The young lady of the Cao family has a great affinity with Goddess of Mercy.
She's heard this since childhood. The story first came from the temple her grandmother frequented. As a child, she was adorable, like a pink-and-white jade-carved doll, but often sick, barely able to leave her bed for more than a few days a year. Grandmother worried herself sick, running to the temple time and again, beseeching all deities. One day, Grandmother took her to pray before Goddess of Mercy. Just after they kowtowed, an unfamiliar nun emerged from behind the statue, touched her forehead with a willow branch, and then departed gracefully. The suddenness stunned everyone in the hall, only after the nun left did they think to follow. Sure enough, outside there was no one. From then on, her health gradually improved. The temple's master said she was originally a jade-carved acolyte under Goddess of Mercy reborn. Since her original form was jade, bloodless and fleshless, borrowing her parents' essence to gain a body made her naturally weaker than others. Thus, the Goddess of Mercy came specially to protect her. He also said it was best to include Goddess of Mercy in her name, so all minor ghosts would know she was watched by the Goddess of Mercy and dare not approach. Grandmother took every word to heart, complied item by item, commissioned golden statues, jade carvings, requested the abbot and masters to rename her, sent chests of offerings to the temple... Other Liangzhou families, hearing this tale, marveled and came to pay respects, so the temple's incense thrived.
The subject of this tale was not much concerned. For a Buddhist temple to gain footing among Liangzhou's great families, it needed a hook. Sickly young children weren't rare, they often outgrew it. For the Cao family to stand out among the clans, they needed to make gestures to build momentum, show their single-minded devotion to Buddha. As for the fresh willow branch in deep winter and the unfamiliar nun... everyone needed a story, so the trick became truth. Xinzizai laughed at her for feigning clarity, teased that she really was jade reborn. So be it, jade reincarnation. Perhaps she was indeed born with a certain chill. Even having received divine grace, she still didn't believe in those ethereal things. So when she copied sutras in the temple, time and again, she never asked the Bodhisattva to stop the marriage. She did not beg gods or Buddhas, only relied on herself.
Bodhisattva, I was wrong.
The Goddess of Mercy, white as carved jade, hastily wrote a line on the back of her divine arts booklet. Her tears had not yet fallen before they were dried by the howling cold wind atop the high tower.
If I am truly jade reborn under your seat, I beg you look upon me again, look upon my Liuli. Please bring her back to me... She doesn't even know what I've written...
