Lady

Bian Jiaping: [I know.]

Bian Jiaping: [How did you know that?]

Xu Siran hissed. He was inexplicably flustered by Bian Jiaping. Adding him on WeChat was not his intention. His reply was just as difficult to deal with as his sudden friend request.

Xu Siran held his phone, explaining yesterday's minor incident. The more he explained, the more complicated it became. Seeing that Bian Jiaping was not replying to his messages, he finally realized that he had crossed the line.

He shouldn't have asked about something that sounded like a secret.

Xu Siran glanced at Ju Hui, then looked at Sheng Qijing, and silently said sorry to him three times.

In the afternoon, the trainees arranged the fired earthen kilns in the courtyard. The kiln was officially lit at 4 p.m. Before that, they had to learn from Master Li the precautions for loading the kiln and lighting it.

Loading the kiln involves placing the finished clay products into the kiln chamber, awaiting the official firing. The kiln chamber typically has three layers, with flames blowing upwards and supplying wood ash. For a more beautiful glaze, it's best to place the objects on the bottom layer.

Ju Hui placed ten items on the bottom shelf, with the wide-mouthed small bowls she made for Yun Aonan as a couple placed in the very center. One was white and the other was black, about the size of a billiard ball, just the right size to hold with five fingers, and spinning them was very relaxing.

Yun Aonan and Pei Yao seem to be making good progress recently. They have successfully passed the honeymoon phase and are now enjoying their leisurely winter break alone.

Ju Hui quickly filled the kiln with eighteen pieces. Satisfied, she turned to look at Sheng Qijing's kitten.

He stuffed a delicate floral ring into the cat's belly, swallowing Sheng Qijing's arm whole, and then placed the floral ring on the last layer.

What does he mean?

Sheng Qijing didn't notice her shocked gaze and continued to fill the kiln with a smile. Ju Hui counted them and there were three items related to Huihui!

Twenty minutes later, all ten earthen kilns in the courtyard were finally assembled. Ju Hui gave each person three sticks of incense to offer to the kiln god, praying that they would not explode.

When the incense was delivered to Sheng Qijing, Ju Hui tripped and accidentally dropped the incense she was being handed.

Ju Hui pursed her lips and looked at him apologetically: "I have a bad feeling."

Sheng Qijing picked up the incense stick, shook off the dust, and said, "It's okay. It didn't break even from such a height. I think I'm lucky."

Ju Hui twitched the corners of her mouth.

The busiest time is adding charcoal after the fire is lit, requiring a high level of tension; a slight misstep could result in the fire burning your face.

Mr. Gerald, with a mischievous grin, played Joe Hisaishi's "Merry Go Round." The intense symphony and the roar of the blowers filled the air, and Master Li, standing in the center of the stage, loudly directed: "Be very careful of the blowers!"

Before nightfall, Sheng Qijing's yawning kitten was the first to successfully reach 1000 degrees Celsius, with orange-yellow flames shooting out of its large mouth. Master Li praised it generously.

The seventh day of the Lunar New Year is an awkward day of celebration. There are no cicadas chirping like during summer vacation, no long holiday to look forward to, and the excitement ignited by the coal-fired power plant is quickly drowned out by topics such as work and marriage pressure.

With her head down, Ju Hui pretended not to hear everyone talking about how hard it was to get high-speed rail tickets for the return trip, who managed to get them, and who had taken leave. Even though there was no atmosphere of farewell around her, Ju Hui felt a little awkward.

She heard Sheng Qijing say that he had bought the tickets on the third day of the Lunar New Year.

She wouldn't misjudge, but it seems Sheng Qijing really doesn't want to start over with her.

"It's good that I didn't do much for him," Ju Hui thought with a sense of comfort.

As night deepened, urged anxiously by more than a dozen humans, the kiln god finally raised the temperature for everyone to 1200.

The strong reducing chemical reaction climbed upwards along the flame pattern of Tianlu, producing countless tiny, orange-red flames.

Ju Hui stood there admiring the scene for a long time, until the first one, then the second one, when the students who were about to miss the high-speed train hurriedly left, and the firelight in the courtyard also died down.

Sheng Qijing also left.

Huihui's ring will be left to cool down. Once it has completely cooled down tomorrow, Ju Hui and her team of staff will pack it up and send it back to him.

Master Li put his hands on his hips and said to the remaining trainees, "It's better to be a student. They don't have the chance to open the kiln themselves... You can leave your kiln there too. We'll finish up. Go and finish off the freshly roasted chicken wings!"

With a whoosh, the students who had been busy for four hours scattered and ran away.

