By the time the news reached Zhao Linxiu, Lindu was bathed in gentle spring breezes. He stood by the study window, watching Zheng Zaisheng tidy up the courtyard below.
Zheng Zaisheng had already planned everything out—where to plant vegetables and where to plant flowers.
"All right, come back. You don't need to worry about it anymore," Zhao Linxiu said calmly.
He hadn't expected Xie Yan's final choice to be returning to his hometown. Like someone who had wandered for too long and become utterly exhausted, only to discover in the end that the place he had once despised and rejected most was the one that felt safest and most comfortable.
But Zhao Linxiu had no intention of telling Zheng Zaisheng any of that. No more stirring things up.
Zheng Zaisheng was skilled at building this sort of little garden. His plans were sensible, every patch of open ground was put to use, and he spent every day happily drawing layouts. Zhao Linxiu hired several professional workers to assist him.
All through spring, Zheng Zaisheng either wrote scripts or worked on the garden.
At the very start of summer, pale yellow and soft pink flowers bloomed in clusters. Zhao Linxiu had never seen them before and asked about them out of curiosity. Zheng Zaisheng looked a little bashful and explained that they were called Oriole Stamen. They were essentially wildflowers, incredibly resilient. At first glance, they were unremarkable, their six overlapping petals nothing special, but when they bloomed in clusters, the sight was entirely different. It was no exaggeration to say it looked as if rosy clouds had been moved into the courtyard. Zheng Zaisheng had gotten some from a friend before, and beneath the trellis around the outermost Oriole Stamen, he had planted vegetables and fruit.
That day, Zhao Linxiu