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It was winter again.
Li Lianhua toed the base of a large, old pine tree, its roots dusted pale by the chilly air but were sturdy against the tap of his boots. He wondered if he had seen this one before, though on his end, he was but a passenger of time in its ever long, enduring life. He wondered what it remembered and how it liked the view from above, what remained the same this turn of seasons and what had changed. He exhaled white clouds—swirling, travelling, conversing between him and its furrowed bark.
One year, winter was a piercing dagger.
Icy, briny waves had battered against Li Lianhua one after the other, soaking him to the marrow of his bones. Monk Wuliao had read his pulse, shook his head, and instructed his part. Had the sea eventually took mercy on him, offering him a bed of sand and then resources to scrap, body memory did not. Every stream of washing and drinking water cool to the touch had left him shivering long after he withdrew his hands and taste.
Another year, the frozen weather had awakened him.
The morning sun had kindled the frost on the otherwise bleak meadows around in magnificence. Half-asleep, Li Lianhua was drawn by the glistening dance of fog and light. It was ethereally beautiful yet ill-advised by the one and only Li Xiangyi whose veins brimmed with hot and spirited internal energy and only knew to run ahead. Li Lianhua was pecked by the veiled sun and stung bitterly over his thinned skin.
Yet, the wish to see such a brumal phenomenon again was when he began to sew. Nature had its way of swallowing one whole but arising to push one to be inspired by its elements, evolving and growing with its innate pace of time.
Yet another year, Li Lianhua had been bedridden with the cold until he no longer knew when the stars and planets rose and set. He could only breathe in the freezing air, faintly, puff after puff. When his fever broke in the dead of the night, he had risen right there in the darkness in his proudly knitted layers and wrappings to plant his buds for spring. He patted the ground with the small hope that late sprouts would break through frigid soil.
And now—
Li Lianhua's ears beneath cushioned mufflers twitched. Somewhere to his left was the familiar nimble tapping of four paws and to his right was the joyful calling of his name from a curious rustling of branches.
Hulijing heard it too upon her return from the successful scout. Li Lianhua had stood still in reminiscence for a little too long, unable to squat down promptly to receive her for her well-deserved pats. He unearthed his hand from the burrow of layers of the finest, insulating fabrics, settling for a small wave and verbal greetings. He then shuffled to let her perch between him and the pine tree trunk. Hulijing circled and whined at his knees, sensing their stiffness, and together they watched the arrival of the silly Young Master Fang, bustling and rolling his way from the deep forest back to them.
"Xiaohua! Hulijing!"
As Fang Duobing's round face, round eyes came into view, Li Lianhua suddenly ah'd and placed his mind on another now-fleeting memory of winter from the years past. The glimpse of those very features through a blur of his then-depleting vision and tears, and then the long, winding trek alone and quiet, one foot after the other, away from home. Li Lianhua wanted only to contemplate every detail on that very countenance now that the haziness was gone, now that he was here for good.
When he came to, the old-familiar worry had seeped into those orbs that Li Lianhua sunk into and housed the light he had made the promise to protect. He felt Hulijing wagging between his legs and then double the nuzzling from before as Fang Duobing joined her in checking him from top to bottom for wounds and discomfort.
Li Lianhua shook his head in a fuzz, "Xiaobao, Hulijing, I'm fine. Xiaobao, don't worry. Xiaobao." He chuckled as another memory stirred. He patted Hulijing on the head who had now stood up and then took Fang Duobing's hands in his own. He whispered in his ear with a play at his lips that only deepened as Fang Duobing flushed to the neck.
Fang Duobing was now all too familiar with Li Lianhua's brand of unexpected initiative, preciously given yet skillful, and yet, every time, he could not resist falling for the easy bait. Then, something caught Fang Duobing's eye, and Li Lianhua quietly mouthed the "oh no" as they always found themselves in next, Hulijing stuck in between and all.
"Xiaohua, why don't we sit down?"
Li Lianhua nodded compliantly and was helped to a particularly smooth rock that Fang Duobing found at lightning speed. The latter patted away the residual dust and sat them both down. Hulijing wondered for a moment if she should inspect the good path she had expertly found up ahead again before the same gleam caught her eye.
Li Lianhua's white fur cloak was covered in pine needles of golden brown and sage green.
And, the multi-layers of winter robes Li Lianhua wore out today too were thick enough to make him into a ball of a bear. The named cozy little animal blinked at Hulijing and turned to Fang Duobing with a question at his lips as he was then patted thoroughly all over once more but with a fluffy ease.
Fang Duobing was gentle before even in his hasty worry, but the pressure now was a notch more so, and Li Lianhua tingled from top to bottom. Yet, Fang Duobing's ever pleased face only relaxed from the urge to burst out laughing to simply loving admiration, light and docile, brushing out all his knots and tangles from the big, old pine tree.
Meanwhile, Li Lianhua considered his options as the bigger fox, but somewhere between the playful competitive want to flip the tables on Fang Duobing once more and feeling rightfully that actually, a nap was in place, so Fang Duobing should keep going, he found himself facing three rather round—
"Chestnuts."
Li Lianhua blinked several times awake.
Fang Duobing chuckled, then explained softly, "by the river where I went to fill our water gourds, there were fruits from autumn. Must have been..."
"Xiaobao, they look like sea urchins."
Fang Duobing turned his gaze back from the direction of the deep forest he was gesturing towards in time to catch the puff of Li Lianhua's cheeks and eyes that lodged the fondest glimmer. Adorned in the cushions of fur and the love of his two best scavengers and time beings, Li Lianhua held the three chestnuts close to his chest and stood up. He beckoned Fang Duobing with his now warmed hands, chatting away of a late-autumn roast or early-summer grill as he joined him.
There was this winter, too, and many of such ahead.
Li Lianhua closed his eyes and breathed it in with a rosy smile. The air was crisp and sweet.
"Xiaobao, or we could bake something for dessert." The fox-like shape of his eyes returned just a bit for Fang Duobing's thumb to tenderly graze his skin in return, the laughter of a happy couple and their dog leading the way home where it would always be warm, no matter the year, no matter the season together.