Ten years ago, in the spring when peach blossoms covered the mountains.
On the Moon Gazing Platform, a sixteen-year-old youth sat cross-legged in meditation. The spring breeze gently brushed his robes, carrying the fragrance of flowers. The youth was named Xiao Yi, who had just entered the sect three months ago and was in the midst of diligent cultivation.
"Senior Brother! Senior Brother!" A clear female voice called from the mountain path.
Xiao Yi opened his eyes and saw a girl in light blue Daoist robes running up the platform, panting heavily. The girl was about fourteen or fifteen years old, with features as beautiful as a painting. Though her face was flushed from running, it couldn't hide her natural grace and intelligence.
"Junior Sister Mo, what's wrong?" Xiao Yi stood up and asked. This junior sister named Mo Wanxian was a new disciple who had entered the sect a month ago. She possessed exceptional talent and was deeply favored by their master.
"Master asked me to call you back. He said there's something important to announce," Mo Wanxian said while curiously examining the Moon Gazing Platform.
This was a secluded place in the Azure Cloud Sect, rarely visited by people. The platform wasn't large, but it offered a broad view—during the day, one could overlook the entire sect, and at night, one could gaze up at the starry sky and bright moon, hence the name Moon Gazing Platform.
"This place is so beautiful," Mo Wanxian walked to the edge of the platform, looking at the distant mountains shrouded in mist, and couldn't help but sigh in admiration.
"Yes, I often come here to cultivate. It's quiet here, with no one to disturb me," Xiao Yi put away his meditation cushion. "Let's go, we shouldn't keep Master waiting."
Just as the two were about to descend the mountain, they heard footsteps on the mountain path. Soon, a youth in white Daoist robes walked up. The youth was about seventeen or eighteen years old, handsome in appearance with an otherworldly temperament—it was Xiao Yi's senior brother, Ling Yu.
"Junior Brother Xiao, Junior Sister Mo, you're here too," Ling Yu greeted them with a smile. "I saw you coming up from the foot of the mountain, so I followed. This Moon Gazing Platform is indeed a wonderful place."
"Senior Brother Ling, Master called us back, saying there's something important to announce," Mo Wanxian said.
"Oh? Then let's go back together," Ling Yu nodded, then looked at Xiao Yi. "Junior Brother Xiao, do you often come here to cultivate?"
"Yes, it's peaceful here, suitable for quiet meditation," Xiao Yi replied.
"Then I'll come here often too," Ling Yu looked around. "This place is indeed excellent. We three can cultivate here together and spar with each other."
"Great!" Mo Wanxian clapped her hands excitedly. "We can watch the sunrise and sunset together here, and observe the stars and moon together!"
Xiao Yi looked at his excited senior brother and junior sister, feeling a warm current surge in his heart. Since entering the sect, he had always been a loner, rarely communicating with others. But these two people made him feel a long-lost warmth.
"Then it's settled," Xiao Yi also smiled. "From now on, this will be our secret base for the three of us."
"It's a deal!" The three looked at each other and laughed.
The spring breeze continued, the peach blossoms remained, but the Moon Gazing Platform now had three young figures. They didn't know that this promise would accompany them through the most beautiful years of their youth, and would also become Xiao Yi's most painful memory on that autumn night ten years later.
At that time, they were as pure as white paper, their friendship like spring water, their love like flower buds.
At that time, they thought such beauty would last forever.
At that time, they didn't yet know the cruelty of fate, nor the complexity of human hearts.
But at this moment, on this spring afternoon, on this Moon Gazing Platform, everything was so beautiful, so pure, so worthy of treasuring.
The three chatted and laughed as they descended the mountain, the spring breeze carrying the fragrance of flowers, as if blessing this beautiful first encounter.
The Moon Gazing Platform stood quietly there, witnessing this pure friendship, and silently waiting for the tragedy that would unfold ten years later.
Time flows like water, years pass like songs. Some things change, some things never will.
What changes are human hearts; what remains unchanged is this Moon Gazing Platform, and that initial beauty.