According to the wet nurse, when she was born, she had in her mouth a stone the size of a bayberry, bright red all over. Her family debated endlessly, unsure whether it was a sign of good or ill fortune. Her mother went to the Nüwa Temple on the mountain to draw a fortune.\
After returning, her mother didn't say a word and locked herself in a room with her father, discussing things for a long time. A month later, a Buddhist hall was built on the back hill of their home. That day, her mother personally cooked the meal. During the meal, her parents didn't speak, constantly adding food to her bowl. Late at night, while she was sleeping soundly, she was rolled up together with her quilt. Frightened, she cried and shouted, "Mother, mother! Father, father!" By the time she finally freed herself from the quilt, she found herself in an unfamiliar place. In the dim and cool hall, wind silently swept through the empty eaves, and a few wisp-like trails of smoke filled the air. Under the pale light, a statue stared at her with a smiling yet fierce expression. She screamed "Ah!" and turned to run outside. At the door stood a large stone stele blocking her way, inscribed with the words "Attain the Other Shore Early." Her mother's voice came faintly from behind: "Na'er, from now on, I will live here with you. Devote yourself to Buddhism to atone for your sins as soon as possible."\
Her mother's expression was strange when she spoke these words. She always remembered her mother's gaze—dim and helpless. After that, her mother never mentioned why she had been brought to the back hill. She only took the stone she had held in her mouth at birth, threaded it with blue silk, and wore it on her chest.\
From the time she became aware, she lived in the Buddhist hall and never saw her father again, never left the back hill. The only companions she had were the sharp mountain winds and the ancient, pale-lighted Buddha statues. Many times she would sit on the cliff behind the hall, looking down. Vast clouds passed overhead, and below the cliff was a forest. Occasionally, in the deep night, she would hear wild beasts howling—a piercing sound as though calling for something.\
She didn't know how long she would have to stay in the Buddhist hall; her mother said it would be forever. She didn't know how long forever was. Peach blossoms bloomed and withered on the back hill, and by the time she turned eighteen, she thought that forever might mean a lifetime.\
That day, she was again sitting on the edge of the cliff, lost in thought. Suddenly, the sound of horse hooves, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, reached her. Below the cliff appeared a man riding a chestnut horse, wearing a snow-white long robe, with a flute at his waist. Apart from her father, he was the only man she had ever seen in her life.He looked up, his long hair blowing in the wind, his face as sharp as if carved by a knife, his eyes like lightning. She was dazed under his majesty, greedily lingering on his face... That night, his face appeared again. In her dream, he rode with her across the vast grasslands on horseback. Her face was flushed, like the peach blossoms of that year. Suddenly, dark clouds rolled across the sky, and with a thunderclap, a bright red boulder fell from the sky and split the horse in two. They fell. A stone stele stood between them, upon which was engraved, ‘Ascend the other shore early'... A few days later, her father brought her and mother down from the mountain. A few days after that, someone brought her father boxes of gold-leafed jade artifacts, led in hundreds of livestock, and even a bright red wedding dress.
Before leaving, her mother gave her a dagger with a three-inch gold sheath. She said, 'Nai'er, keep it well; it will be useful one day. Remember what I once told you: redeem your sins as soon as possible.'
The sound of gongs and drums approached from outside. She suddenly turned her head, 'Mother, there is something I've never understood.'
‘Speak, child.'
‘Why did you and father leave me in the mountain behind the house?'
Her mother was silent for a moment, then sighed lightly, 'Nai'er, when you were born I went to the Nüwa temple to draw a divination for you. The elders said your fate destined you to be an ill omen bringing disasters to the country. When a nation is doomed, monsters arise. To spare you from this great calamity, you could see no outsiders for your entire life.'
Her mother's eyes darkened as she spoke, 'You know your father is a loyal minister; how could he let a monster wreak havoc? If I hadn't begged him so insistently to keep you on the mountain, he would have ended your life long ago. But who could have known in the end… alas, fate, fate indeed.'
The wedding sedan chair arrived at the door, gold-topped and red-trimmed, coiled with a dragon…
With much fanfare along the way, the sedan came to a stop, and the curtain was lifted. She widened her eyes and looked out, and there stood the man with a face as sharp as a knife and eyes like lightning. 'From now on, you are my queen, and they are your subjects,' he said domineeringly.
In front of her were the people prostrating on the ground; behind her was the magnificent and splendid palace. 'This is the Tian Shi Palace,' he said.
