Kris' life as a gardener resumed at the Tang household, with a slight changes. Xia and him are now officially couple, which earns a lot of teasings from Aunty Zhao. Another change is that he now has his car, a humbler option to his previous Aston Martin, to take Xia on rides to nearby places.

Otherwise, his life remained the same. He still maintains the gardens but he goes out more often, only to secluded areas like for a walk in the hilly region near them or a small getaway for a picnic around the reservoir area near the house. He still does not dare to go out with his face bare in public. Thankfully, Xia doesn’t seem to mind.

After his recent trip back to the city, Kris had to go back to the city for about three times to do paperworks and to answer questions by the attorneys he hired. Xia came along with him two times, telling him she needed to do some work in the city but always decided to drop off at a cafe and waited for him to pick up when his work was done. Kris was thankful that she decided that way or else he wouldn’t know what to do with her since he knew that his fandom would start tailing him, and her.

The relationship had been nothing but wonderful for Kris. Xia did not decide to date him because he is the famous actor, Kris Wu, but for a gardener Kris Hu (he still does not know how to tackle that topic). She does not expect him to buy expensive things for her nor throw crazily luxurious parties. Even if she had gotten a bouquet of flowers that he personally picked from the garden, she would smile joyously. Xia prefers to spend time in her vegetable garden and pick out vegetables with him before they return to the house to cook meals for the three people in the house. Sometimes, Aunty Zhao said she would lose her job soon because Xia had been taking over most of the duties as a chef but everyone knew she was joking.

A few months had passed by like that and it was soon the time for early Autumn. The weather had turned a little cooler and the leaves turned into deep yellow hues. With the change of weather brought a change of heart for Kris, not because he wanted to part ways with Xia but to solidify it. He became sure that he wanted to spend a long time, if possible forever, with this girl. He wanted to make sure it becomes a reality.

So, he started looking for houses around the area. He wanted to make sure he has a nice house to live in before he gets married so that he can quickly start a family life he has always wanted. Then, he found one.

It was a lovely place, quite further away from the Tang household, but it was closer to the water reservoir and it has a wide field. The house is similar to an old country house but it looks cozy and warm as soon as one walks in. It is a perfect place to start and raise a family, maybe a bit too large but he reckoned things will work out for him in the future. The real estate agent has given him suspicious looks but Kris’s face tried to act like he was not aware of the agent’s curiosity. The more he walked around the house, the more he fell in love with the place.

A few days later, he had signed the papers to buy the place and he was ready to bring Xia to show the place but he would have to keep it a secret that he had bought it and had to place under the pretense of home inspection.

Xia looked like she really liked the place as she walked around the house - from one room to another as she opened and closed the doors and built-in wardrobes. Then, they decided to walk around in the field that was close to the house and sit on the rope swings that the previous owners installed under a giant tree in the field.

“Xia, what do you think about raising a family here?” he asked as the question had been itching him for a while.

Xia’s eyes widened and she blushed a dark shade of red, “I think…” she bit her lips as she looked back at the house, “I think it’s a great place to raise a family. Start a new chapter of life, or even a new one.”

Her words hit him hard.

“You know,” Xia kept swaying back and forth on her swing, “you changed a lot.”

“I changed a lot?”

She smiled and nodded, “Yeah. When you first appeared at our door and started living with us, you looked really stressed out. I mean very stressed out. You were always frowning and you hardly laughed. Also, you were very wary of your surrounding, like someone was trying to catch you doing anything.”

Kris laughed, “I never knew it was that severe.”

“Your previous job might have been really terrible,” she spoke thoughtfully as she looked away into the distance, her attention was on the flock of sheep some distance away, “but you’re better now.” She stopped swinging and shifted closer to his side, her hand reached out for his face and lightly it, “You’ve changed a lot.”

“Was the change good?” he asked hesitantly, his heart beating like an adolescent boy who is with his crush.

Xia blinked her eyes twice and smiled at him till they closed. Kris couldn’t help but leaned in and kiss her soft lips, feeling her smile on his own pair. “You no longer jump like a frightened when I try to scare you,” she whispered without opening her eyes.

“I have to man up, you know. To be there for the girl I really really like.” They had both given up on swinging and Kris guided her to sit on his lap. Xia looped her right arm around his neck as she did so and leaned in so that the sides of their foreheads were touching. “I know,” she murmured and leaned in closer.

“Did you grow up here?” Kris asked the question that had been bothering him for quite some time, “it seemed like you know the area very well.”

Xia’s arm around his neck loosened. She looked at him as she put her arm back down on her lap but she didn’t move away from sitting on his. Then, her head leaned onto his left shoulder and sighed. Kris instinctively wrapped his arms around her to hold her close. “Well…” she started, “it’s quite long and a little bit boring.”

“I like long stories.”

“Then,” she in a long breath, “let’s start with my mother. My mother was a very famous actress, Kelly Liu.” Kris’ back stiffened. He did not expect that her mother would be someone from his circle. Xia was unaware of his reaction, “And she was… my father’s secret wife.”

