Zhan Xi didn't know when she fell asleep. She only knew that someone kissed her forehead while she was half asleep. She muttered, "What time is it?"
No answer.
Then, the mattress beside her sank, and someone lay down. The quilt on her body was pulled a few times, but no one touched her. Zhan Xi never opened her eyes, and fell into the sweetness again.
In the morning, her biological clock woke her up automatically at 8 o'clock. The curtains in the hotel room were very light-blocking, and the whole room was pitch black. Zhan Xi turned on the bedside lamp and turned her head to see Luo Jingyu sleeping beside her, making a slight snoring sound.
He was sleeping close to the edge of the bed, lying on his side with his back to her, his arms outside the quilt. She could see his protruding shoulder blades and the concave spine line under his white short-sleeved T-shirt.
Zhan Xi got out of bed and walked to the desk. He saw a plant on the table - green flower stems and leaves. The leaves had clear veins and a natural color. There were clusters of very small yellow flowers on the top of the flower stems. The receptacle was also green. He couldn't tell what kind of flower it was.
She walked to the window again, lifted the curtains and looked out. It was the end of May, and the weather was getting hotter. This room faced east, and the morning sun was extremely glaring. Downstairs was a small road that looked very busy, with pedestrians and electric vehicles coming and going, and the faint noise could be heard through the window.
Zhan Xi knew that Luo Jingyu had a class at 9 a.m., so when it was 8:20, she walked over to sit down beside his bed and patted his arm. Luo Jingyu did not respond, his breathing was long and steady, and he was obviously sleeping soundly.
Zhan Xi simply leaned over and kissed his face. After two "chi chirps", he was finally woken up.
Now Luo Jingyu no longer deliberately hides his voice in front of Zhan Xi. After waking up, he cleared his throat and turned over to lie on his back. Perhaps the sunlight stung his eyes. He raised his hands to cover his face and let out a long "Uh..." sound, as if complaining that he did not get enough sleep.
"Wake up! You're going to be late!" Zhan Xi rubbed his face with both hands and slapped it a few times, "Wake up, Xiaoyu! It's already 8:30..."
Luo Jingyu squinted his eyes and couldn't see her lip movements at all. Suddenly, he stretched out his arms and hugged her, pushing her down, and Zhan Xi threw himself on him.
She was wearing a nightgown with nothing underneath. Their bodies were pressed tightly together under the quilt. Luo Jingyu seemed not to notice anything. He closed his eyes and hugged her contentedly, stroking her back with his hand, still immersed in a sweet dream.
"Oh, let me go!" Zhan Xi was so embarrassed that she pushed and slapped him before she finally got up. Luo Jingyu finally opened her eyes, looked at her tenderly, and signed: Good morning.
Zhan Xi also answered him in sign language: Good morning.
Luo Jingyu raised her hands again and gestured: What time is it now
Zhan Xi hooked his right index finger and made a "9" gesture to him.
Luo Jingyu: “!”
He jumped up suddenly, and almost at the same time, the bracelet on his wrist began to vibrate. It was the alarm he set: 8:30.
Zhan Xi laughed so hard that he slapped his thigh.
Luo Jingyu knew that Zhan Xi was lying to him, so he breathed a sigh of relief, made a face at her, reached out to rub her hair, and without thinking much, he lifted the quilt and got out of bed to look for slippers.
In just two seconds, his scalp exploded and his legs quickly retracted into the quilt.
She looked up at Zhan Xi, but it was too late, she had seen everything.
Zhan Xi stared at him blankly, recalling the scene he had just seen. Luo Jingyu was only wearing a pair of gray panties under her T-shirt, which were triangle-shaped, revealing two long, smooth legs. Her skin was very white, and if she was not mistaken, there was even hair on her calves...
Luo Jingyu: “…”
He swallowed, the tips of his ears had turned deep red, he reached out to grab his sweatpants from the bedside table, and fumbled under the quilt to put them on.
Zhan Xi walked silently to the closet to get his clothes and trousers, fiddling with them in a pretentious manner, not daring to look back at him.
Luo Jingyu, with her messy head of hair, still felt smelly when she was washing her face and brushing her teeth in the bathroom.
When he was a kid, he didn't count. As far as I can remember, he never appeared in front of girls wearing only briefs after he entered junior high school. Even at home, because he slept in the living room, he always wore boxer shorts or a pair of large shorts on the outside. Luo Mingsong always taught him that boys should not be too casual, after all, there was a little sister at home.
