Most would assume that the harsh winters were the most treacherous of seasons. To a valley of flowers, their vibrancy all but a memory washed over with biting snow, it was only a matter of time before their time had ended swiftly. As mere vegetation, there was not much they can do. Defense was slim, when exposed to the elements, and prey lurked ready to feed. Each day could be their last, as the bottom-most beings of the food pyramid, dead before they were even alive. 

In each life Shen Yuan shared as a flower whose only purpose was to stand tall and look pretty, he was always reminded that it was not the winters which crept up before devouring him whole which made his leaves quiver with fear. 

No, it was the sunless autumns which gave the deepest desperation unknown to man.

Spring was when they bloomed, bold colors raised towards the sunlight, roots happily drinking the water provided by the heavens. The open skies were tranquil and blue, the sun not yet overbearing as it would be in the sun. It was enough to keep him sated and plentiful. 

As a sunflower, Shen Yuan towered over much of the other flowers in the valley, and was privileged enough to have the freshest of the sunlight. When he had first unfurled his leaves from around his disc, the first things he had ever known were the sun, each breath a mouthful of the most delicious food he’d ever know in this life. He wasn’t as bad as his brother Shen Jiu, who was greedy enough to cop every bit of sunshine, only sharing with him. 

At the time, Shen Yuan was smaller than most of the other flowers who sat around him, his stalks quivering in excitement. This wasn’t the first time he had gone through the sunlight initiation, but it was his first time as a sunflower. Shen Jiu was a constant in each life, the support system he always needed no matter iteration they were born in. Wherever Shen Jiu was, Shen Yuan knew he would follow. No matter what, he was safest with his brother. 

Before his untimely demise, he was Shen Yuan’s protector. His only savior.  

And then he was clipped off from his stem, doomed to becoming a centerpiece in a bouquet made of love. 

“Take care of yourself,” his brother said, facing him one last time. The dark seeds embedded in his disc flower contracted, as if exhaling, when Shen Yuan brought his own face to his. “You will need the energy. Don’t let these bastards hoard it all to themselves.”  If Shen Yuan could cry, he would’ve. But he was merely a flower, his feet rooted to the ground, flimsy leaves shaking as he held back the cries of his heart. He was a flower who could not even save his brother, the one who had always put his own needs first, fiercely protecting him as much as a flower can. 

But in the end, they were merely sunflowers. 

Shen Yuan didn’t understand how that bouquet symbolizes love, when all it did was rip the two brothers apart. He cursed his brother’s murderer a heartbreak worse than his, to get torn apart and made into nothing but a pretty ornament. 

This is why Shen Yuan hates spring. 

🌻

Summer was always hot. 

To sunflowers like himself, this was ideal. While the earth sometimes turned brittle and sometimes a little too moist, the heat of the sun was constant. A young flower follows the sun at dawn, happily greeting as he soaks in the meal it provides. The sunlight rouses the other flowers awake, his sunflower brethren following its path in sync. To others, they must look like mindless droves using their basest instincts to survive. And indeed, they were doing so. A flower cannot survive without its light, after all. 

Shen Yuan had spent a couple of lifetimes as a flower; he would know what he’s talking about. In each life, the sun was the only constant. Thus, in each life, he’ll chase it as far as he can. His motor skills were rather limited as a plant, so turning was the most be could do. Regardless, it was still better than most other flowers; the peonies below him were slightly withered from the lack of sunlight, even when Shen Yuan did his best to move to offer him the sustenance. The lilies at the edges were shrouded by the mountains, sadly wilting within the strong shadows cast by the sun overhead. Their greatest blessing is their greatest curse. Shen Yuan cannot help but be grateful to be the plant he was born into. 

Small mercies of summer. 

Head tilted back in an almost meditative state, he nearly jumped out of the soil when he felt something hit the back of his head. 

He wanted to turn around, he really did, but the offering from the heavens was too good. Losing his brother at the cusp of summer had made him quite sour, and the others were smart enough to keep out of his way. Besides, it had been a few days since he’d been able to drink any water, so he was in a cranky mood. A cranky sunflower was not a happy sunflower! 

While he was imagining in his head the vicious pulverization of whatever fool would run into him, he heard a sheepish apology behind him. “I-I’m sorry, Brother Shen. I didn’t mean to do that!” 

Shen Yuan struggled, but he was able to run back around. His cohort of sunflowers were standing tall, facing the sun, but his attention was drawn to the one flower that had titled his flower downwards. This was one of the late bloomers, a flower who had recently bloomed in the past week. It hadn’t been long since Shen Jiu had been taken so cruelly from him, so Shen Yuan hadn’t given notice to his new flowermate. The other’s rays weren’t as bright compared to the sunflowers around them, a sign that he must be needing more nourishment than Shen Yuan. His leaves too were browning, the lack of water evident in his form. Odd, considering that their location was prime real estate. It was the best spot to sunbathe all year round. 

