Coach: Coaching the Grizzlies at the beginning, playing the bantam

When the two of them lay on the fence at the same time, the ends of their hair got tangled in the morning breeze.

There was a damp and cool air coming from the bottom of the well, and ginkgo leaves could be vaguely seen floating on the water.

Lu Yong took out a coin and said, "Do you want to bet that this well leads to Xuanwu Lake?" But Hannah took out an ultraviolet pen from her bag, and a light purple arrow suddenly appeared on the surface of the blue brick.

"I visited Director Wu's restoration room last night," she said, shaking her pen tip proudly, "He said this invisible pigment only becomes visible when it comes into contact with water."

When the purple light swept across the fifth wall tile, they both gasped at the same time - next to the faded "The Ninth Year of Zhengde" signature, there was a palm-sized lotus engraved.

I put my sweaty palms together to adjust the focus, but my phone suddenly sounded a low-battery alarm.

"Lu Yong!" Hannah nudged his ribs with her elbow, "Did you steal my power bank to play games again last night?" During the argument, half a piece of peach pastry slipped out of the pocket of her sun-protection jacket, and the crumbs attracted two gray magpies to jump on the parapet.

On the way from Zhonghuamen to Taicheng, Hannah's parasol was always disturbed by the reflection of the glass curtain wall of Zifeng Building. "This is called time and space sniping." Lu Yong put the iced sour plum soup on the back of her neck and watched her hunch her shoulders like a cat. "The Ming Dynasty city wall and the modern building are competing for the center position."

The shade of the sycamore trees in Taicheng section was so dense that you could squeeze water out of it. Hannah suddenly stopped.

The marks on a certain brick were cut into pieces by the shadows of the trees. She touched the uneven spots with her fingertips soaked in the moisture of sour plum juice: "Qi Tai supervised the construction - wasn't this the minister when Zhu Yunwen was reducing the feudal fiefdoms?"

When Lu Yong got closer, the lemon scent of sunscreen mixed with the smell of sweat penetrated his nose. "If Master Qi knew that we were working on the bricks he was supervising..." He suddenly fell silent because Hannah's nose was almost touching the brick surface, "Here! There is a shell in the crack!"

The moment I pried open the loose bricks, the wind from Xuanwu Lake filled my sleeves with the fragrance of lotus.

The palm-sized clam shell lay in the mortar from the Yongle era, with half a piece of dried lotus still stuck to the inner wall. When Hannah wrapped it with a wet towel, the red rope on her wrist brushed across Lu Yong's mouth: "It was stuffed in by someone. You can see the wear marks on the edge of the shell."

"Maybe it's a time capsule of some craftsman." Lu Yong took out the hotel notepad. "Shall we put something in there too?" Hannah had already pulled out the rubber band at the end of her hair, and her long chestnut hair was scattered in front of the vermilion wall. "Tie a knot and wait for people to find it five hundred years later."

The two were lying on their stomach trying to figure out how to put the clam shell back in place when the cicadas' chirping suddenly became as loud as a tide.

The patrolling security guard coughed from the corner, and Hannah pulled Lu Yong and rolled into the weeds at the foot of the wall.

The stinging sensation of nettle leaves brushing against their calves blended with the fluttering of dragonflies hovering overhead. When the footsteps faded away, they discovered that the juice of the crushed wildflowers had dyed a purple cloud pattern on Hannah's white T-shirt.

"Limited edition plant dye." Lu Yong dipped his finger in mineral water and tried to wipe it off, but it only spread the stain even further. "When we go boating in Xuanwu Lake later, you can say this is the latest Monet garden style."

Hannah's revenge came quickly - when renting a boat at Xuanwumen, she insisted on choosing a gooseneck electric boat.

As Lu Yongka adjusted the pedals in the pink boat, a child holding a cotton candy on the shore smiled with gap teeth: "Look, mom! Strawberry ice cream boat!"

The water chestnut leaves scraped against the bottom of the boat, making a soft sound. Hannah's straw hat rope was tied to the side of the boat, and the shadow cast by the brim of the hat swayed with the waves. "Go to the Dutch area," she directed, hooking her toes on her sandals that were about to slip off, "I heard that the probability of having a double lotus is one in 100,000."

The boat tilted suddenly, and Lu Yong grabbed her ankle and stuffed it back into her shoe. "Probability theory doesn't apply to you," he pointed to two pink lotus flowers lined up not far away, "someone just fell into the lake last week while trying to get a photo."

