Lady

If the lowest temperature in Taipei City drops below zero this week, the first snow will arrive later than usual, falling along with the rain, and the withered leaves, barely clinging to life, will dance joyfully to welcome the final chapter.

It snowed for an hour. If Ju Hui hadn't woken up at five every morning and moved to this five-story apartment building in Songzhuang half a month ago, she wouldn't have seen this beautiful view.

She closed the window, wrapped her clothes tighter around herself, and noticed that the heating in the room wasn't very strong. A thin layer of white mist drifted into her vision.

Two weeks ago, the gallery-hotel collaboration was finalized, Ju Hui resigned from Mo Chen and proposed separating from Yun Aonan. Although they were prepared, they still pouted together as they talked.

As winter approached, Songzhuang was an hour's drive from the school. Ju Hui often skipped classes and left early, spending more time with Gang Yi than with Yun Aonan.

Ju Hui comforted her, who was not good at parting, saying that if all went well, she could go back in a month, or at most a month and a half, before the New Year.

Yun Aonan felt a little better.

After quickly packing up, Ju Hui put on a mask and a woolen hat, hopped on her electric scooter, and headed to the huge factory where steel chairs were being grown.

This delivery room comes from an industrial building left over from the last century. The flaming welding torch and cutting machine are surgical forceps. The nurses and doctors wear brown leather and fleece aprons and remain silent. There are just the right number of people, and the indoor temperature is two or three degrees higher because of them.

"Ju Hui has arrived."

"You're here. I brought you some tea eggs."

"Ugh, I told you I don't like breakfast." Shanqin said this while still smiling as she took off her gloves, took them, and pushed them back to Juhui. "Hey, no, you peel them off for me, my hands are dirty."

Ju Hui's fingerless gloves weren't much cleaner than hers, but since Ju Hui wasn't working yet, she felt that the iron content in the zither she peeled open was low.

"Do you have classes today?" Ju Hui asked while taking a short break while feeding her. "I have a professional class at ten o'clock, and I have to leave again in a few hours."

"I've taken leave." Shanqin rolled her eyes, her words muffled. "I have no choice. I have to go see my dad after I finish delivering the goods."

Ju Hui nodded. Shan Qin's father, Shan Shilei, was a veteran worker in the factory, skilled in welding and delivery, and he collaborated with many people in the factory, including Ju Hui. A few days ago, the foreman strained his back, and Shan Qin took over for her father. A cheerful little sparrow appeared in the desolate steel forest.

Sparrow doesn't know how to weld; she's only responsible for moving goods. Although she's not very strong, she's very clever. She can't carry all the sheet metal and steel bars by herself, so she complains that she's tired. The nurses in the factory are kind-hearted and come forward to help, afraid that if this girl leaves, they will lose another worker.

Shanqin swallowed the last bite of egg white.

Ju Hui finished feeding the child and withdrew her hand.

But the next second, Shanqin suddenly tilted her head back and quickly pounded her chest.

She choked!

Ju Hui looked around and saw that her water cup was on the ground not far away. She took a step forward and prepared to rush over to pick it up.

Sparrow grabbed her, crying with tears streaming down her face: "Where are you going?"

Master Shan said rock music was his favorite. Once, during lunch break, Ju Hui saw him smoking with the workers under a tin shed, and she overheard him say:

"You call this a song?"

Ju Hui heard it; the song was Dou Wei's "Oh! Good Boy".

Sparrow pulled Ju Hui under the tin shed. The first snow left a trail of footprints, and she wiped away her tears with her gloves.

"Ju Hui, my dad has been diagnosed with leukemia." Shan Qin had a dark spot in the corner of her eye. "You should find another welder."

Ju Hui's teeth clenched slightly in her mouth. She was shocked by the news and didn't know how to comfort her.

Ju Hui paused, then reached out and hugged her, burying Shan Qin's face in her chest. Ju Hui stared at the gray world; her expression must not be pleasing, so she could only suppress her voice and comfort her, "It's okay. It'll be alright."

-

Ju Hui records the progress of this reclining steel chair every day. At nine o'clock in the morning, Ju Hui has completed sixty percent of her daily plan. The progress is not good, but the results are plentiful.

"Move closer to the chair," Ju Hui instructed Shan Qin, holding her camera. "Yes, I'm taking a picture."

Click—

"Why are you letting me in to take pictures?"

After filming Shanqin and walking back, Ju Hui smiled and showed her the girl in the viewfinder, a background music playing in her head—

His eyes were wide open, like copper bells.

