Chapter Forty-Eight: The Third Kingdom of Jade Dragon

The next day, under Han’s arrangements, Xiaoxiao finally witnessed the true visage of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. They took the cable car up, and at the summit, the snow lay thick and pristine, unmelted throughout the year, its holy beauty gleaming in the sun.

Lin Shuo handed Xiaoxiao the rented winter coat. The two walked one after the other through the snow. As a native of Yunnan, especially someone who had always lived in the spring-like climate of Kunming, Xiaoxiao had only seen three brief snowfalls in over twenty years. This was her first time seeing a vast snowy plain; even the sound of her footsteps crunching through the snow filled her with inexplicable excitement.

The snow, trampled over and over by tourists, had begun to melt in places. Xiaoxiao walked gingerly, yet still slipped. She thought it inevitable that she would take a fall, but just as she was about to go down, Lin Shuo caught her with a steady hand. She looked up at him with a helpless expression, white clouds of breath rising from her nose, and murmured softly, “Thank you.”

Lin Shuo said nothing. Silently, he took her hand and, in one smooth motion, slipped it into the pocket of his overcoat, their fingers interlacing tightly.

“Look down there,” Han called back, pretending not to notice them hand in hand, even though it was plain to see. Lin Shuo simply held on, and Xiaoxiao could only pretend not to care.

Han pointed to the dense forest below. “Those are all spruce trees. The place is called Spruce Meadow. ‘The Third Kingdom of Jade Dragon’ is an ancient Naxi legend, the guardian deity of Dongba love. It’s said that when lovers are denied fulfillment, they can exchange their lives for a space to exist, an ideal kingdom. Spruce Meadow is the window to that legendary kingdom. If young lovers end their lives for love at Spruce Meadow beneath Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, their souls will enter the ‘Third Kingdom of Jade Dragon’ and find eternal happiness.”

Hearing this, Xiaoxiao’s hand involuntarily tightened in Lin Shuo’s grip. She couldn’t quite connect the vibrant forest at the mountain’s foot with such a romantic yet tragic legend. But that is the nature of legend: when people cannot truly understand something, they invent stories about it and urge others to believe, and since there’s no way to verify, the truth remains uncertain.

Once down from the snowy mountain, she finally managed to free herself from Lin Shuo’s grasp and felt an immense sense of relief. Especially when she saw the dazzling blue pool of Blue Moon Valley—she almost believed she’d been transported to Jiuzhaigou by some magic. The entire lake formed a crescent, with an unbelievably rich blue, as if someone had accidentally spilled dye into the water. Yaks drank and frolicked at the shore, and everything seemed almost dreamlike in its beauty.

Nearby, a tour guide led throngs of visitors to the lake’s edge, gazing up at Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and passionately recounting its stories.

Jade Dragon Snow Mountain was shrouded in mist year-round. Even on the sunniest days, the light rarely reached the foot of the mountain. It’s said that the autumnal equinox is when the sun and moon unite in brilliance, and on that day the gods bestow upon the world the purest sunlight of love. If the clouds and fog clear from Jade Dragon Snow Mountain on that day, this magical sunlight will flood the entire valley, and all who are touched by it will receive the most beautiful and sacred love.

Yet the jealous mountain god never opens his heart on that day; there is always mist and rain. That is why perfect love is so rare in the world.