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

"Ding--"

At seven in the morning, the alarm rang in the presidential suite. Hannah reached out to tap it in a daze, but felt a warm chest.

She suddenly opened her eyes and met Lu Yong's smiling eyes. The morning light shone through the gauze curtain and cast a layer of gold on his profile.

"Good morning, Miss Hannah." He stroked the kiss marks on her collarbone with his fingertips. "If you don't get up now, you won't be able to catch the sunrise at the Eastern Qing Tombs."

Hannah shrank into the bed with a cry, but he rolled her and the quilt into his arms.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the outlines of the distant mountains were dyed dark blue by the morning glow, and the light leaking through the clouds was like an overturned jar of honey, making the whole city sweet.

"When did you book the ticket?" She came out with a messy head of hair, and rubbed her nose against the new stubble on his chin. "Didn't we agree yesterday to go to Kaiping to see the Diaolou?"

Lu Yong pulled out two gold-stamped tickets from under his pillow like a magic trick: "At three o'clock in the morning, when someone was holding my arm and talking in his sleep."

He imitated her tone last night and murmured, "'Lu Yong, don't grab my camera lens tomorrow..."

"Shut up!" Hannah picked up a pillow and threw it at him, but he caught it and pressed it under him.

As they laughed and joked, the gilded bookmark on the bedside table hit her elbow, and the lotus pattern on it glowed in the morning light.

"Do you want to take it with you?" She shook the bookmark, and her hair brushed against his Adam's apple, causing him to shudder.

Lu Yong suddenly turned over and supported himself on top of her, with water drops from the ends of his hair dripping onto her collarbone: "Of course you have to carry the proposal props with you - but Miss Hannah, are you sure you want to steal my line in front of the royal mausoleum?"

Hannah smiled and twisted his waist: "Who wants to steal your line? I'm afraid that you will say to Emperor Qianlong's coffin, 'Hannah, marry me' and be laughed at by the civil and military officials in the underground palace."

"That's perfect." He suddenly became serious and stroked her brow with his fingertips. "You will be responsible for looking after Cixi's jade cabbage later, and I will be responsible for..."

He deliberately dragged out the ending of the sentence, and at the moment when she held her breath, he leaned over and bit her earlobe, "Be responsible for catching the little rascal who is moving around."

Before the morning mist dissipated, the black SUV had already driven onto the Beijing-Harbin Expressway.

Hannah rolled down the car window and let the breeze carrying the scent of grass and trees fill the car.

The guqin music of "Forbidden City" was playing in the car stereo. She hummed a few lines and suddenly turned her head: "Lu Yong, you said last night, 'Use the proposal lines in daily life'..."

"So?" He held the steering wheel with one hand and interlocked his fingers with hers with the other.

The poplar trees beside the highway were rapidly receding, like a time film that was fast-forwarded.

"So..." She drew circles on his palm with her fingertips, "If I say 'Lu Yong, let's get married' now, would you think it's too casual?"

The off-road vehicle suddenly braked, and the sound of the tires rubbing against the ground scared away the sparrows on the roadside.

Hannah was caught off guard and bumped into his arms. She looked up and saw his rolling Adam's apple: "Say it again?"

"I said..." She suddenly leaned close to his ear, her breath sweeping over his hot earlobe, "Mr. Lu, when do you plan to move the Civil Affairs Bureau to the gate of the Eastern Qing Tombs?"

The car behind suddenly honked, and Lu Yong turned the steering wheel sharply and turned into the service area.

He parked the car under the locust tree, and when he turned around, there were two flames burning in his eyes: "Hannah, do you know the consequences of teasing the driver on the highway?"

"I know." She shook their clasped hands, and the silver ring on her ring finger made a crisp sound. "Just like now -" She suddenly leaned over and kissed the corner of his mouth, "You will drive the car into the service area, and then..."

