Chapter 2
After that, Yujingzi began avoiding me.
No matter how I flirted with him, he pretended not to hear.
His eyes remained blank as his fingers ceaselessly worked his prayer beads.
“This humble monk eats a vegetarian diet and recites the sutras. I am not blessed enough to enjoy delicacies from below the mountain.”
“This humble monk is lowly. I should not stand too close to a noble princess.”
“This humble monk…”
I seized his hand and shoved him against a pillar.
“Yujingzi, if you truly don’t like me, why are you blushing? Why are you sweating?”
He dropped to his knees with a thud.
“Princess, before the Buddha, please have mercy on this humble monk.”
Never in my life had I suffered such defeat.
Humiliated and furious, I had him bound and taken to my estate.
“We’re no longer before the Buddha. Answer me—why have you been avoiding me?”
“This humble monk has renounced the world. All earthly things are empty, and I must be free of worldly passions and desires. Nothing forced in this world can bear fruit… Please let me go, Princess. I will be forever grateful.”
He knelt and bowed until his forehead touched the floor, his slender form bringing a stalk of bamboo to mind.
I lost my temper completely.
“Then I insist on forcing you!”
“Guards, lock Yujingzi in the guest room.”
The man struggled as he was dragged away, his gaze on me dark, complicated, and impossible to read. I looked aside.
That night,
I entered the guest room.
“Say you like me, and I’ll let you go.”
“You won’t? Then stay in this room until the end of time!”
I swept out in a flare of sleeves, only to hear him breathe a sigh of relief behind me.
My chest tightened at once.
Was being locked away really more bearable to him than spending time with me?
After keeping him confined for several days,
I returned with food to see him.
He sat cross-legged in meditation, prayer beads turning through his fingers, immaculate as ever. The setting sun streamed through the window and bathed him in the radiance of a god.
I had never believed in gods or Buddhas, not even as a child.
Yet at that moment, I truly felt the urge to retreat.
It was as though… he were an exiled immortal fallen into the mortal realm, sent to watch over all beneath heaven.
“Princess, please let this humble monk leave.”
Yujingzi’s gentle voice abruptly pulled me back to reality.
The pressure in my chest grew worse.
“Do you want to leave that badly?”
“Princess, this humble monk has renounced the world.”
I gripped his chin and forced him to face me. “So what if you have? If all earthly things are truly empty to you, why are my eyes the one thing you dare not meet?”
He lifted his gaze to mine.
In a flash of anger, I kissed him.
He froze as though struck by lightning.
His cheeks went scarlet.
Before I could tease him further, all the color drained from his face. “Princess, why must you torment this humble monk?”
I hardened my heart and turned my head away.
“So what if I torment you? There is no one in this world I cannot have!”
From then on, I made good on my words.
I tried everything I could think of to tempt him into breaking his vows.
He would simply recite a mantra to clear his mind and act as though I were not there.
“Do you truly refuse to be husband and wife with me in this mortal world?”
I stared at him, my eyes red-rimmed.
“…I cannot.”
“Fine.”
Sniffling, I took the pair of lovebird cups from the table, poured two cups of wine, and handed one to him.
“I know a monk cannot drink, but I have only ever had one wish—to share wedding wine with you.”
“Grant me this dream, and I’ll let you leave. From this day forward, our paths will part and we will have nothing more to do with each other.”
He stared at the wine, an emotion I could not understand stirring in the depths of his eyes.
After a long moment, he finally accepted the cup.
“Very well. This humble monk will fulfill the princess’s wish.”
We drank with our arms entwined. I dried my tears and pretended to rise, but made no move to leave.
All at once, he pressed a hand to his temple as dizziness overtook him. His body swayed, and he fell onto the prayer cushion where he usually meditated.
“Princess, what kind of wine was that? How could this humble monk…”
I stood over him, watching with narrowed eyes as panic and weakness overtook him, then reached down to stroke the reddened corner of his eye.
“The wine was laced with an aphrodisiac.”
“Poor thing, my virtuous disciple of Buddha.”
His beautiful peach-blossom eyes grew damp, his brows drawing tight.
I sighed. “You look like a drenched cat now, my dear Yu. It makes me want to stain you.”
Heat burned through his body and his breaths came scorching hot. Realizing that something had been added to the wine, he pleaded, “Princess… Please don’t. This is wrong. This humble monk has renounced the world. We cannot.”
“A monk can’t?”
I slipped my hand beneath his robes.
Then I laughed softly. “Liar. Your body seems perfectly capable.”