Something about him looked pitiful, and Shen Yuan couldn’t help but caress a leaf over the other’s. “Don’t worry about it, I understand the need to feed. Make sure you have your fill, and grow to be a big and strong sunflower.” 

The other nervously lifted his head, leaves furling and unfurling. “C-can I really? I just, um…” It was as if he couldn’t believe this small bit of courtesy Shen Yuan offered was offered to him , and he was grasping for the depth of his words. 

But Shen Yuan had no ulterior motives, and it bothered him how the other acted as if he were aloof and existing on another plane. The only person who would fit that description would be Shen Jiu. At the reminder of his brother, his breath tightened. The other flower was about a head shorter than him, and looked weaker too. He was nothing like his brother. But regardless, he felt a warmth similar to Shen Jius. A warmth that… 

Shen Yuan merely flexed his petals in affirmation. “Take what you need, bro. And you know my name, what is yours?” 

In another life, one where he wasn’t a flower, but a man, the other flower would have blinked owlishly. “They call me Shang Qinghua.” 

“Sounds like a mouthful, bro,” Shen Yuan felt his veins thrum in hunger. He turned back to face the sun. 

The other giggled, probably raising his ray floret back up to the sun. This time, he wasn’t too eager and didn’t rush into Shen Yuan’s back. Now that he’d gotten a dose of Vitamin D, Shang QInghua didn’t hide his excitement. 

“Bro! Can I call you bro? Bro, can you tell me all about life as a flower? I’ve never been a flower before…” 

Despite the long days bathing in the sunlight, summer was short and fleeting. 

But the friendship he made was something that healed the part that left with his brother. 

Shang Qinghua was happy to learn new things from the other plants, eager to pass the knowledge onto Shen Yuan who had already interrogated them before. His insights into certain developments with the outside world, which they heard from passersby, were interesting, though. 

“How do you know the sect leader didn’t kill the demonic cultivator?” Shen Yuan asked out of curiosity after listening to Shang Qinghua’s argument with an elder marigold. 

Shang Qinghua rolled his nonexistent eyes. A seed shook out as he surged forward, colliding into Shen Yuan’s back. Shen Yuan didn’t mind, though, used to his friend’s eagerness. “Do you really think the sect leader could kill his own brother? Were they not disciple brothers?” 

Shen Yuan nodded, because, yes, that did cross his mind for a bit. But as the lazy sunflower that he was, he didn’t go about thinking more about the outside world’s affairs. As long as their valley remained untouched, he could care less about the politics of the outside world. A flower’s life was easy, so why make it more complicated?

Shang Qinghua hadn’t noticed Shen Yuan’s nod, and went back into his passionate speech, as he wove together a tall tale about a head disciple and sect heir, brothers in all senses but blood, and the tragedy that was their life. Shang Qinghua was a masterful story teller, despite the occasional plot hole he fell into. And when he did so, he would shyly look back at Shen Yuan, who would chuckle and help fill it in. 

The valley was much brighter with Shang Qinghua’s presence. The nervous flower had bloomed handsomely, and Shen Yuan felt his heart soar whenever he woke at dawn with him and bid him goodnight. Shang Qinghua was watching the back of his head, while Shen Yuan protected him from the front. 

🌻

Summer made way for autumn, where the sunshine dimmed, and a fog settled over the valley. Heavy drafts bounced between the peaks, scattering leaves and petals. Shen Yuan ignored the anguished cries of the flowers around him, the ones who would lose their precious appendages and bodies, blown away by the elements. While their number grew fewer and fewer, Shen Yuan held on. He faced the sun as he did every morning, but even that began to dim. 

Shen Yuan weakly tilted his ray florets up to the heavens. He lifted weak leaves up to grasp even the tiniest bit of nourishment. 

Instead, another harsh wind blew, this time shaking even the strong and tall sunflowers. One of his brethren gave in, and his spindly stalk broke off, the other plants crying out at this behemoth that fell to the earth. Face to face with the earth, never to be seen again. 

This wasn’t the first of the sunflowers to go. The sunflowers thinned in number, disks pitted and seeds spilling out from their decomposing bodies, the ones who remained stood vigil, watching over the fallen. 

Shen Yuan thought about his brother.  

Once, before Shen Jiu had been forcefully taken off the valley, his brother had explained to him his purpose. 

“We are vanguards,” he’d said, his leaves supporting the other who was happily having a bite of sunlight. “Why do you ask me this in each of our lives?” 

