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

"The sunscreen spray is going into my eyes!" Hannah tilted her head and dodged, with the ends of her hair brushing against the tip of Lu Yong's nose.

In the morning light, the silver spray drew a small rainbow above the head of the aunt queuing at the ticket office. "Young people nowadays are really particular."

The aunt smiled and opened the floral parasol. The ribs clicked open and startled a gray magpie on the locust tree.

Wild daisies sprouted from the cracks in the bluestone steps. Hannah counted to the forty-seventh step and then started to act silly: "Are these steps built like a ladder?"

Lu Yong took out the plum candy and shook the cellophane. She immediately jumped up to grab it. Her sneaker laces got caught on the vines in the crevice and she almost fell into his arms.

The old man selling grilled sausages halfway up the mountain blew his iron whistle: "Watch out for the steps! Last month a young couple got twisted into a dough stick!"

The mountain stream water overflowed the wooden plank road, and Hannah insisted on taking off her canvas shoes and stepping into the water.

The pebbles made her grimace. When Lu Yong squatted down, the knee of his sweatpants split two inches apart. "Should I carry you or the luggage?"

Before he finished speaking, Hannah jumped onto his back barefoot, and her wet feet left two little duck paw prints on his grey T-shirt.

A ranger rode by on an electric bike, and the speaker in the basket of the bike played a looping sound: "No playing in the water, beware of water snakes—"

The coin-operated telescope on the observation deck swallowed three coins, and Hannah kept shouting into the camera: "That cloud looks like melted ice cream!"

Lu Yong tilted her head to adjust the focus, and tiny beads of sweat on the tip of her nose suddenly flashed across the LCD screen.

The shutter clicked, and the man in the flowered shirt holding the telephoto lens blinked: "The young couple is in the picture. My work is called "Lovers in the Clouds."

The ancient tea pavilion was filled with the aroma of aged Pu'er tea. Hannah blew into the celadon cup, and her cheeks puffed up like a little puffer fish.

Lu Yong put the iced mineral water on her face, and the condensed water slid down her collarbone into the neckline of her floral dress.

"Try a free sample of pine nut candy!" The proprietress wearing a blue apron suddenly handed over an oil-paper bag. Hannah took a bite of half a piece of candy and choked so much that she beat her chest.

Lu Yong slapped her on the back with too much force, and her hair broke and flew into the branches of an old pine tree, startling the sparrows on the treetops, who fluttered their wings and scattered pine needles in a rain.

"Cracking walnuts is more exciting than going to the gym." Hannah held the stone and aimed it at the wild walnuts, and the broken shells splashed onto Lu Yong's ripped jeans.

The mountain breeze rolled up the tissue to cover her bangs. The walnut stall owner smiled and handed her an iron clamp: "Use this. I cracked walnuts for eight years before I finally got my wife."

The two faded heart-shaped carvings on the iron clamp handle just happened to hold Hannah's pinky ring.

The cliff swing team reached the ninth bend, and Hannah grabbed Lu Yong's wrist and made a crescent mark.

"Will the rope break?" she said in a trembling voice. The pupils wearing red scarves behind her started to make noises: "If you're scared, let your brother hold you!"

Lu Yong suddenly stuffed a lemon candy into her mouth. When the swing reached its highest point, her scream shook half of the candy away. The tit swooped down and pecked away the candy, its wings sweeping across her flying long hair.

The crack effects on the glass walkway were so realistic that Hannah squatted there and refused to move.

Lu Yong suddenly took out his cell phone and played the theme song of "Pig Man". She laughed so hard that her hands were weak and she was dragged across ten meters. Her slippers had already been thrown over the guardrail during the fight.

The cleaner at the foot of the mountain looked up at the flip-flops falling from the sky, raised his broom and shouted into the intercom: "There's another falling object on the North District Plank Road!"

"The love locks are sold out." Hannah kicked the copper edge of the donation box, and the empty chain rack shook and made an echo.

The old monk in a grey robe who was sweeping the floor dug out a red string from the ashes of the incense burner and said, "The thousand-year-old locust tree in the back mountain recognizes marriage."

When the two men were squatting to tie the rope, a pine cone suddenly fell from the treetop and hit Lu Yong on the back of the head.

Hannah rolled in a pile of golden pine needles with three ginkgo leaves stuck in her hair. In the distance, a group of tourists holding selfie sticks shouted, "Happily ever after!"

Hannah choked on the spicy mushroom noodles at the vegetarian restaurant and drank half a bottle of sour plum soup.

Lu Yong tried to steal the fried mushrooms from her bowl, but was choked by the chili oil and burst into tears.

