Gusts of bitter wind swept snowflakes howling across the world. Everywhere the eye could reach was a boundless expanse of white, and no one knew when the snow would stop.
Daylight broke, its gentle glow falling on the white snow and making everything rather bright. The houses in the city, the orderly streets, the weeping willows beside the river, and the chessboard in the courtyard all seemed wrapped in robes of pure white.
All was silent!
"When I went away, the willows swayed and swayed. Now that I return, the snow falls thick and fast."
In the small courtyard at the very heart of Luo Palace in Zhao City, a song rang out with a trace of plaintiveness. It was a melody from the Book of Odes, and the voice was soft yet powerfully tugged at the heartstrings.
Within the modest courtyard, everything lay cloaked in silver and white. A woman stood in the snow, her features as exquisite as a painting, her skin fairer than the snow, without the slightest blemish. She was a fairy, a goddess who had stepped straight out of a painting, her full lips lustrous as jade. Her figure was exceedingly graceful, and the wind pressed her white silk dress tightly against her body. The white dress was naturally very thin. Looking farther down, one would see that she was actually standing barefoot in the snow, her translucent little toes curled up, yet she seemed not to feel it.
She had an air of standing apart from the mortal world. Her bearing was so cool and aloof that she seemed about to merge with the wind and snow filling the sky. Merely standing there, she made it impossible to look away.
Then she moved, bending slightly, her figure delicate and graceful, her silk garments dancing