Chapter 13

Shang Mingbao pulled the coat Xiang Feiran had draped over her shoulders tighter and then took the two pieces of tissue he handed her, pressing them under her eyes. It wasn’t long before the tissue became damp.

“Did you specifically bring the coat for me?” she asked.

“I thought you might want to go out for a walk.”

After all, he came with the task of cheering up another man’s girlfriend, not knowing why she was upset. Taking her out to see the flowers and plants seemed like the safest bet.

“I do want to go for a walk,” Shang Mingbao expressed her desire straightforwardly and tried to get out of bed.

Afraid that her legs might be numb from kneeling for too long, Xiang Feiran pressed her shoulder gently, “Eat first.”

When the door opened, Aunt Lan and Fang Suining, who were waiting outside, were pleasantly surprised. Aunt Lan eagerly asked, “The soup is still simmering on low heat; would you like to have some first to warm up your stomach?”

Shang Mingbao nodded.

Fang Suining elbowed Xiang Feiran, nearly injuring him, “Wow, Brother Feiran, I underestimated you.”

Xiang Feiran didn’t show much reaction, only nodding slightly as if he didn’t bother to refuse the compliment.

Shang Mingbao naturally slowed her pace, and before long, she fell behind. Xiang Feiran also slowed his steps. In the short corridor, Aunt Lan and Fang Suining were jubilant in the front, while they remained silent in the back. When Fang Suining and Aunt Lan reached the stairs, Xiang Feiran felt his T-shirt being lightly tugged. He looked back and saw Shang Mingbao clutching a small corner of his shirt, her tear-stained eyes still slightly red in the dim light.

Xiang Feiran asked her with his eyes: What’s wrong?

“You haven’t welcomed me back yet,” Shang Mingbao said softly, her lips slightly pouting as she glanced to the side.

She was deeply hurt—during their first meeting, he had spoken harshly and showed no sign of happiness at seeing her. She could hold a grudge for 365 days over this.

Fang Suining, who was waiting for them on the stairs, shouted, “What are you guys doing? The soup is getting cold again!”

Xiang Feiran spoke in a tone meant only for Shang Mingbao to hear:

“Welcome back, Shang Mingbao.”

“Are you happy?” Shang Mingbao asked.

Her upturned eyes were serious, clear, and free of any hidden thoughts.

Xiang Feiran forced himself to strip away any inappropriate fantasies her question might evoke and replied, “Happy.”

Yet, in that brief, instinctive moment, he couldn’t help but wonder: does she care about him, even just a little?

Of course, for a girl who had grown up surrounded by admiration and attention, being the center of everyone’s gaze was as natural as eating and drinking. She just couldn’t tolerate him, as one of the “surrounding people,” being absent-minded, which was why she asked.

After dinner, he fulfilled his promise and took her to see the flowers.

“But the evening primroses have withered, and the other flowers don’t bloom at night,” Shang Mingbao said with deep regret.

“There are many flowers that bloom at night, not just evening primroses.”

“Like what?”

“The most commonly mentioned are night-blooming cereus, but also saguaro flowers, evening jasmine, night-blooming gourd flowers, and many others.”

Shang Mingbao’s eyes lit up, “Do they grow here?”

Xiang Feiran mercilessly replied, “No.”

“Then I don’t even know what they look like…”

“I can show you some specimens later.”

Shang Mingbao instantly lost interest, “Then there’s no point in walking. It’s dark, and there’s nothing to see.”

The flowers that bloom during the day are, of course, still open at night, but having already seen their grand and bright appearances during the day, the night seems so dull and uninspiring by comparison.

Xiang Feiran thought for a moment and said, “Wait for me here.”

He left and returned, holding a flashlight slightly different from the usual household one.

Shang Mingbao asked, “What’s this?”

“Ultraviolet flashlight.”

“What for?”

“To show you another side of plants.”

Xiang Feiran turned on the switch, and the beam of light was very dim. Shang Mingbao was puzzled and asked, “Is it broken?”

Xiang Feiran lifted his chin slightly, “Look.”

A plant, whose name Shang Mingbao couldn’t recall, emitted a faint red fluorescence under the light that was invisible to her.

Shang Mingbao was silent for a moment, “So eerie…”

Eerie?

Xiang Feiran said nothing, instinctively turning off the UV light, and straightforwardly said, “Sorry, let’s go back to look at the specimens.”

Shang Mingbao grabbed his arm, “No, no.”

Xiang Feiran turned back, “Weren’t you scared?”

To appease someone else’s girlfriend, he’d done everything he could… meeting all her requests.

“It’s just that I’m not used to it, so it feels a bit eerie. But it’s amazing! Why is that?” Shang Mingbao showed a thirst for knowledge.