The chef in a white apron appeared with iced pear soup: "I gave my wife pear soup all summer long."

Two crimson fingerprints overlapped in a heart shape on the edge of the celadon bowl, and the sunset outside the window just happened to dye the "Today's Special" blackboard into a honey orange color.

The cable car cabin was wrapped in the golden setting sun, and Hannah leaned against the glass to take pictures of the sunset.

Lu Yong suddenly pointed at the window shadow and said, "Your ahoge has become little devil horns."

She turned around to pinch him, but the hanging box shook violently and the two of them fell into a pile.

When the announcement "No fighting allowed" was made on the radio, her lipstick mark had already rubbed against his collar, like a crooked strawberry mark.

The milk tea shop at the foot of the mountain held a couple challenge, and Hannah lost three rounds of rock-paper-scissors in a row.

Lu Yong shook his empty wallet and wailed, "I can't afford to feed the milk tea spirit anymore." The proprietress suddenly tore off the bill and said, "You two are on the local tourism push."

The wall-mounted TV was playing the candid photos of them on the observation deck. Hannah had bitten the straw leaving eighteen teeth marks, and the red rope on Lu Yong's wrist had somehow entangled her scattered hair.

The air-conditioning on the return bus was turned on too high, and Hannah curled up and kept mumbling.

Lu Yong opened his sun protection clothing to cover the two of them, and the mint scent mixed with the pine scent in her hair formed a warm current.

The little boy in the back seat suddenly shouted, "Look, Mom! It's a two-headed turtle spirit!" As the whole car burst into laughter, he secretly stuffed the pine nut candy into her sweaty palm. The squirrel pattern on the candy wrapper glowed in the twilight.

.........

The next day, the two went to check in at the Bian Que Temple again.

"The navigation said that the Bian Que Temple has eight hundred steps!" Hannah wailed as she poked at the map on her phone, the brim of her sun hat fluttering like butterfly wings in the afternoon wind in Xingtai.

Lu Yong unscrewed the sparkling water and handed it to her, the carbonated foam sticking to her nose: "Historical records show that Bian Que traveled all over the Taihang Mountains to collect herbs. What's your journey?"

The bronze medicine mill in front of the red-painted mountain gate was hot from the sun. Hannah reached out to touch the relief and immediately retracted her hand: "This is hotter than a hot pot!"

The old man at the gate waved his palm-leaf fan and smiled: "Little girl, if you get some of the Medicine King's spiritual energy, you won't fail the exam."

She actually rubbed her admission ticket against the edge of the roller three times, and the sports bracelet on Lu Yong's wrist just happened to capture the wrinkles on the old man's face as he tried to hold back a smile.

The stone tablet in Baicao Garden was engraved with a passage from the Difficult Classic. Hannah stood on tiptoe to read the third line and got stuck: "What is this '瘛瘲'?"

Lu Yong took out his phone to look up the word bank, and suddenly a volunteer in a white coat jumped out of the herb garden: "It's just convulsions, do you want to try honeysuckle to reduce internal heat?"

Hannah chewed the flower buds handed to her and looked so bitter that she made an expression on her face. The volunteer took the opportunity to stuff a leaflet about health tea into her mouth.

The ancient well's curb was covered with moss, but Hannah insisted on drawing water like the ancients.

As the wooden barrel sank to the bottom with a "gulp", dozens of silver coins suddenly floated up from the bottom of the well.

"Wishing well!" She searched her pockets but only found a piece of candy; the wrapping paper made a crisp sound as it hit the wall of the well.

The administrator came over holding a long bamboo pole and said, "This is the Medicine King's medicine washing pool. Thirty-eight mobile phones were fished out last month."

An old Chinese doctor in a buttoned shirt was sitting in the shade of the stele corridor. Hannah was staring at the pulse pillow and was eager to try.

The old man put three fingers on her wrist and suddenly frowned: "Miss, you like to drink cold drinks recently."

Lu Yong immediately wrote down "no iced milk tea" in his phone memo. Hannah stole a glance at the screen and stepped hard on his shoelaces, causing the old Chinese doctor's glasses to slide to the tip of his nose.

"Five yuan for three times of pounding medicine!" Hannah picked up the copper pestle and smashed it, and the hawthorn kernel in the mortar hit the back of Lu Yong's neck.

The staff in Hanfu handed over goggles and said, "This is a replica of a Ming Dynasty medicine tool. If you break it, you have to pay three kilograms of Codonopsis pilosula for it."

