Chapter 22 Let's part ways amicably. Given his personality, he'll come say goodbye on Friday.
Qin Tian hadn't seen Tong Zhongyuan all day. She wanted to go look for him in the restoration room, but she didn't have the courage to step inside. She waited until the end of the day, counting the people at the corner of the restoration department. Everyone had left, and Tong Zhongyuan still hadn't come out. He was always punctual, but he never worked overtime. She waited another 20 minutes, and from a distance, she saw the lights in the restoration room were still on. It seemed he was planning to work overtime today.
Qin Tian took a deep breath. What was meant to come had to come. He walked into the restoration department and knocked gently on the door. Tong Zhongyuan looked up from the side window and saw that it was her, then continued with his work.
"The door is unlocked."
Qin Tian pushed the door open and asked softly, "Working overtime today?"
"Um."
"Would you like to have dinner together later?"
"No, I'll go back to the hotel to eat in an hour."
"Well," Qin Tian mustered up his courage, "I was impulsive about what happened yesterday. I'm sorry."
Tong Zhongyuan was concentrating on outlining the joints with a tracing pen, and without looking up, he said, "It's okay. Don't worry about it."
"About the delivery... I don't know how to explain it, but the item is actually..."
Tong Zhongyuan interrupted her: "No need to explain. Anyone can buy things on eBay. I understand."
"No, what I want to talk about is the current situation of the cultural relics..."
Tong Zhongyuan put down his paintbrush and looked at her across the restoration table. "Qin Tian, there's no need to talk about the past. I have my own solution. The Heart-Transforming Bottle will be repaired this week. I'll be back in London on Saturday. Thank you for your help during this period. I really do. Without you, I wouldn't be able to move forward here. Although we did have some unpleasantness yesterday, it doesn't stop me from being grateful to you. If I've caused you any discomfort, I hope you can forgive me. It wasn't my intention."
He walked around the restoration table and approached her. His face didn't have the coldness of yesterday, nor did it bear his usual smile. Instead, it held a distant, distant air. Song Suiyang had said that he was always polite but distant to his colleagues in the restoration department. He'd also said he felt a little special towards her. Now that she thought about it, before last night, he had indeed felt special towards her. Only then did she understand what Song Suiyang meant when he said he had a barrier around him that kept mortals away.
He held the door handle and said politely, "I'm glad to meet you. I look forward to working with you again in the future. But right now, I want to complete the restoration work as quickly as possible."
Looking at his hand holding the door handle, she understood that he had ordered her to leave. Now she, like everyone else, was also locked outside this door.
In the following days, Qin Tian hardly saw Tong Zhongyuan again, whether on his way to or from work or in the coffee shop, places where she used to run into him. It was as if there was a secret room in the Shanghai Museum that she couldn't see. Tong Zhongyuan was there, but he was invisible only to her.
Song Suiyang said Tong Zhongyuan was still the same, except that he was working faster and longer hours. Every morning, when she saw the recovery process of the Heart-Transforming Bottle, she wondered if Tong Zhongyuan had pulled an all-nighter again.
Tang Zhixu knew Qin Tian was deeply concerned about the unpleasantness between her and Tong Zhongyuan. But he secretly believed she had lost hope. He told Qin Tian that the Mingyuan Guild would allow him to return home with the thirteen artifacts, and that the misunderstanding would be resolved naturally. She had tricked him, but not completely. She was just being assertive, trying to scare him; it wasn't a big deal.
What Qin Tian admired most about Tang Zhixu was his carefree attitude. In his eyes, nothing was a big deal. This was also what made him so attractive to girls, but many things were double-edged swords.
Qin Tian also knew that Tong Zhongyuan would come to say goodbye to her on Friday. He would return her SIM card and confirm the amount of her spending during this period. However, the real goodbye had already happened, when he said, "Nice to meet you," at the door of the restoration room.
