White Incense Dream

Yi-Ting was born as light flooded the valley with dawn. She was born bathed in her mother's blood that continued to flow until it mingled with her father's tears. Unable to bury the pain, Han-Huo became cold and he buried his soul in his daughter's eyes for they were also her eyes.

Unable to love Yi-Ting without sorrow, and unable to kindle warmth from his own petrified heart, he treasured her obsessively for fear he would lose her too. Held too closely to an empty heart, she grew up fearful of passion because she knew it had stolen her father.

Yi-Ting blossomed even under this cold affection, and the trickling seasons grew her a pair of swallow eyes that adorned her pale-morning face. Her beauty, concealed behind heavy wooden blinds, became legendary in the surrounding provinces.

Suitors brought her dragons of gold and phoenixes of jade, but found themselves lost in a labyrinth that were her eyes, which were at once ancient and naïve. Afraid to love for fear her soul would be stolen, she wove impossible dreams in the sheltered solitude of her bedchamber. But these gods never came to bear her gifts.

The rice patties failed the year Yi-Ting was 20. People began to starve and no one spoke of the abandoned baby girls they found in rivers and under mountain rocks. It was autumn, when the hunger had become numbing, and a young servant approached Yi-Ting and confessed his love to her.

Ji-Man was born under the same roof as Yi-Ting. His parents had worked in the manor when Han-Huo was still a child. The starvation had consumed them. Spurred by the sorrow and the numbing fever inside, he confessed to her that he had always loved her.

Yi-Ting believed him because he was not hidden behind gifts or silk robes. She believed him because his naked words were pure.

They found her as light flooded the valley with dawn, in the room that had been shut for 20 years. Han-Huo lowered her as Ji-Man untied a length of white cloth. A gentle smile was frozen on her face.

The peasants stayed away from the manor after Han-Huo died. Children hear a young girl's weeping on quiet autumn nights, but no one dares speak her name. It is rumored her ghost remains to savor the love that she was afraid would steal her soul. No one remembers the name of the servant boy or where he went.