"Ku Yue, Ku Yue!" Luoye suddenly emerged from the side of the motel, excitedly grabbing Ku Yue's arm. The layer of gray haze over her eyes seemed to be lighter than usual. "My birthday gift for King is ready! I’ll give you an advantage, let me show it to you first?"
On the hillside where the Starlight Hibiscus grew, Ku Yue stared blankly at the gift that Luoye handed to him – a blank drawing paper.
"Is this your birthday gift for King?" Ku Yue flipped the paper back and forth but couldn't make sense of it.
"Yeah!" Luoye said with pride, carefully feeling the paper. "I named this painting 'Day and Night.' Hehe, isn't the name poetic!"
Ku Yue was mildly dumbfounded and said, "But this is clearly just a blank sheet of paper."
"No, it's not!" Luoye insisted, "Press your face against it! On the left side of the paper!"
Ku Yue pursed his lips and pressed his face against the paper. The moment his skin touched the paper, his slightly narrowed eyes suddenly widened. Warm?! The left side of this painting was actually warm! Not the kind of gentle warmth that's inherent of a summer day, but a peculiar, lifelike warmth, as if there was a sun hidden beneath the drawing paper.
"I spent a lot of days collecting Moon City's sunlight, capturing the warmth of different forms of suns every morning and evening," Luoye excitedly explained, "It took me a lot of effort to seal this warmth into the paper as I'm too stupid to be any good at sealing techniques. This is the sun's genuine heat!"
Ku Yue recalled the first time he saw her. This young girl was sitting on the rooftop holding a glass bottle. He pointed to the right side of the drawing paper, "So why is the other half cool?"
"Dummy," Luoye giggled, "I told you it's 'Day and Night.' That side is sunlight, and this side is, of course, moonlight! You'll have to wait until it's dark to see it properly!" She looked up at the sky and touched her own face, "Hmm, it should be almost time."
As the night grew darker, Ku Yue's eyes reflected a twinkling lustrous white light, like the gentle radiance of flowing water.
On the right side of the drawing paper, there was a crescent moon painted with some unknown pigment, surrounded by tiny stars.
"It's Starlight Hibiscus flower juice," Luoye's eyes were full of smiles, "Although I can't see it, I know it must be very beautiful."
Holding the painting, Ku Yue began to wonder what kind of emotions and thoughts would lead this girl to "put" the sun and the stars and moon into a painting as a gift for Jin Feiyu.
"I know he has been missing someone all these years," Luoye said as she sat down. "That time he got drunk, he leaned on my shoulder and said he had lost a whole world."
"So, you're giving him a world where day and night alternate, with the sun's warmth and the moon's radiance," Ku Yue sat down beside her and spoke to her in a serious tone for the first time.
"That's right!" Luoye nodded vigorously. "King has done so much for me, so, so much. And for the entire Moon City. Without him, the demons here might have ended up as medicinal ingredients in a pill furnace or met even worse fates. It's like he's never lived for himself." Her large eyes sparkled, "All I can do is live happily and then try my best to give him my happiness."
Ku Yue remained silent for a moment, carefully rolled up the drawing paper, and handed it back to Luoye.
"He'll love it," he murmured.
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