Chapter 135 If You Are Not Married Yet, You Are Still My Child
Qin Tian had been gone for three days. The porcelain factory had sent the molds and the glaze formula was ready. The people at the factory were very polite and asked Zhang Gong to come over and help them fire the kiln.
Tong Zhongyuan held his phone, looked out the window at the drizzling mountain rain, and said, "It's raining."
"Huh? It's raining? How long is the forecast?"
"One week."
"A week? That's too late to burn it. How about I wait until the rain stops and then ask Engineer Zhang to come over?"
Electronic kilns can control temperature and humidity, but as Qin Tian said, the porcelain produced lacks soul. Traditional kiln firing, on the other hand, possesses that uncertainty as its beauty. To achieve the desired color, one might have to wait a week, a month, or even longer. The Yuan Dynasty blue-and-white Tianmeng General Chun vase boasts a moon-white color. This color requires very high humidity; it cannot be fired in the rain.
It needs to wait, wait for a sunny day.
The forest was ablaze with colors—green, yellow, and orange—so wet from the mountain rain, like a watercolor painting with wet paint. She left him here to admire the beautiful scenery, and the rain became her excuse for not returning.
He called Eithans. The dial tone lasted a long time, and then Eithans's sleepy voice came over: "Time difference, man, take the time difference into consideration when you call."
"It's eight o'clock in the morning, London time."
Eithans complained, "I'm not you. I have a full nightlife. Tell me, what's the matter? Why are you calling so early in the morning?"
"Get all the documents ready for signature. My flight is tomorrow afternoon and I'll be in London the day after tomorrow."
Eithans breathed a sigh of relief.
"Finally. Are you sure I can see you the day after tomorrow morning? You won't change your mind this time?"
"Sure, no."
"It just so happens that I have something to tell you, so let's talk in person when you get here."
"good."
"Wait, do you mean 'come back' or 'come back for a bit'?"
Tong Zhongyuan was silent for a moment: "Come back."
Eithans sighed, "Okay, how long will it take to be back? A few days? A few weeks?"
"I will stay in London until the rain stops here."
At around ten o'clock in the evening, the train slowly pulled into the station. The conductor walked through the carriage and announced the station manually.
"We've arrived at Jiangyong. Jiangyong Station."
Qin Tian took the luggage down from the luggage rack. The young man sleeping in the middle bunk turned over and helped her.
"Thank you," she said gratefully.
"Um..." The young man held up his phone, "Can I add WeChat?"
"oh."
She propped her luggage up with her legs and opened the WeChat code on her phone. The young man scanned her and was a little excited.
"My name is Chen Rushi."
"I...I've arrived."
Qin Tian smiled at him and pushed her luggage to the door. She had been on the road since leaving Kongshan City yesterday. She first took the high-speed rail to Changsha. Jiangyong didn't have a high-speed train, so the fastest was the local train. It took over eight hours of shaky driving to arrive.
The train station was small. A smattering of travelers disembarked, walked out the door, and dispersed. At this hour, there were no taxis waiting at the station. It was the same way she'd gone to Hotan with Tong Zhongyuan; they'd taken an illegal taxi because he was there. She looked around, located the hotel with the largest and tallest sign, and wheeled her luggage toward it.
Before falling asleep, she thought of Tong Zhongyuan again. This seemed to have become her nightly routine. She was powerless; her mind was out of her control, especially in the dead of night.
She thought about how she mustered up the courage to say she had something to do and wouldn't go to Jingdezhen. It would rain all week and it would be a waste of time for her to go. And he just said, "Really?"
There were only two words, two words without any expression. But during the journey day and night, these two words echoed in her ears again and again.
Yeah?
She knew what he was expecting, didn't she?
She chose to refuse, didn't she?
Tong Zhongyuan brought no luggage, just a carry-on bag. His London home had everything he needed; he only needed his ID and money. He took the first high-speed train to Shanghai, where he went shopping and bought gifts.
Yesterday, He Wu learned that he was coming back and scolded him again.
"You're going to come back anyway, why not a day earlier?"
He argued, "It's all the same. The UK time is eight hours behind. I can catch up when I get back."
"Okay, okay, I won't tell you. After you get married, I won't care about you at all. Besides your parents, who else will think about you and care about you?"