This express hotel does not have breakfast, Luo Jingyu usually goes out to eat breakfast. After getting dressed, he put on his bag and wanted to tell Zhan Xi something, but Zhan Xi pushed him out, all the way out the door, and after he turned around in surprise, he said, "Let's go! You're going to be late, don't worry about me, how can I be hungry?"
While using sign language to help him express himself, she asked him to walk faster.
Luo Jingyu had no choice but to touch her face and turn around to go to class.
He bought two meat buns and ate them while running, but was still five minutes late. When he walked into Xu Qingyan's studio, Teacher Xu and three other students were already ready to start.
Xu Qingyan looked at him with a smile and said, "Ha, how rare it is, model student Xiaoyu is late today."
She is over 40 years old, petite, elegant and friendly. Luo Jingyu feels that Teacher Xu is a bit like Luo Xiaomei. She has been taking good care of him since eight years ago, which is one of the reasons why he has been able to persist in learning flower embossing.
One of the students, Sister Shao, who was 37 years old, said to Luo Jingyu, "Xiaoyu, we agreed that there will be a fine for being late. This afternoon's milk tea is on you."
Sister Zhu and Sister Ding both giggled. Luo Jingyu felt embarrassed. She nodded and made an "ok" gesture, then quickly sat down in her seat, took the tools out of her bag, and took out the carefully wrapped homework and handed it to Xu Qingyan.
The flower embossing class is not like a normal class where the teacher teaches in front and the students listen below. Instead, five people sit around a table, the teacher talks while they do the work, everyone watches and listens, takes notes by themselves, and then practices in class following the teacher's teaching rhythm.
The textbook has illustrations and step-by-step explanations. The pictures are in color and black and white, but the text is all in Japanese. Xu Qingyan started learning Japanese at the same time as he came into contact with hot stamping. It has been more than ten years now, and now he can understand the Japanese in the textbook very well.
She sets high standards for herself and devotes herself fully to her studies in Japan, because the purpose of her studies is not only for herself, but also to bring it back and teach everyone.
Xu Qingyan has rich teaching experience and can teach from beginner to advanced level like Luo Jingyu. For students, it is a test of their understanding ability. Students need to watch Teacher Xu carefully and understand and imagine what the pattern will look like after it is permed.
Don’t even think about playing with your phone during class. If your mind wanders for a while and you miss a step, you won’t be able to do your homework well or even finish it. If you miss a few times, you will basically fail the final homework. If you don’t get the certificate, you have to retake the exam, which costs a lot of money. So everyone is very serious in class, no one talks nonsense, and everyone listens attentively.
Luo Jingyu has the best seat, right opposite Xu Qingyan. This seat is reserved for him every year, which is a sign of everyone’s care for him.
Sitting in this position, he could clearly see Teacher Xu's lip reading and her hand movements. However, Luo Jingyu had no hearing ability after all. Others watched and listened at the same time, and Teacher Xu's explanation was like the voice-over of the hand movements. But for Luo Jingyu, he had to concentrate when reading the lip book. If he read the lip reading, his eyes would not be able to pay attention to Teacher Xu's operation. If his eyes were to see the operation, he would not be able to pay attention to reading the lip reading.
It was really difficult in the beginning, so difficult that he would go back to his room and cry secretly at night because he couldn't keep up and couldn't do his homework.
Later, he shamelessly went to ask Teacher Xu for help, saying that he couldn't hear and really didn't understand. Teacher Xu then realized that although this deaf student claimed that he could read lips, he still needed more care.
After a few years, Luo Jingyu finally had some experience. She almost stared at Teacher Xu's hands during class, and only distracted herself to lip-reading when she had some free time. Teacher Xu was also very considerate. Sometimes, for very critical steps, she would first explain them with her mouth, and then she would show everyone how to do it after everyone had taken notes. This was much more user-friendly for Luo Jingyu.
Deaf people have stronger visual abilities than hearing people, and their visual memories are very deep. For example, if you show hearing and deaf people 10 pictures in order, and then shuffle them and ask them to sort them in the same order, Luo Jingyu will do it more accurately because he will not recite the key information on the picture in his mind like hearing people do when he memorizes, he can remember it just by looking at the picture.
Therefore, when watching Teacher Xu operate, Luo Jingyu was able to better understand and remember the key points.
This class teaches the pine cordyceps flower, which is a wild flower and is very difficult. The petals of the whole flower are many, small and dense, and the stamens are granular and squeezed together. When making it, you need to rub it with cotton and then wrap each stamen tightly with a cloth the size of a fingernail, so that the cotton cannot be exposed.
