"What Little Bai!? Which Little Bai? Is he skinny and small? The one who works at the flower nursery?"
Sun Xiangxiang leaned over the medicine counter, half her body plunging behind it, the little flames of gossip in her eyes almost setting the roof on fire.
Sun Chang'an ignored her. His hands were steady as he measured out the herbs. Whatever amount he had in mind was exactly what landed on the scales, almost never requiring a second adjustment.
"Is it him? Hurry up and tell me! His name's Bai Congming, right? Do they live around here? Uncle!"
"..."
She drew out that last word with endless twists and turns. Helpless against her, Sun Chang'an wrapped up the herbs he had measured out and handed them over.
"Have you ever heard of people in ancient times called Baixiaosheng?"
Sun Xiangxiang had no idea why he was asking, but she still responded, "Huh? What about Baixiaosheng?"
"What did people have to do when they went to them with questions...?"
Sun Chang'an rubbed three fingers together, looking as though he were brushing off the dust the herbs had left on his fingertips.
Only Sun Xiangxiang knew what this money-obsessed uncle of hers was really after.
A cold, mechanical voice sounded, and the pharmacy's revenue increased by two hundred.
"Enough now? Is it him?"
Sun Chang'an looked taken aback instead. "What are you doing? Two hundred is enough to buy another ten packets!"
"...You're playing dirty, huh?" Sun Xiangxiang laughed in anger. "I'm telling your dad when I get back!"
His dad was her grandfather.
Sun Xiangxiang was ten years younger than this uncle of hers. Though they were distant relatives, they were very close and visited often.
Of course, it was Sun Xiangxiang who did the visiting, coming to her uncle for free pulse readings.
Only children tattled to their parents. Sun Xiangxiang's toothless threat had no effect. Sun Chang'an simply packed up another ten packets of herbs for sour plum drink in short order and handed them to her, then went back to rolling pills, rubbing his fingers together.
Sun Xiangxiang huffed. "Then I'll go ask Little Bai myself!"
Sun Chang'an waved a hand from beside the low table. His meaning was obvious: take care, see yourself out.
"..."
Using purchasing supplies as her pretext, Sun Xiangxiang had the nursery manager take her to Greenhouse No. 3. She casually pointed out a few samples and placed her order, then asked the manager whether she could stay a little longer.
A patron with money to spend naturally received special treatment.
"Then give me a shout when you're ready to leave, Sister Xiangxiang. I'll walk you out."
"Sure."
Once the manager finally left, Sun Xiangxiang jogged a few steps with the bag in her hand, heading straight toward Bai Congming.
Bai Congming's job that day was pruning flower stems.
Generally speaking, a flowering plant would produce many buds, and under the influence of the temperature and humidity, every flower would bloom the same way.
The ones that weren't growing well would be snipped off, allowing the healthy ones to absorb all the nutrients in the soil and encouraging another round of blooms.
The system of eliminating the lowest performers applied at the nursery, too.
The nursery had very high standards. The blooms on the stems had to be as close to perfect as possible. Bai Congming worked his scissors quickly, leaving a plant bare with just a few snips.
Bai Congming would sort through the cut flowers once more and take them home to show Brother Ding.
"Little Bai!"
Sun Xiangxiang ran up just in time to see Bai Congming cut off a peony. Thinking that nobody else should see this slipup, she hurriedly helped hide the flower and lowered her voice.
"Did you cut the wrong one?"
Bai Congming was delighted to see Sunflower Sister and greeted her in a breathy whisper, copying her.
"Not wrong," Bai Congming whispered, pointing out a spot on the flower. "Here. Gray."
Sun Xiangxiang leaned closer before she could make out the inconspicuous gray spots along the edges of the peony.
"Cut it off. Not wrong."
Sun Xiangxiang gave him a thumbs-up. "You're amazing, Little Bai."
Bai Congming smiled shyly and pulled a bunch of daisies from his backpack. They were all cut flowers that couldn't be sold, destined either to be tossed into the soil for compost or picked out and taken home.
Bai Congming had carefully selected this bunch of daisies to take home for Ding Ding.
"For you."
