The car drove to the somewhat dilapidated alley again. The water on the ground had not dried up yet. Pei Yan got out of the car silently and walked downstairs with Hua Jin.
"Mr. Pei, thank you today." The man who followed her silently became quiet in the night. The pride in his eyes turned into the moonlight by the lake, bringing a sense of peace in the tranquility.
"It's my bad luck that I always run into things like you." Pei Yan waved his hand lazily, "Let's go."
He stopped at the entrance of the alley and turned around to see Hua Jin still standing there: "You won't give me the gas money tonight?"
"No more." Hua Jin smiled and arched her eyebrows. "We are already so familiar with each other that we can be considered friends. It would be hurtful to ride in a friend's car and pay for gas."
This was the first time he heard that friends could round up. Pei Yan was too lazy to correct her: "You can find so many excuses to avoid paying for gas. You are quite talented."
Hua Jin smiled innocently.
After watching Pei Yan leave, Hua Jin walked to the second floor and suddenly remembered that Pei Yan asked her to taste the dishes, but why didn't he ask her after he came out?
As she was lost in thought, a figure walked out of the corridor, scaring her so much that she almost screamed: "Grandma Chen?"
It's almost ten o'clock in the evening, and the old lady isn't sleeping. Is she out here to scare people for fun?
"I saw it." Old Mrs. Chen said with a smile, "That boy is really handsome, much better looking than the boy someone introduced to you. You have good taste."
Hua Jin smiled helplessly: "Grandma Chen, that's just a friend of mine."
"Yes, yes, don't young people all start out as ordinary friends?" Grandma Chen nodded repeatedly, "I understand."
Hua Jin: “…”
What do you know?
"The bean paste you gave me last time is delicious. The dishes cooked with it are especially fragrant." Seeing that Hua Jin was unwilling to say more, Old Lady Chen thought she was shy and stuffed a bottle of fermented bean curd she made into Hua Jin's hand. "Take this back and try it. If you like it, come back to me for more."
"Thank you, Grandma Chen." Hua Jin did not refuse. She was familiar with most of the tenants in the building. They would usually share some of their homemade seasonings or side dishes with each other, and their life was quite lively.
Walking up to the fourth floor, the lights in Sister Qin's house were still on. Hua Jin guessed that her child might still be doing homework. Just as she took out the key and prepared to open the door, Sister Qin's door opened. The person who came out was not Sister Qin, but a young boy with a buzz cut and black-framed glasses.
"Hello." When he saw Hua Jin, his eyes were a little shy and evasive.
"Hello." Hua Jin unlocked the door, held the door with his hand, and took two steps back towards the opening of the door. "Excuse me, what can I do for you?"
"Xiaohua, are you back from get off work?" Sister Qin leaned out from behind the door, glanced at her distant nephew awkwardly, and pushed him into the house. "You must be very tired after a day's work. Go back and rest early."
Seeing Sister Qin's embarrassed expression, Hua Jin guessed that this boy might be the distant relative who asked Sister Qin to be a matchmaker last time. She pretended nothing had happened, pushed the door open, locked it, and then threw herself on the sofa.
What is going on?
After she calmed down completely, Hua Jin finally had the energy to think about what happened today. After a long while, she sighed. Nowadays, traditional handicrafts have gradually declined. She was afraid that if things continued like this, many things would gradually disappear with the passage of time.
I opened Weibo and found that the Weibo that had been bustling for a few days a few days ago has gradually returned to its former deserted state.
Hua Jin posted the photos of the lacquer tray and bracelet made by Tan Yuan on Weibo and couldn't help but express his feelings.
Fanhua: Lacquerware is not only difficult to find successors, but also difficult to find lacquer trees. The lacquerware made by my friend is not only gorgeous, but also shiny and smooth. She started learning to make lacquerware when she was young, and it has been many years now. [Picture]
After a long time, a few people came to click "like" and two people praised the bracelet in the comment area, but no one paid attention anymore. It seemed that the excitement under the Weibo was just a dream. Fortunately, she had anticipated this situation, otherwise she might not be able to accept it.
The next morning, she arrived at the store early, but Tan Yuan had not arrived yet. After she cleaned up the store, Tan Yuan came late, with red and swollen eyes. Hua Jin pretended not to notice her strangeness and handed the brewed tea to Tan Yuan: "Have you finished the earrings that the customer ordered last time? It seems that the pick-up date is in the next two days."
"It's already been prepared." Tan Yuan took the tea and took a big sip. "Now you can tell me what happened with Mr. Pei."
"We have a pure relationship between a man and a woman. I'd be a fool if I lied to you." Hua Jin yawned and lay on the table. "If this rich and good-looking man really had an impure relationship with me, would I not post ten messages on WeChat Moments to show off?"
"The man is unmarried, and the woman is unmarried. How can there be a pure relationship between the two of them?" Tan Yuan looked at Hua Jin suspiciously. "Could it be that you have evil thoughts because she is pretty?"
"Am I such a superficial person?" Hua Jin sighed. "Although Pei Yan is indeed very good-looking, with a slim waist and long legs, you can't just look at the face when judging a person."
"No, you are just so superficial." Tan Yuan rolled his eyes at the ceiling, "Don't refute me, I won't believe anything you say."