The petals and stamens should be filled saturatedly but not too densely. If you don't get the balance right, it will look ugly.
Making such flowers requires a great deal of the craftsman's patience and the fine sensitivity of his fingers.
After Xu Qingyan completed a step, he asked the students to rub the pistil into cotton balls by themselves. When Luo Jingyu was doing it, Xu Qingyan paid special attention to him and emphasized to him again the precautions that he might not have "heard" before.
Luo Jingyu was very grateful. It was because of such tacit cooperation that he was able to complete his homework well. Over the years, he had never failed a major assignment.
There was no break in the morning class. At 11:30, Teacher Xu asked everyone to order takeout and take a lunch break of more than an hour. Luo Jingyu quickly took out her phone and sent a WeChat message to Zhan Xi.
What a Big Fish: Huanhuan, my get out of class is over at noon, do you want to eat
Egg pudding: I don’t have breakfast until after 9 o’clock. I have a sandwich and yogurt. I’m not hungry yet. I’ll go out to eat after 12 o’clock. I don’t want to order takeout.
What a Big Fish: It’s not too late for us to finish class this afternoon, so wait for me for dinner.
Egg Pudding: Okay, I will definitely wait for you to eat together. I will go to the nearby area this afternoon and I found an exhibition hall and a big supermarket. Do you want to eat anything? I will go buy some.
What a Big Fish: Fruits are fine, and there are more lychees now.
Egg pudding: Okay~
What a Big Fish: Then I’ll have takeout.
Egg Pudding: Yeah, eat more. Focus on your class and don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself.
Luo Jingyu looked up and found that Teacher Xu and his three sisters were all looking at him, each with an intriguing expression.
Luo Jingyu: “?”
"We're waiting for your answer on what to eat." Sister Shao handed him the phone and said, "You're smiling silly while sending WeChat messages. What's wrong? Do you have a girlfriend?"
Luo Jingyu's face turned red all of a sudden. She took a quick look at Sister Shao's phone and randomly chose a black pepper beef fillet rice.
After placing the order, Sister Shao looked at him and said to others, "Hey! There's something wrong with our group pet!"
Several years ago, they joked that Luo Jingyu was the group's favorite, because he was well-behaved, handsome, and shy. He was the only boy left after studying to this level. He was quiet every day, studied very well, and was naturally likable.
Luo Jingyu pursed her lips, quietly opened the album on her phone, picked out a photo of herself and Zhan Xi, and held the phone to hand it over but didn't dare to. Sister Shao quickly snatched the phone and looked at it, shouting: "Oh my! Xiaoyu's girlfriend is so beautiful! The two of them are a perfect match!"
Everyone came over to look at the photos, even Teacher Xu came over excitedly. Everyone praised Zhan Xi and said that she looked like a very well-behaved, cute and gentle girl.
Luo Jingyu watched them talking at the same time, reading this person's lip reading and that person's lip reading. It seemed that they were all praising Huanhuan. He was very happy and smiled with his eyes and mouth corners curved.
However, this time he did not say that Huanhuan was hearing, and the sisters did not ask anyway. Considering the reactions of Fang Xu, Yue Qi and her mother, Luo Jingyu felt that she would be hit again if she said it.
After dinner, before class started, Teacher Xu sat next to Luo Jingyu and chatted with him.
Luo Jingyu typed on his mobile phone to tell Teacher Xu that his girlfriend was in Shanghai and would come to spend the weekend with him.
"How long have you been talking?" Teacher Xu asked with a smile, holding a cup of hot white tea.
Luo Jingyu typed shyly: We've known each other for half a year and have been dating for 3 months.
"Not bad, not bad. You are 27 now, right?" Xu Qingyan said, "It's time for you to have a girlfriend. You are a good guy. If you were not in Shanghai, I would have introduced you to someone."
Luo Jingyu smiled.
Xu Qingyan asked again: "Are you busy this year? How many pieces did you make for the Flower Festival?"
Luo Jingyu typing: 500.
"That's not much. I didn't do it this year. I'm in Japan and too lazy to do it." Xu Qingyan said.
Luo Jingyu thought that Teacher Xu was amazing. She could give up a big order like the Flower Festival, but he couldn't do it. He was determined to do some of it no matter how hard it worked.
