I Married An Immortal (The Alchemists)

Chapter 116 - Snowfall In Paris

"Uhm... why have we not arrived yet..." she complained on the way. Even the trek to Parc Guell wasn't as hard as this, Finland thought.

Her body did get warmer, but her feet refused to work about halfway to the top. Apparently, she was not accustomed to walking uphill like this, especially in such cold weather. In Singapore, the whole country was almost flat land. The only going up and down she experienced was going on the escalators in a mall or MRT station.

"We are almost there," said Jean comfortably. "Or we can go down again and take the cable car. Walking down will be easier."

"Uhm... no... I don't like to waste my effort, especially if we are already halfway there. You said we are close." Finland stopped and held on to the wall, calming her breath. "Ouch, what a shame... I feel so old like a granny."

"Ahahaha... okay, Granny. Let's continue upward so you can see Paris from a height. If I wait for you to catch your breath and stop every 2 meters like this, we will arrive in the evening." Jean then squatted in front of Finland and offered his back, "Come on up. If it's only to carry you for 50 meters up, I can do it."

"Ah, no, you don't have to. You'll get tired later," Finland refused.

"It's the same for me. I will feel tired of carrying you or tired waiting for you... Come on up." Jean did not want to accept Finland's refusal and continued to sign the girl to get on his back. "If not, we'd better go down and ride the cable car."

Finland did not like to cancel something that had been done halfway because it meant that they wasted energy and time. Going back down to ride the cable car was a choice that she disliked very much.

Finally, she gave up and let herself be carried.

"You are getting heavier," Jean commented casually when Finland was already on his back. "Surely you ate a lot during the new year."

"Jeannn!!! Put me down..." Finland protested again. "You are the one who insisted on carrying me."

"Geez, you know I'm kidding... hahaha," Jean faltered when he saw Finland protesting. "I'm kidding. Slim and pretty people should know when they are teased. I thought your confidence has now improved."

Finland pinched Jean's ear.

"You know I have a problem with confidence because I was bullied by bad people for years."

"I know. You loved money so much, you even sold your eggs to make money at that time. But when I asked you to try modeling, you didn't want to do it, even though you could earn a lot of money from it. You were beautiful, but your self-confidence was really bad. " Jean shook his head, "I thought, since you have been working as a marketing person for quite some time now and you have met many people, you have become more confident. Moreover, you are married to one of the most eligible bachelors in the world! Apparently, I was wrong."

"It's only been a few months, Jean. Years of wounds can't disappear in months... I'm still trying to heal myself."

"I understand."

They were silent for a few minutes. Jean then distracted Finland by telling her the history of the Sacre Coeur Basilica they were visiting. This was the second most visited monument in Paris and was a Catholic church that was still used for mass. In Martinique, France, there was a smaller version of Sacre Coeur, which was founded to house refugees.

Many people who passed by them or passed them on their way down looked at them strangely. Jean was the only man who was carrying a woman on his back on their way up to Montmartre at the time.

Their beautiful appearances also attracted a lot of looks and many people secretly took pictures of Finland and Jean.

"Asian couples are indeed very romantic," commented several girls who passed them. "It's like watching a Korean drama in real life."

Finland wanted to protest because Caspar also carried her at Parc Guell and he was not Asian, but of course, it would seem strange if Finland stopped foreigners just to correct them. Finally, she only pursed her lips because of annoyance.

"See... people think we are dating," said Finland, "Come on, put me down."

"Leave it. They don't know us anyway." Jean shook his head, unconcerned. He was often 'recognized' when in public, but no one was really sure whether or not he was famous, because models or actors' face often looked different in real life, compared to pictures in magazines and on TV.

Only a few times people actually asked to take a picture with him and confirmed to him whether he was Jean or not. In fact, once someone asked to take a picture with him because she thought he was the actor Ben Kimura who was half Japanese.

So, he was not too worried about his appearance in public. If there were rumors that he was dating this model or that socialites, he only needed to deny through his agent.

Finally, Finland gave up. She then saw the great Sacre Coeur dome in front of them, and she was amazed.

"Is this a church or a palace? Why does it look like a palace? It is soooo majestic!" She asked admiringly.

"This is a church. The palace usually has gold decorations. Tomorrow we can go to the palace of Versailles, where Marie Antoinette lived. You will see that the palaces of the kings of France are more magnificent than the church."

Suddenly, white snowflakes drifted down making Finland gasp.

"Th... this is snow ..." She uttered in awe. This was her second experience seeing snowfall and Finland was still fascinated. "Very beautiful."

Indeed, the little snowflakes that drifted endlessly made the atmosphere look like a scene on a beautiful postcard. The magnificent Sacre Coeur Basilica, the city of Paris as seen from the hills, and the snowflakes that looked magical, made Finland lost for words.

"This is a moment worth frozen in memory," Jean said quietly, as if to himself. "At this rate, I won't be able to hold back. You can come down already."

He lowered Finland and shook his very cold hands.

"I wonder, why there hasn't been a store that sells gloves all the way here."

"Do you want to wear these gloves instead?" Finland asked him.

"There's no need. I'm more used to cold temperatures than you." Jean pointed at a cafe that had a small signboard, "We can sit there to warm ourselves and drink glow wine. Let's watch the snowfall from the cafe."

They entered the cafe and sat on the chairs that faced the street, so they were able to see the view.

Glow wine was the wine only sold in winter and was served hot. It tasted sweet and Finland liked it a lot.

"This is beautiful..." Finland murmured. "I can sit here for hours drinking glow wine while watching the snowfall."

She remembered seeing her first snow in Germany. Caspar made them tea and she sat on his lap in front of the window, watching the snowfall. Suddenly she missed Caspar very much.