"It's great..." Su Jinli watched her children and grandchildren doing well, and the people she had cared about all her life were living vibrantly in the sunshine. Her heart seemed to be filled with warm water, and was full of satisfaction.
"Yeah, that's great." Jiang Yan put his arm around her shoulders. Although he had no physical presence, she felt the familiar support. "Jinli, thank you."
"Thank me for what?"
"Thank you..." Jiang Yan looked at her, the stars in his eyes brighter than the Milky Way in the sky, "Thank you for snatching my sugar painting on the street, thank you for marrying a poor scholar like me, thank you for making my life... like it's been dipped in honey."
Su Jinli smiled, but tears fell like pearls from a broken string: "Silly boy, I should be the one to say thank you." She remembered what he said on their golden wedding day, "Meeting you is my greatest luck." It turned out that luck is a double-headed arrow. From the moment they saw the candy painting on the street, they were destined to have a sweet life together.
"Jiang Yan," she looked at him, her eyes as serious as when she first met him, "In the next life, you will have to wait for me at the sugar painting stall."
"Okay." Jiang Yan nodded without hesitation and handed her the sugar-painted phoenix. "I'll draw the phoenix, and you'll draw the earthworm dragon. Then I'll give you the phoenix and say, 'I'll take you in and protect you from trouble.'"
"Go to hell!" Su Jinli laughed and punched him. This time, her fingertips actually touched his arm, and the warm touch felt so real. She looked at her hand in surprise, and then looked at Jiang Yan's equally solid figure. The tenderness in his eyes almost overflowed.
Jiang Yan held her hand, interlocking their fingers, just as he had done countless times over the past fifty years. "Let's go, Jinli. Let's go see the sugar painting stall in our next life."
A blinding light suddenly enveloped Su Jinli. She squinted, then opened her eyes again to find herself in a dazzling sea of flowers. Pink petals fell like rain. A familiar voice called out from the distance: "Sugar paintings—Phoenix and Dragon—" A small stall loomed deep within the sea of flowers. Old Man Zhang, hunched over like always, stood in a copper pot, the syrup gleaming golden in the sunlight.
"Look," Jiang Yan pointed at the stall and turned to smile at her, his smile as bright as a teenager's. "I told you, I'll wait for you here."
Su Jinli looked at him, then at the familiar stall. All the grievances, happiness, and love in her life turned into a sweet touch on her lips. She reached out and held Jiang Yan's hand tightly, as if holding the warmth of the whole world. "Come on, Jiang Yan. This time, it's my turn to grab the sugar painting first!"
The wind blew through the sea of flowers, stirring up a cloud of pink petals. The two figures walking together gradually melted into that sweet glow. In front of the distant sugar painting stall, the sound of the boy's cheerful laughter and the girl's scolding seemed to echo again, woven into the honey of time, forever unfading.
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