Behind Spirit Hall lay a plum grove unknown to most.
It had been Bibi Dong's favorite place to visit when she was young.
Every winter, the plum blossoms braved the cold, their subtle fragrance drifting through the air. She would sit alone among the trees, lost in thought as she gazed at the stubborn flowers.
Back then, she had yet to become the Pope. She hadn't yet shouldered so many responsibilities and secrets. She had simply been a girl full of curiosity about the world.
Sadly, those days had been all too short...
"There are many interesting places on the mainland besides Spirit Hall."
Zhao Linchuan leaned against a plum tree, casually plucked a sprig of blossoms, and spun it between his fingers.
"Have you ever been to the Far North?"
"The snow there isn't the light snowfall you see now. It's a true land of ice stretching a thousand miles, with snow drifting across ten thousand."
"Stand on the frozen plain, and all you can see is white. Even the sky is white."
"The aurora streams across the night sky like ribbons of color, so beautiful it hardly seems real."
Bibi Dong sat on a stone bench with a chess piece in her hand, but her gaze wasn't on the board.
"I haven't." A trace of loneliness crept into her voice. "The farthest I've ever gone in my life is the outskirts of Spirit City."
Zhao Linchuan handed her the plum sprig and asked casually, "Have you ever been to the East Sea? The sun there rises right out of the water."
"At first, it's just a spot of red. Then it slowly grows, slowly rounds out, and at last the whole sun leaps above the sea, dyeing the entire ocean gold."
"Seagulls circle overhead, waves crash against the