"Big brother, it's not like that."
The little girl, sobbing, tugged at her brother's sleeve and wailed, "Sanglu doesn't want to go, Sanglu doesn't want to become some holy maiden, doesn't want to serve the statue, to ascend to the heavens. Sanglu just wants to stay with big brother, and if big brother has a sister-in-law in the future, Sanglu will sleep in the firewood room. Please don't drive Sanglu away, okay?"
The gaunt boy, seeing his sister sob with such heartache, felt a wrenching pain in his chest. But he knew that becoming the holy maiden was the only way for his sister to escape her fate in this life. He had been a robber in his past life, having killed who knows how many people, and was thus condemned to atone as a lowborn for three lifetimes, not even allowed to step foot in a temple. But his sister was different; she was a lotus reborn, destined to become a holy maiden, she couldn't waste away amidst the lowborn!
