Yue Ling stood under the setting sky of different colors and she felt like she had been transmitted into ancient times as she stares down at Lu Tian.
He held his hand out to her like a scholar asking a noble’s daughter to go on a boat ride.
However, like time itself had slowed down for them, her eyes soften with her heart and she places her palm over his.
She carefully steps down from the deck and joins him on the wooden paddle boat. She sat at the rear seat while Lu Tian took the center seat.
"When did you buy this lake? How come I didn’t know?"
They were always together unless they were at work. However, other than that, he hasn’t mentioned anything about buying or owning a lake.
Lu Tian saw that she was perfectly seat and unties the rope securing the wooden boat to the deck. He grabs the grip part of the paddles attached to the side and rows gently away from the deck towards the center.
"I bought it today while I was at work."
Hearing his answer to her question, Yue Ling’s eyebrows arched up with her eyes slightly widening. She is surprised, yet at the same time, she isn’t.
With the amount of money that he makes, she isn’t surprised that he had only purchased the lake today. Better yet, if he were to buy the entire mountain, she wouldn’t be surprised.
She looks away from him and down to the water that now surrounded them. Her right arm reaches out and she runs the tips of her fingers through the cold freshwater.
"You shouldn’t have spent your money so carelessly. This lake must have cost you a fortune."
Lu Tian continues to row the wooden boat with gentle strokes. However, he never once took his eyes off his wife.
"Even if it were to cost me a fortune, it was worth every penny."
Yue Ling didn’t dare to look at him. She kept her eyes down at the water and pout her lips.
"Still, you shouldn’t have spent your money so carelessly ."
Knowing that was trying to make a point, Lu Tian’s smiles a smile that reached his eyes.
He finally stops rowing and the wooden boat comes to a full halt in the center of the lake.
"Everything I have is yours. You can decide for me how I should spend it."
Yue Ling didn’t know what to say. Up until now, everything she has had been because of her own hard work. Never did she think to share someone’s wealth.
"I didn’t mean it like that. What I meant is—"
She looks up from the water and turns her head to look at him. However, the moment she lifted her head, she froze in place with time.
From where Lu Tian had stopped the wooden boat, they had the perfect view of the setting sun. She could see the line that touched between heaven and earth. On both sides of the setting sun, the dark outlines of the trees resemble that of shadows in a painting.
The view of the sky reflected perfectly into the water like she was seeing two different worlds.
The more she gazed at this breath-taking view, the corners of her lip curls up into a subtle smile.
Everything about this moment was the definition of life’s beauty and mother nature’s warmth.
Lu Tian gazes at his wife without moving away. When he saw the smile on her face, she couldn’t help but smile with her.
"Compare to my fortune, your smile means everything to me."
He spoke in his usual deep voice, but there were traces of tenderness and compassion. For him, money is something that can always be gained again if one were to work hard but to see the smile on the person one loves, one must make sure to never lose it.
Because once that smile is gone, one will never see it again.
Due to her being distracted at the moment by the view, Yue Ling did not hear his words. However, Lu Tian didn’t mind, he sat unmovingly and admires her as she admires the setting sun.
Once the night is over, if his wife wishes to come back here, he is willing to bring her here again. As long as he can see her smile, he is willing to do anything for her.
After minutes passes by, he finally turns his head to the left and stares in the same direction as her.
They sat in silence and admire the scene together, but unlike the time when they first arrived, the sun was beginning to sink faster in the horizon. The sky that held three different hues of colors soon engulfed in redness before it transits into purple.
The first star flickers in the sky then another appears and another until the dark sky was covered with millions of stars like diamonds in the sky.
High above with the stars, the bright and full moon lights up the lake with its soft glow.
"That was such a beautiful scene."
Yue Ling sighs as she felt a wave of warmth enter her heart from the unforgettable scene she had just witnessed. She looks at Lu Tian and parts her lips to speak.
However, before she could utter a proper word, the back of her left foot lightly kicked something inside the wooden boat.
She carefully reaches down and despite the darkness, she didn’t need to search for long as she felt what she had kicked. Carefully picking it up, she held it in front of her.
Lifting it to be at eye level, she leans closer to observe it. After confirming its outline in the dark, she slightly tilts her head and furrows her brows.
She has a hunch of what it is from its touch and outline, but she wasn’t one hundred percent sure since she couldn’t see it perfectly.
Lowering her hand holding the item, she looks at the man sitting across from her.
"Tian, why do you have this on the boat?"