Chapter 110: Manzhu and Shahua

  Until Liang Xiaojing and the two of them came back laughing from outside, Tan Ziyao's words were still like a thousand-pound stone pressing on Su Yisu's heart. She just glanced at the two of them lightly, as if to greet them, and then silently lay down on the table again.

  However, Li Yi, who knew nothing, seemed much more relaxed. Seeing the two of them smiling, he couldn't help but curiously ask: "Where did you guys go? You've been gone for so long and you're still so happy. Did you pick up a treasure?"

  Lu Jian looked at her with an excited face and said, "Li Yi, it's a pity you didn't go. Liang Xiaojuan and I went through all the ancient ruins in Tuo Ri District today. It was so shocking! I didn't know that our city had such a long history, wow!"

  Upon hearing this, Li Yi's mouth twitched involuntarily and he said resentfully: "It was clearly you guys who didn't call me."

  "Uh..." Lu Jian's face was full of embarrassment, but in an instant he burst out laughing and said: "I just didn't want to disturb you because you were reading so seriously."

  "Alright." Li Yi Cai wasn't so easily fooled.

  Liang Xiaojing had been quietly listening to their conversation on the side, unable to help but smile, before speaking up to mediate: "Alright, you two stop arguing. To make it up to you, I've decided to give each of you a little gift."

  Li Yi stared at her speechlessly, "So many embellishments, just how small is this little gift?"

  Liang Xiaojing smiled mysteriously, took out a stack of postcards from her drawer and said: "Look, local postcards, taken by my brother himself, aren't they valuable enough to collect?"

  "Huh?" Lu Jian and Li Yi curiously leaned in, each grabbing half of it, and flipped through it excitedly. Lu Jian even exclaimed loudly while looking at it: "Wow! Xiaojing, is this your hometown? It's so beautiful!"

  "Right, Yunnan Dali."

  Li Yi silently raised his head and asked in confusion: "But why are they all flowers?"

  "Because..." Liang Xiaojing's expression was also somewhat awkward, "My brother only takes good pictures when he's taking pictures of flowers."

  “……”

  “……”

  Li Yi and Lu Jian looked at each other, exchanged a glance, and tacitly continued to look down at the postcard.

  At this time, Su Yisuo, who was lying on the table in a decadent manner, heard their conversation and finally had a bit of spirit. S173's romantic expression curiously looked at the postcard in their hands, "Flower?"

  "Right." Li Yi replied, handing her the postcard in his hand.

  Su Yisuo reached out to take it, and the topmost one that caught her eye was exceptionally familiar. A bright flower blooming towards the sun, she couldn't help but exclaim: "Gesang!"

  Liang Xiaojing took over and said: "In our Yunnan, Gesang is very good! A large piece of a large piece, very beautiful."

  Su Yisu's thoughts drifted uncontrollably to her second year of high school, when she was dragged by Jiang Zhen to climb mountains. It was then that she received a call from an uncle who sent her a package via Shentong Express, and also received the Gesang flower painting sent by Shen Beiqiu from Shangri-La. At that time, she was still marveling at the beauty of Gesang, never expecting that more than a year later, she would see this stunning flower again. Unfortunately, both encounters were only in paintings.

  Maybe one day she can set foot on that land and take a look at the real Gesang flower.

  Su Yisu shook her head, self-mockingly recalling the past as she flipped to the second postcard. A cluster of fiery red petals suddenly appeared before her eyes. It was as enchanting as blood, and even a night sky filled with stars couldn't compare to its dazzling beauty, captivating one's gaze and stirring one's heartstrings. The boundless red seemed to be sweeping across the entire world in an endless tide.

  The more gorgeous, the more sorrowful. Looking at the red flowers blooming like wildfire, Su Yisuo inexplicably thought of this sentence.

  "The flowers bloom into a sea. The thoughts become a disaster." Li Yi suddenly sighed softly in her ear. Su Yisu raised his head, looked at Li Yi with a strange gaze, and said: "Li Yi, it turns out you also have similar feelings."

  Li Yi shrugged indifferently.

  "Xiao Jing, what kind of flower is this?" Su Yi Su turned her head and asked Liang Xiao Jing.

  "Huh?" Liang Xiaojing glanced at the postcard in Su Yisu's hand and replied hesitantly: "How to say... its scientific name is Lithospermum, uh, red lithospermum, also known as Higanbana, hmm, red higanbana, also called Manjushage. There's also a white one, called Mandarage."

  "Manzushage? What a strange name, it sounds like two people's names."

  "You're absolutely right!" Liang Xiaojing snapped her fingers, "Come to think of it, there's a very sad story behind this too."

  "What's the story?" Su Yisu, Li Yi and Lu Jian all looked at her with curiosity in their eyes.

