The courtyard was filled with plum blossoms. Although in other seasons they were mere trunks, once winter set in, the fragrance of the blossoms filled the air.
“These plum trees seem to be arranged in some sort of pattern,” Aurora noticed that some areas were densely planted while others were left bare.
“My mother lived in that house over there. From that angle, the plum blossoms in winter form the shape of a heart,” Julian stated this fact lightly.
“So your father was quite thoughtful,” Aurora remarked again.
“Yes, he really cared for my mother. He knew what she liked and would buy those things to please her. If he had lived in ancient times, he surely would have been considered a foolish emperor,” Julian conceded without denial.
“In a couple of months when it snows, let’s come back to see the plum blossoms bloom, shall we? I’m suddenly really looking forward to seeing what they look like,” Aurora mused at the romantic heart-shaped arrangement of the plum trees.
“If you like, I can have someone plant plum trees in our yard too, along with peach, pear, and apricot trees-anything you like,” Julian turned around and gently pulled her into his embrace.
“All I want is to be with you. Being with you is the happiest thing for me,” Aurora embraced him gently.
“Julian, your father isn’t as bad as we imagined. He just loved your mother at the wrong time in the wrong era,” Aurora said with a slight smile.
“It’s not like that, Little Bunny. It’s not that he met my mother in the wrong era. If you truly like someone, no matter their status, the setting, or the age difference, liking someone is just that-liking them. My mother never liked him from the start. In her heart, she only saw him as an elder, or perhaps a like-minded person. She respected him, was grateful to him, but never loved him.”
“Yet, he selfishly wanted to possess her. No matter if he sent her expensive jewelry, tailored high-fashion dresses, or crafted many surprises to suit her tastes, all she ever wanted was freedom. Is love really just about keeping a woman by your side? If he had let my mother be free, perhaps I wouldn’t hate him as much. It was he, and the Alvarez family, who drove my mother to her death.”
Julian hugged Aurora tightly, a trace of pain flickering through his eyes as she felt his body tremble. This matter was the darkest shadow in his heart.
She could hardly imagine how Julian had managed before she was in his life, carrying a painful past while protecting her by Hayden’s side. Even after he had gained power and status, these things only made him more distant and lonely.
Recalling how three years ago she had bumped into him in the Montgomery family castle, his aura was so cold-perhaps a result of his past.
“It’s okay, Julian, you have me now, and I won’t leave. The past is over, and there’s no need to dwell on it anymore. No one can destroy what we have. Let’s stop our attacks on the Alvarez family, shall we? From now on, let’s just live peacefully,” Aurora wasn’t speaking well of the Alvarez family out of sympathy, but rather she was doing it for Julian. She didn’t want him to carry the weight of the past any longer and hoped he could step out of the shadow of hatred and stop torturing himself.
“Little Bunny, do you know? That winter, they accused me of stealing earrings, and while he was not at home, several adults pressed me into the snow right here under this plum tree. That day, the plum blossoms were blooming beautifully, bright red as if they had been soaked in blood.”
“I knelt there for half an hour, an hour, two hours… Do you know what it feels like to go from pain to numbness, until you can’t feel anything at all? At that moment, I swore that one day I would take everything from them, especially what they feared losing the most. I have worked hard for this day for so long, and now that I am about to succeed, you ask me to give up? You probably don’t know what it’s like to have your legs frozen to the point of almost being paralyzed.”
Every time Julian thought of this, the hatred in his eyes deepened. Aurora had also experienced these things before.
“Well, if it makes you feel better, I support you,” she said.
“Little Bunny, whatever I do, you just need to stand by my side,” Julian said.
“Okay.”
Aurora had wanted to dissolve the hatred in his heart, but now it seemed that his hatred was deeper than she had imagined, and only revenge could ease his spirit.
“You wanted to visit, didn’t you? I’ll take you to see it, the place I loved most as a child.”
Julian grabbed Aurora’s hand and ran to the backyard.
Aurora was stunned by the flowers in the glasshouse; if the front yard had only plum blossoms, the backyard was much more spectacular, containing every kind of flower imaginable. From the rarest to the most common, and flowers that bloomed in every season, each with its own character, it was clear they were well cared for.
“Most of these flowers were my mother’s favorites. After she lost her freedom, she stopped painting and started tending to these plants. She devoted all her energy to these plants and to me. After she passed away, that old man took over her work. Every tree and plant here was personally tended by him. When I was bullied as a child and didn’t dare tell my mother, fearing to upset her, I would come and talk to these plants, treating them as my friends,” Julian recalled, feeling somewhat embarrassed.
Aurora imagined a finely crafted little boy naively talking to the flowers, and she couldn’t help but smile at the thought-he was quite adorable.
“You’re surprisingly cute,” Aurora remarked upon seeing the man who was a block of ice to outsiders but warm to her, revealing such a childlike side.
“When I was young, I treated everything as my friend,” Julian said, scratching his head sheepishly.
“Julian, tell me more about your childhood. You know all about my past, but I know nothing about yours,” Aurora said, growing curious about his youth.
“You want to know about my past? Alright, come with me.”
Julian led her to another room.
Turning on the light, Aurora saw that it was a studio, adorned with various styles of paintings, mostly depicting exotic streetscapes from different countries. There were sketches and watercolors, of plants and people, children’s smiling faces, and old men’s wrinkled expressions.
“These paintings were all done by your mother, weren’t they?”
Aurora noted each painting had a large letter ‘Z’ at the bottom.
“Yes, they were all her work. He preserved each of her paintings well, even though she never touched a brush again. Later, this place became my domain, and many of the works are mine,” Julian explained.
Aurora, like in a gallery, admired each painting, but her gaze fell on a large chest in front of her.
“Are there paintings in there too?”
She bent down to open it, but Julian quickly stepped in front of her, “No, not paintings, just some miscellaneous items.”
His expression was odd!