"And?" He held her neck and deepened the kiss, the minty smell of toothpaste spreading between his lips and teeth. In the distance, the sound of a truck whistle could be heard faintly, but it couldn't cover up the beating of their hearts.

"Then..." She panted and stepped back half an inch, her fingertips touching his chest, "Mr. Lu is responsible for buying two glasses of iced Americano, after all..."

She glanced at the soaring oil temperature on the dashboard and said, "If it doesn't cool down, the engine will start to smoke."

At 9:17, the stone archway of the Eastern Qing Tombs was looming in the morning mist.

Hannah ran along the Xiaoling Mausoleum Sacred Way holding a camera. The vermilion screen wall and the green pines and cypresses formed a beautiful composition in the frame.

Lu Yong followed behind with their thermoses in hand, watching her squatting to take pictures of the stone elephant's hoof prints, and standing on tiptoe to catch the dew on the glazed tiles.

"Lu Yong, look!" She suddenly turned around and aimed the camera at the squirrel chewing pine cones. "Does this little fat guy look like you when you stole my puffs last night?"

He strode forward and held her in his arms, his chin rubbing against the top of her head: "Then I should be fatter--" He suddenly sucked her earlobe and laughed, "So that I can eat up the photographer who took pictures of me secretly."

"Pervert!" She pushed him away with a red face, but the camera honestly recorded the smile lines at the corners of his eyes.

The sunlight penetrated the branches of the century-old cypresses, casting tiny golden spots on his wheat-colored skin, like a handful of candy stars.

Hannah sneezed as the cold air from the entrance to the underground palace hit her face.

Lu Yong immediately took off his windbreaker and wrapped her up, wearing only a thin sweatshirt himself.

The damp gaps between the bricks and stones let out a chill. Hannah unconsciously shrank into his arms and heard a muffled laugh from his chest: "Miss Hannah, are you afraid of the cold now?"

"Who's afraid?" She straightened her back stubbornly, but gasped when she saw the murals in the underground palace of Emperor Qianlong's Yuling Mausoleum.

Twelve groups of blue and white porcelain jars glowed dimly under the eternal lamps, and the Sanskrit mantras carved on the coffin bed seemed to be telling the secrets of three hundred years ago.

“Don’t be afraid.” Lu Yong hugged her from behind, the warmth of his palms coming through the fabric, “These stone sculptures are older than our grandfather’s grandfather, they…”

He suddenly lowered his voice, "I'm more worried that the flash of your camera will cause you to lose sleep."

Hannah chuckled, her forehead hitting his chin as she turned around.

He kissed the top of her head, murmuring with the sound of dripping water: "Do you know why I took you to see the underground palace?"

"Why?" She leaned in his arms, listening to each other's heartbeats resonating with the echoes of the underground palace.

"Because..." He stroked the back of her cold hand with his fingertips, "I want you to see that no matter how magnificent the mausoleum is, it will eventually turn to dust, but..."

He suddenly held her hand and pressed it against his chest. "But there are some things, like my heartbeat at this moment, like..."

He lowered his head and placed a kiss on her palm, "For example, my love for you will outlive these stones."

Hannah's eyes suddenly turned red. The Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars on the dome of the underground palace swayed in the light. She stood on tiptoe and kissed the corner of his lips: "Lu Yong, you stole my lines."

"This is called learning on the job." He deepened the kiss, and the aftertaste of sandalwood and rose floated in the humid air - the scent from the hot spring last night.

It was almost noon when they came out of the underground palace. Hannah squatted under the ancient cypress beside the sacred path and watched Lu Yong fix the camera on a tripod.

The sunlight penetrated the holes in his sweatshirt, outlining the beautiful muscle lines on his back.

She suddenly raised her phone to take a secret photo. When the flash went off, she heard him threaten with a smile: "Ms. Hannah, you have to pay copyright fees for taking secret photos."

"How much?" She ran away, shaking her phone, her ponytail brushing the back of his hand.

