--Ju Ying--
Dust Repelling, Dust Repelling, do you know this devoted heart?
What lay in Ju Ying's heart after their first parting could not be explained by tears alone: a woman as clever and complex as Ju Ying, in the bloom of youth, three parts composed and seven parts headstrong, could not fully fathom her own true feelings. As she played with the Bamboo Cup, she unwittingly made that boy her heart's refuge, and so she strayed, strayed-whenever she spoke of him, she could scarcely contain her excitement.
Pondering in her secluded chamber, with all a woman's wit and sensibility, Ju Ying naturally understood this much: "Rather than drown in another, better to drown in a river. Drowning in a river, one may yet swim; drowning in another, one is beyond rescue." Alas, in drowning in another, she drowned herself. The more Ju Ying thought, the deeper she sank; the deeper she sank, the more she thought. A woman's cleverness became, at such a time, love's poison.
--The struggle--
Ju Ying held an exalted status; could her blood make room for the boy's unpolished air?
Perhaps she could not escape this worldly struggle, could not escape the questions that returned again and again within her heart.
When she saw Xing Yan again, she was already half Ju Ying, half Yingju.
"So Hall Master Zhang truly no longer remembers this humble girl~"
"Please examine it carefully, Hall Master. Are the calligraphy and painting on the cup genuine?"
A maiden's heart fell into disarray.
--Flying Bird Cliff--
She gazed at the boy from so close, gazed at him with such helpless longing.
As the year's end drew near, she took a sorrowful leave of Flying Bird Cliff. Beneath the Mid-Autumn moon, she listened to the boy's tales; amid dancing birds