Chapter 21
The lighting in Yuanweifang is very soft, and the "Guitang" private room by the window is very quiet. The dark mahogany screen separates the noise, leaving only the moonlight outside the window floating on the lake, rippling slightly.
Zou Ping arrived fifteen minutes early.
She took one last look at her phone before entering the room. The screen was still blank, with no new messages.
Tang Yuchuan did not reply or call.
The waiter seemed to recognize her and respectfully led her to a seat, whispering, "Mr. Tang's reservation is for the private room. Please come this way."
She was the only one in the room.
She didn't ask, nor did she show any surprise. She just nodded politely and said, "Thank you."
She took off her coat, sat down, and gently pulled the cake box toward her. The packaging was a style she had mentioned casually before, with a white background and embossed rose pattern, like a pattern peeled from a French dessert book.
The private room was quiet.
I made an appointment with her, but I was late? What does that mean? Zou Ping pondered secretly.
There was a sudden knock on the door.
She instinctively turned her head, but it wasn't him.
It's the sound of the microphone.
"You?" She frowned slightly, stunned for a moment.
Mai Sheng was dressed very casually today, in a gray long-sleeved shirt and black pants. He was holding a cup of takeaway tea and standing at the door, facing the backlight.
He smiled lazily, but his tone was not frivolous: "Don't get me wrong, it's just a chance encounter. I didn't come to you on purpose."
"How did you know I was here?"
"I saw Tang Yuchuan's name on the reservation record, so I guessed I might meet you." He put down the tea.
"Are you checking me?" she said in a light tone.
"I'm not checking," he said without getting angry. He found a seat near the door and sat down. "I'm just in charge here. Looking through the reservation records isn't illegal, right?"
She didn't say anything, just stared at the box of cake on the table for a while.
Mai Sheng looked at her profile, his eyes moving slightly: "...is it your birthday?"
"no."
"He's quite serious. He even picked out the style of cake box you like."
"How do you know?" Although Zou Ping's tone was not obvious, her eyes showed the suspicion that "you are investigating me".
"Who do you think I am?" Mai Sheng laughed. "When you were in the studio, my sister came home every day talking about you. 'Teacher Zou taught us how to draw clouds today,' 'Teacher Zou said my lines have a sense of rhythm.' ... As soon as you left, she cried like a lost cat."
Zou Ping smiled slightly when she heard this.
“…She’s very spiritual.”
"I told you to come sit with me before and I'd treat you to a meal." Mai Sheng's voice suddenly rose a little, adding a hint of teasing. "I didn't expect you to actually come and meet me like this."
Zou Ping looked up at him: "I didn't expect it."
Mai Sheng didn't respond to her "I didn't expect that", but just lowered his head to look at the cup of tea.
"This tea is Peach Oolong, not sweet." He paused, "You seemed to have said last time that you can't drink sweet things."
Zou Ping lowered her eyebrows and said softly, "You have a good memory."
"Well," he smiled, a little teasingly, "one has to pick something interesting to remember."
"For example, you have to remember clearly even if you were rejected?" She looked at him, her tone not sharp, but like a knife hidden in her sleeve, it just cut the situation in half.
Mai Sheng was stunned for a moment, then he held his chin up and laughed, "You seem to have changed a bit."
"Is there?" In fact, Zou Ping also felt vaguely that recently, she always felt that she was not as direction as before.
Since she was a child, she knew that she had a talent for painting. She wanted to paint well and have a skill so that she could make money when she grew up and take her mother away from her father.
Later, she met Tang Yuchuan, who said that painting was not just a technical job but also a pursuit of art. She thought he was a playboy who didn't understand the hardships of ordinary people, and didn't think much of it.
When did everything start to change?
Her father forced her to get married and wanted to exchange her for a dowry. Her mother stood on her father's side without hesitation and tricked her into going home.
Tang Yuchuan took her back to his apartment and started a close relationship...
She had recently tried to contact her mother. The nightmares she had endured had forced her to admit that she couldn't be cruel to her mother. However, her mother's response was cold and indifferent.
At first, he was perfunctory, and later, he simply asked her not to contact her anymore.
Her so-called escape from marriage had become a heinous crime in her mother's mind. Zou Ping couldn't understand it.
She also thought about returning to the county town to find out what happened, but when she recalled the last time she was locked up at home, everything just remained in her mind.
"Yes. It's very sharp, but I only said it halfway." Mai Sheng said with a smile, as if he didn't mind the sharpness in Zou Ping's words.
Zou Ping lowered her head and adjusted the tissue on the table, as if she didn't intend to respond.
Mai Sheng looked at her for a few seconds, without joking or making any other movements. He just said softly, "You look quite tired recently."
Zou Ping said "hmm" and didn't answer.
"Is it about the studio?"
"I resigned from the studio after that sketching experience," she said calmly. "I thought I would be sad, but I wasn't. I accepted it very quickly."
