make friends
The young man was impulsive, but he also had a clever mind. He closed the big box, left a message saying "Wait for me" and ran off. When he came back, he had a pen in his mouth, an inkstone in his left hand and a piece of white paper in his right, and he clumsily ran towards Jingwan, looking like the busiest person in the entire Dongqiao City.
He spread out a sheet of white paper in front of his stall, and before putting ink on it, he looked up and smiled, saying, "This thing isn't hard to make. I'll draw a blueprint for you, and you can take it back and make it according to the blueprint."
After he finished speaking, he started sketching on the paper, explaining as he went, and quickly made the pedals clear.
He handed the blueprints to Jingwan, saying, "You can refuse the tools, but you can't refuse these blueprints!"
Jingwan hesitated for a moment before reaching out to take it, but the blueprints were clearly more precious! It was like a master chef handing over his own secret recipe to a guest.
She accepted the drawings, which she had drawn herself, and the young man felt that was enough. He dared not say too much, for fear of upsetting her again. In the end, he only said, "My name is Qin Ziyou. Although I am not good at working with jade, I am very fond of collecting jade artifacts. I hope you will not be angry with me again because of what happened last time."
Jingwan finally smiled at him: "My surname is Gao, and my name is Gao Jingwan."
If Dongxia were nearby and knew that she had revealed her real name to a stranger, she would be astonished by her naiveté.
But for Jingwan, whether it's Gao Jingwan or any other name, it's just the most ordinary name in the world, not much different from the names of cats and dogs.
After returning home that day, Jingwan made the foot pedals according to Qin Ziyou's drawings. She was nimble, but she still had some difficulty splitting the wooden boards. Dongxia took the boards and made them according to the drawings.
Seeing how clever Dongxia was, Jingwan realized she was no match for her and could only squat down beside her and sigh, "Working with jade also requires strength. Dongxia, your strong hands are really suitable for polishing jade!"
Dongxia looked at the large, thick knuckles of the hands and laughed, "Using such hands to polish jade is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut."
Jingwan didn't understand what she meant and stared at her with wide eyes.
Dongxia didn't understand whether rich girls liked to stare at people with wide eyes, but this girl's eyes were beautiful, reminding her of deer in the mountains and forests by the stream, clear and bright, unlike that Miss Gu, whose eyes looked like she was looking at an enemy when she pretended to be gentle and considerate. She wondered if the young master would be frightened when she circled around him.
Lost in thought, she suddenly chuckled. This barely perceptible lapse in composure made Jingwan feel a little uneasy. Dongxia quickly recovered, composed herself, and continued working. After threading the wire onto the grinding wheel, she tugged on the foot pedal. Seeing the machine start running, she said, "Girl, give it a try."
Jingwan was already impatient and quickly sat down. She stepped on the iron wire, and it started to turn. She sighed with relief and turned to Dongxia with a smile, saying, "Thank you for today. I will give you the first piece of jade that I carve with this millstone."
Dongxia had long seen that she was obsessed with jade. In the past, she would come out to rest, but today she simply stayed from day to night, and even lit a candle to continue carving jade at night.
That night, Dongxia lay on the roof of the small courtyard, her hands behind her head, finally finding a moment of peace. She just stared blankly at the candlelight burning in the small house, and soon she slowly closed her eyes.
Dongxia originally thought that Jingwan would not be able to get up the next day after staying up all night, but when the night was still deep, she heard a noise in the house. Years of vigilance made her mind instantly clear. She saw the person who stayed up all night carrying a wooden basin into an empty side room. They were making a clattering noise, and when they came out, they poured out the water in the basin, replaced it with clean water, and went back into the room. It did not seem like they were washing up.
After fiddling around for a while, she realized that Jingwan was tidying up the house when she saw her carrying out the clutter little by little like a tiny ant.
As dawn broke, Dongxia landed with a leap. Although she was tall, her movements were light and agile, like a lazy cat, unnoticed by anyone.
Jingwan turned around and saw a small mountain standing in front of her. Startled, she dropped the basin in her hand, but it didn't fall to the ground. Instead, it was caught steadily. She quickly patted her chest and breathed a sigh of relief, saying, "You scared me to death! Why did you get up so early?"
Dongxia glanced into the inner room, which had been almost completely tidied up. Both small windows were open for ventilation, and there were still wet stains on the floor. "Miss, this is..."
Jingwan smiled and said, "It's too crowded for three people to live in your room. Why don't you move here? It's a bit small, but it's quiet enough. Besides, I've cleaned it up, so it's not dirty. But... if Moyu also wants to come and stay, you'll have to squeeze in with her."
As soon as Jingwan mentioned changing rooms, Dongxia understood her meaning. Indeed, living with those other women, she couldn't get a good night's sleep and always had to go out at night, only able to close her eyes under the roof tiles. Now, hearing Jingwan's words, she immediately nodded: "Then thank you very much, Miss."
Jingwan wiped her hands, looking energetic: "There's no bed in this room. Remember to call me after you've packed your things so we can move the bed together. You won't be able to move it by yourself."
Dongxia already understood her temperament. If she refused this time, she would definitely argue with her again. So she simply nodded. However, when Jingwan finished her meal and was about to help her move her things, she found that Dongxia had already packed everything up and even moved the bed in.
She couldn't imagine how a young woman could do that, and could only marvel at Dongxia's extraordinary abilities, admiring her even more.
A month later, Jingwan indeed gave Dongxia a jade pendant, just as she had said.
The jade used for the jade pendant was a piece of jade that Jingwan had been keeping for a long time. Now that she had a suitable grinding wheel, she dared to take it out and work on it.