Shen Yuan just laughed. “Vanguards? But don’t you hoard the sun?” 

His brother continued to pass water from his own roots to the one intertwined with his. “ I hoard the sun. I do it for you, because you’re too soft to hoard it for yourself! You have to become a big and strong sunflower, but you’re too nice and will let the other sunflowers crush you! No, we are vanguards, because we are the first line of defense from the harsher elements.” 

At the time, Shen Yuan was confused. He didn’t understand what that meant; he was just a happy sunflower. “Do the others not die before us?” 

Shen Jiu scoffed, letting a leaf slap his brothers stem. “You idiot, of course they do! But we are the last ones. We are always the last ones. But you should know all this already, or did you forget? When we were daffod--” 

Shang Qinghua’s tittering is what pulled him from his memories. “Wouldn’t that be nice?” 

Shen Yuan mentally blinked, his face still raised to the clouds which hinted sunlight. It had been so long, and he was so hungry… 

There was a heat emitting from his back, but Shen Yuan didn’t want to turn around, lest he miss just a small drop of sunlight. 

“What would be nice?” he asked his friend. 

Shang Qinghua passed over some of the water he still had stored in his roots, grasping onto the other flower. By now, their roots overlapped, and Shen Yuan was grateful for the extra food. But wait, Shang Qinghua needed it too! 

“No- I can’t accept this-” 

“Bro, you look like you need it more than me anyway!” he could hear the smile in Shang Qinghua’s voice, but did it seem a little fainter than before? That was impossible; next to Shen Yuan, Shang Qinghua was the healthiest flower left in their pitiful valley, which looked as if it were ravaged by a battle. A battle nature, a battle of storm. 

Shen Yuan didn’t protest anymore, but stopped the other when he felt like he was overindulging. In return, he moved more to the side as to let Shang Qinghua take in whatever dregs of sunlight there was left.

Shang Qinghua shuffled in place, the open space from the lack of sunflowers around him giving him room to breath. Breathe in what, Shen Yuan didn’t know, since an abundance of oxygen didn’t do much to sate their hunger for the sun. He didn’t let his eyes move away from the skies, but his heart sank when he noticed the clouds gathering together once again. “I-I might be presuming too much but…” 

Shen Yuan was crying in his heart. “But what? Out with it! Don’t just drag this.” The clouds began to rumble, and the light of day started to once again disappear. It left slowly, color draining with it. Hope was starting to die in his heart. 

Shang Qinghua coughed once, the sound foreign, coming from a plant. Plants don’t cough. Shen Yuan froze in place-- was Shang Qinghua sick? That hope began to curl into something else, something he had only felt moments before his brother had been plucked from the garden. Dread. 

“Hey- are you okay?” he asked before the other could finish. He felt his own life essence waver for a bit, before he forced himself to stay upright. A sunflower never backed down, despite their defenseless dispositions. 

A flower’s life was trivial compared to the world of living beings, but it was a life nonetheless. 

Shang Qinghua laughed, like he did that day when he first introduced himself and asked about all Shen Yuan knew about their botanic world. “Of course! I’m still here with you, aren’t I?” And then quieter, “I’ll always be with you, bro.” 

Shen Yuan’s plant heart quickened at these words. Had he had eyes, they would’ve started to tear up. I hope I’ll always be with you too, bro . 

The clouds gathered further, thunder echoing through the mountain. The promise of sunlight no more. Shen Yuan felt frost slowly creep up his stem. It won’t be long now. 

Winter was coming. 

“Where’s the sun, bro?” Shen Yuan seeked his only source of comfort left in this cruel world. Seeking out that warmth left within the cold. 

Shang Qinghua turned his only sagging head to meet the others. His petals were browning and curled, the seeds arranged as if in a smile. Although he wasn’t the handsomest flower in the garden, Shen Yuan was still struck by his beauty. He was full of life, and even when life had forsaken the two. He leaned in close, browning disk floret pressed into Shen Yuan’s. “You’re the sun, bro.” 

But Shen Yuan could only disagree. He was not the sun; the brightest in the valley was not him. It was Shang Qinghua, the beautiful flower who gave him companionship. The flower which had reminded him of his purpose in this life, and perhaps even the ones in the future, if fate were merciful enough to let them meet again. 

“ Bro. ” He couldn’t help but cry out, pressing his disk into the others. Their seeds clashed against each other, some slipping falling out, but they didn’t move away from each other. 

The two sunflowers cradled each other in their arms, basking in the last of the sunlight they had to share. Their leaves rustled silent promises, movement dimming ever so slowly.

The valley was silent when the sun rose again.