He listened silently and stopped arguing. When she calmed down a bit, he asked, "Do you want to bring anything back?"
He successfully changed the subject. He Wu talked about a lot of food and even made a list. Most of it was food that was prohibited from entering the country. The remaining small part could only be bought at designated places.
He spent the afternoon browsing the time-honored shops on Nanjing East Road, then took a taxi to Pudong Airport.
Qin Tian stood in the Nüshu Ecological Museum. She had finally arrived.
The only gendered writing system in the world, a writing system circulated only among women.
Jiangyong is a remote area with few tourist attractions nearby. She was the only one in the vast museum. Video footage flashed, recounting the long history of Nüshu.
Nüshu is a form of women's literature of sorrow, even a form of grievance. It primarily expresses the sorrow of widows and orphans who have lost loved ones. In their region, women were barred from attending school, attending ancestral halls, or registering in family genealogies. They were unable to establish their own household and become heads of family. They created Nüshu, using their own script to express and sing the pain of oppression and discrimination. Ultimately, after death, it was buried with them.
A girl came over and sat next to her.
"Are you passing through here or did you come here specifically to see the women's book?"
"I came here specially."
"Where are you from?"
"Shanghai."
"That's very far. We don't have a high-speed rail or an airport here, so few people come here specifically."
"Are you a staff member?" Qin Tian asked her.
She pointed to a photo in the museum, which was a photo of a Nüshu inheritor.
"This is my grandmother, He Jinghua. I am her granddaughter, Li Jie."
After that, she sighed and said helplessly: "Even though grandma did such a great thing, I still follow grandpa's surname Li."
Qin Tian comforted her: "Your future children can have your surname."
The girl shook her head: "Not many men would agree. Besides, my last name is Li."
Qin Tian smiled: "You can tell him the story of your grandmother, maybe it will move him."
The girl stretched her legs, looked up, and said with a mixture of longing and regret, "I don't believe I can find a man like that. What about you? Do you have a boyfriend?"
Qin Tian paused: "Not yet."
"Wow, you're so beautiful and you don't have a boyfriend? You must be very demanding."
Qin Tian couldn't help but think of Tong Zhongyuan. If she used him as a standard to find a partner, then her requirements were ridiculously high. She couldn't help but smile and nodded.
“It seems very high.”
Li Jie also laughed. Then she turned her head and said to her seriously, "Don't lower your standards. Me too, even though I'm not as pretty as you."
"Yeah." Qin Tian looked at the wall full of women's books, "I won't lower it, and neither will you."
They looked at each other and smiled.
"Add me on WeChat. I want to learn Nushu from you, is that okay?" Qin Tian took out his cell phone.
"Of course. My grandmother's wish is for more people to know and understand Nüshu."
"I'll probably be here for a week or so. Do you have time to teach me?"
Li Jie was surprised and said, "You want to live here and study? Then you really came here for Nüshu!"
She stood up excitedly: "Then you can come here every day. There aren't many people here anyway, so I'll teach you here."
"Great. Shall we start today?"
"Today..." Li Jie suddenly stopped. "Not today. I have to go see my dad this afternoon. He's working in Yongzhou. It's his birthday today, and I don't want him to celebrate it alone in a foreign land. I'll make him some noodles."
"Happy birthday to him~"
Qin Tian said as she rummaged through her bag. She always had a small gift or two in it. She searched for a long time before finding a box. She opened it and found a stack of receipts. She hadn't had time to claim expenses lately, so she'd tucked the receipts together and casually placed them in the box. The first ticket in the box belonged to Tong Zhongyuan: a high-speed train ticket from Shanghai to Jingdezhen. His passport number was on the ticket.
On their way back to Shanghai from Urumqi, they lined up for security. She pulled his passport from his hand, saying she wanted to see his ID photo. There was an indulgent smile in his eyes. She flipped open the passport page. It was probably the best ID photo she had ever seen. Thick eyebrows, beautifully shaped lips, a quick jaw. She stared at it for a long moment, then glanced at the string of numbers beside it: his birthday. A thought flashed through her. His birthday was coming up soon, but by then he'd probably be home.
She remembered.
Today is Tong Zhongyuan’s birthday, his 30th birthday.
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