Wild Creatures

Chapter 142

At first glance, nothing substantial seems to be inside it, until Baoshan Sanren puts her fingers inside and takes out a slim piece of paper. There is writing on both sides of it, and her eyes become redder with the pressure of not being able to cry.

"It's definitely his handwriting, and thank the Universe it's not in code." She sniffs, smiling as she reads it out. "Ge hua ru ge yan. Different flowers match different eyes." She turns it around and then barks out a sudden, sharp laugh. "Ai wu ji wu. Love the house, and love the crow."

They let her sit and stare at the paper for a few minutes, not wanting to intrude upon her thoughts. The seconds tick by loudly in the silent room, a quiet hammering that incessantly beats, matching the rhythm of Wei Ying's heart.

Baoshan Sanren has long since closed her eyes, and now when she opens them, they're much clearer.

"Can you please explain, grandmother?" And then Wei Ying quickly retracts that by saying, "But it's okay too, if you don't want to. It must be something personal, just between the two of you, not for...sharing."

Her eyes are warm with love now as she smiles softly.

"This is the equivalent of a long winded love letter, complete with all the flowering tendrils, the declaration of love as hard and fast as if your grandfather had climbed on top of a roof and shouted it out to the world. As for translating it to you, I don't mind in the slightest," she says, the heel of her hand rubbing a space dead centre in her chest, as if it were aching with loneliness.

Wei Ying slings an arm around her shoulders, leaning his head against hers.

Their comfortableness around each other settles upon them like a welcome, warm blanket, soothing a frazzled soul. They give each other space to simply be, no rush to fill the void. So Baoshan Sanren takes her time to explain the note.

"The first one means that people are attracted to different flowers all the time, one that might appeal to me, might be not so attractive to you, for example. By telling me this, he's saying his eyes fell in love with me, can also mean love at first sight, and that we were meant to be." She sighs wistfully. "I am the flower meant for his eyes, so to speak."

Wei Ying is smiling at her, his silver eyes too big in his face, wide with awe.

"That's so romantic!"

"It is!" She makes a sound, and if she had been a teenager, Lan Zhan would have called it squealing.

But Baoshan Sanren is too dignified to squeal...

"Ours wasn't an ordinary kind of love." Her eyes are staring into space thoughtfully. "I knew I loved him, and I knew he loved me back, but we weren't as disgustingly weird about it. Not all over each other," she smirks then, "and not at all like you two. To us, it wasn't necessary to be in each other's pockets, we were separate people even in the relationship, individual but together, and our love was strong and true. There's no way your grandfather would ever have written me a song or a poem - we just aren't that type of couple. So when he wrote this simple line to me, it's so much better than a long letter full of unnecessary words, when a few will do the job just fine. Pages and pages of endless declarations are not needed. This," she waves the piece of paper about, "is way better."

"If you say so," Wei Ying shrugs, clearly agreeing to disagree with her opinion. "And what about the second one? Is he calling you the crow?"

She smacks his arm in warning.

"No. Again, it's a broader declaration. If you love the house, you can also love the crow that sits upon the roof. Meaning, you are loving all the parts of a person, not just the good bits that are on show, but all the parts, the good and the bad. A person is as multifaceted as a diamond, and true love will never say, 'I only like that side, or that side.' Honest, real love is all encompassing. It's about loving the whole diamond, even before it is polished and crafted into the finished product."