The Lingering Sounds of Blooming Flowers - CH 1.1

A plane soared through the clouds, its wings cut through beams of sunlight and steadily proceeded to landing. A few minutes later, the wheels hit the ground with a loud noise. Lu Chenfeng’s body swayed slightly as he opened his eyes and sunlight wandered into his blurred vision. He leaned towards the window; it was sunny outside.

The long taxing finally ended and the door was opened. Noises filled Lu Chenfeng’s ears but he didn’t move, he remained in his seat while resting his head on a hand. Until almost all the passengers left, he unbuckled his seatbelt and moved out of his seat, opening the rack above him.

He didn’t have too much luggage. There were three sets of clothes for changing in the knee-high aluminum suitcase, and there were two books he randomly picked from the bookshelf in his bedroom in his leather briefcase. Lu Chenfeng put on his coat and stepped outside the cabin door steadily, letting the soft and gentle warmth embrace him.

He got off the shuttle bus and brushed past other travelers in the crowd to the exit. The hall was full of people coming and going in a hurry. Lu Chenfeng looked down, his eyes were full of the reflections of the clean tiles on the ground and there were no expressions on his face. Loud rumbling sounded above his head, another flight had landed.

He left Da Li airport at the end of the crowd and there were a few taxis parked by the street. Lu Chenfeng picked a random taxi and shoved himself into the backseat alone with his suitcase. He eagerly pulled out a box of cigarettes and bit on, lighting it up skillfully with a metal lighter as he half closed his eyes.

The driver was a middle-aged uncle who was bald in the middle. He smiled and looked back from the mirror, “Sir, where are you heading?”

He didn’t speak fluent mandarin, but luckily Lu Chenfeng understood him. The pungent bitterness of nicotine rolled in his mouth, and he replied with the cigarette in his mouth, “Drive towards Erhai Lake.”

The car left the parking queue of taxis. The driver cleanly turned the wheels and started a conversation passionately, “It’s getting dark, have you booked a hotel? Erhai Lake is quite large, are you going to Xizhou? Wase? Or Shuanglang?”

Lu Chenfeng didn’t have the answers for the driver’s questions as he temporarily decided to come on this trip and he had no idea where he was heading.

A few months ago, Lu Chenfeng made a giant fall in his career. How bad was it? It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that he lost everything he worked on in the past ten years, both his fame and profits.

He tried many times to pluck up the courage and pull himself together again, but his pride was destroyed against all the doubts and criticisms of those from the industry, not to mention how many people were actually willing to spend a few years to start all over again?

He decided to give up eventually. He decided to leave the city’s clamor, right and wrongs, and people. He wanted to try to leave the fast paced life, put down his work and start a journey with an unknown destination alone.

A few places popped up in his mind but he said, “You can pick one for me.”

He didn’t speak clearly as if he casually left his life to destiny.

The driver was amused, “Do you trust me this much?”

Lu Chenfeng rested his chin on his hand silently. The scenery outside the window was so pretty yet he stared at the window during the entire trip.

The driver chattered on and on and there wasn’t a single quiet moment in the car. They were close to Erhai Lake when the voice suddenly stopped, but his loud voice in the next moment immediately pulled Lu Chenfeng’s wandering soul back to his body. He threw the cigarette and frowned, “Sorry?”

“I said you are lucky today, there are rosy clouds in the sky above Erhai Lake today.” The drive rolled down half of the window and a cool breeze swept across their faces. Lu Chenfeng looked into the distance and heard the driver talk again, “If anything’s going unwell in your life, make a wish to the rosy clouds and perhaps it’ll come true soon.”

Lu Chenfeng rubbed his forehead helplessly, “I didn’t think you’d be superstitious.”

“Ah,” The driver dragged his voice on but smiled as he waved his hand, “That’s the wrong way to put it. Sir, don’t you think it’s beautiful to place a wish with this beautiful scenery?”