  Li Xiaojing tidied up her thoughts and said, "Legend has it that in the distant past, on the outskirts of the city, there were vast fields of red peony flowers - also known as Manzhu Shahua. The flower fairy Manzhu guarded the flowers, while the leaf fairy Shahua protected the leaves. They had been guarding the peony flowers for thousands of years but could never see each other... because the peony flowers bloomed without leaves, and the leaves grew without flowers. Between the flowers and leaves, they were forever unable to meet, missing each other by a hair's breadth. However, they longed crazily for each other and were deeply tormented by this pain. Finally, one day, they decided to defy God's rules and secretly meet once. That year, Manzhu Shahua's bright red flowers were set off against the dazzling green, blooming exceptionally beautifully. But God blamed them for this. Manzhu and Shahua were cast into reincarnation and cursed to never be together again, suffering hardships in the mortal world for all eternity. From then on, Manzhu Shahua was also called 'peony flowers', meaning flowers that bloom in heaven, with a shape like hands praying towards heaven. However, they never appeared in the city again... From then on, these flowers only bloomed along the Yellow Spring Road, and every time Manzhu and Shahua were reincarnated, when they smelled the fragrance of peony flowers on the Yellow Spring Road, they would remember their past selves and vow not to part ways again. Yet, they would once again fall into the cursed cycle of reincarnation."

  "What is flower language?"

  "Sorrowful memories."

  "Sorrowful memories..." Su Yisuo silently repeated this phrase, lowering her head to gaze at the dazzling Manjusaka on the postcard in her hand, suddenly feeling a huge sense of sadness.

  The peony, the flower blooms without leaves, and the leaves grow without flowers. They cherish each other yet are forever lost to each other. What kind of cruelty is this? Heaven wants the flower and leaf to never meet in life. The reunion of Manzhu and Shahu has become an endless sorrow, a reincarnated dream cursed on the road to the underworld, eternal longing in the time it takes for a flower to bloom, quietly falling. In the depths of the red dust, measuring the distance of loneliness. On the other side of the underworld, expecting another cycle of reincarnation, another destined encounter, yet also writing the beginning and end of the next curse. Sorrow, eternally in memories of the past, year after year, year after year.

  Then there will be sad memories, it is as beautiful and sad as its flower language. Manzhu, Shahuahua. When can you meet again? Like that beautiful legend, bravely defy fate once more.

  At that moment, Su Yisou suddenly realized that she had fallen crazily in love with this flower, Manjusaka. Although their stories were completely different, the unfortunate ones each had their own misfortune, but they were all the same - unlucky. This one point was already enough to be fatal.

  Look, daybreak and dusk, the sun rises and sets every day, seemingly in the same place at the same time, yet the face of time grows older. Each other's appearance becomes increasingly blurred.

  Jiang Fengchen, I don't know if I'm also waiting for you with a desperate and stubborn heart. Su Yisu suddenly remembered Jiang Fengchen, thought of An Yiran, and recalled all the past memories. A deep sorrow, like a raging tide, invaded her thoughts, her breath, and her heartbeat.

  Jiang Fengchen, actually I've always understood. From the moment you stepped out of campus, I already knew that our stories could no longer overlap with each other.

  Your faith is my conviction, forever at odds in this world. I know that everything I have now is just a fleeting illusion, yet I still rush headlong into the flames like a moth to fire.

  Pretending to be strong, smiling as if your words were a joke. But how many jokes can one really laugh through till the end? A slight curve of my lips, no matter how painful, I won't reveal my sorrow, for no one sympathizes with my heartache.

  Actually, I'm not that strong. Who still remembers that I'm also afraid of getting hurt and don't want to cry so much? It's just that, do I have to cry in order to prove that I love you?" "Yi Suo, what's wrong with you?" Li Yi asked worriedly as he saw that Su Yi Suo's face was a bit off.

  Su Yisu snapped back to reality, forcing a stiff smile, "Ah, it's nothing, I just got a bit serious for a moment - Xiaojing, can you give me this postcard?"

  Looking at Su Yisuo waving the Manzhouli postcard, Liang Xiaojing nodded and said, "Okay, take it out, it was originally meant for you."

  "Thanks……" Su Yisu tightly grasped the postcard in her hand, thought for a moment, and decided to send Jiang Fengchen a long message: "Chen, do you know about the Manjusaka flower? The flower blooms without leaves, and the leaves grow without flowers. Longing and cherishing each other, yet forever lost. The compassionate Buddha doesn't understand the worldly affairs of wind, flowers, snow, and moon. They only know that Manjusaka and Shahuahua have their own separate duties. Year after year, the Petaled flower quietly blooms, not participating in this world's prosperity. In their world, it must be a desolate scene. If I'm waiting for someone else, can I still hope to spend my life with them? But Manjusaka and Shahuahua are forever entwined, lost in their own world. Longing. Waiting. Reincarnation. Manjusaka and Shahuahua, lifelong longing, lifelong mistakes, the lingering shadows of each other's hearts, just a dream that can't be woken up. Chen, are you just my beautiful dream? If I wake up, everything will disappear. If so, I'd rather live forever in this woven beautiful dream and never wake up."

  Yoon City

  A short and crisp mobile phone prompt sounded, An Yiran sat on the sofa, glanced at the mobile phone that Jiang Fengchen had just placed aside, and shouted towards the figure in the kitchen: "Fengchen, there's a message!"

  "Help me take a look!"

  Jiang Fengchen thought for a long time in his own residence and finally decided to come over personally to make lunch for An Yiran. Although everything he was doing now, and the sacrifices An Yiran had silently made, were not worth mentioning. However, he was willing to start making up for it little by little from now on.

  An Yiran read the long message sent by Su Yisu, and a cold smile involuntarily rose from the corner of his mouth. Beautiful dream? Su Yisu, perhaps this beautiful dream will forever become your nightmare.