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

When the plane landed at Panjin Airport, Hannah leaned over the window and exclaimed: "The shape of the cracked cloud looks like the starfish specimens at Tiger Beach in Dalian!"

Lu Yong smiled as he unbuckled his seatbelt and hooked his fingers around the drawstring of her hoodie. “Starfish won’t chase you for grilled sea bass cakes. I’ll take you to the Red Beach later. It’s redder than these clouds.”

When the taxi ran over the anti-skid pattern of the Liaohe Bridge, Hannah suddenly pressed the back of Lu Yong's hand and said, "Look at the reeds in the isolation zone. Each one has a white ball of fluff on it. Does it look like the cotton candy you bought for me at Xinghai Square last time?"

The driver glanced at them from the rearview mirror and suddenly said something in a northeastern accent: "The Suaeda salsa in Panjin is more powerful than that, so red that it can burn into people's eye sockets!"

There was a 20-meter-long queue for taking photos at the entrance of the Red Beach Scenic Area. Hannah stood on tiptoe to look at the end of the wooden boardwalk: "Will the red dye stain my skirt?" Lu Yong suddenly squatted down and pulled the elastic band of her sneakers: "Wearing this on the beach will make you look more decent than the fall you had in Fujiazhuang Park."

The Suaeda salsa was so red in October that Hannah gasped as soon as she stepped onto the viewing platform: "This color! It's three times brighter than the wall paint of the Shenyang Imperial Palace." She held up her phone and moved it sideways, her hair brushing across Lu Yong's chin: "Help me capture the momentum of Zhang Ziyi in red fencing in the movie Hero - oops, your lens is crooked!"

Lu Yong suddenly grabbed her waist and pulled her to the right. Hannah staggered and heard the shutter clicks. In the preview, her panicked expression contrasted with the red sky. In the background, three red-crowned cranes happened to fly by, their slender necks bent into a heart shape.

"Don't move!" Hannah's scream startled the foraging gulls. Her left foot sank 30 centimeters into the mudflat, and her white sneakers turned the color of pickled vegetables in a sauce jar. Lu Yong held back his laughter and took out a wet wipe: "You must learn from the Douyin influencers to take floating photos."

The suction force of the mud is even more difficult than the octopus specimen in Dalian Natural History Museum. Hannah hopped on one foot to find balance, and the hem of her sweatshirt was stained with crimson grass juice. Lu Yong suddenly squatted with his back to her: "Hold on tight, you complained about back pain after carrying me for ten steps in Lushun last time, this time it's my turn."

The tide was glittering five hundred meters away, and Lu Yong's sneakers were also stuck in the mud. Hannah leaned on his back to count his heartbeats, and suddenly found a clear V-neck mark on the back of his neck - exactly the shape of the quick-drying clothes he wore at the Dalian beach.

The sightseeing train came with honey-colored sunlight. Hannah held the QR code of the ticket as a fan: "The grass growing in the cracks of the rails is even wilder than the grass in the greenhouse of Shenyang Botanical Garden." Lu Yong suddenly stuffed something into her mouth: "Try it, it's the alkaline persimmon unique to Panjin."

Hannah squinted her eyes at the sweet and sour taste of the explosion, but the next second she was shocked by Lu Yong's phone screen and choked - he actually set the muddy foot photo as the screen saver. "Delete it! Otherwise I'll stuff river crabs into your backpack!" Hannah pounced on him with her braids, sweeping the grass seeds off his collar.

When the train turned a corner, seven egrets suddenly jumped out of the reeds. Hannah's exclamation was stuck in her throat, and Lu Yong's kiss had already landed on the corner of her lips stained with persimmon juice.

As the sunset dyed the beach the color of molten iron, Hannah suddenly pointed at the tide line and said, "These bubbles look like the milk tea on Dai Street in Dalian." She squatted down and tried to touch them, but Lu Yong grabbed her wrist and said, "Be careful of alkaline water that may hurt your hands. Have you forgotten what happened to you last time you touched a sea urchin?"