"Because my project also involves three 1.2-meter-tall people, who will stand in front of this steel chair. Since you are shorter, it will be easier for me to see the effect."

“…Ju Hui, you!” Shan Qin pouted. “I’m clearly 1.55 meters tall.”

Ju Hui ruffled her hair and caught a glimpse of the driver appearing at Exit A with a paper bag. She said goodbye to Shan Qin and took the bus to school.

Two hours or four classes a day now seem to pass in the blink of an eye for Ju Hui. She always feels that she hasn't done anything yet, and the day is gone, and the nurses can go back to her cold delivery room.

Moreover, the biggest advantage of this off-campus maternity ward is that she can work late into the night. Ju Hui worked until 2 a.m. to finish the remaining 40% before going home.

The key jingled as it swung, and the motion-activated lights in the hallway flickered on and off, as if to compensate Ju Hui for her long-standing regret of not seeing the night sky.

Upon entering, I placed the key on the shoe cabinet.

"Clatter".

"Pat, pat..."

Ju Hui quickly pinched her nose; she was bleeding from her nose.

The sound of rushing water filled the room before the lights came on. Ju Hui searched for basic methods to stop the bleeding on her phone: splashing cold water on her forehead, pinching her nose for ten minutes...

She tried everything, but the nosebleed continued after ten minutes.

However, the two streams of blood changed from gushing to trickling. Ju Hui searched online for the reason why the nosebleeds couldn't be stopped for a long time, and a familiar word popped into her head—

leukemia.

"..."

"How could that be?"

This was Ju Hui's third year staying in Ruobei. The winters in the north were dry and biting, while those in the south were damp and chilling. Ju Hui believed that she had been punched by the dry, cold air of Ruobei.

At worst, it's just that she always stays up late, and God is punishing her.

Ju Hui sat on the sofa, stared at the few bright red crumpled papers on the table for a while, then quietly let go of them; there was still blood.

The room had never been so quiet.

Ju Hui pinched her nose, opened the refrigerator door, took out ice cubes from the ice tray with one hand, and successfully tied the hair tie around her forehead. She then placed the ice cubes on her forehead, completing the simple ice compress.

Exhausted, Ju Hui sat down on the sofa, picked up her phone, took a picture of the wads of red tissues, and updated her long-dormant WeChat Moments.

2:46 AM

J: Anyone selling a used humidifier?

[picture]

-

Ju Hui had a dream after a long time.

In her dream, she was a sailor's welding torch. A hundred-person fishing boat on the Pacific Ocean needed a new anchor. The sailor shouted to hold her tight, to hold Ju Hui tight... and then grabbed her throat, making her spit fire at the rusty, crumbling old anchor in the seawater, forcing it to shed its skin and get a new one.

But that's the seabed, how could it possibly succeed?

Ju Hui burned at it for three days and three nights, until her throat was parched and her sweat became fuel, but the old anchor remained unchanged. The sailors gave up, and the captain decided to buy a new one; she and the old, useless anchor were simply thrown into the sea.

"Like an idiot."

—The sailor's final words to her.

Ju Hui's body sank downwards.

The sticky seawater resembled the octopus scum on a sailor's clothes.

After an unknown amount of time, Ju Hui woke up.

There was still the sound of welding torches in the room, like a gas stove burning. Her head was throbbing, and she sat up in bed, grimacing.

The room was brightly lit, and there were figures moving around outside the sliding door...

Daylight broke.

Why did she wake up so late!

"You're awake. Eat your food and then take your medicine."

Ju Hui squinted as the man emerged from the light source, carrying a small bowl of steaming food. He hadn't had time to take off his coat, and an ill-fitting apron was on, making him look like a Michelin Man.

"What are you doing here?" Ju Hui didn't even have the strength to laugh at him anymore. She slammed back onto the bed and asked the ceiling, "Where did you get the key?"

"Where else besides these two places, on the door frame and under the floor mat?" Bian Jiaping put down the bowl and placed the back of his hand on Ju Hui's forehead. "Do you know you have a fever?"

Ju Hui blinked in confusion. No way, she was fine after dealing with her nosebleed last night. She snuggled up in the narrow, warm sofa and fell asleep in no time... Wait, she forgot to take off her hair tie before going to sleep.

"It's nothing, just take some medicine."

Ju Hui remained silent, observing the situation, refusing to be a fool.

This morning, before heading to the office, Bian Jiaping saw a post on WeChat Moments about a used humidifier. His brow furrowed immediately, and he called Ju Hui, but no one answered. He asked the driver and learned that Ju Hui had "no classes" this morning and was probably at the factory creating art.

