Lady

"I didn't say I like you."

Ju Hui nervously waved her hands, "You're right, that kind of relationship has to be based on mutual dislike, but I'm not ending the relationship because I suddenly fell in love. I promise that I only have a desire to learn from you."

Ju Hui heard his breath catch slightly, as if he was about to throw her out the door like a bacteria-laden delivery box. Startled, she continued:

"I'm sorry for suddenly bringing up ending things earlier, and now I'm saying we should start again... Anyway, senior, I still want to be with you. Can you accept that?"

He didn't answer.

Ju Hui realized what was happening and her face turned bright red.

She lowered her head, thought for only half a second, then raised it again and asked, "Is it not allowed? We were doing great before. Do you really like me? Then why did you make so many smiley face flower dolls and put them on the second floor of the loft? You'd better tell the truth—"

"Ju Hui".

The only light disappeared.

Sheng Qijing suddenly turned on the light. Ju Hui, who was standing under the small lamp in the entryway, blinked and met his extremely helpless gaze.

"Speak slowly, nobody wants to eat you."

Ju Hui swallowed hard: "Those smiley face hair clips, did you make them for someone you like?"

Ju Hui stared at the suddenly vivid face. His eyes were completely calm, making Ju Hui wonder for a moment if she was wrong and that Sheng Qijing actually didn't have a crush on anyone.

But Sheng Qijing's mockery grew even more pronounced as he nodded with absolute certainty and proudly explained:

"It's not called the Smiling Flower, it's called Huihui."

"Huihui?"

"The 'hui' in 'flowers'."

Ju Hui responded with an "oh".

The entryway was cramped, so he stood a little further away, letting some light shine through the floor beneath Ju Hui's feet. "If you want to do it with me, why don't you just be more direct? Can't you just say you want to start a new, intimate, limited relationship with me?"

Sheng Qijing's eyelids were half-closed. The sadness of the day was long gone. His pupils were immersed in the mist that seemed to have condensed from the misalignment of time, just like his nonchalant 19-year-old self.

Ju Hui: "Then we..."

Sheng Qijing: "No."

"Why?"

"You say you're starting over, but is your senior just someone you can summon and dismiss at will?"

Sheng Qijing looked away.

"You clearly want to do it with me too," Ju Hui thought, staring at Sheng Qijing's earlobe, then secretly pouted before quickly closing her mouth.

Ju Hui: "What do you want to do?"

What kind of steps do you want?

Sheng Qijing turned around, crossing his arms as if to defend against Ju Hui's potential offense. "Those flowers weren't given to anyone else by me. They were given to me by someone who likes me. Don't think of me as a scumbag."

Ju Hui nodded, and his arrogant words were explained.

“Actually, I’m not good at saying no.” Sheng Qijing raised an eyebrow. “Especially those Huihui who are with me day and night and feel so soft to the touch, they’re a real nuisance. Now that there’s you too, I have to refuse one of them.”

“But then I thought,” Sheng Qijing quickly added, “it’s not impossible to refuse her. Why don’t you do something for me to please me?”

Ju Hui readily agreed: "What do you want?"

"You'll have to figure that out yourself." Sheng Qijing lowered his eyes and reached behind her. "You have six days left, Teacher Ju."

-

The British couple's divergent thinking greatly improved Ju Hui's oral skills. They chatted with Ju Hui about everything under the sun, keeping her hands busy as they worked together to make a Tianlu stone lion with Dunhuang fire patterns, which is the stone lion in front of their house.

Xu Siran was quick with her hands. Seeing that Ju Hui was too busy, she would come over to help her. During this time, she did not forget to tease Sheng Qijing, who was standing next to her. His yawning little cat dared to stand with the guardian beast of the house.

Sheng Qijing ignored him and continued rolling the mud strips slowly. His persona was that he didn't know anyone, ate alone after class, and was taciturn.

Except at night, the kiln is at least three or four miles away from the city. Sheng Qijing rented a car and could ask the driver to take him back if he didn't want to take the driver's early morning bus.

Sheng Qijing left very late, almost finishing work at the same time as Ju Huipuyin. In his hands, the simple earthen kiln resembled a cultural relic awaiting restoration in the Forbidden City, with old light bulbs swaying slowly on the roof beams, day after day.

The car was full again tonight. Cheng Wen was filming a vlog and recording ambient sounds, so she stayed until the very end. She and the two teachers were regulars at Sheng Qijing's place.

