We have an unwritten rule here: Whoever's flowers bloom will be close to death.
So my senior brother - Pei Yan, the coldest, most arrogant and longest-flowering senior brother of Hanmei Sect's generation - turned pale when he saw the first buds of the Shiyu tree on my windowsill.
"When did it happen?" He held my wrist, his knuckles getting cold.
"Just... This morning." I confessed honestly, "It happened when I woke up. I was quite surprised."
Pei Yan took a deep breath, turned around and left. I thought he was going to order a coffin for me. Finally, he came back in the evening, holding in his arms a jar of thousand-year-old plum wine said to be able to "slow down the flowering period," a warm quilt made of his own flower branches, and a handwritten "Guide to Adjusting the Mood at the End of Life."
"From today on," he slapped the booklet on my desk with an expressionless face, "you will move into my courtyard."
Me: "?"
I am an unknown person who has no future. I originally had no flowers and could only grow leaves throughout my life. Pei Yan is the eldest brother of the Hanmei Sect, and his flowering period is appallingly long - it is said that the Shiyu tree he planted when he was five years old has not bloomed yet, and everyone suspects that he may live longer than a stone.
The problem is, I don't know how to explain to him: my Shigure tree is not actually going to bloom, it just... Buds when I see it.
Yes, I get scared when I see Pei Yan. He gave me a rare smile this morning - the corner of his mouth curved by about two millimeters - and the tree on my window sill went crazy on the spot, with three flower buds sprouting out of it.
I squatted under the tree and discussed with it: "Brother, can you be more reserved? He just smiled, not kissed me."
The tree ignored me and the buds grew bigger and bigger.
But I can't say it. I said, "Brother, I'm not going to die, I just like you so much that the tree is blooming"... I would rather die than say this.
So I was carried back to his Meilin courtyard by Pei Yan.
Over the next three days, I experienced the most outrageous "hospice care" experience in my life.
· He gets up at five o'clock every morning and makes me tea with dew, saying it can "moisten flowers" - even though I don't need to moisten it, I still drink it because he made it.
· He took off his own white jade belt that was said to be able to "ward off three calamities of death" and tied it for me. As a result, my waist was too thin and the belt slipped to my ankles. When he knelt down to tie it again for me, the tips of his ears were as red as my three buds.
· He sat beside my bed at night and copied scriptures, saying he was "extending my life" for me. I pretended to be asleep and secretly looked at him through the gap between my eyelashes. The moonlight fell on his fingers holding the pen, and the unsatisfactory tree on my windowsill sprouted its fourth bud.
When the flower buds emerged on the fourth day, Pei Yan finally couldn't hold on any longer. He put down his pen and stared at me, his voice a little hoarse: "Do you have any... Unfulfilled wishes?"
My heart tightened, thinking that he would beat me after finding out the truth. As a result, he lowered his eyes and said, "You tell me, I can do whatever I can."
At that moment, the string called "reason" in my mind was completely broken.
"Yes." I said.
He looked up.
"I," I swallowed, "I want to make a bet with you."
Pei Yan frowned: "What are you betting on? Your flowering period is approaching, so you can't break the branches——"
"Don't break the branches." I interrupted him, "Just use my four buds. Didn't you say that you have never bloomed flowers? I will show you my flowers. If they are all blooming... You spend the night with me to enjoy the night."
Pei Yan was stunned.
"If it is not fully opened," I continued to make up nonsense, "I will give you the rest of the flowering period. From now on, I will be dead and you will have an extra life - fair, right?"
He looked at me for a long time.
It's been so long that I feel that the bet I made up is stupid - the fate of the unknown sect is exchanged with the senior brother of the Hanmei sect for the flowering period? This business was so bad that even the abandoned city of Xihuang shook its head.
As a result, he said softly: "Okay."
That night was the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Thousands of flowers and trees were in full bloom on the high platform, lighting up the entire wilderness. But Pei Yan didn't go to enjoy the night. He sat under the old plum tree in my yard, with a bowl of water in front of him, and my four thumb-sized flower buds floating in the water.
I was so nervous that my palms were sweating. When the moon reached its zenith, the first flower bud cracked open slightly - Pei Yan's breath paused.
The second one, the third one.
When the fourth one opened, the petals were lavender, and in the moonlight they looked like blurred ink in an old painting. Pei Yan reached out and touched the petals lightly, then turned to look at me.
"I won the bet." I said, my voice trembling a little, "You have to spend tonight with me."
He didn't speak, but suddenly took my hand and pressed it on his heart. Through the material of his clothes, I could feel the heartbeat in his chest that was beating very fast and wildly.
"Do you know why I don't bloom?" He whispered, "My Shigumu... It's not that it doesn't bloom, it's that it saves all its flowering period and waits for someone."
I was stunned: "Who are you waiting for?"
He didn't answer, just lowered his head and placed a very gentle kiss on my lavender petals. Then he raised his eyes, the ends of his eyes were red: "Wait for a fool to lie to me with four fake flowers and say he is going to die."
Me: "..."
My Shigure tree outside the window silently grew its fifth bud under the moonlight.
——Later——
Later, everyone in the world knew that the senior brother of the Hanmei Sect and the "unscheduled person" of the Wuming Sect had exchanged flowering periods on the Mid-Autumn Night. No one knows how they changed it. They only know that since then, Pei Yan's Shiyu tree has begun to bloom every year, but my tree has never sprouted flower buds again - it has changed into red leaves, which fall to the ground in autumn, like broken happy characters.
We were asked what exactly happened that night.
I smiled and said nothing.
Pei Yan glanced at the man coldly: "If you ask again, I will advance your flowering period by three days."
The man ran away.
And I squatted under the tree and poked the rebellious tree: "Should you explain to me why Pei Yan kissed you with a petal and you grew red leaves?"
The tree ignored me.
But Pei Yan came from behind, bent down and whispered in my ear: "Because it knows that I no longer need it to save my flower period for me."
Then he kissed me.
That night, the tree grew its sixth red leaf.
- I swear it was on purpose.
Conception:-