Lovely Allergen

Chapter 16: Osmanthus Sugar

Two months have passed since the city's Best Three awards were announced. Yue Zhishi was ridiculously happy when he saw the list of names. That day, two sentences filled his brain, circling around and around: 'gege won the award' and 'of course gege would win the award'.

The seasons of spring and autumn in this city were the same — they never lasted past two weeks. Sometimes it would feel like spring turned into winter over the course of one day, with the only stubborn proof of autumn's existence being the smell of osmanthus flowers covering the entire city, wafting continuously into the cold autumn wind.

Two big osmanthus trees were planted in the little yard in front of Yanghe Qizhe. One was the glistening, golden variety, while the other was a red osmanthus tree. During their monthly school break, Yue Zhishi and Song Yu was called by Lin Rong to pick the flowers.

The two of them were woken up early in the morning, and just so happened to coincidentally wear the matching set of sweaters Lin Rong bought for them last year. Song Yu's was black, and Yue Zhishi's was ivory white.

Lin Rong placed a large tablecloth on the ground around the osmanthus trees in the yard. The two boys used slender bamboo sticks to beat the tree branches on top, golden fragments copiously drifting downwards with heavy fragrance. Yue Zhishi had always enjoyed doing this since he was young — other flowers also smelled nice, but the fragrance of osmanthus flowers was different, the scent of it carrying some sweetness just like its taste.

"Enough, enough." Lin Rong laughed as she packed up the flowers on the tablecloth. "There's not much left on the trees, we should leave some to smell."

The two of them stopped, and Song Yu prepared to put away his bamboo stick. He tilted his head and saw flower petals resting on top of Yue Zhishi's fluffy hair, a layer of glistening yellow. It looked like a soufflé covered in maple syrup. He silently stretched out a hand, one end of his bamboo stick slowly wobbling over until it finally tapped on the back of Yue Zhishi's head.

Yue Zhishi quickly covered his head and turned his head to look at him, the flowers on his head swirling away. He still managed to see the bamboo stick Song Yu quickly retracted. "You hit me."

Song Yu had no intention of admitting it whatsoever, the stick hiding behind his back in his two hands. He stayed silent.

"Aunt Rong, gege hit my head." Yue Zhishi chased after her and dropped the bamboo stick in his hand, the impact of it on the floor knocking up a pile of petals.

Lin Rong helplessly smiled and said, "Ahh, be careful of the flowers!"

He didn't step on the flowers, but he slipped on a corner of the tablecloth as he ran over. Yue Zhishi's whole body staggered forward, and luckily Song Yu managed to catch him before he fell.

Sweet perfume filled the air. The tiny petals tucked away in the fibres of Song Yu's woollen sweater slowly cascaded down from the collision of Yue Zhishi's body, just like the unspooling of hidden care.

"Stop messing around." Song Yu held his elbow and helped him stand back up.

"You messed around with me first," Yue Zhishi reasonably retorted.

Song Yu glanced at him. "I just wanted to let you know there were a lot of petals on your head."

"Same goes for you."

The two of them lowered their heads at the same time, each patting away the fallen flowers on his own head.

They managed to fill two large pots with the amount of flowers they knocked down, but many withered flowers and flower stems were mixed inside as well. The three of them sat at a table in the empty restaurant and started to separate their haul, chatting as they worked. The flower petals were about the size of rice grains while the flower stalks and stems were even smaller, and Yue Zhishi felt like his eyes were going to go blind from all the sifting. It felt like the plucking would never end.