Lu Yong chased after her and picked her up by the waist in front of the Xiaoling Monument Building: "Is it enough to pay you back with my whole life?"

"Then I'll pay in installments." She hooked her arm around his neck and aimed the camera at their overlapping shadows. "Let's take wedding photos first—" She suddenly became serious. "Mr. Lu, are you willing to marry this candid camera maniac?"

He held her and spun around, the red palace wall behind him smudged like an ink painting: "I do." He lowered his head and kissed the tip of her nose, "But Miss Hannah, you owe me three proposal ceremonies."

"Why three times?" She smiled and bit his chin.

"Once in the hot spring, once in the underground palace, and once..." He suddenly hugged her and rushed down the seventy-second staircase, "In front of the coffin of Empress Dowager Cixi in Dingdong Tomb, Putuo Valley, where we are going later."

Hannah's screams mixed with his laughter echoed in the cemetery, startling a group of white-rumped swifts.

She patted his shoulder and begged for mercy, but when she caught a glimpse of the surprised eyes of the tomb keeper in the distance, she buried her face in his neck and laughed: "Lu Yong, does this count as desecrating the imperial tomb?"

"Well." He carried her across the stone pillar. "So Empress Cixi sent a centipede to punish us—"

He suddenly stopped walking, and Hannah followed his gaze and saw a thumb-sized red-headed centipede crawling on the bluestone slab.

"Ahhh!" She screamed and rushed into his arms, but she heard him laughing: "I was kidding you, you coward."

As dusk permeated the glazed tiles of the Dingdong Mausoleum, Hannah was squatting beside the Danbi Stone in front of the Longen Hall, with her camera lens pointed at the remaining cinnabar painting on the stone carved dragon head.

Lu Yong was leaning against the white marble railing flipping through the photos when he suddenly heard her gasp and exclaim, "Lu Yong! Look quickly—"

He walked quickly forward, only to see her fingertips suspended in the air. In the camera, a ginkgo leaf was stuck in the dragon's eye position on the dragon's head.

The golden leaf veins look like half an unfinished love letter under the setting sun, with dewdrops still on the edges.

"Empress Cixi's eyelashes?" He teased her deliberately, flicking the top of her head with his fingertips.

"It's Cupid's arrow!" She suddenly turned around, and the ginkgo leaf stuck to the hole in his sweatshirt. "Look, even Emperor Qianlong is urging us to get married—"

She tiptoed to reach for another leaf that had fallen on his shoulder. "This one is the marriage certificate, the one just now is the wedding ring, and now..."

She suddenly pulled him down onto the Danbi Stone and said, "All we need is a groom!"

Lu Yong's back hit the cold stone surface, but Hannah's skirt was like an inverted hibiscus flower spreading beside him.

He smelled the sandalwood in her hair - it was the remaining incense from the incense burner in the underground palace, mixed with the rose hair oil she often used, it turned into a bewitching poison.

"Miss Hannah." His fingertips stroked the strap of the camera she was holding under her body, the metal buckle digging into her waist. "What crime should you be sentenced for forcibly robbing a man in front of the royal mausoleum according to the Qing Dynasty law?"

"Life imprisonment." She suddenly lowered her head and bit the drawstring of his sweatshirt, laughing vaguely, "Locked up in the presidential suite with a rose bathtub, I'll punish you every day..."

Her fingertips traced his collarbone. "I'll punish you to help me fix the tripod, adjust the filter parameters, and -"

She suddenly turned over and sat on his waist, ginkgo leaves slipping from her collar, "Say 'I love you' once a day."

The setting sun stretched the two people's shadows onto the bluestone slabs, like a shadow play frozen in time.

Lu Yong looked at the tiny freckles on the tip of her nose and suddenly remembered what the owner of the creative store said last night: "You have to buy two lotus flowers together to have a good meaning."

