Prologue
In the midst of the city Chang'An, hidden between alleyways and alleyways, was an apothecary frozen in time.
The origins of the apothecary were unknown. No one knew how long it had been running, nor how the shop came to be. But what everyone knew for certain, was that it had always been ran by the same woman, Xiu Ye.
The shopkeeper Xiu Ye, a woman whose origins were unknown, specialized Chinese folk medicine. Rumors were she was a monk, which stemmed from her dark, thick hanfu and the two silver pins that were always in her hair. Others believed she was an immortal being who bathed in the human blood to keep her youth. It made sense, given her gray-like skin and nearly glowing green eyes. But she just brushed it off and claimed her knowledge in medicine kept her youthful.
Those who came to visit, reveled in the three-story shop. Shelves upon shelves of herbs, powders, and embalmed unknowns all lined up with a ladder that wheeled across the walls. And if the shelves did not have medicinals, they had books. Ancient books. Books that looked like they would break into pieces if you touch them wrong. She was willing to show the literature to those who had passed by the shop. But never to sell.
And to those who studied botany or tradition medicine, questioned where she got her supplies. Some of the herbs that she had high stacked from the human eye level had known to be extinct for decades. But when asked, she would laugh and tell people that she just had a really good supplier.
But those who knew her from the outer heavens, knew her as the snake spirit banished from the heavens. In the early Tang Dynasty, Xiu Ye descended from lower heaven to Earth in her human form. She was taking part of the ascension trial. Where a divine spirit would spend a mortal life on Earth to determine ascension to the higher heavens.
As a mortal, she fell in love with a physician. Together, they had a son and opened an apothecary in their village. But tragedy soon struck when Xiu Ye's husband passed. Years had passed by and villagers questioned why Xiu Ye never aged. Or how she was able to cure every aliment presented to her. They soon believed that she was a demon who seduced the doctor and killed him for his youth. To prove the disbelievers, the villagers kidnapped her son. But for reasons unclear, the son died in their captivity.
In a bitter rage, Xiu Ye slaughtered every man, woman, and child in the village. As she burned the place to the ground, she knelt at the edge of the town. Tears scarring her face as she repeated a poem to herself.
It has been said that you can still hear her repeating the poem when you visit the fallen grounds of the village. Shamans preformed rituals to ease the angry souls of the villagers, who refuse to depart. But it is said that the souls would not leave unless Xiu Ye departed with them.
I awake light-hearted this morning of spring,
Listening to the singing of birds –
But now I remember the night, the storm,
And I wonder how many blossoms were broken
Spring Morning - Meng Haoran