Xiang Feiran organized his thoughts and explained in the simplest terms, “What we see with the naked eye isn’t all the light there is. Beyond visible light, there are others we can’t see, like ultraviolet light. Got it?”

Shang Mingbao nodded, “Uh-huh.”

“Chlorophyll absorbs visible light during the day, and the light it releases appears green to our eyes. It also absorbs ultraviolet light, emitting fluorescence, but the human eye can’t see it. To see this side of plants, we can wait until night when there’s no interference from visible light and use only ultraviolet light.”

Shang Mingbao didn’t respond, propping her hands on her knees, muttering to herself, as if trying hard to understand.

“Wow, I feel like I’m growing a brain.”

“…”

“This is like the secret messages in TVB martial arts dramas—it’s just a blank piece of paper on the surface, but when you burn it or dab it with water, the real secret appears.” Shang Mingbao suddenly turned her head to look at him, her eyes bright, “This is the secret message plants are giving us!”

Xiang Feiran was slightly stunned, then chuckled.

It was just basic knowledge, yet she reacted as if she’d discovered a new world.

Cute. Someone else’s girlfriend.

“So, this flashlight only emits ultraviolet light, no wonder I couldn’t see anything!” She was starting to apply what she learned.

“Then why is that spot dotted with fluorescent peacock blue, and not red fluorescence?”

“Because that’s not a leaf. It might be a fruit, or a petal, bract, or pollen wall, and they contain different substances than chlorophyll, so they emit different colors of light.”

That night, the plants she saw in the plant kingdom displayed a completely different appearance from what they showed during the day.

The white oleander turned into a dreamlike flower of blue and purple gradients, with the stigma of the female flower being umbrella-shaped ice blue, and deep within the stamen, a spot of red emitted by chlorophyll perfectly setting the mood.

“Like a nebula.”

The white flower of the Mandala became entirely ice blue.

The amaryllis, so bold and intense in its red during the day, released a noble and mysterious purple under ultraviolet light.

The plantain, which could be used to make indigo powder, had such unremarkable flowers during the day, but under the dark night sky, it emitted an elegant light resembling fluttering blue butterflies.

In Shang Mingbao’s eyes, the flowers of the Nanshan vine appeared as top-grade pigeon blood rubies, and she had already figured it out herself: “Its flowers are green! It’s all chlorophyll!”

Xiang Feiran smiled, “It hasn’t bloomed yet, so it’s the outer layer of chlorophyll that’s releasing the light.”

Shang Mingbao muttered, “Like a string of stars.”

Before they knew it, they had walked quite a distance along the mountain path.

The night sky was vast, with thin clouds and no stars or moon, making everything purely black. In the silence, the strange calls of night owls, the rustling of insects, ants, and mice, the sound of broad leaves falling on the humus, and the wind passing through the tree crowns—all of these sounds filtered into Shang Mingbao’s hearing.

It should have been very scary, but something had taken away her fear and anxiety.

She raised her hand, wanting to pick that string of stars from the South Mountain vine, but Xiang Feiran caught her wrist, “Don’t touch it, it’s poisonous.”

“Poisonous again?” She was surprised.

“The oleander family is generally poisonous, some more so than others. For example, the oleander flower is highly toxic. However, in Yunnan, the flowers of the South Mountain vine are actually used as a wild vegetable.”

“What?” Shang Mingbao was even more surprised, “Why would people eat something poisonous?”

Xiang Feiran said, “You could ask the people of Yunnan. Maybe they have special techniques for processing food, or… their bodies are just different.”

Shang Mingbao didn’t know exactly where Yunnan Province was. She wasn’t familiar with the mainland at all; if asked to draw a map, she might be more comfortable sketching Western Europe. But when she got back, she wanted to look at a map of the mainland, to see where this province that eats bitter and poisonous wild vegetables was located, and what kind of people lived there, and what their lives were like.

On the way back, it was all downhill.

Shang Mingbao was supposed to walk in front, so that if she missed a step or stumbled, Xiang Feiran could catch her in time.

But she didn’t dare, finding the dark path and grass ahead terrifying.

So Xiang Feiran walked in front, and Shang Mingbao walked behind.

But she still didn’t dare, suspecting that some monster was following them, always nervously looking back.

Shang Mingbao’s thoughts wandered, “What if I get caught by some monster and you don’t notice, and only realize it when we’re separated forever?”

“Stop reading novels.”

“…”

Shang Mingbao stood still, pouting in anger.

Xiang Feiran sighed softly in resignation. If she were his girlfriend, he might serve her for another half an hour, but since she was someone else’s, he was a bit tired and needed a break.

His hand groped in his pocket but couldn’t find the cigarette pack, remembering it was in the jacket Shang Mingbao was wearing. He stepped forward, “Give me my cigarettes.”