The evening breeze brought a salty smell, and Hannah's hoodie was filled with wind and swelled like a pufferfish. Lu Yong suddenly took out a sealed bag like a magic trick: "Hold out your hand." Ten round clams rolled into her palm, and the shell patterns glowed with rainbow light in the twilight. "Dig it at low tide, it's more solid than the shell wind chimes in Xinghai Square."

Hannah looked at the shells against the setting sun, and suddenly discovered that the largest one had a tiny heart-shaped pattern embedded in the thread - it was clearly carved by Lu Yong with a carving knife, and it still had the smell of the Band-Aid on his thumb.

When the scenic area broadcast the start of the clearing, Hannah was leaning on the railing to take a time-lapse photo. The fire clouds came from the mouth of the Liaohe River, splashing her white sweater into crimson. Lu Yong suddenly covered the two of them with his coat: "I'll show you a magic trick."

There are 365 sunset photos in his cell phone album, from the Qingdao Pier to the Songhua River in Harbin, but the latest one was taken five minutes ago - Hannah's back holding a shell forms a perfect mirror image with the red tide in the sky. "What's this? Are you going to hold a photo exhibition for me?" Hannah raised her eyebrows and ran her fingertips over the sunburned skin on his collarbone.

Lu Yong suddenly grabbed her wrist, and a red velvet box slipped out of his sleeve. Hannah's breath condensed in her nose, and she saw him take out a pair of earrings woven from Suaeda salsa: "More real than Chow Tai Fook, and stained with the mud of the red beach, it is more memorable."

When the night lights on the return shuttle bus were on, Hannah touched her earlobes and smiled foolishly: "If my ears are dyed red by the juice of the salsa grass, you will have to carry me through the three northeastern provinces." Lu Yong suddenly pointed out the window: "Look! Is that the Milky Way you were talking about at Laohutan?"

Deep in the mudflats, crab-catching lanterns lit up like stars, and Hannah's pupils danced with orange and yellow spots of light. Lu Yong's breath sprayed in her ears: "In fact, there is a Yuelao Beach in Panjin. When the tide is low, the mud and sand will show a heart pattern. Just now, while you were taking pictures, I secretly..."

Hannah suddenly pinched his arm: "Your shoelaces are untied." When Lu Yong lowered his head, her kiss landed precisely on his hair. In the distance, the sound of a crab farmer's radio came. Dao Lang's "The First Snow of 2002" mixed with the tide, startled the laughing crabs back into their caves.

When the hotel's neon sign illuminated the gift bag, Hannah was stuffing a red beach postcard into her suitcase. "I'm going to send this to my landlord in Munich, so he can see what Chinese red is." Lu Yong suddenly hugged her from behind and said, "Why don't you explain first, when did you stuff alkaline persimmons into my thermos?"

The humming sound of the dryer came from the bathroom, and Hannah's muddy shoes were rolling inside. Lu Yong pulled open the collar of his shirt, and the sunburn marks on his collarbone were bright red. Hannah touched it with her fingertips: "This is the stamp Panjin gave me. Next time I go to Changbai Mountain, I have to wear a turtleneck--"

Before he could finish his words, Lu Yong blocked their mouths with a persimmon, and the bursting juice dyed their chins red.

The Liaohe River flows quietly outside the window, and the reflected neon lights are broken into stars all over the river, three times denser than the yacht lights in Dalian Diamond Bay.

.........

The next morning, Hannah stood in front of the hotel's revolving door and stamped her feet: "Where is the idyllic scenery we were promised? The fog is so thick that it even swallowed up the parking lot!"

Lu Yong stuffed the hot soy milk into her palm and said, "There is a small train hidden in the fog of Beilv Tianyuan. Don't be scared to tears by the rumbling diesel engine later."

When the sightseeing bus rolled over the bluestone road, Hannah's cashmere scarf swept the reeds on the roadside, staining the scarf with tiny white flowers. She suddenly grabbed the hat of Lu Yong's down jacket and said, "Look! The straw man is wearing the same hat as the one you bought at the Dalian Fishing Tackle Store."

