The first few days were as colorful as she had imagined. The courses at the Royal College of Art and Design School were challenging yet interesting, and the professors' imaginative thinking and rigorous academic attitude made her feel at home.
Su Xinghui joined the model club. With her passion for mecha culture and her family's strong financial support, she soon became the most active and popular rising star in the club.
She generously shared the limited edition models she collected from all over the world, enthusiastically organized movie viewings and model-making workshops, and her apartment was always crowded with friends from the club. Music, snacks, paints, and fragments of model parts were scattered all over the floor, full of the noise and vitality of youth.
Her laughter was still hearty, and she was chattering with a strong desire to share. In the video, she showed Ye Fanshuang her newly bought model, complained about a certain old-fashioned professor, and imitated a classmate with a weird London accent. She was so excited that it seemed as if she wanted to pack all the fresh air of London into the small screen.
Ye Fanshuang is usually there late at night or early in the morning, with the quiet light of his home study as the background.
She still didn't talk much, and most of the time she just listened quietly. Occasionally, when Su Xinghui was talking particularly excitedly, a very faint, almost imperceptible smile would pass by the corner of her lips.
She never interrupted Su Xinghui's endless chatter, but when she occasionally forgot the time because of club activities and complained about being too tired from staying up late with dark circles under her eyes, she would lightly remind her: "Take care of yourself."
The voice was still clear and cool despite the long distance and time difference, but it was like a cool breeze that could always just right brush away the heat in Su Xinghui's heart caused by excessive excitement.
Su Xinghui felt that everything was great. She was like a colorful sponge, greedily absorbing everything London gave her - freedom, art, friendship, and Ye Fanshuang's silent but stable company.
She even felt that the furry warm light on her body would grow even brighter in the soil of a foreign country.
Until that late autumn weekend, when a large party was held in the college.
The story takes place in a luxurious riverside penthouse rented by Emily, a local student and a wealthy girl whose family runs an art gallery.
Emily is a kind of invisible weather vane in the college, and her circle represents a "pure" British elite taste.
Su Xinghui was originally not interested in this kind of pretentious party, but she could not resist the strong encouragement of Lucy and Tom, two of her good British classmates in the club.
"Xinghui, go ahead! Not everyone can go to Emily's party!"
Lucy shook her arm.
"And I heard her family has a collection of sketches by classical masters, hanging in their apartment! Isn't that what you love studying?"
"Yeah, just think of it as an eye-opener!" Tom chimed in. "And meeting some new friends is better than just eating pizza in the club room all day."
Su Xinghui was persuaded, especially by the master's manuscript.
She deliberately chose a dress with a strong sense of design, which was neither too formal nor too playful. She also brought along an extremely rare Victorian miniature mechanical bird model that she had recently acquired, thinking that she could use this as a topic to integrate into that seemingly unattainable circle.
The party was filled with elegantly dressed people, crystal chandeliers shone brightly, and the air was filled with the scent of expensive perfume, cigars, and champagne.
Emily was surrounded by several well-tailored and reserved men and women, standing in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window, chatting and laughing.
Su Xinghui walked over accompanied by Lucy and Tom, trying to make herself appear generous and decent.
"Emily, hi!" Lucy greeted enthusiastically. "I brought a new friend, Su Xinghui, our model club's hidden gem! She's really knowledgeable about classical sketching!"
Emily's gaze, like an expensive scanner, lingered politely on Su Xinghui for a moment, a perfect smile on her lips: "Welcome, Su."
Her eyes immediately fell on the exquisite velvet box containing the miniature mechanical bird in Su Xinghui's hand. She looked at it with a bit of scrutiny, "Oh? It's a very unique little gadget."
Su Xinghui was delighted and quickly opened the box. She carefully took out the lifelike mechanical bird made up of hundreds of tiny brass gears and introduced it as if presenting a treasure:
"This is a masterpiece from the Goldfinch Workshop in London, made around 1870. It's entirely handmade, and when fully wound, it can still flap its wings and chirp. It's in remarkably good condition..."
Her tone was filled with the excitement of finding a like-minded person and the pure love for the model itself.
However, before she could finish her words, Henry, a boy next to Emily who was wearing a three-piece suit and had his hair neatly combed, suddenly sneered briefly with a clear sense of superiority.
He picked up the champagne glass and shook it gently. His eyes lightly swept over the sophisticated mechanical bird, and finally fell on Su Xinghui's face, with a playful arc at the corner of his mouth.
"Goldfinch Workshop? Huh." His voice was not loud, but it clearly penetrated the surrounding background noise, with a deliberate nonchalance.
"There seems to be a cabinet full of these 'little gadgets' in my grandfather's collection room. When I was a kid, I took them apart and played with them. Later, they took up too much space, so the housekeeper probably got rid of them."
He paused, his eyes glancing at Su Xinghui's momentarily frozen smile, and added pointedly, "Ms. Su's... passion for this kind of 'collection' is very... 'Asian nouveau riche' style."
"Asia's new elite".
These four words were like four cold steel needles, piercing Su Xinghui's defenseless heart unexpectedly and fiercely.
The air around them seemed to freeze instantly. The smiles on Lucy and Tom's faces froze in awkwardness.
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