"Wow!" Sun Xiangxiang accepted them with an exaggerated reaction. "They're so pretty!"
Bai Congming nodded. "Pretty!"
With the flowers out, Bai Congming's backpack was half empty. Sun Xiangxiang seized the opening and stuffed the bag she was carrying inside.
"This is sour plum drink. When you get home, just boil it in water, and you can drink it..."
At this point, Sun Xiangxiang hesitated. "Do you know how to boil it? You just add water... then turn on the flame... Once the water bubbles and goes glug, glug, glug, you can drink it."
"...No, that's not right. You have to let it cool. You can only drink it after it cools."
The more Sun Xiangxiang spoke, the more tightly her brows knitted. She had thought packets of Chinese medicinal herbs would be healthier, but now that she thought about it, she would have been better off buying the ready-made kind and saving the trouble.
A child playing with fire-what if he scalded himself?
"Is there an adult at home? If you can't boil it yourself, get someone to help you. This..."
"I can!" Bai Congming pressed his lips together, looking a little tense. "Little Bai is an adult. I can boil it."
"Ah... right, right, right." Noticing the change in his mood, Sun Xiangxiang hurried to make amends. "Of course you can do something that simple, Little Bai. I said the wrong thing."
Bai Congming gave a very soft hum, stopped talking to her, and went back to pruning with his head down.
Sun Xiangxiang hunched her shoulders and made a face. Taking a chocolate out of her pocket, she unwrapped it and popped it straight into Bai Congming's mouth without another word.
"Are you mad, Little Bai? Really mad? Let me see... oh!"
The chocolate melted in his mouth, its sweet fragrance spreading, enough to dissolve even the greatest anger.
Besides, he wasn't angry. It was just... when other people asked whether he could do something so simple, he felt an ache inside.
Bai Congming knew he was different from other people.
Back when he helped his mother at the nursery, things that others learned in one try took him a long time to learn.
When it rained, everyone else knew to run home. He alone stood there foolishly, letting the rain soak him.
His mother was always saying that if Little Bai were a clever child, their family would have a much better life.
But being different from everyone else wasn't something Bai Congming had chosen. If he could, of course he would want to be a clever child.
At the very least, he didn't want people to think he was a child who couldn't even boil something.
"Thank you, Sister," Bai Congming said.
Seeing his expression soften considerably, Sun Xiangxiang secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
"You're welcome."
Their heads leaned together as they talked. Bai Congming looked as though he was listening carefully, but he was actually distracted, and his hands never stopped moving.
With the pruning nearly finished, Bai Congming picked a large leaf and wrapped the scissors in it so they wouldn't hurt anyone when he returned them.
When he stood up, the phone hanging around his neck swayed. As though afraid it would fall, Bai Congming kept a hand over his chest the whole way.
"You bought a phone, Little Bai!?" Sharp-eyed Sun Xiangxiang raised her eyebrows. "Want to save my number?"
Without waiting for Bai Congming to agree, Sun Xiangxiang handed over her phone. "Go on, save it. I'll teach you how to make video calls, and I can show you the comics I just got!"
Bai Congming refused no matter what she said, because he took it for granted that a phone Brother Ding gave him should have only Ding Ding in it, just as the phone his mother had given him had contained only his mother.
Sun Xiangxiang explained for a long time before he understood that a phone was something that could hold lots of friends.
"Friends..."
"That's right." Sun Xiangxiang nodded repeatedly. "You gave me dried flowers, and I gave you sour plum drink. Of course that makes us friends!"
"Did you give away the flowers you bought last time? How did it go? If you ever want more, you can message me, and I'll bring them over."
Sun Xiangxiang always had so many questions. Bai Congming seemed used to it by now and passively filtered out everything except the last sentence.
Buy flowers.
He could pick up plenty of flowers at the nursery to take home every day, but they were always damaged and imperfect.
Bai Congming felt that flowers like those weren't good enough for Ding Ding.
The person sharing Brother Ding's life was a fool, so it was only right to make up for it with the very best, most beautiful things in the world.
"Buy flowers!"
Bai Congming still didn't really know how to use the phone, so he could only hand it over.
"Phone number. Want to buy flowers."
Before you continue