Hannah's sun protection sleeves were rolled up to her elbows, and her forearms hung over the side of the boat, fiddling with duckweed.

At a certain moment, her reflection overlapped in the ripples with the girl wearing a cheongsam and swimming on the lake in 1937. Lu Yong turned off the engine and took out the brass telescope given by Director Wu from the interlayer of his backpack.

"At ten o'clock," he adjusted the focus, "Wait a minute, those who are wearing Hanfu for wedding photos!" The camera suddenly turned to Hannah, "Would you like to try the veil effect, girl?" As he spoke, he covered her head with a sun-protective silk scarf used to wipe sweat.

The moment the scarf was blown into the lake by the wind, both of them reached out to catch it.

The gooseneck boat was spinning in inertia, Hannah's knee hit Lu Yong's camera bag, and the sunscreen left a white mark on his collarbone. When they finally used the oar to pick up the wet silk scarf, they found a group of transparent shrimps hiding under the lotus leaves.

"It's better for watching the sunset than Nanjing Eye." Hannah suggested, twisting her silk scarf and spreading the sunscreen on the side of Lu Yong's neck with her fingertips. "Let's go to the Lovers' Park later."

The words were cut off by the roar of a motorboat, and the waves pushed the boat into the reeds.

The startled night herons flew up, and Hannah's straw hat became a makeshift shield. When the wind calmed down, they found a faded red silk for blessing wrapped around the bow of the boat - probably a relic of a Lantern Festival.

While dismantling the red silk, a hard object fell into the cabin.

Hannah held up the rusty love lock to the sun, with half a sycamore leaf stuck in the keyhole. "2018.5.20," Lu Yong read out the vague inscriptions, "This generation of couples is no good. They even threw the key into the lake."

"Then let's correct history." Hannah suddenly took out a clam shell from the cracks in the wall bricks and stuffed her hair tied with a red rope into it. "Wait until we have a fight someday."

"Just break it open and smell it to see if it's rotten?" Lu Yong answered quickly, but his fingers honestly put the clam shell into the waterproof bag. "Let me make it clear first. If an archaeological team finds this in 500 years, you have to put my name first in the paper."

As dusk dyed the outline of Purple Mountain red, the two people's boat was stuck at the return dock.

The force of the staff pulling the cable caused the boat to shake, and Hannah grabbed Lu Yong's GoPro wristband as she fell backward. The last three seconds of the video captured her flying hair and the golden edge of the Ming Dynasty city wall in the distance.

"I took 400 more photos than yesterday." Hannah slumped on a bench by the lake and flipped through an album, with lotus pods and unopened water chestnuts piled at her feet. "This is a photo of you pretending to be a soldier at Zhonghua Gate."

The voice suddenly disappeared, and Lu Yong turned around to see that her eyes were red.

The cellphone screen captured the moment - when he bent over to tie his shoelaces, the city wall commemorative coin slipped out of his sun-protection jacket pocket, reflecting the same sunset spots in the cracks between the bricks as it did six hundred years ago.

"Hey," Hannah poked the back of his hand with a lotus pod, "Let's go to Linggu Temple to see fireflies tomorrow?"

The street lights came on one after another, and the last cruise ship was approaching the shore. Lu Yong carried Hannah's canvas shoes to the bench and tied the shoelaces into a crooked bow.

"Okay," he brushed off the cockleburs on his trouser legs, "but you have to promise one thing."

"If you don't delete the photo of you riding the stone lion, then there's no point in talking."

"Take off that mahogany sword pendant," he pointed at the jingling souvenirs in her bag, "it kept poking my waist while we were boating."

Hannah fell down on the bench laughing, and the outline of the city wall turned into a winding silhouette in the deepening dusk.

At a certain moment, the red silk at the bottom of the lake seemed to tremble gently under the water, and the clam shells they had just buried were waiting in the mud for the high tide of a midsummer.

Before she was awakened by the cicadas' chirping in the early morning, Hannah squatted on the stone block at the entrance of the hotel and ate a pancake.

The sauce dripped down the plastic bag, and she tried to catch it in a hurry, resulting in her sleeves getting greasy.

