Abstinence Pei, don't be too sweet when chasing your wife

When the morning light penetrated the wool curtains of the B&B, Gu Fanxing was awakened by the melodious sound of bagpipes.

Pushing open the terrace door, the cold air hit me in the face, and the mist from the crater in the distance was dyed light pink by the morning sun.

She heard the conversation between Pei Luonan and the proprietress downstairs, mixed with the sizzling sound of frying bacon. Only then did she realize that her stomach was already rumbling with hunger.

“Good morning, Aurora Explorers.”

Pei Luonan placed the fried eggs in front of her and pushed a cup of steaming cloudberry tea over. "The boss lady said that today is the day with the highest probability of an aurora eruption in the past half month."

His tablet displayed the real-time geomagnetic index, and the green curve was fluctuating violently. "We have to get to the Lake Myvatn area before 3 pm."

As the car drove away from the town, Gu Fanxing was still immersed in the shock of the Viking wedding.

Outside the car window, flocks of puffins flew over the black sand beach.

Pei Luonan suddenly turned the car onto a gravel road and pointed at a small wooden house on the hillside: "That's the oldest wool workshop in Iceland. Do you want to go and see it?"

In the workshop, an old lady was spinning yarn with a traditional spindle, and the wool still had a faint smell of moss.

"These sheep eat volcanic grass and drink glacier water." She smiled and handed Gu Fanxing a ball of indigo wool, "Does it feel like the aurora?" Pei Luonan watched quietly from the side. When Gu Fanxing curiously asked about the source of the dye, he took out a small notebook from his backpack and took careful notes - it turned out that Icelanders used blueberries, lichens and even volcanic ash to mix natural colors.

We arrived at Lake Myvatn in the afternoon. The steam rising from the sulfur hot springs made the whole valley look like a fairyland.

Pei Luonan had already rented a glass cottage by the lake, and outside the floor-to-ceiling window was a bubbling hot spring pool.

"Take a bath first?" He took out rose petals from the suitcase and sprinkled them into the pool as if by magic. "Relieve your morning fatigue."

Gu Fanxing hid in the bathroom with a red face, but when she was changing into her swimsuit, she found her usual hair care oil on the sink - she didn't know when it was secretly put into Pei Luonan's luggage.

As the sun sets, they follow their local guide Olaf to the observation point.

After arriving at the observation point, Pei Luonan set up the tripod. While adjusting the camera, Gu Fanxing noticed that he had brought two archaeological notebooks - one to record the aurora shape, and the other to mark the surrounding volcanic geological features.

“Double romance,” he explained with a smile, “academic research and private collection.”

Olaf built a bonfire nearby, and the cast iron kettle on the fire was brewing strong coffee, which mixed with the aurora myths he told, making the waiting time even more charming.

When night fell completely, the sky was still pitch black.

Gu Fanxing felt a little disappointed, but Pei Luonan wrapped her in a blanket: "The aurora is like a shy girl, you have to wait patiently."

Suddenly they heard Olaf whisper, "Here it comes."

A light green crack appeared in the sky of the far north, like a curtain slowly being pulled open by an invisible hand.

Gu Fanxing saw the light band gradually widening, like flowing silk, sometimes stretching, sometimes surging.

When the first aurora spread across the sky like a veil, Gu Fanxing's camera suddenly issued a low battery alarm.

Pei Luonan immediately took out three spare batteries from his backpack, but found that the low temperature had greatly reduced the battery performance.

"Use mine!" Olaf said, pulling out a velvet-wrapped heat-insulating bag as if by magic. "An old Icelandic hunter's secret: keep the battery warm in your pocket."

Just as the three of them were busy changing equipment, Gu Fanxing suddenly pointed into the distance and exclaimed, "Look!" The originally gentle green light band suddenly twisted violently, like a stirred galaxy.

Olaf's face suddenly changed. "It's a geomagnetic storm! Quickly pack up! Auroras of this intensity will interfere with electronic equipment and may even trigger a small thunderstorm!"

Pei Luonan quickly stuffed the tripod into the car, but found that the car GPS screen began to flash with snow.

