The Emperor's Lady Has Ascended Again

On the third day of the third month, when I was seventeen, I found an ancient painting in a temple. Who could have guessed that the painting had a spirit of its own and contained a sealed god, elegant and handsome, unmatched in all the world? Ever since I was born, people have considered me a bringer of bad luck. The flower of the Yellow Springs at the corner of my eye only gave people another reason to gossip, fear me, and keep their distance. Only he would caress the flower-shaped mark by my eye and softly tell me, “Xiaobai, don’t be afraid. I’ll protect you.”