Ju Hui was bumped on the shoulder. She turned around and saw that it was Pu Yin.

"It seems Qi Jing has really left. He left my number in his room, and I just received a check-out text message. What is he busy with in Ruobei now?"

"have no idea."

Ju Hui didn't even know he had gone to Ruobei, and smiled and shrugged at Pu Yin.

Pu Yin paused for a moment, then naturally changed the subject: "Tonight, Master Li will be setting off super-large fireworks, so big that you can see them even from the small window of the high-speed train."

"We'll set them off as soon as they finish eating and leave. What if they walk in the direction to the side of the fireworks? Will they only see a line?"

"The direction to Ruobei might be affected, but it will only become flattened, not flattened into a line."

Pu Yin chuckled and turned back to observe the condition of the earthen kiln.

As soon as she left, Ju Hui's phone vibrated; it was Sheng Jiashu making a video call.

The courtyard was too dark, so Ju Hui walked to the clay sculpture studio before answering the phone. The phone rang continuously during that time.

"Aunt Ju Hui, have you received the ring that Uncle Qi Jing gave you?"

As soon as the call connected, the person on the screen wasn't the familiar, beautiful woman, but rather Liuli's child, Xiaohuan, sitting in the nanny's arms, shaking her limbs uncontrollably.

Sheng Jiashu spoke in a high-pitched voice, and Ju Hui tried her best to cooperate: "Xiao Huan, it's been a long time. Auntie didn't receive any rings."

After speaking, Liangliang's two empty palms, which had been wrapped in fireproof gloves all day, looked a bit rough in the video.

"No?"

The camera focused back on Sheng Jiashu's face. She wasn't wearing makeup, and faint blood vessels were visible through her skin. She frowned and asked, "Isn't Sheng Qijing also in Jingdezhen? Didn't he give it to you?"

Ju Hui shook her head: "He went back to Ruobei."

Sheng Jiashu remained silent, her gaze shifting away from the camera. The scene behind her changed from the living room to Liu Li's study, with much less background noise.

Sheng Jiashu: "...It's like this, I specially asked a designer in Jingdezhen to make a necklace and ring for you a while ago. I was thinking that since Sheng Qijing is with you, I would have him give them to you. We went too far with our jokes at the banquet that day. I'm sorry, Xiaohui."

Ju Hui's head popped up with a huge exclamation mark: "Sister Jia Shu, I wasn't angry at all that day, you're too kind."

"Hey, don't say you're not angry before you've even received it." Sheng Jiashu pouted, while Ju Hui watched the person on the screen gently sway, her fingers tapping incessantly. "Why is Sheng Qijing so prone to letting us down?"

She looked troubled, thought for a moment, and then asked, "Where is the jewelry? I can go get it myself."

There was no other way but to do it this way. Sheng Jiashu had just contacted the designer, who had already made the order that morning. However, since the person who was supposed to pick up the goods hadn't arrived yet and she was in a hurry to go on a business trip, she had no choice but to leave the items at the front desk of the hotel next to the studio.

The hotel also required the items to be picked up before 10 a.m., and Sheng Jiashu sighed and apologized. Ju Hui waved her hand and said it was no problem, as the hotel was not far from her guesthouse.

Ju Hui suddenly wanted to return to the city early, which surprised Master Li and Pu Yin. Without asking any questions, they allowed her to leave first. Xu Siran also nodded to Ju Hui to reassure her, and together with Mrs. Ida, they saw her off to the door to get in her car and leave.

At nine o'clock in the evening, after a half-hour drive, she had plenty of time and settled down in the back seat to prepare for the interview.

Shanqin, whom I hadn't seen in a long time, sent me a WeChat message.

Shanqin: [Please give me your bank account information.]

Shanqin: [It's about 51,000, including your share. Thank you so much for covering the cost for me.]

Ju Hui stared at these words, feeling as if she had a fishbone stuck in her throat.

One or two of them are going to have bad luck tonight!

Her pent-up anger reached its peak instantly, but it also made her calmer. Ju Hui began to search for all the messages she had received from the victims, taking screenshots and editing them one by one, creating a simplified version of the victims' statements in ten minutes.

Ju Hui: [The difference is significant, and of course, you have to include my share, plus interest. I'll charge you three months' interest at the bank's fixed deposit rate of 1.05%, totaling 53,771.32.]

Ju Hui: [Photo]

Ju Hui: [The bank card number is at the end of this memo. Please find it yourself. When transferring money, please remember to include your name and ID number in the remarks.]

