This slope, sheltered from the wind and facing the sun, is far from the main road. It is late spring, and all kinds of unknown wild flowers are blooming, dotting the entire gentle slope.
Purple plantains, yellow dandelions, white cardamine, blue speedwell... sway gently in the breeze, like a naturally woven, colorful velvet carpet.
It is so quiet here that there are only the sounds of wind and insects.
Ye Qingliu sat down on a relatively flat rock with fewer flowers and plants.
He did not take off his glasses, but just tilted his head back slightly, closed his eyes, and felt the cool touch of the mountain breeze on his cheeks and the warmth of the sun on his body.
Away from the hustle and bustle of the crowd, the air of isolation around him seemed to melt away a little, revealing a rare, almost relaxing tranquility.
He sat quietly, like a plant growing quietly among flowers, blending into the wildness of nature.
However, this tranquility did not last long.
A sound of footsteps, deliberately made light, yet still unable to conceal excitement and caution, accompanied by a slight "click", came from behind the bushes below the flower slope.
Ye Qingliu suddenly opened his eyes, and his gray-blue eyes instantly regained their sharpness and alertness, like a disturbed bird of prey.
He looked over in the direction of the voice.
Behind a few clusters of purple azaleas in full bloom, a few familiar smiling faces appeared - the fat aunt, Grandma Zhang, and two old ladies who were particularly curious about him in the car.
They all held their phones, their cameras pointed directly at him. The plump auntie even made a "V" sign, her smile as bright as a camellia in full bloom.
Obviously, they followed secretly and wanted to take some beautiful photos of "children integrating into nature".
The aura around Ye Qingliu instantly turned cold. The ice shell that had just slightly loosened solidified and thickened at an astonishing speed.
He stood up suddenly without saying a word. He just used his gray-blue eyes to glance coldly through the lenses at the old ladies who were hiding behind the flowers and whose smiles froze on their faces.
"Ah..." The fat aunt was startled by the gaze and almost dropped the phone in her hand to the ground.
The smile on Grandma Zhang's face froze, turning into embarrassment and helplessness.
They just wanted to take some nice photos to keep as a souvenir, and by the way, go back and show off this angelic child of Sister Sun's to their old sisters...but they didn't expect to provoke such cold resistance.
The atmosphere instantly dropped to freezing point.
Just then, a familiar figure emerged breathlessly from the path on the other side of the bushes.
It’s Sun Guixiang.
She was obviously worried about the child walking away alone, so she came over and happened to see this embarrassing scene.
"Oh! You old sisters! What are you doing hiding here?" Sun Guixiang pretended to be ignorant, walked over with a smile, and cleverly placed herself between Ye Qingliu and the old ladies.
Her cloudy eyes swept over the mobile phones in their hands, and she immediately understood about 80% of what was going on.
"Sun...Sister Sun..." The fat aunt put away her phone awkwardly and smiled awkwardly, "Let's...let's just take a stroll and see how beautiful the flowers are..."
"Yes, yes, the flowers are blooming beautifully!" Sun Guixiang replied with a smile, naturally took the fat aunt's arm, and winked at Grandma Zhang and the others.
"Come on, come on, I just saw a more beautiful bloom over there! It's so pink, like clouds! I'll take you to see it!"
As she spoke, she pulled a few old ladies who were still confused in the other direction without saying anything, and said loudly, as if speaking to Ye Qingliu:
"Little boy! Grandma is taking the aunts to see the flowers! You rest here! Don't run around! Call grandma if you need anything!"
Several old ladies were half pushed and half pulled away by Sun Guixiang, and they couldn't help but look back before leaving.
The fat aunt sighed and lowered her voice to Sun Guixiang, "Sister Sun, your child's temper is... a little too cold. We don't mean any harm, we just want to take a picture..."
The smile on Sun Guixiang's face faded a little, but her cloudy eyes were filled with unquestionable protection and deep understanding.
She patted the back of the fat aunt's hand and said in a low but firm voice:
"His aunt, our little friend is not cold."
She paused, looking at the lonely figure on the flower slope, her eyes gentle as if she was looking at a fragile treasure.
"He is... too pure. Like snow on a mountaintop, ice under the sun. We think bustles are good, flowers are good, and wanting to be close to him is good. But if we get too close, the warm air we breathe will melt him and stain him. He has to hide and freeze."
"It's not that he doesn't like flowers," Sun Guixiang's voice was filled with insight and heartache that came from having experienced many vicissitudes of life.
"He likes to watch from afar. Just like he likes to hear the crackle of the firewood in my stove, likes to watch me water his pot of 'green bean cakes'... He has to be in a place he considers 'clean' before he's willing to show his warmth."
"Let's just watch him from a distance and know he's there. That's all that matters. Don't try to get too close, okay?"
Several old ladies listened to Sun Guixiang's words and looked at the lonely figure like the moon in the sea of flowers in the distance. The embarrassment and confusion on their faces gradually disappeared, and were replaced by a sudden realization and deeper understanding and pity.
"So that's how it is..."
"Sister Sun, you are right..."
"Alas, this child..."
They no longer tried to get closer, nor did they regret not being able to take a photo.
He just took one last loving look from afar at the young man standing alone on the wild flower slope, keeping a distance from the gorgeous spring scenery, and then followed Sun Guixiang to another lively sea of flowers.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!
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