Flowers and a Book

The next evening, a gentle breeze blew.

Huang Tian tidied up the apartment a little. Suddenly, his expression shifted. He opened the door, went downstairs, and stood at the entrance to the building, smiling at a girl holding a bouquet. She was tall and wore a pale blue tea dress, white canvas shoes and socks, and a light teal backpack. She looked especially youthful.

"Xiao Zong." Huang Tian waved to her.

Zong Wenjun froze for a moment, quickly hid the flowers behind her, then trotted over. "Xiao Huang!"

When she reached him, she pulled out a bouquet from behind her back with a flourish. "Ta-da!"

Layer upon layer, the tulips bloomed, each petal like a glittering red gem. White roses nestled among them, their creamy petals tinged with pale green at the edges. Against the tulips' vivid intensity, they lent the bouquet a touch of pure, quiet serenity.

"Thank you. They're beautiful."

Huang Tian took the flowers from her, a smile on his face.

"I'm glad you like them!" Zong Wenjun took Huang Tian's hand. "I have three days off this time, so I can finally revisit all my old haunts in Chang City."

With the flowers in his left hand, Huang Tian led her upstairs with his right. "Wasn't it seven days?"

Zong Wenjun complained, "During summer vacation, Mom and my aunt traveled all over the country for more than a month. They didn't even come home once. By the time they finished traveling, school had already started for me. Then Mom kept saying how much she missed me, and wanted me to come home for the National Day holiday. I couldn't talk her out of it, so I agreed and bought a high-speed train ticket to Nanjing for the morning of the fourth."

"Three days is enough. You can see Wanshou Palace and Tengwang Pavilion in one evening. There isn't much else worth visiting." Huang Tian asked, "Have you had dinner on the way?"

Zong Wenjun shook her head. "Not yet. I'll eat with you."

As they spoke, they reached the apartment door, and Huang Tian took a key from his pocket.

Click.

The door opened. Huang Tian set the wrapped flowers beside the wardrobe, while Zong Wenjun stood in the room, looking around curiously.

"Here, have some water and rest for a bit. Then we'll go downstairs for dinner." Huang Tian took a glass and poured her some water.

"Okay." Zong Wenjun set down her backpack, took the glass, and held it in both hands as she sipped. "Your place is so clean."

"Of course."

Huang Tian smiled. He had always been a little fastidious about cleanliness and swept the apartment every few days. Since starting his cultivation, he sometimes used spiritual power to clean corners that were hard to reach with a broom. Naturally, the place was even cleaner now.

After a short rest, Huang Tian said, "Come on, let's go downstairs to eat. We won't go out exploring tonight. You must be tired from the trip. We can visit Tengwang Pavilion tomorrow."

"Mm-hmm."

The two went downstairs. They didn't seek out a romantic restaurant or a candlelit dinner, but simply crossed the street to a nearby restaurant and ate something. By the time they'd had their fill, the sky had gradually darkened.

A full moon hung high in the sky, with wisps of pale lead-gray cloud drifting quietly by, lending the scene a hazy, dreamlike feeling.

A few cars rolled slowly down the road. The shops along both sides glowed with warm light, and rows of tall streetlamps cast a dusky yellow glow. Elderly people, children, and a few couples strolled along in scattered groups.

Huang Tian and Zong Wenjun bought milk tea from a shop and walked side by side along the sidewalk. The cool night breeze brushed their cheeks and hair, bringing a sense of ease and clarity.

Suddenly, Zong Wenjun took a couple of steps ahead, turned around, and looked up at Huang Tian, her hands behind her back and her eyes sparkling. "I wish the world could always stay this peaceful. Nothing would ever change, and we'd stay right here in this moment forever."

"Beautiful moments never last long."

"But they shine all the brighter for it."

As she spoke, she moved closer and rose slightly on her toes. Her gentle fragrance drifted over, and her soft lips brushed Huang Tian's. Before he could react, she gave a light laugh and ran off, her pale blue dress fluttering in the night breeze.

Huang Tian found it amusing and followed her. Beneath the dusky yellow streetlamps, their shadows stretched longer and longer.

After playing around for a while, they grew tired and returned to the apartment. They showered and lay down in bed. Zong Wenjun curled up softly in Huang Tian's arms and gradually fell asleep, her breathing barely audible. Huang Tian felt at peace and slowly drifted off too.

The next day, Huang Tian accompanied Zong Wenjun to the supermarket, where they bought a glass vase and flower preservative. Then they went home and trimmed the flowers together, removing some leaves. They poured water and preservative into the vase, then arranged the flowers in it.

"Done!"

Zong Wenjun held the vase and bent her head to breathe in the flowers' delicate fragrance. Then she placed it where the sunlight wouldn't shine directly on it and clapped her hands lightly. "Now you'll be able to smell the flowers at home, too!"

Before long, it was six in the evening. Neither of them had eaten dinner, so they went straight out and took the subway to Wanshou Palace. When they got off, they found the streets packed with people, many of them tourists who'd come to visit during the holiday.

"Let's grab something to eat first."

"Okay!"

Huang Tian and Zong Wenjun strolled through the Wanshou Palace cultural district, stopping now and then to try the local snacks: fragrant clay-pot soup, soft and sweet white sugar cake, spicy lotus root slices, handmade glutinous rice cakes...

And the famous Kun Tea.

But there were so many tourists buying Kun Tea that the wait was long. Zong Wenjun had the patience to get in line, while Huang Tian waited in a bookstore on the corner.

The bookstore wasn't large, but it was quiet, with warm yellow lighting and a faint scent of ink in the air. A dozen or so customers were either squatting in the corners picking out books or reading on the soft sofa to the west. The shop assistant, a young man in black-framed glasses, sat behind the counter, idly playing on his phone.

Huang Tian liked places like this. He walked almost soundlessly along the rows of shelves, searching for something he wanted to read.

History, literature, art, popular science... There was even a copy of Modern Algebra that had somehow found its way here.

Huang Tian was a mathematics student and had taken a course in modern algebra. Remembering how abstract the material had been, he smiled a little, pulled the book out, and flipped through it. After a few pages, he suddenly froze.

He found that concepts he hadn't fully understood before now made sense at a glance: quotient groups, permutation groups, Galois theory, ideals...

"Could this be my aptitude?"

Huang Tian suddenly understood. Ever since he'd gained his supernatural abilities, his aptitude had improved tremendously. It took him only a moment to learn a spell, and now he found it just as easy to understand a book.

His eyes lit up. He quickly flipped through the entire book. His photographic memory let him take in every word at once, while his remarkable aptitude made every concept easy to grasp. He could even draw connections to what he'd learned before and build on it!

"I think I've figured out what I want to do in the future..."