The car was quiet. Pu Yin was dozing in the back seat, and Ju Hui was sitting in the passenger seat. The heater and the vlog were blowing gently. Xu Siran's loud shouts, "If I had a valid driver's license, I would at least rent a seven-seater family Volvo," were not in her ears.

Chengwen's hotel arrived first. Juhui said goodnight to her through Sheng Qijing's car window, and in the blink of an eye, their guesthouse also arrived.

Pu Yin hurried upstairs, while Ju Hui and Sheng Qijing followed behind unhurriedly.

As the two passed Ju Hui's door, neither Sheng Qijing nor Ju Hui stopped. After taking four or five more steps, Ju Hui followed Sheng Qijing into his room.

A silent embrace.

Ju Hui's arm slid back along the man's abs, her fingers, which had just begun to warm up, clasped tightly together.

This was the only thing Ju Hui could think of to do for him; during the day, Teacher Ju and he had only exchanged a few casual words about their teacher-student relationship.

His left hand was hot while his right hand was cold. Ju Hui rubbed his hands behind his back, and the two fleshy mounds made a rustling sound.

"You look handsome today too."

It seemed that because of that extra sentence, Ju Hui was quickly pushed away by him. She wondered why today's hug hadn't even lasted ten minutes.

The next day, after everyone's earthen kilns had dried in the air conditioning, Ju Hui took a bowl of cosmetic clay, red and blue, and asked all the students to paint flame patterns on her guardian beast. Sheng Qijing was the fourth to come and get the paintbrush.

He had just returned from a phone call. On the morning of the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, his conference call started earlier than anyone else's.

Sheng Qijing's hand briefly touched hers, and he smiled at her, "I'm leaving tomorrow night too, so please send it back for me like they did."

Ju Hui smiled and said, "You don't have to go to work, why are you leaving so early? It'll be over by the morning of the day after tomorrow."

Sheng Qijing: "I'm busy with something."

Ju Hui didn't ask any more questions. In the afternoon, the students' works were loaded onto the truck and sent into the extra-large electric kiln. While waiting for the firing to be completed, everyone was free to do their own thing. They could stay in the studio to throw their own clay and make hand-sculpted pieces, or they could go to the market to buy ready-made unglazed clay pieces.

Ju Hui and Pu Yin decided to stay in the studio to continue teaching, but since everyone had just been released from the foot of the mountain, no one would feel comfortable sculpting clay in the classroom.

Like everyone else, Ida and her husband casually grabbed a couple of drinks and headed out for shopping. The classroom was now only occupied by the familiar group of four hitchhikers, plus Li Anya.

There were very few people around, and Pu Yin prepared to slip away without saying a word. Ju Hui chuckled and patted her on the bottom before watching her leave.

Unexpectedly, Ju Hui became herself at this moment, making her first earthen kiln. After so many trips to Jingdezhen, she finally completed this project. Just as she was feeling a little excited, she heard a scream.

The sound came from outside the classroom, growing closer as it approached, as urgent as a baton being passed around.

"Please help me!"

Li Anya ran excitedly in from outside, the wind blowing her into a bright light. Ju Hui praised her more than once as a natural subject for painting, saying that her vitality was unmatched.

As soon as Li Anya entered, she caught the three people staring at her. She showed them her phone, with a QR code displayed on the screen.

“Let’s add each other on WeChat and help me post this on my Moments. The boss said that for every person I get to promote his shop, I can get that many vegetarian dishes! You guys should add each other too, we’ve been classmates for so long…”

Li Anya urged them on, and Xu Siran and Sheng Qijing were reluctant, but unexpectedly they became friends because of it.

Next was Ju Hui, who stood obediently, scanned Sheng Qijing's QR code, and said thank you.

Ju Hui really seemed like a junior student asking for contact information upon first meeting. Sheng Qijing withdrew his hand, clicked the screen in a serious manner, and accepted the application.

"I'll copy it for you...okay, that was quick. Give it a like, let's like each other's likes, and send me a screenshot."

Ju Hui did as instructed and quickly sent it to her.

Li Anya received the photo, frowned slightly, and asked, "You saved his contact as 'Sheng Qijing, who owes 47,000 yuan'?"

Li Anya pointed at Sheng Qijing and asked in shock, "You owe him 47,000?"

Ju Hui smiled easily: "I just typed that prefix randomly."

Li Anya turned her eyes in disbelief to look at Sheng Qijing: "Where's your screenshot?"

Sheng Qijing: "You can see all of us from there."

Li Anya clapped her hands and exclaimed, "That's right!" Then, without waiting for the dawdling Xu Siran, she turned back the way she came with a screen full of free raw embryos.