Hannah stuck out her tongue and used less force, but she mashed the white peony root into a paste, which was applied to her bangs like a layer of first snow. The medicine cabinet in the corridor was filled with the scent of old wormwood, and Hannah sneezed when she opened the "Danggui" drawer.

The administrator rushed over holding a feather duster: "This is an interactive prop prepared for the international visiting delegation!"

Lu Yong took the opportunity to open the "licorice" cabinet. The sweet smell of candied fruit attracted her to look inside. She hooked the drawer pull ring with a hairpin and pulled out a floor full of astragalus slices.

The red silk ribbon on the prayer rack was tangled into a ball of yarn. Hannah drew the "safe and healthy" lottery ticket and was about to tie it up when she saw that Lu Yong's lottery ticket had "Have a baby soon" written on it.

"The staff must have stuffed it in randomly!" She blushed and tried to change it, but she knocked over the bamboo tube and scattered the fortune sticks all over the floor. The sweeping monk appeared with a dustpan in his hand: "Donor, you can't lie in front of the Medicine King."

The fingers of the bronze acupuncture statue were rubbed shiny. Hannah poked Lu Yong's back according to the acupuncture point map: "Is this the Shenshu point?"

The elementary school students from the study tour group passing by shouted in unison: "Sister poked the chicken wing!"

The old Chinese doctor smiled and adjusted her fingers. Lu Yong suddenly tensed his muscles, and Hannah's fingertips poked the protruding vertebrae. Both of them trembled in pain.

The tea room was filled with the aroma of chrysanthemums and wolfberries. Hannah blew away the chrysanthemums on the rim of the cup and secretly scooped the rock sugar from Lu Yong's bowl.

The tea girl in linen shirt suddenly struck the bronze bell: "Husband and wife can drink for free."

She choked and spat out the tea, and the outline of the map instantly blurred on Lu Yong's T-shirt.

A tourist holding a camera outside the window happened to capture this scene, and the water stains on the camera screen reflected like a heart shape.

The ancient opera stage was performing "Bian Que Meets Duke Huan of Cai", and Hannah was chewing on mugwort rice cakes and keeping the beat.

When the martial artist did a somersault, dust from the beams fell off and landed on her eyelashes, fluttering like a small fan.

When Lu Yong was picking up the ashes, he tore off two of her eyelashes. Hannah held up her cell phone flashlight and insisted on looking for them: "These are the eyelashes for making wishes. They must be buried in front of the Medicine King statue!"

A tabby cat jumped out of the mint bushes in the herb garden on the back mountain. Hannah chased it and took a video. Her sneakers sank into the loose soil and pulled up the Codonopsis pilosula seedlings.

The old pharmacist with glasses chased after him, holding a hoe and saying, "This ginseng seedling is worth twenty medicinal food coupons!"

Lu Yong searched his body for change for his milk tea, and the coins piled up into a small mountain of silver in the sunset.

"Do you want a pulse-taking sugar figure?" The sugar craftsman drew a meridian map with a copper spoon. Hannah stared at the "Heart Meridian of the Hand" sugar figure and was reluctant to bite it.

Lu Yong suddenly bit off the sugar man's ear and said, "I'll help you check if there's arsenic."

Holding the remaining sugar in her hand, she chased him into the courtyard three times, knocking over the cassia seeds that were drying in the sun, and the black pearl-like grains of the medicine rolled all over the cracks in the blue bricks.

As dusk dyed the glazed tiles of the Medicine King Hall red, Hannah stuffed a milk tea receipt into the donation box.

The temple keeper rang the bronze bell, shocking the swallows flying under the bell at the corner of the eaves.

The red rope on Lu Yong's wrist had been wrapped with a piece of mugwort at some point, and the scent of osmanthus mixed with the scent of medicine in Hannah's hair drifted across the thousand-year-old monument in the evening breeze.

Lanterns were lit at the night market at the foot of the mountain, and Hannah was squatting in front of the herbal sachet stall, dazzled by the selection.

"Albizia julibrissin flowers are needed to calm the nerves, and mugwort leaves are used to repel mosquitoes." The stall owner's mother-in-law threaded the needle, but Hannah insisted on embroidering the word "courage" herself, and the stitches were crooked like a crawling earthworm.

Lu Yong tried to hold back his laughter as he took out a Band-Aid. Three red spots had already appeared on his index finger.

The last bus was packed with herbalists' backpacks, and Hannah dozed off while holding her newly acquired pestle.

Lu Yong stretched out his hand to cushion her head as it hit the glass. The red rope around his wrist and her hair formed an Eight-Section Brocade pattern in the twilight.

The old man in the back seat suddenly said, "Young couple, would you like to check my pulse?" Amid the laughter in the car, her red ears were brighter than the sunset.