"Actually, I don't know if it's my illusion, but I feel like you're a little bit special to Mr. Pei." Tan Yuan put the cup back on the table. "Huahua, you're a very defensive person. You're usually very distant from people like us, especially men, except for those close to you. I didn't feel this sense of distance when you were talking to Mr. Pei."
"That... maybe it's because he's good-looking."
"Tsk." Tan Yuan didn't intend to get to the bottom of it. She stood up and walked to the workbench, sighing, "I don't have any handsome men to flirt with, so I'd better work hard and strive to make a fortune and become a rich and beautiful woman that others can't afford to marry."
Hua Jin was amused by Tan Yuan's optimistic attitude and finally felt relieved.
There is also the dream of becoming a beautiful, rich and beautiful woman, which shows that Tangyuan is still full of hope for life.
In the following days, Tan Yuan was in good spirits, and Cao Yi did not come to the store to cause trouble, so Hua Jin finally put her mind at ease. In the blink of an eye, it was the opening day of the exhibition. She changed into a set of clothes that made her look elegant and intellectual, and drove to the exhibition venue.
After passing through layers of security checks, Hua Jin finally managed to enter the gate. She took a brochure from the shelf and walked in slowly.
In the two rows of windows near the main entrance, there were pottery that was still very popular today. She looked at them one by one slowly, and walked through the long corridor where the porcelain was displayed, and found that there were not many people inside. Several elderly people wearing glasses and holding magnifying glasses in their hands were lying outside the display cabinets, carefully watching, as if the things in the display cabinets could be blown away by a gust of wind.
There are many things in the exhibition hall, including wood carvings, bone carvings, ceramics, clay sculptures, weavings, woodblock prints, puppets, embroidery, etc. When Hua Jin came to the embroidery area, she was shocked by the exquisite embroidery in the display cabinets.
The embroidery piece is perfectly combined with the fabric, without any flaws. The dewdrops on the petals are about to fall, which is amazingly beautiful. This dress is an unearthed cultural relic. The clothes buried in the soil for hundreds of years can still be so exquisite, which shows how high the embroidery level was at that time.
Unfortunately, there are not many exhibits related to embroidery in the exhibition hall, but there are more lacquerware.
"What a pity, what a pity." The two elderly people stood in the lacquerware exhibition area, shook their heads and sighed, "Some of the techniques have long been lost, with only a few records left in ancient books."
Listening to the two old men repeatedly expressing their regret, Hua Jin felt like a hero in his twilight years. The more beautiful and dazzling the things in the exhibition hall were, the more sad she felt about the current state of traditional handicrafts.
Lacquer trees for the lacquerware industry are hard to find, and Shu embroidery also has many problems. In the past, many places in Shu Province had the habit of planting mulberry trees and raising silkworms, and there was even a city called the hometown of mulberry trees. Later, with the development of the economy, the scale of mulberry silkworm breeding shrank significantly. If she wanted to buy authentic Shu brocade and mulberry silk embroidery thread, she could only buy it from a few old factories.
The raw materials alone are already fraught with difficulties, not to mention the inheritance and teaching of handicrafts. The more you think about it, the more you can feel the current difficulties.
"I really don't understand what's so good about these ugly and tacky things." Two young men walked in. She knew one of them, he was the younger brother of the sucker who came to her door yesterday. She didn't know the other one, but he was the one who said those words just now.
The man's voice was not loud, but the exhibition hall was so quiet that he felt countless eyes staring at him as soon as he said this. Many experts present had studied traditional crafts for their entire lives and attached great importance to domestic heritage. Now when they heard Chinese people say that these things were rustic and ugly, their faces were not very happy.
Being glared at by these people, the person who was speaking wanted to pull Chen Jiang in front of him to block him, but Chen Jiang was faster than him and took several steps back. He wanted to hang another sign on his hand that read "I don't know this person."
Chen Jiang carefully scanned the exhibition hall to see if there was anyone he knew, and the next second he saw the woman who had an ambiguous relationship with Pei Yan.
He took a breath. How could he forget that she was also in this line of work? Did she hear what Meng Tao said just now?
Chen Jiang's heart was in turmoil, but he put on a smile. He walked up to Hua Jin and whispered, "Hello, I didn't expect you to be here too."
"I got a ticket a few days ago, and I thought it was a rare opportunity, so I came to take a look." Hua Jin tried to lower the volume as much as possible, "Is that your friend?"
"We just happened to meet at the door, so we can't be considered friends." Chen Jiang smiled and said, "I didn't expect the exhibits inside to be so dazzling, beautiful, pleasing to the eyes, and stunning..."
"Shh." Hua Jin put her index finger to her lips, "Quiet."
She was afraid that if she let this person continue talking, he would blurt out all kinds of messed up idioms.
Chen Jiang did not dare to speak again. He followed behind Hua Jin and looked around. It was not until the two of them walked to a secluded corner that Chen Jiang spoke again: "Didn't Mr. Pei accompany you to the exhibition?"
Hua Jin looked at Chen Jiang with a subtle expression. She was here to see an exhibition, so why did she need Pei Yan to accompany her?
Chen Jiang couldn't bear to see a woman sad, and seeing Hua Jin's lonely expression, he hurriedly advised, "Don't think too much, Mr. Pei might have something to do, so he couldn't come with you."
Hua Jin: “…”
No, I didn't think too much about it, you did.
The author has something to say: Meng Tao: Wait, Chen Jiang, I am your cousin!
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