Tanzhou is a small merchant town, lying halfway up a mountainside with spectacular views of the rolling lush fields all around them, spread out like a patchwork quilt of golds and verdant greens, crops growing amid meadows full of wildflowers.
The town is very pretty with painted houses in every colour, a picturesque main street full of vendors selling their wares. Wei Ying pulls Lan Zhan along, who quickly realises that in this life and in this body, he has no money. But he knows a man who does.
Uncle Qiren is grabbed faster than he can blink and since he had been holding A-Huan's hand already, it becomes an uneven chain of four people flitting awkwardly like a butterfly with different sized wings from the tanghulu stall to the person selling blown sugar bunnies.
Lan Qiren is nothing if not fair, so pretty soon he's shelling out for everyone, including Xue Yang and A-Qing, Song ZiChen and Xiao XingChen, and the other Lan disciples.
There is a pleasant patch of green grass under an old oak tree where everyone takes a break to sit down and enjoy their treats. Wei Ying wanders over to the other side of the tree and his hands touch the rough bark, thinking back to a time long ago. His fingers trace over characters that may never be carved into this tree trunk now, and there is a lingering melancholy sitting on his shoulders about that.
He feels Lan Zhan's presence nearby, unwilling to interrupt his thoughts, but this is something he doesn't mind sharing with his soul mate. He glances over at Lan Zhan and beckons him over so they can both sit on exposed roots of the grand old tree. If he whispers, he thinks it's possible that the others won't overhear him.
"What is on your mind?" Lan Zhan asks him, rearranging his robes so that he is sitting properly with a correct posture.
"I...I wanted to share something with you."
At Wei Ying's admission, Lan Zhan scoots closer, looking absolutely gleeful and delighted, because this is evidence that he is special to Wei Ying.
"So...back in our past life, I came here once on my own after hearing about a beautiful mythical garden. It was said that a young man originally planted many flowers, and began thinking of them as his friends. He would read his writing to them every day, reciting his poetry to them, and his belief was so strong that a flower spirit, a yao, formed. She became the Damsel of Annual Blossoms.
"No one had ever seen her face so I was curious because the rumours around this town said that the garden received lots of visitors, so how was it that no one had seen her ever? I made up my mind that I would do it. The people in town said that you had to go up there and recite a poem, and if she liked it, she would give you a flower. But what they didn't say was that if she hated it, she would hurl a flower at your face, you would pass out and when you woke up, she'd have evicted you from her garden. The first time I visited, I honestly tried to do a good job, but nothing happened. Then I recited a complicated one, and I accidentally got it wrong, and the next thing I knew, I was out on the streets, flat on my back as if I'd fallen down.
"So of course, I went back and did it again."
"How many times?"
"Over twenty." At Lan Zhan's exasperated look, Wei Ying snickers behind his hand. "Look, getting it right didn't work, so if doing it wrong got a reaction, I think my persistence won hands down!" He grins at the memory.
"Did she show herself?"
"Yeah, and she was beautiful. Face like porcelain, lips as red as rubies, and her eyes were glittering gems. If you like that sort of thing," he blushed, thinking about how her beauty was stunning, but in the end, she couldn't hold a candle up to Lan Zhan's glorious features. "After that, whenever I visited, she would shower me in petals." He laughs softly.
