I am Su Wanyi, the cherished daughter of the Su family. All my life, my family kept me trapped in a gilded cage, cold and numb. Even my marriage was something others could arrange for me, until Ji Xia came crashing into my life.
She was a blaze of passion, with a camera on her back and the scent of plants about her. She stubbornly forced her way into my lifeless world, taking me to watch the sunrise in the mountains, showing me hills covered in daisies, and giving me all her affection. I fell for her, but I was too afraid to admit it. Crushed by my family and shackled by my own cowardice, I could only say the cruelest things to her and push her away with my own hands.
I thought I could endure the longing and make it through a life I had no control over. But I never expected that a downpour and a car accident would leave her forever frozen in that summer.
Only after she was gone did I dare to defy my family, and only then could I admit the love in my heart. But it was too late. Her camera held the confession she never spoke aloud, and her diary was full of hopes for me. All I could do was hold her belongings and keep watch over the mountain where we first met, filling it with the little daisies she loved most and taking photographs of every beautiful scene in the world for her.
The mountain wind still blows, but the passionate girl who used to smile and call me “Big Sister” will never come back.
The rest of my life stretches on. I make my obsession my prison and spend all my remaining years seeking atonement, just to repay the words I owe her: “I love you too.”