"Hannah." He suddenly held her restless hand and pressed it against the stone relief of the Danbi. The scales of the five-clawed golden dragon made her palm itch. "Do you know why I brought you to see Cixi's coffin?"

“Because…” She dragged out the last word imitating his tone from yesterday, “You want me to see that no matter how noble a woman is, she can only sleep in a coffin when she dies, but Mrs. Lu, who is alive, can sleep in the presidential suite?”

"No." He suddenly exerted force to bring her into his arms, and the back of his head hit the stone dragon head with a dull sound.

She screamed and tried to rub his red forehead, but he held her waist and she couldn't move: "I want you to see--" His fingertips brushed the grass debris in her hair, "Look at the queen three hundred years ago, no amount of golden nanmu can keep her youth, but..."

He bent down and kissed her trembling eyelashes, "But now that I'm holding you, even your wrinkles seem cute to me."

Hannah's tears suddenly fell on the back of his hand, burning his fingers and trembling. She hurriedly wiped them away, but rubbed his face with tear marks: "Lu Yong, you broke the rules! We agreed to only talk about love today, not sentimentality..."

"Then it's your turn to be sentimental." He suddenly pulled out a gilded bookmark from his trouser pocket like a magician. The lotus pattern on it glowed warmly in the twilight. "Now it's your turn to steal my lines. Miss Hannah, are you willing to let this bastard who kissed you secretly in the hot spring, scared you in the underground palace, and braked suddenly on the highway be the exclusive photographer for all your future landscape photos?"

In the distance came the sound of the tomb keeper ringing the bell to mark the end of his work, which startled the bronze bells in the corner of the palace to tinkle.

Hannah stared at the silver ring on his ring finger, which was the same as hers. She suddenly raised her camera and pointed it at their overlapping shadows: "I'll count to three, and you have to say 'I do' -"

She pressed the continuous shooting button. In the camera, Lu Yong's eyes reflected the rosy clouds and her tearful smile, "One, two..."

"I do." He suddenly turned over and pressed her against the Danbi stone, with the ginkgo leaf stuck between their clasped fingers. "But Miss Hannah, you owe me four proposals—"

He lowered his head and bit the throbbing blood vessel on the side of her neck. "At the Civil Affairs Bureau, in the delivery room, on our golden wedding anniversary, and..."

He suddenly held her earlobe in his mouth and laughed, "Next time you secretly take a picture of me drooling while sleeping."

Hannah's scream mixed with the sound of shutter clicks exploded in the cemetery, scaring away the jackdaws perched on the ancient cypress trees.

She raised the camera to take a picture of his red ears, but he snatched the camera away and framed her in the viewfinder.

Her hair is messy in the photo, but her eyes are filled with the starlight of the entire universe.

"This one needs to be washed to 12 inches." He held her and rolled down the stone steps, his back covered with moss and ginkgo leaves. "Hang it in our child's nursery and tell him—"

He suddenly paused, looked at her suddenly widened eyes and chuckled, "Tell him that his parents secretly got married in front of Emperor Qianlong's coffin. It was much more romantic than how his grandparents met while dancing in the square."

"Who wants to have a baby with you!" She beat his chest, but her fingertips quietly touched the velvet box in his sweater pocket. The faint touch of velvet in the bookmark box by the hot spring last night was now burned into her palm through the fabric.

"Then let's practice first." He suddenly picked her up and held her sideways, startling her so much that she hugged his neck tightly.

The tomb keeper walked over from the sacred path holding a flashlight. When the beam of light swept across the overlapping figures of the two people, he laughed loudly and said, "Master, we found Emperor Qianlong's token of love!"

Hanna buried her face in his neck and laughed, and heard the old man scolding in Tangshan dialect: "Young man! This is the ginkgo tree that guards the tomb of the old Buddha. If you make trouble again, the stone warriors of Yuling will lock you into the underground palace as gravekeepers!" (End of this chapter)