On a sweltering midsummer evening, when the stars flickered and lingered and the high trees drooped low, dense shadows wrapped around, obscuring the sky. Cicadas sang restlessly, making the hot, breathless night feel even more oppressive, only the trickling sound of the brook offered a slight respite from the stifling heat.
Before Lin Suqing entered the house through the courtyard, he paused to look at the Other Shore Flowers in the garden. Known also as Manjushage, these flowers, which path leads to hell and signify death, were aptly named the guiding flowers. A similar plant, the mandrake, also symbolizes death but represents rebirth unlike the Manjushage. The death represented by Manjushage signifies a fall, a perpetual descent into endless suffering and regret, from which only death provides escape.