-

Bian Jiaping saw this post on WeChat Moments the next day: "Xiangyuan Plain Pottery Workshop specializes in cups, teapots, and bowls. From the first to the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, there is a discount of 100 yuan for every 500 yuan spent and 300 yuan for every 1,000 yuan spent. The address is in the old factory of Jingdezhen..."

The accompanying picture shows the shop owner standing under the red storefront, giving a thumbs-up with a beaming smile. Bian Jiaping scrolled down and found it was the same shop owner again.

Xu Siran posted an ad, and Ju Hui commented with the exact same comment below. It seems that she is with Xu Siran, and Bian Jiaping's depression instantly eased a bit.

So Ju Hui was also in Jiangxi, but he had never heard her mention her.

Bian Jiaping leaned against the car door, pressed his left thumb on the screen to copy the store address, and opened the map to check the driving route.

Ash from his fingertips rolled down his coat. His eyebrow twitched; it had only been less than an hour since he got there.

Let's leave before lunch and go see Ju Hui.

Qi Guan Village, with its bumpy stone-paved roads and surrounded by Ming and Qing dynasty Hui-style buildings, is covered in greenish-gray and overgrown with weeds. Bian Jiaping wonders if anyone actually lives in these houses.

After circling the "arrived" area three times, he realized the navigation system was broken, and the first eligible boy was so hard to find.

Bian Jiaping sent a message to the village party secretary to confirm Jiang Wenkang's address again.

This year marks the seventh anniversary of Zeng Yue's passing. I've always had the idea of ​​sponsoring a child with her again, and I only recently made up my mind to do so.

There are many impoverished households in the village, and he has only one requirement for those he helps: they must be fourteen years old. If they are sensible, they will be as lovely as Ju Hui was back then.

He stubbed out his cigarette in the car again and again, but still couldn't find the gate tied with red rope. Just then, the village secretary walked towards him, a man carrying a bag of apples, who complained, "Isn't this the gate in front of you? If you don't get out of the car and walk into the yard, how can you find it!"

Sure enough, as you walk further in, you see red glints in the cracks of the stone slabs, like red scarves, wet from the rain and dried, stuck to the door panels.

Bian Jiaping pursed his lips. The broken wooden plank blocked the two adults, and with each push, there were the rustling sounds of children playing.

The village party secretary glanced at him sheepishly, then threatened him sternly before Jiang Wenkang finally opened the door.

As the light rushed in, Jiang Yiying's smile vanished instantly, and she pulled back the hand that was clutching her brother's cotton-padded coat, startled by the man in front of her.

He was still staring at her.

"Wen Kang, why don't you open the door? Where has your grandpa gone to wander around again? This brother is very busy. Yi Ying, go and call your grandpa..."

"It's alright, no need." Bian Jiaping squatted down to be at eye level with Jiang Yiying. "How old are you?"

The man's gentle gaze startled Jiang Yiying again. She hid behind her brother, a whole head shorter than the boy. Only then did Bian Jiaping begin to observe the little devil who had tricked him.

The red scarf of the Young Pioneers should belong to him. His bright black eyes, resolute and unyielding, scrutinized this man who had suddenly appeared, offering to pay for him to go to school with his parents.

Jiang Wenkang's lips pursed tightly. "I'm not going to Ruobei with you. I still need to take care of Grandpa and my sister. You should go!"

“If you don’t want to go, I don’t want to take such a disobedient child like you.” Bian Jiaping asked him, “How old is your sister?”

"She's only ten years old," the village secretary said.

"Yes, I'll talk to her parents later."

After saying that, Bian Jiaping left without looking back, not even hearing Jiang Yiying say a word.

He didn't know that the little girl not only looked like Zeng Yue, but also had the same voice.

Bian Jiaping got into the car, set the destination, and had already sent a message to Xu Siran without realizing it:

Are you and Ju Hui in Jingdezhen?

Xu Siran: [Yes, Xiao Hui taught me how to fire a clay kiln.]

Xu Siran: [There are other friends too, don't worry, Brother Jiaping.]

Ju Hui was having a gathering with friends, and Bian Jiaping's enthusiasm had waned considerably. He put down his phone, prepared to switch navigation destinations, and stopped mentioning his desire to visit them.

The setup was complete, and the phone buzzed in the SIM card slot as Xu Siran sent another message.

Xu Siran: [Just in case, I'd still like to ask.]

Xu Siran: [It might not be true!]

Xu Siran: [Does Brother Jiaping know that Ju Hui owes Sheng Qijing 47,000 yuan...?]