As the morning mist dispersed, a painting of 3 acres of rice fields came into view. Hannah's phone almost fell into the irrigation canal: "The Ultraman painting in this rice field is wilder than the D murals in Qipan Mountain in Shenyang!" Lu Yong pulled her by the back of her collar and walked towards the observation deck, "Last year it was Sun Wukong's three fights with the White Bone Demon, this year it's said to be a combination of Chinese and Western styles--" The wood kiln in the backyard of the farmhouse was emitting green smoke, and Hannah squatted in front of the clay turntable, eager to try: "I got an A in the pottery class in Munich!" The old master sucked on his pipe and laughed: "The gold bracelet on the girl's hand must be removed, otherwise it will be embedded in the clay and become an unearthed cultural relic when it is fired."

Lu Yong held the GoPro and circled around to film. In the camera, Hannah's nose was stained with three spots of clay. The turntable suddenly lost control and the clay was twisted into an abstract vase. Hannah was so anxious that she cursed in German. Lu Yong suddenly grabbed her wrist from behind and said, "Relax, just spin the beer glass at the Munich Oktoberfest."

When the kiln door opened, the crooked vase with ice cracks came out of the kiln. Hannah poked at the raised mud lump: "Does this lump look like the back of your head that was pecked by a seagull in Xinghai Square?" Lu Yong stuffed the vase into his backpack, and the zipper caught a lock of Hannah's blonde hair, causing her to run around the threshing ground three times in pain.

It was snowing suddenly in the afternoon. Hannah clung to the railing of the dog sled and refused to let go. "The husky's eyes are so smart. He must be planning how to throw me into the straw pile!" Lu Yong stuffed the hand warmer into her down jacket pocket. "Who hugged the reindeer's neck and cried until its antlers were wet in Harbin last Christmas?"

The moment the sled started, six magpies exploded from the scarecrow's head. Hannah's beret was blown away by the wind, just covering the chickens pecking at the roadside. The Alaskan dog pulling the sled suddenly turned, and Hannah fell into Lu Yong's arms, knocking over the pine nut candy hidden in his pocket.

The sugar grains were scattered on the snow, attracting a flock of sparrows to chirp and scramble for them. Hannah suddenly took out her Polaroid camera and said, "Look! This photo makes us look like Romeo and Juliet eloping to the Northeast—if Juliet's scarf hadn't gotten tangled up in the sled pole."

In the twilight, wolfberries and red dates floated in the hot spring pool. Hannah used her toes to test the water temperature. “This color is like the sour plum soup in Dalian’s Dai Street.” She suddenly retracted her foot. “Is there any medicinal residue in it?” Lu Yong pulled open his bathrobe to reveal his quick-drying swimming trunks. “It’s better than the seaweed bath you took in Qingdao.”

As soon as Hannah entered the water, she knocked over the floating wooden tray, and the rock sugar and snow pear bowl almost sank to the bottom. She suddenly pointed at Lu Yong's collarbone and exclaimed: "The place where you got sunburned and peeled has swelled up!" In the mist, the skin on Lu Yong's collarbone was indeed raised with translucent flakes, and was whitened by the hot spring water.

When the cat that had been drinking the water from the pond jumped onto the rockery, Hannah suddenly leaned in and said, "Don't move." She pinched the shed skin with her fingertips and gently tore it off, revealing the new skin underneath. "Panjin has given you a new layer of armor. You should not recognize facial recognition when you return to BJ."

The kang in the homestay was burning hot. Hannah spread out the constellation sheet. "This heat is comparable to the jade kang in the Shenyang bath center." She suddenly jumped up. "Where are my lavender sleeping socks? They must have fallen on the sled!"

Lu Yong took out a spare blanket from the kang cabinet: "Wear my sports socks, it's better than your pair of holes." Hannah put on gray socks two sizes larger, and wrinkles appeared at her ankles. She suddenly clamped Lu Yong's pajamas belt with her toes, "Is this considered a Northeastern couple's outfit?"

There was a sound of icicles breaking outside the window, and moonlight shone through the frosted window panes on the kang mat. Hannah turned over and pressed down Sagittarius on the constellation map. "What time does your mobile weather forecast say it will snow? I want to take a picture of the snow curtain under the starry sky." Before she finished speaking, Lu Yong's kiss had already sealed her impulse to check the weather.

