Fairy

Qin Yanan's mood grew worse. After turning twenty, women generally started accepting reality, understanding that the kind of romantic love found in fairy tales was unlikely to happen. They even grew increasingly disdainful of the formulas in romance dramas. To be honest, with the way those male leads acted, the moment one tried any of it, someone—whether intentionally or not—would probably warn him to stay away from Qin Yanan.

So Qin Yanan had gradually prepared herself for the possibility. She began wondering who her family would arrange for her, and whenever they brought up some outstanding, noteworthy young man with a bright future, she paid particular attention, committing quite a few names to memory.

Though she had no particular fondness for any of them, and the idea was both forced and repellent, at least she had some sense of who they were.

But what about this Liu Chang'an?

He had just sprung out like a monkey, pointed at Qin Yanan, and laughed uproariously. "Stop looking. I'm your destined one!"

Then he'd hoisted Qin Yanan over his shoulder and, amid the firecrackers lit by her father and great-grandfather, happily carried her off to the tiny bedroom he'd made out of a storage room.

Should she comfort herself by thinking that even this tiny bedroom might feel cozy?

"Then I suppose you'd be my cousin." Qin Yanan managed a faint smile. No matter what, girls instinctively wanted to be the younger one, even when dealing with Liu Chang'an.

Liu Chang'an shook his head.

"More like your younger cousin. I'm eighteen this year, a senior at Xiangnan Normal University Affiliated High School. The college entrance exam is next month."

Eighteen!

Qin Yanan's somewhat languid posture instantly straightened.

The loose undershirts worn by middle-aged men in their forties and fifties on the streets and alleys of Junsha, the baggy, coarse-cloth shorts big enough to hold a bottle of erguotou, and the grass-and-vine sandals only found in the stockrooms of the oldest little markets—this was an eighteen-year-old boy?

The first time she'd seen Liu Chang'an, Qin Yanan had thought he was about her age. She'd never imagined he might be so much younger.

So she'd simply jumped to the wrong conclusion from the start? No matter how much her great-grandfather cared about this distant cousin, he couldn't force a match between them!

At that thought, Qin Yanan breathed a sigh of relief. The pent-up gloom of the past few days finally drained away with her exhale. No one knew how she'd felt just now, watching Liu Chang'an haggle over one or two yuan while playing cards with a group of elderly people through the eyes of someone assessing her future husband.

If her future husband really were like that, Qin Yanan would rather become a nun.

Only eighteen! Her younger cousin!

Though this younger cousin was a distant relative, judging by her great-grandfather's feelings, there was no doubt that he cared deeply about him.

After her great-grandmother had died, a female orderly had been assigned to look after the leader, according to the customs and organizational arrangements of the time. Her great-grandfather didn't marry again until ten years later.

But everyone knew he had never stopped thinking about her great-grandmother. Their wedding portrait always stood on his desk, whether he was in the Capital, back in his hometown, or at the sanatorium.

Wait... There were three people in that photograph, not just her great-grandparents.

Photographs from that era always carried an elegance shaped by time. Even black and white couldn't hide their spirited confidence. Her great-grandfather looked heroic, while her great-grandmother was graceful and gentle. She sat in the middle, one hand slightly raised, her pale wrist exposed, slender fingers lightly clasping several of the man's fingers on her right. The affection and dependence in her eyes seemed to spill beyond the frame.

Her great-grandfather had once said that the man in the photograph, who appeared closer to her great-grandmother than he did, was her older brother. But no further information about him could be found, and her great-grandfather wouldn't say more.

In those days, countless people who should have been brilliant and renowned had willingly thrown themselves into the struggle, driven by the conviction that "sacrifice brings great ambition, and we'll change the world." They became nameless foundations of the revolution, building the future of a new nation and people, even if no one knew of them and they left neither names nor traces behind.

That man was probably one of them.

Qin Yanan's guess had a sound basis. Her great-grandfather had believed that only those who had joined him in revolution were his friends. He disdained not only those who sold out their country for profit, but even those who merely protected themselves. When he was a student, some people had retreated to the southwest, but her great-grandparents were among those who abandoned their pens and took up rifles.

Her great-grandfather would never have kept a photograph of the three of them just because the man was her great-grandmother's close relative.

The Qin Family now stood high in the halls of power, while Liu Chang'an had fallen into such straits. Her great-grandfather must have felt deeply indebted to the comrade who'd fought alongside him and died. It was understandable that he'd asked Qin Yanan to make a special trip to look after Liu Chang'an. His insistence that she treat him with humble respect was probably because of Liu Chang'an's great-grandfather, too.

"So that's how it is." Qin Yanan's tone softened. "It's truly moving to think about. Our elders' friendship began over a century ago. Now that we've met, I hope we won't let that connection and affection fade. We should visit each other often from now on."

Liu Chang'an opened his mouth, as though something had occurred to him. He studied Qin Yanan carefully, then shook his head.

Qin Yanan was puzzled by his reaction. She had no childhood bond with the cousin before her, but she was trying to fulfill her great-grandfather's wish. As his older cousin, she no longer felt the same resistance to getting closer to this distant younger cousin.