Was she sad about not being able to continue teaching at the studio? Zou Ping couldn't put her finger on it, but she knew she wouldn't say much. Tang Yuchuan, her mother, and nightmares—they were almost all her worries lately.
If none of these things happened and her life was filled with only studio work, she might have been really sad for a while because of being persuaded to quit by the studio.
Someone passed by outside the private room, the sound of heels skimming across the wooden floor, and then faded away, leaving behind silence.
"It's not a good idea for you to stay like this," Mai Sheng said. "Have you thought about where to go next?"
Zou Ping shook her head, as if she was used to having no direction.
She wasn't like this before. She used to be very goal-oriented.
But after coming to Tang Yuchuan, it seemed that her goals became insignificant.
Zou Ping had pondered this point repeatedly. In the past, she would have searched everywhere for job postings, applying for every job she could, and not letting up even after leaving her job. But now, she seems a bit complacent.
In the past, insomnia, nightmares, and my mother's estrangement were nothing more important than survival. When the pressure of survival came, many worries were forgotten.
Thinking of this, Zou Ping couldn't help but laugh at herself. Tang Yuchuan must have taken such good care of her that she felt melancholy. People are always so greedy. When survival becomes a problem, everything else gives way. Once survival is over, they want more, they want love.
"... Doesn't Tang Yuchuan have connections?" Mai Sheng said casually without noticing Zou Ping's change of mood. But as soon as he said this, he knew he shouldn't ask.
Zou Ping looked at him, her eyes not sharp, but with a hint of strangeness: "What happened between him and me has nothing to do with you."
Mai Sheng pursed his lips and nodded: "That's right."
The atmosphere was silent for a few seconds.
He suddenly changed the subject: "My sister misses you very much."
Zou Ping's tone softened: "I miss her a lot, too."
"She said last time that you had an old collection of paintings and promised to show it to her, but you haven't given it to her yet."
"I forgot." Zou Ping lowered her head and smiled, "I'll look it up later."
"Where do you live?" he asked casually.
Zou Ping glanced at him and asked, "Why are you asking this?"
"If it's convenient, I'll ask her to get it from you. She said your paintings are like dreams, and she wants to see what's in your dreams."
"...Then I have to pick and choose." Zou Ping said thoughtfully, "There are also some things in my dreams that are not suitable for children."
Mai Sheng laughed out loud: "For example?"
"For example, there are some people I don't even want to see in my dreams."
When she said this, her tone was very calm, as if she had carefully tucked some emotion under the water to prevent any waves from arising.
Mai Sheng didn't ask who it was.
He knew that if she wanted to talk, she didn't need to be asked.
"...Do you meet me often?" Zou Ping suddenly looked up and asked him.
"Occasionally."
"Occasionally?" She raised her eyebrows slightly. "Like today?"
Mai Sheng didn't laugh, but instead said something serious: "I don't mean to bother you. But you have to admit that some coincidences are not something I can create alone."
Zou Ping lowered his eyes, as if thinking about something.
"Is it because he broke the appointment that I'm here today?" Mai Sheng suddenly asked.
"How do you know he will definitely break the appointment?"
Mai Sheng looked into her eyes and said slowly, "It's not that I knew he would break the appointment, but I came in after I found out she didn't. He's the one you said you liked before, right?"
Mai Sheng paused, glanced at the cake, and then said, "It seems that he is not a serious person. He has some feelings for you, but that's just a little bit."
"You don't understand him." Zou Ping's tone was calm, but she didn't sound like she was defending him.
Zou Ping looked at Mai Sheng, wanting to say something but didn't.
Zou Ping firmly believed that Tang Yuchuan was a sincere and conscientious person, but she felt she had no right to defend him. As for his feelings for her, Zou Ping wasn't confident, and she wasn't willing to delve into it, at least not at the moment.
As their eyes met, the air was silent for several seconds.
Mai Sheng lowered his eyes: "...If you don't want to wait for him, I can see you off now."
"Where are you going?"
"You can go wherever you want," he said. "If you don't want to go home, then don't go home yet."
Zou Ping leaned back in her chair and looked at the moonlit lake outside the window.
She thought about it and suddenly asked, "How many people have you chased before?"
Mai Sheng was stunned: "...What do you mean?"
"You're quite good at chatting," she said slowly. "You don't look inexperienced."
Mai Sheng pursed his lips.
She lowered her head and smiled: "Yeah."
"I admit, I've dated a few before." He paused, "but none of them were like you who didn't give me a chance."
"You already know everything, so why did you come to see me today?"
"Maybe... I want to know if you will give me a chance, even just once. It's not because someone else broke the appointment, but because you want to see me."
Suddenly, one of the lights outside the house went out, and the lake surface outside the window moved slightly, as if the night wind was gently blowing across an old dream.
Zou Ping didn't say anything.
She looked down at the box of cake, raised her hand to push it aside, and stood up.
"Let's go," she said.
Mai Sheng stood up and asked, "Where are you going?"
She picked up the cup of tea, walked to the door, and without looking back: "Look at where I paint my dreams."
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