The Pear Blossom Sugar Tree

The things we love most are the hardest to keep. Youth fades in the mirror, and flowers fall from the branches.

Youth is fleeting, blossoms wither, and in this world, the one we love most is the hardest to hold on to.

Ye Yan loved pear blossom candy, so from then on, Xie Cishu kept a supply of the sweet treat in his pocket all year round.

Ye Yan wanted to see pear blossoms covering the mountains, so he set aside a small courtyard, planted pear trees throughout it, and promised to watch the flowers with her every year.

For five whole years, they were together. Just as the pear trees filled with buds and were about to burst into bloom, she suddenly left, never seeing the sea of pear blossoms she had planted with her own hands.

The pear trees bloom again every year, and the courtyard remains unchanged, but the person who once waited beneath the trees for the flowers will never return.

With her photograph in hand, he traveled across countries, seeing mountains and rivers, lakes and seas, and the bustle of everyday life on her behalf. On the back of every picture was a thought he could never bring himself to say: If only you were still here.

They had known each other for ten years. She had been gone for five.

She remained in the year she loved him most, while he journeyed through the world she never got to see, crossing the divide between life and death to meet her again.