Shanqin was clearly playing favorites. She took advantage of Ju Hui because Ju Hui's emotions were relatively stable and she was tolerant of her being late or making mistakes. Ju Hui was also picked up and dropped off by luxury cars every day when she returned to school.

Shanqin thought that the 50,000 yuan was just pocket money for her one day.

Shanqin didn't answer. After a while, Juhui received a text message from the bank showing that 53,800 had been deposited into her account, which made Juhui laugh out loud.

If she really wanted to turn the tables, she should transfer 60,000 yuan to Ju Hui.

Sheng Jiashu: "What are you laughing at?"

Ju Hui: "I came across a funny post."

Sheng Jiashu was worried about her safety traveling alone, so the two kept their video chat online. However, there were children making noise on her end, so the microphone was kept muted, and they each did their own thing.

Unexpectedly, Sheng Jiashu's ears had been on alert the whole time: "You sound like you're in a good mood. Are we almost at the hotel?"

Ju Hui held up her phone, and the camera flipped to show her the view outside the window. The car was driving past a large park, and at the entrance of the square in the view was a huge display board with a three-dimensional pink heart. Couples from nearby universities were gathered around the heart, taking photos and checking in.

Ju Hui's smile froze as she thought of Sheng Qijing again.

Valentine's Day is almost here.

"We're almost at the hotel." Ju Hui turned the camera back to check the navigation. "Three hundred meters to go."

Sheng Jiashu smiled and said, "Then I'll hang up. Don't be disgusted by how ugly it is when you receive it. I designed the necklace and ring."

After the call ended, Ju Hui tried to return the extra money Shan Qin had paid, but Shan Qin refused, having already deleted Ju Hui from her friend list. She remained calm and thanked Shan Qin for paying her taxi fare.

She got out of the car, and the first snowflake landed at her feet.

It suddenly started snowing in Jingdezhen, and the rapidly falling snowflakes drifted down like white shooting stars before our eyes.

Ju Hui was somewhat surprised. She had checked the weather before the second phase of classes started, and it had been sunny and not cloudy for the past few days, so the temperature and humidity would not affect the outdoor wood burning.

Unexpected events always come sooner than tomorrow; the kilns are probably scrambling to collect their earthen kilns right now.

Sheng Qijing will never have the chance to see the flat fireworks.

Snowflakes mixed with cold rain tried to wet the ground. This was probably the last snowfall of the year. Ju Hui stood under the hotel corridor and watched for a long time.

She had seen a lot of snow that winter—in the small window of her rented room in Songzhuang, on the welder's tricycle, and in the embrace of the mountain zither. Every snowfall was bitter and unpleasant.

But tonight's snow is different; it's good, it's announcing that winter is about to end.

Surprisingly, Shanqin repaid the money. It suddenly snowed tonight. What's so surprising or sad about Sheng Qijing refusing her?

Today is a perfect day to celebrate. She can throw the bright red bills in Sheng Qijing's face and end everything once and for all!

She called Sheng Qijing.

Two beeps, and the call was connected.

"Hello?"

There was silence on Sheng Qijing's end, only his voice could be heard.

"Sheng Qijing, I hate you."

"You're annoying again?"

Ju Hui insisted that it was right, and Sheng Qijing's breathing became heavier, as if he had been woken up by her phone call. He lazily turned over in his business class seat on the high-speed train.

After a while, Sheng Qijing chuckled: "It's almost ten o'clock, aren't you going to hurry up and get your jewelry?"

Ju Hui was even angrier: "This hotel is obviously open 24 hours a day, and it doesn't close when it gets late. Besides, I'm the one receiving gifts, so I can be a little late."

"right."

Sheng Qijing learned from her.

The barely suppressed laughter from that single word annoyed her. She listened to his low chuckles as cars rattled past on the wet pavement. He was more annoying than the rest of the world.

Ju Hui pouted fiercely, since he couldn't see her anyway. "You played me, and now you've dumped me. From now on, we'll go our separate ways. Send me your bank card number, and I'll pay you back."

Sheng Qijing: "Let's wipe the slate clean from now on?"

Ju Hui: "Of course."

"Okay... but you still owe me a hug tonight."

Suddenly, electricity and reality intertwined, and a sound, both distant and near, came from the side.

Sheng Qijing held up his phone, while the red box in his other hand twirled between his fingertips twice.

Bang.

It felt like a distant place, or perhaps like Ju Hui's own heart; she heard small fireworks exploding somewhere.

It was a flat, unpredictable firework.

Sheng Qijing opened his arms and tilted his head to ask, "Can I still hug someone I dislike?"