"At first, I thought your great-grandfather had sent you to meet me so that after he passed away, I'd remember our old ties and look after you a little. After all, you look so much like Ye Sijin. He knew that, for her sake, I'd put my heart into helping you." Liu Chang'an laughed in surprise. "But you've reminded me that he must have had more in mind. He wants you to become my wife."

"What did you say!"

It was like a bolt from the blue. Her emotions surged and fell like waves across the broad, turbulent sea of her heart.

"This is absurd. How could I marry a woman who looks almost exactly like your great-grandmother?" Ye Sijin's face and voice appeared in Liu Chang'an's mind. "Go back. I'll explain things to your great-grandfather and make him abandon the idea."

Qin Yanan stared at Liu Chang'an in disbelief. "How could that be? I'm seven years older than you. Why would he arrange this? And what gives you the right to act as if you're too good for me?"

"If a man who looked exactly like your great-grandfather pursued you, would he have a chance?" Liu Chang'an countered.

Qin Yanan shook her head. The idea was so strange that she definitely couldn't accept it.

"Isn't that answer enough?"

"It's not the same..." Qin Yanan couldn't see why Liu Chang'an would reject her just because she looked so much like her great-grandmother. It wasn't the same as her being unable to accept a boyfriend who looked like her great-grandfather.

"There's no difference. Strictly speaking, I'm not related to anyone by blood, but your appearance is simply too much for me to accept. It would drag me into too many memories, and I don't want that... To me, time takes everyone away. I should also put away my old feelings and memories." Liu Chang'an couldn't explain himself any more clearly to Qin Yanan.

"Do you think I want this?" Qin Yanan stormed off in a fury.

Her angry little pout was much cuter than her usual cool, reserved expression. Liu Chang'an nodded with satisfaction, then shook his fan as he went inside.

When Qin Yanan returned to Baolong Center, Zhong Qing was downstairs walking High Templar... Only today had Qin Yanan learned that the Rottweiler Zhu Juntang had given her had been named Protoss High Templars. Its original Chinese name had been Sheng Tang Gao Jie Wu Shi; now it had been changed to a translation more faithful to the original and more elegant: High Monk of Putuo Temple.

But Putuo Temple was a real Buddhist sanctuary, and it wasn't right to insult its monks, so Zhu Juntang still called her dog High Templar.

What kind of nonsense was that? Qin Yanan had no interest in why Zhu Juntang had chosen the name, so she asked Zhong Qing where Zhu Juntang was.

Zhong Qing continued walking High Templar. Junsha was already a safe city, especially downtown, and all the more so with her walking a fierce dog that made people think of a savage hunter.

Qin Yanan found Zhu Juntang on the helipad atop the main tower of Baolong Center. The beautiful girl wore an ornate Ming Dynasty official's daughter's dress and held a little folding fan as she peered around at the area below.

Qin Yanan envied how idle she seemed, though she knew Zhu Juntang's ambition, wildly mismatched with her maturity, was actually just as rampant.

"I suspect that one day I'll really jump from here." Zhu Juntang took a couple of tentative steps toward the edge, then came back and leaned against Qin Yanan. Touching her forehead, she said, "Ah... darling, I'm afraid of heights. Let me rest in your arms for a while."

Qin Yanan pushed away Zhu Juntang's soft body and walked into the glasshouse, which was filled with all kinds of flowers. Apart from the lights at the summit of Mount Lu, far in the distance, the view from the top of the city was nothing but endless darkness. Yet the warmth inside this little glasshouse stood in such stark contrast that at last her heart settled.

"Why do you always like climbing up here?" Qin Yanan didn't think Zhu Juntang would jump off the roof. Everyone had crazy ideas; it was just a matter of whether reason could keep them in check.

Though if a strong wind blew across the roof, there was a chance Zhu Juntang might be blown off.

"Don't you think that sitting here is like sitting above the clouds, making you feel like a little fairy?" Zhu Juntang smiled. "I'm a fairy. I don't belong to the mortal world."

"Fairies always marry ordinary men," Qin Yanan said with a hint of mockery.

"That doesn't matter." Zhu Juntang didn't care. "I'd still be a fairy... Anyway, how did your inquiries go today?"

Zhu Juntang knew what Qin Yanan was most concerned about now. She'd gone to ask her father for information today.

"Do you know? My dad's theory is that my great-grandfather used to turn away all the people who came to introduce men to me or propose marriage, saying he wanted me to choose for myself. In reality, he was waiting—waiting until he found an old friend so he could save me as a wife for that family!" That theory had left Qin Yanan miserable all evening.

"Who is this person, anyway? What's his name? I'll help you vet him." Zhu Juntang restrained her rampant glee and put on an expression of deep concern.

"Do you think I'd tell you? I don't want you getting involved." Qin Yanan shook her head without hesitation. She knew Zhu Juntang's character all too well. She wanted to meddle in everything and make decisions based on what she thought was best. She'd always stir things up, then slip away as if it had nothing to do with her, leaving someone else to clean up the mess.

"Are we even sisters?" Zhu Juntang said angrily.

Qin Yanan looked Zhu Juntang up and down, and suddenly remembered the scandalous romantic exploits of Zhu Juntang's grandmother, Su Mei, when she was young.