CHAPTER 374: 0236 AFTER THE WINTER SEA OF FLOWERS IS DESTROYED, RETURN TO SPRING (TWO IN ONE)_2

"Aren’t you afraid of the cold, Miss?" Xu Chang’an blinked.

"..." Yun Qian said nothing, just stared at him.

Adding charcoal isn’t done this way.

"Why are you doing this?" Yun Qian asked.

"What do you mean by that?" Xu Chang’an averted his gaze.

"Is it wasting snacks, making my heart ache... or bullying someone?" Yun Qian gently picked up the plate of preserved fruits on the table to protect it in her arms, seemingly reluctant to let Xu Chang’an continue wasting treasures. But when she met his eyes, her movement paused, and she said, "If you say... it’s to bully me, then I understand, you can throw them to play."

"Who says it’s for fun." Xu Chang’an shook his head, saying, "Miss, because of my past experiences, sometimes burning things is a way of remembering or commemorating."

He thought of many past experiences, his heart filled with emotions.

"Commemorating?" Yun Qian somewhat understood. There were writings in books, the act of burning things in a brazier is a ritual for mourning, a sentiment for the deceased.

Thinking of Xu Chang’an’s somewhat repressed emotions she saw earlier, she subconsciously stroked the snow rabbit fur at the hem of her clothes and said, "No one has died, so there are no deceased."

Only she could see the deceased. If there were to be any offerings, it would be her. What person was her husband commemorating?

"It doesn’t have to be about someone dying." Xu Chang’an laughed with tears, then looked at the girl in front of him: "Some pasts that we can’t go back to are also worth commemorating, so burning something is fine."

"Can’t go back?"

"Yes." Xu Chang’an sighed: "Like enjoying the snow on the island with you, Miss... It’s something that rarely happens now."

"So that’s how it is." Yun Qian attempted to pick up a preserved fruit, hesitating about whether to toss it into the brazier.

"I... won’t burn it, I’m reluctant." Yun Qian put the preserved fruit into her mouth, savoring the melting sugar, and squinted her eyes.

"Of course you are, Miss, unlike me, you’ve never left the island. There’s nothing to commemorate." Xu Chang’an clicked his tongue, then stood up, looking at the diminishing snowflakes outside, and extended his hand to Yun Qian.

"The snow has stopped, let’s go, take a look outside."

"Mm." Yun Qian placed her hand in Xu Chang’an’s, glancing back at the brazier burning fervently.

Unlike Xu Chang’an.

The girl had so many things worth commemorating, not something that burning a preserved fruit could remember. Speaking of which, she had indeed done similar things but couldn’t bear to burn the treasures left by her husband, so she burned other things instead.

Yun Qian looked up at the frosty heaven, then glanced at Xu Chang’an with some guilt, thinking that if he knew about this, he would probably be unhappy.

——

The blooming of flowers symbolizes beauty, someone once told Yun Qian this, and she could still recall some fragmented words.

Walking hand in hand, surrounded by blooming flowers.

Yun Qian thought that snowflakes are also flowers, so... should this scene be flowers covering flowers?

Xu Chang’an and Yun Qian left the pavilion to witness a magnificent scene. As far as the eye could see, it was an ocean, an ocean of snowflakes and flowers.

"I said the snow was unexpected, Miss... the flowers in this garden are all buried under the snow." Xu Chang’an helplessly looked at the silent white sea of flowers in front of him.

These were the flowers he had carefully cultivated on the island, now covered by snow, in the past, he would have been heartbroken.

But Xu Chang’an looked at the green leaves and stems of the flowers hidden by the snowflakes, sensing the vibrant life within.

"What a pity, we should have come earlier, now we can’t see the sea of flowers." Xu Chang’an regretfully bent down, gently brushing off the snow from the flowers, inhaling the intoxicating fragrance of the flowers, with a hint of sweetness.

If it were midsummer, the dazzling sea of flowers, the heatwave accompanied by a complex flower fragrance rushing towards them would surely delight Yun Qian.

"The sea of snowflakes is also a sea of flowers." Yun Qian tilted her head, bending halfway, with her fingernail plucking the entire white flower.

A flower that escaped the heavy snow cover died in the hands of the girl.