“Huh?”

Xiang Feiran reached out, slipping his hand into the left pocket of his coat, and as expected, he found the pack of Baisha cigarettes and a lighter.

He suddenly moved so close that Shang Mingbao didn’t dare to move. It was only when he stepped back that she finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Xiang Feiran clamped the cigarette between his lips and flicked the lighter. Just as he managed to take a drag, Shang Mingbao said, “It’s harsh.”

“Cheap cigarettes.”

“I already gave you a million, why don’t you buy something better?”

Hearing Shang Mingbao say this so naturally, Xiang Feiran’s movements stiffened. After putting the cigarette and lighter back into his pocket, he smiled casually, “With such generosity from you, using it for cigarettes would be a waste.”

Shang Mingbao frowned, “Are you being sarcastic?”

“Not at all, Princess.”

“You are,” Shang Mingbao wasn’t buying his words, “You’re not happy? Aren’t you short of money?”

Xiang Feiran held the cigarette between his fingers, calmly looking into her eyes, “I’m not happy.”

Shang Mingbao was genuinely taken aback, “You think it’s not enough?”

“I didn’t ask for it.”

“Why?” Shang Mingbao grew anxious, “It’s nothing, really. I spend more than that on a bag. You saved me, and I don’t know how else to thank you. If I gave you too much, you’d refuse to take it, so this amount seemed just right.”

In her panic, every word she spoke came straight from her heart. Xiang Feiran, clutching the cigarette, remained silent for a while, unsure whether to call her kind or naive. He smiled, “So, does this mean we’re even?”

Shang Mingbao hesitated, “Even for what?”

Now it was Xiang Feiran’s turn to be puzzled.

Even for what?

What is it that can’t be, won’t be, or shouldn’t be simply wiped away?

For the first time, this question crossed from his subconscious into his conscious mind.

He couldn’t answer.

So he didn’t, “Nothing.” Xiang Feiran flicked the ash off his cigarette, his expression indifferent, “Maybe your ‘thank you’ is worth more than a million.”

Shang Mingbao did say “thank you”—even though she had already said it many times that day in the hospital.

Xiang Feiran replied with a “You’re welcome” and took a couple of steps away.

Shang Mingbao wanted to follow, but he stopped her, “Don’t come closer, this smoke doesn’t smell good.”

So Shang Mingbao stood still, watching the glowing red tip of his cigarette burn shorter and shorter until it was finally extinguished in the damp earth.

Shang Mingbao had been mulling over something for a long time. When he came back, she mustered up the courage to say, “Can you walk holding me?”

“What?”

“Walk holding me by the shoulder, I’m scared.”

Xiang Feiran warned her, “Don’t even think about it.”

“But I’m really scared, I’m not pretending!” Shang Mingbao was almost in tears as she extended her hand, “My palms are all sweaty.”

Just moments ago, while they were walking up the mountain and looking at the plants, she was completely immersed and not afraid at all. But now, she found the sound of the wind terrifying, the birds terrifying, the insects terrifying—everything unseen was terrifying.

Seeing that Xiang Feiran didn’t respond, Shang Mingbao withdrew her hand, feeling both sad and reflective: Does he find her annoying? She certainly wasn’t as brave as Suining, but being afraid of the dark isn’t a flaw, right? Shang Mingbao suppressed her frustration and fear, walked past him, and pretended to be carefree, “Forget it, I’m not that scared anyway.”

Her palms, sweaty with anxiety, clenched tightly.

The protective talisman, blessed by a master, was on her, so demons, monsters, and (snakes, rats, insects) should stay away!

With a sudden “shh” sound, her leather-soled Mary Jane shoes slipped on the gravel path, causing Shang Mingbao to stumble backward with a startled cry—before she could react, Xiang Feiran grabbed her arm with one hand and her waist with the other, saving her from a fall.

But it wasn’t over. Shang Mingbao, still in shock, was about to thank him when her shoe slipped again, this time throwing Xiang Feiran off balance as well. If she remembered correctly, this side of the path had a steep slope—not high, just a single adult male step’s drop, but falling would still hurt.

His expression changed as he reflexively pulled Shang Mingbao completely into his arms.

In the darkness, she couldn’t see anything, but Shang Mingbao heard a muffled grunt, followed by the sound of small stones and dirt clattering down the slope.

Xiang Feiran couldn’t speak for a moment. Since he started going into the field at the age of eight, he had never been hurt this badly.

Damn, risking his life for this…

Shang Mingbao was also shaken, seeing stars. She was on the verge of tears, “I told you to hold me while we walked…”

Xiang Feiran closed his eyes, his breath tight from the pain. After taking a deep breath through gritted teeth, he coolly said:

“Don’t say it, hold it.”