Bian Jiaping didn't hesitate and came to the factory to find her, filled with resentment. He seemed out of place like a sophisticated capitalist, but thankfully no one paid any attention. The heavy machinery was like overgrown branches, both silent and noisy, and Ju Hui's steel chair was one of those branches.

Yes, tall and strong.

Bian Jiaping doesn't know much about sculpture and isn't sure if this Transformer, which looks like a pile of scrap metal, counts as art.

He stared at it for a while longer, becoming one with the steel chair.

Ju Hui shrugged, took the fever reducer and swallowed it with water. She pinched her eyes and felt a bitter taste, but continued to reply to Yun Aonan's messages with her other hand.

Yun Aonan: [Fine, I won't go see you.]

Yun Aonan: [But did you block the teacher from seeing that photo you posted?]

Ju Hui: [No, it was sent directly.]

Yun Aonan: [It's a pity those few blobs of blood were just the right amount; they would have been perfect for me to borrow to ask for leave.]

Ju Hui's eyebrows curved slightly, and her breathing was not smooth. She had hidden that post on WeChat Moments. She hadn't paid much attention to it last night; the room in the photo was too dark and the blood too dark red, which could be frightening.

It is easy to attract a home visit from the "homeroom teacher".

Bian Jiaping was that homeroom teacher.

"Are you all done? I'll take you to the hospital."

Bian Jiaping sat on the sofa next to her, waiting for her to process the message.

"Huh?" Ju Hui was stunned. "No need, I have class this afternoon. I feel much better after taking the medicine."

"Then I'll take the afternoon off and rest at home for a day."

“No.” Ju Hui stood up, putting on her coat and hat. “I’ll do less today, and wait until I get back tonight…”

Ju Hui turned around and noticed that Bian Jiaping was not in a good condition.

He noticed her gaze and lowered his head again. Bian Jiaping's hair, like Ju Hui's, had grown long, and the unkempt strands lightly covered his temples, making him look like a disheveled office worker squeezing onto the subway in the early morning.

"Ju Hui, come and sit down."

Without hesitation, the sofa sank a little deeper beside her. Ju Hui spread out a pink blanket and covered Bian Jiaping's shoulders. It was warm and heavy, and she hoped that his hot air balloon floating in the air would come down.

Ju Hui frowned; she hadn't seen him like this in a long time.

"After you finish your studies abroad, have you thought about which city you want to stay in?" Bian Jiaping asked her, "Ruobei or your hometown Nanchang?"

"...I haven't thought that far ahead yet."

Bian Jiaping's breathing was shallow. She paused for a long time, not daring to blurt out the answer she had planned. She hoped he would take out a cigarette and light one now, but this was her private space, and he was suppressing that urge.

"let's go……"

I'm going out for a smoke.

"Ju Hui, stop rushing people."

Bian Jiaping raised his palm and pressed it hard against his eyes, the bright ring gleaming on his knuckles. "No matter what happens in the future, Ju Hui, right now, I need you... you need me. This allows me to feel Zeng Yue."

-

Ju Hui had a whole day of rest, but her work schedule, which was precise down to the hour, was disrupted one after another. She felt that Bian Jiaping didn't actually want to help her rest; he just needed a large comfort dog to keep him company all day.

At five o'clock the next morning, Ju Hui appeared in the factory as usual. For some reason, the busy, solitary artists around her did not notice her rebirth and return. Only Shan Qin welcomed her with joy.

"You haven't shown up for twenty-four hours. Is it going to snow red today?" Shanqin stretched out her arms and bent her knees, exaggeratingly looking around.

Ju Hui pretended to be angry and pulled her arm as if to trip her. Turning around, she noticed her steel chair out of the corner of her eye.

Ju Hui was stunned; it had been touched.

The welding joint, which had been delayed due to Master Shan's work, was finally completed, and the weak weld on the leg was also reinforced. Now it lies flat and is breathing heavily.

“I took a picture of it for you yesterday since you weren’t here.”

Shanqin took off her gloves and put them on the workbench. She picked up the camera on the table, and as the light flowed through the metal layers, she said to Juhui, who was standing still, "It's fine if you're the only beauty, but even the new welder is a handsome guy. Am I going to drag down the overall attractiveness of this steel chair team?"

“I had him stand in front of the chair and I took a picture of him too, I’ll show it to you.” Shanqin brought the camera closer.

Ju Hui lowered her eyes.

In the photo, Sheng Qijing stands in front of a steel chair with his hands in his pockets.

He looks so cold.