Xu Chang’an: "..."

Forget it, can a girl picking flowers really be called picking flowers?

Speaking of which, he always used picking flowers to replace "getting up at night," and now he’s actually picking flowers.

"Don’t move." Yun Qian stood up with the white flower and then placed it at Xu Chang’an’s ear, examining it and nodding satisfactorily: "Looks good."

"...???" Several question marks appeared on Xu Chang’an’s head.

"Miss, isn’t this wrong... why are you doing my thing?" Xu Chang’an’s eyes widened.

Exactly, he had brushed off the snow from the flower intending to give the girl a flower, but she acted first.

Besides, what kind of man wears a flower?

Xu Chang’an was about to remove it.

"Don’t take it off." Yun Qian shook her head: "I like it."

"...Alright."

Faced with Yun Qian’s request, Xu Chang’an could only comply. He said with a wry smile: "You like it... then I like it too, I won’t take it off."

Yun Qian responded.

"But I can’t be the only one wearing it." Xu Chang’an said, also plucking a big red flower, trying to place it on Yun Qian’s ear, but to his surprise, Yun Qian lightly dodged it.

"Miss?" Xu Chang’an was astonished.

He couldn’t understand for the moment why the girl would avoid it.

Xu Chang’an looked at Yun Qian, thought for a while, and still asked: "Miss, don’t you like this flower? I’ll change it for you."

Yun Qian shook her head and said, "I like it very much."

"You like it, so why..."

"I was thinking about something." Yun Qian said seriously: "Actually, this time, I shouldn’t... wear the flower."

What Xu Chang’an called commemoration reminded her of many things she shouldn’t be thinking about now, memories not belonging to "Yun Qian."

If nothing had gone wrong, she should be quietly observing him, seeing him wearing all sorts of beautiful white flowers, pear blossoms, and Qingluo, without intervening in his life.

Miss Yun should be like before, witnessing beautiful scenes but doing nothing, walking through the sea of flowers without a speck of pollen on her.

In fact, if they hadn’t met, she wouldn’t even need the name Yun Qian.

Therefore, she would not be the one to wear a flower.

After longing for beautiful things and stepping into them, she would find that everything is fleeting, and the people in front of her would dissipate without a trace with a gust of wind.

——

And then the wind picked up.

The wind mixed with snowflakes brushed past Xu Chang’an, blowing away the white flower beside his ear.

Yun Qian was startled, bent down to pick it up, and then placed it on her own head.

"Didn’t you say you wouldn’t wear it?" Xu Chang’an was dumbfounded, but what could he do, the girl was beautiful.

"You wore it, I like it." Yun Qian stretched lazily, then looked at the stem from which the flower was picked and said softly: "Is it dying?"

"It’s dead." Xu Chang’an blinked: "But there are many flowers here, after winter ends, come spring, they will bloom brilliantly again. Miss needn’t worry."

"Mm." Yun Qian felt the white flower by her ear, her gaze falling on Xu Chang’an, asking: "Next year, will it blossom again?"

"Of course." Xu Chang’an seemed to feel the atmosphere was right, smiled and said: "The book says those long parted will eventually reunite in the springtime sea of flowers? Very poetic."

"Reunion?" Yun Qian blinked, full of interest, gesturing for Xu Chang’an to continue.

"Reunions are all beautiful, isn’t it said that... all encounters in the world are reunions after long partings?" Xu Chang’an looked earnestly at Yun Qian: "It’s like, I live once more, come to the island, discover that here new swallows will return, fragrances will intoxicate, and clouds from the sky can heal all."

Clouds from the sky, of course, refer to Yun Qian.

He hoped his encounter with the girl would also be a beautiful reunion.

However, Yun Qian didn’t think all reunions were beautiful scenes, for example... this time she picked him up all tattered at the seaside, and there was not a bit of beauty in that.

"Different." Yun Qian said as she removed the flower by her ear and asked, "It’s dead, and when it blooms next spring, will it still be the same flower?"

?

Xu Chang’an looked at her quizzically, "As long as it looks good, who cares if it’s the same flower."

Yun Qian: "..."

That makes so much sense.

Her rare feminine sentiment was cleanly and swiftly torn apart by Xu Chang’an.