"Lu Yong, hurry up!" she shouted at the figure dawdling in the glass door, "If you're half an hour later, the people taking wedding photos in Zhanyuan will collapse the bridge!" Lu Yong came out holding two cups of soy milk, with half of the collar of his black T-shirt turned up.

Glancing at the stain on Hannah's cuffs, he inserted the straw and handed it to her: "Lady, don't tell her you know me when you enter the garden later."

"Come on!" Hannah snatched the soy milk and took a sip, puffing her cheeks and mumbling, "Who was mistaken for a sausage seller last time at Xuanwu Lake?"

The subway was packed like a can of sardines, and Hannah huddled in a corner to protect her camera bag.

The old man across from her kept fanning her bangs with his palm-leaf fan, so Lu Yong simply turned sideways to block a triangle for her. Hannah took out her phone to secretly take a photo of the hair on the back of his head, but the train suddenly braked and the camera shook, resulting in a blur.

Coming out of Sanshan Street Station, the steaming heat hits you in the face.

Hannah put the sun hat upside down on Lu Yong's head, and the brim pressed him so hard that his eyes widened. "This is called sun protection sharing, understand?" She jumped to avoid the sprinkler truck on the roadside, not caring about the mud spots on her canvas shoes, "Take a picture of that round doorway for me later, and frame the wisteria flowers."

Before he could finish his words, he was attracted by the sugar painting stall at the entrance of Zhanyuan Garden.

The amber-colored maltose flowed on the bluestone slab. The master flicked his wrist, and the sugar thread turned into a phoenix with fluttering wings. Hannah grabbed the corner of Lu Yong's clothes and refused to let go: "I want that one! Yes, the one with a gold tail!"

When she entered the park holding the candy phoenix, the ticket inspector laughed and coughed: "Little girl, this candy won't last more than half an hour." Hannah didn't believe it and insisted on holding the candy in front of the camera as a prop. As a result, just as she found the wisteria bush, the phoenix's head "clicked" on the blue brick.

"This is called a phoenix falling to the ground is worse than a chicken." Lu Yong squatted down to pick up sugar residue and fed it to the tabby cat that came out from the cracks in the stone steps. Hannah took out a wet towel to wipe her hands angrily, and suddenly her eyes lit up - there was a small wooden sign hanging around the cat's neck, engraved with "Zhanyuan Thirteenth Aunt".

Seeing Hannah about to pounce on the cat, Lu Yong quickly grabbed her sun protection jacket and hat and said, "My dear, don't you see that she has her kittens?" Sure enough, four or five fur balls appeared from behind the rockery. Hannah searched through her backpack to find the cat food she hadn't finished eating that morning. The sound of tearing the packaging caused the kittens to crawl onto her shoes.

After taking more than twenty photos, the two finally arrived at Jingxin Pavilion.

Hannah was staring at the red carp in the pond, and Lu Yong suddenly stuffed a piece of sweet-scented osmanthus cake into her hand. "I just bought it at the canteen. It's said to be a recipe that Empress Dowager Cixi tasted." He held back a smile as he watched Hannah take a bite. "How is it? Does it smell like a dragon robe?"

"Bah! It's obviously supermarket stuff!" Hannah spat out the crumbs in her mouth and suddenly pointed behind him and screamed, "Look! That grandpa and grandma are feeding the ducks!"

On a stone bench hidden by bamboo groves, a white-haired old man was pouring millet from a thermos cup, while his wife rolled her straw hat into a funnel shape to catch it.

The splash of water from the duck splashed onto the old lady's trouser legs. The old man hurriedly took out a handkerchief to wipe it, but was pushed away by his wife with a smile. Hannah secretly raised the camera, and in the camera, Lu Yong was imitating the old man's action of adjusting his glasses, and he imitated it very vividly.

As she turned the crescent moon gate, Hannah suddenly stopped.

There were five or six people holding reflectors in front of the white wall with green tiles. The bride in cheongsam was so hot that she fanned herself with a round fan. "Quickly retreat!" She dragged Lu Yong back, but ran into the tour guides holding small flags. In a dilemma, Lu Yong suddenly pointed to the pavilion on the top of the rockery and said, "Come on, I'll take you to open a new route!"

It is called a pavilion, but in fact it is just four wooden pillars supporting a thatched shed.

Hannah lay on the beauty chair and drank mineral water, while Lu Yong took out a small fan from his trouser pocket like a magician.