.........

The next morning.

"This pond can sing!" Hannah exclaimed as she leaned on the railing of the fish-watching pavilion at Dahu Spring. The morning mist, wrapped in the sound of gurgling water, spread over the blue brick ground.

Lu Yong pointed his phone camera at the bubbles coming out of the spring: "The 'Living Water Dragon's Song' is the first of the eight scenic spots in Xingtai. The 'Shunde Prefecture Chronicle' says it can cure tinnitus..."

Before she finished her words, Hannah had already pressed her ear to the cold stone wall, and the tip of her ponytail swept the koi in the pond, causing them to wag their tails and leap out in a golden arc.

The white porcelain bait jar got stuck as soon as the coin was inserted, and Hannah shook the machine violently while holding the feed coupon.

The administrator walked over, tapping his teacup and saying, "Girl, be gentle. This feeder is an old item from when the garden was built in the early 1980s."

When the coin finally fell with a clang, the art student who was sketching under the willow trees was startled and dropped his palette, and the indigo paint spread into small black chrysanthemums by the pool.

"That red and white koi bit my finger!" Hannah retracted her hand and splashed her canvas shoes. Suddenly, a gilded nameplate floated up from the pebbles at the bottom of the pond.

The cleaner held up a long-handled net bag and explained: "This is the 'bride price pool' where the spring god gets married. Six diamond rings were fished out last month."

The flash of Lu Yong's cell phone scared away the school of fish. When Hannah stole a glance at his profile, the water droplets swept up by his tail fin happened to fall onto the back of her neck.

In front of the display board of the rubbings of "Dahuo Spring Records" in the Ancient Stele Gallery, Hannah stood on tiptoe to copy Su Shi's signature.

The red tracing paper was suddenly taken away by the guide in a Tang suit: "The original is in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, but you can get a commemorative stamp."

She turned around to grab it, and the red clay from the seal rubbed against Lu Yong's sneakerlaces, forming a crooked "Quan" character.

A tour group of primary school students wearing Hanfu recited "Drinking from the Spring" in unison, and the children's voices shook the swallow mud off the beams.

The glazed well curb was soaked with water, and Hannah insisted on trying the Zhuge Spring's windlass.

The hemp rope was twisted in the air with a "creaking" sound, and the wooden barrel suddenly came off the hook and smashed into the well, leaving silver stars all over.

The old gardener in rubber boots opened the iron fence and said, "This well was converted to a pump 20 years ago. Last time, I fished out half a Phoenix bicycle while fishing in a bucket."

Hannah stuck out her tongue to put the coin in, but the automatic water outlet sprayed lemon-flavored disinfectant all over her skirt.

The teahouse was filled with the unique sweet aroma of Xing kiln white porcelain cups. Hannah blew away the foam and sipped the tea like an experienced tea drinker.

Just as Lu Yong pointed the camera of his mobile phone at her puffy cheeks, the screen saver suddenly popped up with the caller ID - "Mom".

Hannah choked on her tea and soaked the pages of The Classic of Tea. The tea doctor in a blue cloth shirt held up a piece of absorbent paper and lamented, "This page talks about Lu Yu's method of brewing tea. It's the only copy from the Republic of China that has just been restored!"

The sound of suona suddenly rang out from Guanyu Bridge. Hannah squeezed into the crowd and almost stepped on the lion dance team's tail.

The young man in yellow held a golden dragon lantern and flew across the water. The LED light strip made Lu Yong's watch reflect wildly.

Hannah knocked over the prop box while recording with her mobile phone. The longan bulb that rolled down was kicked into the spring pool by the lion dancer, startling a group of fish and causing them to fight over it, turning it into a vortex of broken stars.

"This stone can lie!" Hannah stomped her feet while touching the Wenliang Monument. The geological sign showed "Cambrian Limestone".

The geologist in a jacket handed over a magnifying glass with a smile: "The girl touched the sun-exposed side, and there is still morning dew on the back."

Lu Yong suddenly squatted down to tie his shoelaces, and quietly took a picture of her with his mobile phone as she studied the rock strata while sticking to the monument. Two swifts carrying mud flew across the frame.

The fountain seesaw in the children's playground splashed rainbows, and Hannah insisted on competing with the doll in open-crotch pants for a seat.

When Lu Yong was suspended in mid-air due to the weight, her sneaker laces got stuck in the hydraulic valve, which alarmed the administrator.

The maintenance worker in overalls came out of the control console and said, "This device was installed when Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997. Last month, a couple from Northeast China got stuck." (End of this chapter)