“Secret wife?”

Xia nodded gently and nestled up into him, “Not a secret mistress. They married in secret. My mother loved my father very much and my father too. However, my mother’s career success depended on her marriage status so she had to pretend that she was never married. My father wanted to live together with her every second of his life and it was difficult.”

“So?”

“So, my mother came up with the idea of living together in this small village, away from media’s lenses and curious eyes. As you can tell, a lot of our neighbours don’t care much about who the person is or the status so it was their ideal,” Xia continued to explain.

“And then?”

“They got married. Had me while she told everyone that she wanted to go into hiatus to learn more acting. Social media was not invented so it worked to their advantage. My father worked at his vineyards and supervised while my mother worked on projects. The more she got famous, the busier she became. They both fought, a lot. One day, my mother had the biggest row with my father because she wanted to work on this big project in Hollywood but my father said no because I was a little baby, about 4 years old. She refused and went anyway.”

Xia paused and looked up to judge his expression. She continued after seeing that he was interested, “Then, there was a car accident, which took her life and her manager’s. She was gone so I grew up with Aunty Zhao.”

“Where’s your father?” Kris asked again.

Xia smiled again, weakly. “My father passed away a few years ago. It was a peaceful passing, just like how a fruit would rip and fall off the tree. He spent his life nurturing the vineyard because my mother really, really liked sweet wine when she was alive and her favourite wine was always my father’s. She always made sure that she spoke about his vineyards’ wine when asked. People didn’t catch on. She, and my father, really loved the vineyards.”

“So that explains why you like managing your vineyards?”

“Yeah, but my interest is more in the restaurants,” Xia laughed. “My father wanted to manage restaurants before he passed away so I took them on.” She finished the story, “was the story tragic enough?”

Kris let out and uncomfortable chortle, “it is,” his hugged her tighter as his face nuzzled into her hair, “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay. At least I have you and Aunty Zhao,” she leaned into his hug and whispered.

Somehow, it touched his heart more than it should and his heart constricted, with part guilt, painfully as her story sounded so honest and sincere.

~~~

Kris’ story with his ex-girlfriend had developed further. He no longer ran away from his previous life by not checking his e-mail nor the internet. He resumed doing so, only when he is in his own privacy. His attorney team had been working very hard to gather evidences to win the case. His company told him that trust in it since the team leader they hired had been known for working with celebrity issues like this and is the best in the field. Kris decided to have faith in the leader, even though he had never met the person nor know the person - always missing each other whenever they were arranged to, either he was too busy or the attorney had other clients lined up to fit him in. Kris was okay with it.

He went to the city a few times more to meet with his sponsors and review the projects he had been receiving, even though it had been far and few. On the other hand, he had been visiting his new house, the big country house, with a renovating team to convert it into a nice family house fit for a couple. He couldn’t wait until he surprises Xia with the house, and maybe ask her whether she would be willing to live life together with him for a long, long time.

~~~

Kris and Xia, on one unexpected day, decided to renovate the entire front garden and the grow a new batch of flowers in the backyard. They decided to tackle the backyard one day and then the front garden the next. They worked under the scorching sun, in dirt and grit - planting new baby plants into the dug up soil and then clearing out the weed. After a few hours, they were done. The backyard garden was now filled with new flower patches and new vegetables to be harvested in early winter. They both stood at the edge of the garden and smiled like proud parents while holding each other side by side.

Then, Xia surprised him - in the most unexpected way possible that could be considered as out of character. She asked him to join her in the bath. It shocked him but who was he to deny; he was only a young man built with flesh, blood, and desire. It was definitely a new feeling and new experience for him. The feeling of warm water lapping against his skin, their skin touching, while nibbling on a few snacks she had brought out from the kitchen. It felt iniquitous yet innocuous in some sense. It was a difficult feeling to put labels on but Kris thoroughly enjoyed her presence as they both talked about life and trivial things like they usually do, while holding her against him as close as he possibly could.

Next day, Xia accompanied him to fix the front garden - in her usual get up of summer dress and a wide-brim floppy sun hat. They both moved around the little sculptures made out of wood and ceramics, in the garden. He would put one thing in one place and Xia would come pick it up to move it to another, and him bringing it back to the original position and try to be playful by pretending to bicker with her. Xia laughed and gave up in the end, opting to sit by the small, stone artificial waterfall in the garden while fanning herself.

As Yifan was moving around the last piece of garden fairy towards the entrance of the garden, the corner of his eyes caught a flash. Then, there were a couple. Soon enough, there was a crowd of people flashing their cameras at him and Xia, who was sitting at the waterfall, waving their notepads, asking one question after another.

At that moment, Kris felt like his vision narrowed and he couldn’t hear a thing. Everything has blended and merged into nothing but a buzz in his ears. He looked at Xia, who was looking back at him with a slight frown. Exactly at that moment, Kris felt that the peaceful world that he built had shattered into millions of little pieces.

He suddenly became indescribably regretful.