Kaleidoscope of Death

Print Extra: The Little Prince's Rose

The girl saw Lin Qiushi and stopped her sniffling. Her gaze fell on Lin Qiushi, bleary and lovely.

Of the hundreds and thousands of roses in the world—with their green leaves, red blooms, and stems full of thorns that were all completely identical—there were no differences to be had. Though they were beautiful, their repetitive legions grew tiresome.

Ruan Nanzhu thought that he wouldn't be interested in the roses in the garden. These roses were pretty but easily snapped. A sight that was merely terrifying seemed capable of making them lose their minds; their fragility truly inspired pity.

Ruan Nanzhu was a gardener. Following his own methods, he pruned his garden. This way all of the flowers in his flower garden bloomed in ways that pleased him.

Some flowers couldn't take the pruning, and so wilted. Some flowers changed colors after a pruning, going from a ravishingly gentle red to a tarry black, even giving off an unpleasant scent. When it came to this kind of flower, Ruan Nanzhu was never merciful. He picked up his shears and, with two neat snips, cut off the black flower at the stem. He watched the petals scatter across the ground and crumple into the mud.

This sort of life was plain and tedious. Ruan Nanzhu found it boring. He thought he could only ever be such a gardener, idling about.

This belief persisted for a long time, until one day, he discovered that there was a new flower like no other in his garden.

That flower wasn't exactly pretty, yet was particularly attention-catching. Its petals were just like other roses, big and red. Its stem was healthy, covered with a thicket of defensive thorns. The reason Ruan Nanzhu noticed this flower was because one day, a fierce wind blew through his garden, and all the roses fell to the floor. All except for this one, staunchly standing in full blossom.

A strong little flower, was what Ruan Nanzhu thought at the time.

Though he found the little rose a tad special, Ruan Nanzhu didn't pay much attention. The roses in the garden, after all, bloomed and wilted on the regular. Flowers flourishing today might be withered the very next day.

But very soon, the little rose attracted Ruan Nanzhu's attention a second time.

It seemed to be the little rose's third bloom. All the roses around it were wilted, leaving only that single flower elegantly standing its ground. Its tender green leaves quivered with the breeze, as if it was going to die like all the roses the very next moment. But in the end, the little rose pulled through.

Ruan Nanzhu watched from the side in novel interest. He inspected the little rose and learned for the first time from somebody else this little rose's name...Lin Qiushi. The little rose was named Lin Qiushi.

Ruan Nanzhu remembered the little rose's name.

A gardener's job was leisurely. Besides caring for the flowers, there was nothing else to do. It was rather interesting, sure, to watch the flowers be ravaged in a hundred odd ways. But of course, that was only in the beginning. Having seen too much of it later on, to the point where Ruan Nanzhu could pretty much guess their reactions, it all became far less fun.

In search of entertainment, Ruan Nanzhu planted even more roses. But they were all so ordinary, so ordinary that they couldn't arouse any bit of his interest.

And so, Ruan Nanzhu turned his attentions onto the little rose.

The little rose was not so tough. When he saw something scary, he still got scared, still screamed, still trembled. Yet, the one thing different about it was that it continued to grow.