Tong Zhongyuan removed his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Cutting the three-week workload to two seemed a stretch. Restoring the rotating vase proved more challenging than he'd anticipated. Luckily, he was the one pushing himself. Now, the only things left were the final touches, which should be completed tomorrow morning. Ming Yuanxing had been away from Shanghai for a few days. He'd heard he was leaving on Saturday, so he told him to wait until he got back tomorrow, as he had some things to attend to. After chatting with Ming Yuanxing, he said goodbye to his colleagues at the Shanghai Museum. He had nothing to do in the afternoon, so he could rest at the hotel. He hadn't thought much when he came to Shanghai, keeping a tight schedule. He was only 30, not yet at the age of nostalgia. Memories before the age of nine were already fading. The old house, the old Shanghai Museum, were only fragments in his memory, and even if he wanted to, he couldn't recall them. However, when he actually walked the streets of this city, heard the familiar accent, and tasted the familiar flavors, his five senses, distinct to his childhood, began to awaken, and with them came memories. If he had time in the afternoon, he might want to revisit his old haunts.
He'd recently asked a colleague in the restoration department to exchange old RMB notes for new ones. After returning the SIM card tomorrow morning, he'd have enough left for half a day. That day at the Shanghai Tower, when he'd left Qin Tian, he'd clutched his phone tightly in his pocket. He'd been so mad he'd just pulled out the SIM card, tossed it to her, and walked away without a backward glance. Luckily, his rationality held him back, preventing him from losing control like a schoolboy returning stationery to his deskmate after an argument. Otherwise, every time he thought about it, he'd wish he had lost his memory.
He still used her SIM card every day, opened WeChat, where she was his only friend, and swiped her bank card. Her Moments had been updated, and the latest post was no longer about fish and chips, but a photo of the sunset at the Shanghai Tower that night, posted an hour before their falling out. The caption read: "Beautiful sunset, captured, saving it for memories."
On Friday afternoon, Song Suiyang was about to go out for lunch when Tong Zhongyuan opened the door and called her over. He said the rotating vase had been repaired and asked her to inspect it.
Song Suiyang was stunned. She knew the revolving vase would be repaired today, but how could she possibly be qualified to inspect the master's work? Trembling with trepidation, she became the first person to see the restored revolving vase.
The revolving bottle has been restored to its original condition without any signs of repair. It rotates just like before.
Tong Zhongyuan said apologetically, "I tried my best, but it's not perfect."
Song Suiyang stared wide-eyed and searched for a long time, but still couldn't find the imperfection he mentioned. She had no choice but to ask: "Teacher Tong, I can't see it. Where is the imperfection you are talking about?"
"The materials used were epoxy resin in the plaster to fill in the gaps. It may turn a little yellow over time."
Song Suiyang nodded in understanding: "Yes, after more than 20 years, it will become a little yellow. Where is the defect?"
Tong Zhongyuan picked up a magnifying glass and pointed to the yellow background on the rotating bottle: "Here."
Song Suiyang was very upset and said, "Teacher Tong, it's already yellow there. Even if it turns yellow in the future, it won't be noticeable."
"You may not be able to see it with the naked eye, but you can see the different shades of yellow with a magnifying glass. But when the time comes, you can take the area apart and patch it up again, and it won't be visible anymore."
Song Suiyang nodded repeatedly. Tear it down? Tear down the one you fixed and then do it myself? Forget it, this is going to kill me.
Tong Zhongyuan took out a data entry book that recorded the entire restoration process of the rotating heart bottle and photos of each stage of the restoration and gave it to Song Suiyang.
"If there are no other questions, please sign for it."
Song Suiyang was frightened and waved his hands repeatedly.
"Teacher Tong, how can I sign for it? No, no, it's not that there's something wrong with your repair, you repaired it perfectly, it's just that, I really can't sign. Is Director Ming here? Otherwise, I'll go call him."
"Director Ming said that he just wanted to tell you about repairing the Zhuan Xin Bottle."
"No," Song Suiyang stammered, "Well...I, how about I ask Qin Tian to come?"
Qin Tian was halfway through lunch when she received a call from Song Suiyang. She handed back her plate and rushed to the restoration room. Tong Zhongyuan was cleaning and organizing his tools, drying the sculpting knife and tracing pen he had brought with him and storing them in his toolbox. Qin Tian stood panting, leaning against the doorframe, her chest heaving from the rush. This was the first time she had seen Tong Zhongyuan in four or five days.
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