She worked day and night for a month, carefully drawing and polishing the jade ornament with fine diamond powder, and finally obtained the most satisfying piece of jade ornament since she came to Pingdu.
Dongxia disliked decorations and had no fondness for gold and jade. When Jingwan handed her the jade pendant, she thanked her, took it, and put it in her bag, never wearing it.
She wasn't unaware of Jingwan's scrutiny. The girl glanced at her clothes several times, pretending to be casual, and when she didn't see the jade pendant on her clothes, she felt a little disappointed, but she quickly concealed it and started talking to her about other things.
Dongxia found Jingwan somewhat amusing. Why would she need to seek validation from others, especially from someone as clueless as her?
With the jade carving machine, Jingwan's jade carving speed increased even more. Two months later, she packed up the three jade pieces she had carved during that time and left home under the cover of night, heading towards the Dongqiao Night Market. Just like that night, Dongxia quietly followed behind her.
The three jade pieces on display this time are all made of top-quality materials. Even the spider jade carving is made of fine-textured jasper, but the color is not pure enough and there are still some flaws.
She was most satisfied with this jade carving of a spider, which depicted two eight-legged spiders, one large and one small, crawling on the web they had spun.
I originally only planned to carve out one spider, but when I was cutting the jade, I noticed that the color of the jade had changed, so I took the opportunity to carve out the smaller one as well.
Sure enough, people started asking about the price as soon as the jade carvings were put on display. The spider jade carving was asked about the most. Jingwan only wanted to hear the customers' offers and did not sell. In just a quarter of an hour, someone offered two hundred taels of silver.
She was overjoyed. Hearing the buyers' offers, she knew that her jade carving skills had improved significantly. Although she knew it was also because of the good quality of the materials, the customers all patiently praised the jade carving design for being intricate yet orderly, with large and small spiders arranged in a pleasing manner. She was delighted and became even more reluctant to sell.
Therefore, when she saw Qin Ziyou drawing the foot pedal blueprints again, she no longer had any reservations about him. She could even sit with him and tell him in detail how she had been making jade over the past two months.
The two were talking happily, but Shen Xiaozhou found it strange.
"Wasn't he still making advances on me two months ago? How come he's reformed in the last couple of days?" Shen Xiaozhou always felt that the playboy had ulterior motives, but since he hadn't seen him make a move, he couldn't find a reason to get rid of him.
Dongxia had long known Jingwan's character. She was forgetful in matters of the heart, kind-hearted, and forgiving. If someone was even slightly kind to her, she would immediately let her guard down. Furthermore, she wasn't good at talking, even at home, where she would talk to herself to the broken stones every day. Dongxia had been in the courtyard for a long time and had never seen Jingwan exchange more than ten sentences with her. The fact that she could chat with a stranger for so long now meant that she must have found someone she could connect with.
However, looking at them like this, the two actually look quite pleasing to the eye. The young man and woman sitting together, talking and laughing, are a bright spot in the night market.
Jingwan realized that she had misunderstood Qin Ziyou. He was clearly someone who shared her interests, so she lowered her guard and started talking about jade with him.
Qin Ziyou was not skilled at working with jade, but he was an expert at appreciating it. He picked up the spider jade carving and told Jingwan about its craftsmanship.
After praising her, Jingwan smiled and said, "Don't say that anymore, tell me quickly what else could be done better!"
Qin Ziyou feigned reluctance: "Do you really want me to say it?"
Jingwan nodded vigorously: "If you don't guide me, I won't be able to improve. Tell me quickly, I will never blame you."
Qin Ziyou then held up the jade carving and said, "Spiders with eight legs are most popular with merchants, but yours are messy, with inconsistent thickness and uneven density. A closer look reveals that the carving technique is not delicate enough. Perhaps, upon closer examination, it's because your painting skills are insufficient, resulting in flaws in the fine details. And look at the web; the lines are not smooth and not thin enough. The web is too thick and lacks vitality..."
He couldn't stop talking once he started, and it wasn't until Qin Ziyou's mouth was dry that he realized he might have said too much and offended someone again... He cautiously turned around and saw Jing Wan staring at him. She was so surprised that she couldn't close her mouth, and her eyes were full of admiration.
Jingwan sighed, "Qin Ziyou, I'm so glad I met you."
Seeing her reaction, Qin Ziyou finally felt relieved. He placed the spider jade carving in her hand and encouraged her, "You are still so young, yet you have such skill. It is evident that you have put in a lot of effort. However, if you had an experienced master to guide you, your skills might improve even faster!"
Jingwan lowered her head. She knew Qin Ziyou was right; she desperately needed a mentor to teach her.
Qin Ziyou thought for a moment and said to Jingwan in a sincere tone, "I don't mean to offend you, but I don't know where you live. Is it convenient for you to come out during the day? I know an old master craftsman who has spent half his life working with jade. Now that he is old and his eyesight is failing, he wants to take on a few apprentices to teach his skills. If it is convenient for you, I can recommend you to him."
Jingwan looked up suddenly, but thinking of the high walls of the Gao family, her eyes instantly dimmed. Her shoulders slumped, she shook her head, and whispered, "Never mind, I can't come out during the day."
Qin Ziyou didn't press the matter further. He looked at the jade carving and said, "If you trust me, I'll take these three jade carvings to that master craftsman for a look. If he can offer some guidance, I'll write it down. Or, when you come to the Dongqiao Night Market again, we can go find that master craftsman and he can personally guide you."
He was so sincere; Jingwan could only express her gratitude: "Thank you so much!"
Qin Shaoyou shook his head: "Don't say that. It's rare that we know each other and have so many things in common, so let's be friends. From now on, you can call me Ziyou!"
"Then from now on, don't call me 'Miss Gao' anymore. Just call me Jingwan!"
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