The next day, Hannah squatted on the frosty tractor road and studied the ruts: "This pattern is more magical than the anti-skid pattern of Dalian Binhai Road." She suddenly took out her lipstick and drew a crooked heart on the frost. "When the sun comes out, this will be the shortest-lived artwork of Beilv Tianyuan."

Lu Yong suddenly carried her to the haystack and ran: "There's a surprise at ten o'clock!" Hannah's snow boots kicked in the air, and the end of her scarf swept the ice crystals hanging from the tree. Turning around the barn, the entire frozen lake came into view - the night snow laid out a galaxy-like pattern on the ice, and a few wild ducks were pecking at the morning light with their beaks.

Hannah's exclamation condensed into white mist: "This is even better than Harbin Ice and Snow World"

Before he finished speaking, Lu Yong suddenly took out the self-heating hot pot and said, "I'll feed you first. You won't have the energy to escape when the ice cracks."

The moment the steam rose, their frozen red noses touched, and the melted snow water was quietly seeping into their cuddling reflections.

.........

The next morning, while Hannah was adjusting her swimsuit straps in front of the hotel mirror, Lu Yong was stuffing sunscreen into a waterproof bag: "The sulfur smell of the Red Sea hot springs is stronger than that of the hot springs in Dalian. Don't ask for artificial fragrance later."

There was a drizzle outside the window. Hannah tied the belt of her bathrobe into a bow. "Who was the one who was dyed red by the juice of Suaeda salsa in the hot spring at Beilu Tianyuan last time?"

The taxi drove slowly along the coastal highway, and the wipers drew a fan-shaped water curtain on the glass. Hannah suddenly pointed at the roadside billboard: "Look! The blush of the cartoon hot spring monkey is exactly the same as your sunburned cheeks." The driver chuckled, and the car radio broadcast the weather forecast at the right time: "Today, there will be sun showers in some parts of Panjin, and the open-air pool area of ​​the Red Sea Park will see a double rainbow spectacle--"

The locker room was filled with steam. Hannah was holding the locker bracelet and worriedly said, "This electronic lock is more difficult than the bolt of the Shenyang Imperial Palace." Lu Yong reached his hand over her head and there was a soft "beep" sound. The moment the locker door popped open, Hannah's swimming cap was blown away by the air flow, and her golden hair scattered on her shoulders like a waterfall.

The cobblestone road was shining from the hot spring vapor. Hannah held Lu Yong's arm to keep her balance. "This anti-slip pattern is more tricky than the reefs at Dalian Laohutan!" Before she finished speaking, children cheered in the distance. Colorful bubbles came from the direction of the rose pool, stuck to her eyelashes and exploded into broken diamonds.

There was a green porcelain bowl of herbal tea floating in the aloe vera pond. Hannah just picked it up to drink, but Lu Yong suddenly held her wrist and said, "Look at the bottom of the cup first." Hidden between the blue and white glaze was a line of small calligraphy: "After drinking this cup, love will last for three lifetimes." Hannah choked on her tea with laughter: "You Chinese people even use text traps when taking a bath?"

In the steaming white mist of the sulfur pool, Hannah poked at the shed skin on Lu Yong's collarbone: "Does this sunburn look like a map of Liaodong Bay?" She suddenly retracted her hand, "Wait! Are those petals floating in the water real or plastic imitations?"

Lu Yong picked up a piece of bright red camellia and said, "I picked it from the greenhouse of Beilu Tianyuan. It's more real than the everlasting flowers you bought in Munich." Water droplets condensed in the veins of the petals. When Hannah looked at it in the sunlight, she suddenly discovered that the veins of the leaves were outlined in a heart shape by the beeswax.

A Northeastern auntie called out from the ginger pool, and Hannah imitated her, "Little sister, do you want to rub my back?" Before she finished speaking, Lu Yong pushed her into the whirlpool bathing area, and the turbulent water washed away her hair bun, and her golden hair entangled their necks like seaweed. Hannah wiped the water droplets on her face and laughed and scolded, "You are retaliating!"

There was a crack in the clouds over the open-air pool area, and Hannah looked up: "Where's the promised double rainbow?" Lu Yong suddenly pointed to the glass curtain wall of the cigar bar in front of him. The neon reflected a seven-color arc of light, just framing their reflections. (End of this chapter)