"Take the old hunter's path!" Olaf jumped into the passenger seat and gave directions on the bumpy lava road.

In the darkness, the purple aurora licked the roof of the car like a flame. Gu Fanxing clenched his hands tightly, and fine cold sweat came from his fingertips.

After turning a corner, the car suddenly sank into soft volcanic ash.

Pei Luonan stepped on the accelerator, but the tires spun in the sand.

"Get out of the car!" Olaf picked up the shovel, "We have to dig out the wheel!" The biting cold wind slapped on Gu Fanxing's face, and her eyelashes were soon covered with white frost.

She and Pei Luonan took turns shoveling the dirt while Olaf fashioned a makeshift leash from guitar strings.

"Listen!" Olaf stopped suddenly.

A low roar came from the distance, not from the volcano, but the sound of ice cracking!

Pei Luonan's headlamp swept across the lake, and cracks in the ice spread towards them at lightning speed.

"Follow Olaf and run to the ridge!" He shouted at Gu Fanxing, but his voice was torn apart by the whistling wind and the sound of ice cracking.

Gu Fanxing was dragged and stumbled as he fled, and his hiking boots almost got stuck in the cracks of the volcanic rocks several times.

Every time she stumbled, Pei Luonan would immediately half-kneel on the ground, wrapping his arms around her knees to steady her. When a loose rock suddenly rolled down, Pei Luonan instinctively threw her to the ground, his back hitting the sharp basalt hard.

"Are you injured?" Gu Fanxing struggled to check his injuries.

"Don't look back!" Pei Luonan gritted his teeth, propped himself up, grabbed her wrist and continued to run wildly.

At this time, the sound of the ice breaking was very close, and the biting coldness wrapped in icy water hit my face.

At the critical moment, Pei Luonan suddenly pushed Gu Fanxing forward with force - she staggered into Olaf's arms, but Pei Luonan slipped on the edge of the ice due to inertia, with half of his body hanging on the crack.

"Pei Luonan!" Gu Fanxing's scream was torn apart by the wind.

Olaf quickly untied the rope around his waist and threw it over, and Pei Luonan grabbed it before the ice surface completely collapsed.

Gu Fanxing rushed over to help like crazy. When Pei Luonan was finally pulled to a safe area, she found that his palm was covered in blood.

"Idiot..." Gu Fanxing choked and pounded his chest, tears mixed with ice crystals hitting his frosted collar.

Pei Luonan wiped away her tears with his uninjured hand: "I promised grandma that I would bring you back intact."

His voice was as firm as volcanic rock. "To me, even a strand of your hair is more important than my life."

At this moment, the purple-red aurora happened to pour down like a waterfall, casting a dreamy halo on his blood-stained palm and the figures of the two people embracing each other.

The aurora reaches its peak at this time, dyeing the entire valley a dreamy purple.

Pei Luonan raised his scarred hand and took a time-lapse photo with his mobile phone.

In the picture, his hands wrapped in a scarf contrast with the gorgeous aurora, which became the most unique souvenir.

"Make a wish quickly!" Pei Luonan put his arm around her shoulders, his voice filled with excitement.

Gu Fanxing closed her eyes, but secretly opened them a little when making a wish - under the moonlight and the aurora, the side profile that Pei Luonan was concentrating on photographing was more dazzling than any gem.

On the way back, the car radio rustled with intermittent Icelandic folk songs.

"This is also a prank of the Aurora," Olaf explained with a smile. "They like to tamper with the radio waves and play special music for humans."

Back in the glass house, Pei Luonan's first thing was to warm Gu Fanxing's feet with hot spring water. "An archaeologist's feet are more precious than any cultural relic."

A note had been stuck on the bathroom mirror: "Hot water is ready. There's also hot cocoa in the kitchen for those 'aftereffects of the aurora.'"

It was late at night, and Gu Fanxing was wrapped in a blanket and looking through the photos in the camera.

Outside the window, the aurora is still swaying gently, as if telling an unfinished story.

Gu Fanxing curled up in Pei Luonan's arms, listening to his steady heartbeat.

Perhaps true romance is never a perfect journey, but when an accident happens, someone holds your hand tightly and says, "Don't be afraid, I'm here."