Little Tao, Little Tao

He waited for me for many years, in his own subtle way.

Here's the inspiration for this story:

There's a pear tree in the courtyard of my family's home in the countryside. It's been growing there for over ten years, and in all that time, it had never bloomed once. Its branches grew lush every year, but not a single flower appeared. Last year, on New Year's Eve, my whole family tidied up the courtyard and trimmed a pile of dead branches. My mother had always complained that the tree took up space without bearing fruit, and she'd been planning to cut it down. But my father wouldn't hear of it. He said we should prune it more this year, and maybe it would bloom and bear fruit next year. My mother scoffed and said, "Fine. If it doesn't bloom next year, we'll cut it down."

Then, when spring came, it really did bloom! I counted more than three hundred flowers.

Later, I told Junzhu about it. I joked that the tree was being tsundere, and Junzhu said, "Isn't that the perfect subject for a story?"

And so, this story came to be.

I hope you enjoy it.

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