Chapter 44: The years have taken their toll on her face.
Shen Qingqing's phone was on. She was drawing her eyebrows and eyes while slowly listening to Sun Ziyi's rapid analysis of her love situation.
Yuan Xin was sitting at the coffee table in the living room, resting her chin on her hand and looking at the sea outside. She only had some foundation on and no makeup on her face, but she looked more energetic than Shen Qingqing, who had carefully put on makeup.
Eighteen years old is a really good time, Shen Qingqing thought so.
Sun Ziyi was still excitedly explaining his love on the other end of the phone, calling her in a high voice, "I'm telling you, Shen Yanyan, just at that moment, just at that moment, just at that moment! I suddenly felt like I had found the pattern for Xu Zecheng and I to get along."
Shen Qingqing couldn't help but laugh softly, "It's normal to have arguments and break up, why are you still obsessed with breaking up at every turn?"
Sun Ziyi quickly retorted, "No! I'm obsessed with the kind of intense advancement that makes my heart hotter. But when you put it that way, it's quite common sense!"
Chen Qingqing couldn't stand her mixing English into the conversation, which made Sun Ziyi seem a little pretentious. Her eyeliner suddenly flew off, and she angrily used her little finger to outline the side of the line, rubbing it while asking Sun Ziyi on the other end of the phone, "Strong push? Then why don't you learn from Sasa, learn..."
Chen Qingqing wanted to continue talking, but when she glanced at Yuan Xin, who had just turned eighteen, she swallowed the word "fuck buddy" back.
Of course, she didn't know that Yuan Xin was once the owner of a sex toy store.
Finally, Shen Qingqing said, "Anyway, just learn to be more open and make rapid progress."
Sun Ziyi said, "I've learned my lesson. I'll go find Xu Zecheng after I finish putting on my makeup!"
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Here, Chen Qingqing put on her makeup and took Yuan Xin out. Yuan Xin was holding a helmet in her hand.
As soon as they walked out of the B&B, Yuan Xin borrowed another helmet from the front desk and handed it to Shen Qingqing. Shen Qingqing was a little surprised and asked Yuan Xin what was going on.
It turned out that Yuan Xin went downstairs early in the morning and rented a small electric scooter from the supermarket next door for fifteen yuan a day. He just had to charge it fully and return it before closing the store at night.
There are no bicycle roads in Dalian, and it is illegal for riders to deliver food, so Shen Qingqing has never had much contact with two-wheeled transportation. She held the small helmet handed to her by Yuan Xin and subconsciously feared the small electric motorcycle.
Shen Qingqing asked, "Can't we rent a car? Wouldn't it be safer to drive?"
Yuan Xin smiled awkwardly and said as she put on her helmet, "There are no rental cars here. I haven't been back for a long time. I looked around this morning but couldn't find one to rent."
Shen Qingqing found that her helmet was very nice, pure black, covered with Pop Mart stickers, and there was a bamboo dragonfly on the top.
After Yuan Xin fastened the safety buckle on her chin, she tapped her helmet with a smile and said, "Isn't it cute, Sister Qingqing? Wang Mang gave it to me."
Chen Qingqing didn't say anything. She had no intention of shipping the couple right now. She was still terrified of riding the electric scooter. She followed Yuan Xin out and became even more frightened when she saw the pink electric scooter outside. She was afraid that the two adults would be crushed to pieces by it.
Yuan Xin walked over, sat on it, and patted the back seat towards Shen Qingqing who was still in a daze, “Don’t worry, Sister Qingqing, I’m very stable.”
Shen Qingqing hesitated for a long time, and finally sat on it.
Yuan Xin inserted the key and said, "You can hold my waist."
Before Chen Qingqing finished saying the word "good", Yuan Xin's car flew out, and the small electric scooter started quite fast.
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The crew needed to find experienced local fishermen to film the fishing scene for the opening credits, so they needed to contact local fishermen. Along the way, Chen Qingqing didn't dare look either way, staring at the bamboo dragonfly rising above Yuan Xin's head with the wind.
Yuan Xin's scooter drove across the coastal road, entered the village, and finally stopped in front of a group of small fishing rafts. After getting off the car, Chen Qingqing patted her chest to steady herself, then raised her head and barely saw the woman getting on and off the fishing raft opposite.
Shen Qingqing put on a professional smile and walked up. “Hello, we are from Beijing to shoot a documentary. Our colleagues have contacted you before.”