She became the woman he cherished most, and he was the only man in her life.
He knew she had grown up on the back mountain at home, so in the palace he built a mountain of earth and stone.She told him that she had always remembered the first time she saw him on the mountain, like looking at a god, greeted with surprise, joy, respect, and admiration for the first man who truly belonged to her in her life. As for the curse that came from her destiny, along with the bloodstone that descended with her life, she had hidden it at the very bottom of her memory. She began to hope that she could have a normal life, staying by the side of the one she loved. In fact, she just wanted to be an ordinary woman, not luxurious clothing or rich food, not bowing three times and kowtowing nine times, not supreme power or status, only needing a love that completely belonged to her and a child of their own.\ The rumors in the palace began to spread, and then these whispers emerged from every corner of the city. Boiling anger and shouts of censure tightly surrounded the 'Tian Shi Palace.' Because when she was born, she held a bright red bloodstone in her mouth; because her appearance made their supreme monarch linger; because her existence brought chaos to the world; because she was a woman, a woman who could bring disaster to the world, a woman who could cause calamities, an ominous woman... and she, simply because she had fallen in love with a man who was not free...\ Before the ancient Buddha under the green lamp, she sincerely prayed: 'God above, please forgive my sins. Do not let disaster fall upon him because of my love...'\ The Buddha said: 'You must repent.'\ She said: 'I repent.'\ The Buddha said: 'You must forget.'\ She said: 'I forget.'\ The Buddha said: 'A karmic tie.'\ She said: 'I only love him. Is love also a sin?'\ The Buddha said: 'You are destined to bear no good fortune. This life is only to settle the resentment of the previous life, in which he painfully loved you, shedding tears that turned into bloodstones.'\ She said: 'Please spare us. You are the high and mighty deity, omnipotent. Please show us a clear path.'\ The Buddha said: 'In this life, you are fated but not bound. Beautiful women bring disaster, ruining the state and harming the people. Come again in the next life.'\ Outside the palace, the shouting and calls for punishment were as urgent as drumbeats: 'Burn her,' 'Kill her,' 'Burn this ominous woman,' 'Make her die'... The angry and grim faces of the soldiers and the people became sharp, elastic spears, piercing through the thick palace walls straight into her heart. The increasingly clear shouts approached her ears, everywhere were hollow and dull sounds made by clumsy weapons piercing bodies.He held her trembling body tightly, gently caressed her high bun and slender neck, then rested his hand on her moist face, stroking it. "Na'er, no one can hurt you, no one. I will always protect you like this..."
In the dark and chilly hall, the wind silently swept through the empty eaves.
She lifted her head buried against his chest to look into his deep eyes. "You, give up your kingdom, stay away from those battles for supremacy, let's leave here."
He cupped her face and kissed her lightly, finally crying with intermittent sobs. "Na'er, if I don't have power, how can I protect you? But now, I am here, I am supreme, they dare not come in, they don't dare..."
She looked at the man before her whom she deeply loved, the only master of her life, the weak man who had nothing but power, and then softly said, "I want to dance for you."
She danced quietly in front of the ancient Buddha under the green lamplight, wearing a simple green robe. In front of her was the man who had given her happiness yet could not protect it. The sorrowful footsteps echoed in the cold hall. His long hair was the same, his face the same, as if they were meeting for the first time, but the lightning in his eyes was gone.
She suddenly drew a dagger hidden in her sleeve, pressed it to her throat, and thrust forcefully. The flesh did not accept the intrusion easily, and some brownish blood spurted out, dripping along her palm, making a lonely sound, staining her clothes red.
He screamed and held her limp body. A tear slid from her eye, dripping onto the blood-stained stone on his chest and soaking in. He screamed, "Blood, blood, bloody tears..."
Her bloodstained lips smiled faintly, trembling calmly. "You, this is my fate. I am here to repay the grudges of a past life. I hope in the next life we can start over..."
The empty temple began to spin before her eyes. She saw her mother's dim gaze. Her mother said, "Na'er, in the future I will stay here with you, to help redeem your sins as soon as possible..."
He said, "Na'er, don't leave me."
She said, "In the next life..."
The statue behind her revealed a smile, a terrifying one.
His face began to blur, her eyes dimmed, and the hand resting on his face fell down weakly.Like a dancing butterfly gently folding its wings. Finally, there is no need to part anymore, held in the hand, hidden in the heart, to the very bones…\ …\ 771 BC, the Western Zhou fell, King You ruled for 11 years…