Chapter Text
There is an old legend in China. A celestial fairy, the seventh daughter of the Goddess, became bored and escaped to the mortal world to explore. She met a cow herder, and the two fell in love. The Goddess, discontent with the mortal, snatched the fairy back into the celestial world.
The cowherd became very upset upon finding out that his lover was gone. His ox told the cowherd to kill him and put on his hide, in order to cross the sky. With bitter tears, the cowherd did so, and reunited with his fairy. The Goddess became furious and used her hairpin to scratch a wide river into the night sky. Now the two lovers could see each other across the banks, but couldn’t reach each other.
But every year, on the seventh night of the seventh moon, the world’s magpies would take pity on the starcrossed lovers and form a bridge. So that the cowherd and the celestial fairy could be together for a single night.