"It's a gift from the hotel," he said proudly, turning the fan blades, "Do you want to exchange it for a popsicle?" Before he could finish his words, Hannah had already snatched it away and blew it towards his neck, covering her face with hair.

On the way down the mountain, Hannah met an old woman selling lotus pods. She squatted in front of the basket and was dazzled by the choices.

Lu Yong bargained with the seller: "Auntie, how about three for ten yuan? Look, this girl is all wilted from the sun." Finally, he made the deal with five lotus pods. Hannah peeled the lotus seeds as she walked and threw the shells into the plastic bag that Lu Yong had opened, just like a squirrel storing food in a tree hole.

While taking a break in Jingmiao Hall, Hannah insisted on picking out the lotus heart and stuffing it into Lu Yong's mouth.

"Do you understand how to clear away heat and reduce internal heat?" She dodged his hand and grabbed the tissue. "Who complained about getting acne while eating hotpot yesterday?" Lu Yong chewed the lotus seeds with a bitter face. Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of the mottled inscriptions on the pillars and read aloud, "Wang Ergou was here?"

"Where is it, where is it?" Hannah rushed over with a camera in hand and found that it was a donation inscription from the Republic of China period.

The two of them were studying traditional Chinese characters head to head, and they didn't even notice their sweaty arms pressed together. It was not until the cleaning lady passed by with a broom that they realized they were blocking the cleaning path.

The sun was setting when we went out of the back door. Hannah suddenly pointed at the sign of braised chicken rice at the entrance of the alley and said, "I can't walk anymore."

In the mist on the glass window, the proprietress was sprinkling enoki mushrooms into the casserole. "Lu Yong..." She dragged out her voice and shook his arm, "Why don't we pretend to be locals and go in to share a table?"

While waiting for the food, Hannah slipped to the next room to pick up some Yuhua stones. When she came back, her skirt pockets were bulging with pebbles.

"Ten yuan for a handful!" Her eyes sparkled, "I found one with landscape patterns!" Lu Yong scooped up the soup and mixed it with rice, and suddenly said, "Let's go to the supermarket and buy a glass tank to raise koi for you."

When the dusk dyed the horse-head wall red, the two of them wandered to the east of Laomen.

Hannah was holding a plum cake with her face covered with bean paste when she suddenly ran into the "Thirteenth Aunt of Zhanyuan" squatting on the roof.

She was so excited that she kept pulling Lu Yong's sleeves, almost pulling the collar of his T-shirt below his shoulders.

In the final photo, the cat's shadow blurred into a golden halo, which is more interesting than the clear one.

On the return subway ride, Hannah dozed off on Lu Yong's shoulder and didn't even notice that her canvas bag had slipped to the ground.

Lu Yong quietly took out the crumpled tourist map from her bag and drew a chubby cat on the blank space on the back.

As the train passed through the tunnel, light and shadows passed over Hannah's raised eyelashes, and she suddenly muttered in a dreamy voice: "Let's go eat duck blood vermicelli tomorrow."

It was a new day. As the morning mist drifted over the bluestone slabs at the foot of Purple Mountain, Hannah was squatting on the steps of the hotel putting a Band-Aid on her canvas shoes.

"I told you to wear new shoes!" Lu Yong bit his meat bun and laughed at her incoherently, "Don't cry for help when we climb Mount Qixia later."

"Shut up!" Hannah slapped the remaining Band-Aid on his sweatpants. "Who played games until 2 o'clock last night? The dark circles under his eyes are almost down to his chin."

The subway was as packed as a can of sardines, and Hannah huddled in a corner protecting her camera bag.

The old man across the street was singing Xi Opera on his radio, and Lu Yong suddenly started humming along with the tune, his out-of-tune voice causing people around him to hold back their laughter. Hannah kicked him in the calf: "You are so embarrassing!"

The ginkgo tree in front of the mountain gate of Qixia Temple has not yet turned completely yellow. Hannah held up the scenic map as a fan and said, "Where is the 'Qixia Red Maple'? The leaves are so green that you can squeeze juice out of them!"

"Dear donor, the maple leaves will not turn red until the frost falls." The sweeping monk passed by dragging a bamboo broom, and the corner of his robe swept up a few early fallen red leaves.

Hannah blushed and clasped her hands together. Lu Yong followed her and bent over too much, almost falling into the pond. (End of this chapter)