The person on the other side smiled, showing his white teeth, and then said a lot of gibberish.
Chen Qingqing was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously asked, "Are you talking about Hen? (In Dalian dialect, what are you talking about?)"
The other party said a lot of gibberish, and Shen Qingqing was completely confused.
After a while, Yuan Xin parked the car and walked over to Chen Qingqing. Seeing that Chen Qingqing looked embarrassed, he reacted for a moment and immediately started talking to the opposite side.
Chen Qingqing froze on the side, feeling like there were two aliens standing in front of her, with no way of getting a word in. She had imagined re-entering the workplace would mean walking with the wind, or at the very least, communicating smoothly... She had never imagined that it would be like standing on the beach listening to people speaking in dialect, not understanding a word.
After the "aliens" finished their conversation, Yuan Xin turned around and said to Shen Qingqing, "Sister, they said they would pay fifty yuan a day for filming and eighty yuan a day for leading the platoon."
Shen Qingqing came back to her senses and said "Oh, oh".
Yuan Xin saw that she didn't react, so he asked again, "So, sister, do we want to take people or pack them up?"
Shen Qingqing only then realized that she was going to make the decision, “Then pack it up, it will probably be down in a day.”
Yuan Xin turned her head and chattered again. The person opposite grinned at her and turned around to give her a shell.
Shen Qingqing asked, "What is she talking about?"
Yuan Xin put the dried shells in her pocket and said, "She wished us a smooth shoot and that she would come early for the shoot."
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Chen Qingqing was in an "isolated" state the entire day. The people who stayed in the fishing village were all quite old and basically couldn't speak Mandarin.
She just followed Yuan Xin all the time, getting on and off the motorcycle, listening to her translation, and then nodding in agreement or disagreement.
In the evening, Yuan Xin and Shen Qingqing sat next to a seaside shop, feeling the sea breeze. Shen Qingqing sat on a chair wearing sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat that obscured her face. At noon, Yuan Xin reminded her that it would be a bit chilly in the evening, so she wore a sun-protective cardigan during their lunch break. At this moment, Shen Qingqing rested her hands on the back of the chair and asked Yuan Xin, "Yuan Yuan, I'm so tired. Can you go in and buy me a pack of cigarettes? I want the Twelve Beauties."
Shen Qingqing transferred money to Yuan Xin while talking.
Yuan Xin, who was originally sitting and playing with her mobile phone, stood up from her seat full of energy, bought a pack of cigarettes for her, and after taking out the cigarettes, she considerately helped her light the cigarettes.
Seeing her energetic appearance, Shen Qingqing asked, "Aren't you tired?"
Yuan Xin shook her head, "I'm not tired."
Shen Qingqing thought that young people are in good health. "Have you finished meeting everyone today? Have you arranged things for tomorrow?"
Yuan Xin flipped through the notes on her phone. "Sister, we have to get up early tomorrow and go to another town to book accommodations for the crew. I've booked three hotels, you can check them out. After that, we can book a minivan. We have two car dealerships to visit."
Shen Qingqing already had a premonition of how tired she would be the next day, so she slowly exhaled a puff of cigarette and leaned her head back on the chair.
Yuan Xin comforted her, "Sister, I'll take you home after you finish smoking."
Shen Qingqing, who raised her head, finally heard the steps of eating, and said with some relief, "Okay, after smoking this cigarette, we will leave and go back to the B&B to eat."
Yuan Xin said, "After sending you back to the B&B, I'll go to a mother-in-law's house for dinner."
Chen Qingqing turned her head back to look at Yuan Xin, and became curious about the mother-in-law she mentioned. So she spoke to her in a lazy tone and asked, "Where is my mother-in-law's house?"
Yuan Xin pointed behind the canteen, "It's right behind the canteen, very close."
Shen Qingqing turned around and looked in the direction she pointed, and found a low house with smoke coming out of it.
Shen Qingqing looked at the house while smoking, "This looks more lively than a B&B."
Yuan Xin politely asked, "Sister Qingqing, do you want to join me for dinner? It's just me and my mother-in-law tonight."
Shen Qingqing’s cigarette hit her butt, and she stepped on the ground and crushed it with her shoes.
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Yuan Xin took Shen Qingqing to the evening market to buy some vegetables.
Yuan Xin had actually visited during her lunch break. The elderly woman was so old that it was difficult for her to answer the phone, so she had to visit to confirm she was home. People change drastically with age. Yuan Xin hadn't seen Grandma Haima for only two years, and her eyes were already barely open, and the wrinkles on her face had sunk even further.
