After everyone had left, a pale crescent hung in the watery sky. Even when Si Yuehuai searched for her like a madman after she left him, Hua Jinfan never showed herself.
Was he looking for her to revive his moonlight?
How ridiculous. She wasn't a fool.
Was he looking for her because he had fallen in love with her?
Even worse. Someone who had transferred his affections didn't deserve her sympathy.
Hua Jinfan was too young then to understand what a flower spirit's maturity meant.
When the maturity she had once longed for finally arrived, she met her savior, Fu Jingmei, at her most unbearable moment.
In the endless abyss, Fu Jingmei sank into the depths with her again and again, then pulled her out of those burning waters with his own hands.
But he was suspicious by nature and always asked at the crucial moment, "Do you have a moonlight you can't forget?"
He said he'd be gentler if she answered correctly.
Hua Jinfan knew exactly what to say.
She swore to the heavens, "No. I've never loved anyone else."
Ah! Wasn't he supposed to be gentler? Damn it, why was he going back on his word?
Reader's Guide:
1. The Chinese name for chinaberry, kuli, sounds like "bitter love," like a bitter romance.
2. Both the heroine and hero think they are substitutes, and both are sick of the other's moonlight.
3. "Chinaberry blossoms drift across the steps, their delicate fragrance falling softly" and "After everyone had left, a pale crescent hung in the watery sky" are quotes from the opening and ending lines of "A Thousand Autumns: Ode to the Summer Scene."
4. The heroine's name comes from: "White-haired in the lamplight, why should the flower ashes flourish?" The hero's secret identity name comes from: "Where does spring come from? It brushes the water, then startles the plum blossoms."
5. This blurb was first posted on March 8, 2025, and has been notarized.
Theme: Spring returns to the chinaberry blossoms once more.