When they came in carrying the dishes, the rice noodles fried by mother-in-law had just come out of the pot. Seeing Yuanxin, she asked, "Are you hungry?"
The two began to speak in dialect again, which in Shen Qingqing's eyes was encryption mode.
Yuan Xin no longer let her mother-in-law cook. She took two stools, one high and one low, and put them at the door. She asked Shen Qingqing to sit outside so as not to be choked by the fumes. Shen Qingqing sat on the low stool and watched the sunset.
Not long after Chen Qingqing left, her mother-in-law was also sent out by Yuan Xin. The two of them sat together, one tall and one short. Chen Qingqing found it amazing that two people would feel awkward if they didn't communicate, so she politely turned her head to look at her mother-in-law and tried to smile. Unexpectedly, when her mother-in-law saw her looking at her, she pointed at the sun and said a lot of things to Chen Qingqing.
Shen Qingqing didn’t understand, but felt that it would be bad not to speak, so she nodded seriously, pretending to understand and said, “Really?”
The mother-in-law turned around again, pointed at Yuan Xin who was busy in the kitchen, and continued to talk a lot of gibberish.
Shen Qingqing thought for three seconds, then turned her head and gave Yuan Xin a thumbs-up, telling her mother-in-law: My sister is very capable.
The mother-in-law smiled with relief, and suddenly reached out, pulled Shen Qingqing’s hand, put her hands together, wrapped her palm and put it on her forehead.
Shen Qingqing couldn't react for a moment...she could only let the other person hold her hand.
When the grandmother opposite raised her head again, Chen Qingqing suddenly found that the old woman's eyes had been reduced to small triangles by the years, and there were red eyelids around her eyes. For a second, she even felt that the setting sun not far away was reflected in her eyes. There was a patch of vitiligo on the side of the grandmother's face, like a small seahorse.
The two of them sat on two stools, one high and one low, looking at each other. The mother-in-law said something again. Shen Qingqing didn't understand, but she suddenly felt choked up in her heart. Emotions could be conveyed without words. She stretched out her other hand that was not being held and patted the mother-in-law's back, slowly comforting her.
Yuan Xin had just finished cooking when she saw two people holding hands on a stool, one high and one low, at the door. She walked over and heard her mother-in-law's instructions to Shen Qingqing. She couldn't help but tear up. She sniffed to maintain her composure and then called the two of them to eat.
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When the two of them returned, it was already dark. The town committee had installed solar street lights two years ago, so the road was not too dark.
Chen Qingqing sat behind her, holding her waist, and rode the electric scooter up the mountain with the lights on. It was a bit cold at night with the sea breeze. In order to keep out the wind, Chen Qingqing pulled her sun protection jacket up to her chin.
On the road, something suddenly jumped out, forcing the electric scooter to stop immediately, and Shen Qingqing was also startled.
Yuan Xin was still in shock, but she didn’t forget to comfort Shen Qingqing, saying: “It’s okay, it’s okay.”
The electric scooter suddenly stopped firing, and the two of them could only push it back. Fortunately, the distance was not far. When going uphill, Chen Qingqing walked behind the electric scooter and helped Yuan Xin push it. The sea breeze blew over, and Chen Qingqing's long hair fluttered on her shoulders.
Yuan Xin was in a daze and didn't say much the whole way.
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In fact, Qingqing is still curious about what her mother-in-law said today.
When Yuan Xin returned the car from the convenience store, she found Shen Qingqing still standing downstairs waiting for her, smoking a cigarette under the street light. Yuan Xin was a little curious and walked over, "Sister Qingqing, why don't you go up first?"
Shen Qingqing turned around, shook the cigarette at her, and said with a smile, "I'll go up after I finish smoking."
Yuan Xin put his hands in his pockets, waiting for her to finish smoking before going up together. There was a colorful light hanging at the door of the B&B, changing colors back and forth. Yuan Xin lowered his head, and his shoes followed the orange light, as if he was running in small circles on the spot.
After Shen Qingqing stamped out her cigarette, she turned around and saw her jumping around like a child. After hesitating for a long time, she couldn't help but ask, "Yuanyuan, what did your mother-in-law say to me just now when we were having dinner?"
Yuan Xin stopped and stopped chasing the light. He raised his head and looked at Shen Qingqing.
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