"Oh, now I remember, is it because you were working on the cherry tree in January and February that you did so little?" Xu Qingyan seemed to have suddenly thought of this. This topic also attracted the attention of several other sisters. They were all senior practitioners in the domestic flower perm circle and had heard of this incident, but Luo Jingyu naively thought that no one knew it was him who did it.
He thought of Fang Xu's words and was so nervous that he didn't know what to do. He only saw Sister Shao open her mouth and say, "Xiao Yu, you built that tree, right? You are the only one in Qiantang. I can't think of anyone else."
Seeing that everyone was looking at him, Luo Jingyu had no choice but to admit it and nodded.
He thought, they should stop laughing at him, calling him crazy or stupid. He felt so sad just thinking of those words.
Unexpectedly, Xu Qingyan said, "Xiaoyu, you did a great job, very attentive. I've seen the photos, the whole set is perfectly matched. Did you design it all?"
Luo Jingyu: “…”
He nodded with mixed feelings, still feeling uneasy.
Sister Shao asked: "How long did it take? I dare not take it, it's too much work, but it looks really good, so cool! Where did the tree go?"
She was sitting far away, so Luo Jingyu didn't type, but wrote on a piece of paper for her to see: One and a half months, the tree is at my house, and it is being installed at the customer's house.
Sister Zhu patted Luo Jingyu's arm, and when he turned his head, she said, "Xiaoyu, your client asked me about this job, but I was far away, so I didn't dare to quote a price at that time. No one had ever done this before, and I couldn't quote too high or too low. I also discussed with Teacher Xu how much to quote, but Teacher Xu said that this job is suitable for you. You are in Qiantang, why should we go to join in the fun?"
Luo Jingyu blinked and looked at her, then turned back to look at Xu Qingyan. Teacher Xu smiled and said, "I think you are the most suitable one. This is too much work. They all have families and not enough time. In the end, it turns out that you really did a good job. When are you going to the customer's house to install it?"
Luo Jingyu lowered her eyes and typed: The client said I am not free in May, so we will make an appointment for next month.
"Very good." Xu Qingyan said, "Work hard, you really should have a big work. After the tree is finished, you should actually promote it well. It was too quiet, and many of my students didn't know it was you who did it. Think about it again, it's a private client, so I understand why you didn't make it public."
Luo Jingyu didn't know how to describe her feelings at the moment. Her palms were sweaty. She wanted to laugh, but she didn't dare. She could only lower her head and purse her lips to smile secretly.
He thought, Huanhuan was right, Fang Xu was really lying to him, there weren't so many negative reviews, they all said it was good, even Teacher Xu said it was good, he didn't bring shame to Teacher Xu, he didn't bring shame to the flower-burning hand-made people, he was so happy! He would go back and tell Huanhuan that he was praised!
Xu Qingyan patted his arm. Luo Jingyu looked up at her and asked, "By the way, Xiaoyu, are you going to the Qiantang Makers' Festival in July?"
Luo Jingyu pointed at herself and circled her temple with her right index finger several times, meaning "let him think about it", which ordinary people could understand.
"Go ahead, set up a stall, I'll come to play with you and help you sit there." Sister Shao said, "Alas... there are still too few people who know about hot flower embossing. We can set up a live experience, what do you think?"
"Sure!" Sister Xiao Ding was very excited. "We don't set up stalls because we live far away. Can you take advantage of our group's favor, Xiaoyu?"
Everyone talked about how to display, and Xu Qingyan also gave some advice. She had participated in several large-scale exhibitions at home and abroad, which were no longer the level of setting up a stall, but for Luo Jingyu, being able to set up a stall was already a big deal.
Luo Jingyu smiled lightly, thought about it, nodded, and made an "ok" gesture.
The Maker Festival in July has a section for handmade art. All handmade people want to showcase themselves at the Maker Festival, and the venue is in Qiantang. Luo Jingyu wanted to participate two years ago, but Fang Xu always disagreed, thinking it was a loss and meaningless.
This year, Luo Jingyu wanted to give it a try regardless of whether Fang Xutong agreed or not. However, it was not something that could be participated in just because one had to sign up for screening.
After chatting for a while, Xu Qingyan clapped his hands and said, "Okay, okay, it's time for class. Let's start early and end early so that you can finish your homework early at night. Especially since our Xiaoyu has to accompany his girlfriend, let's help him save some time."
The young ladies all laughed. Luo Jingyu touched his ears and felt them burning. He wondered why he was so nervous. His face turned red when they mentioned Huanhuan. He didn't look like a 27-year-old man at all. He looked more like 17.
The afternoon classes were a bit difficult for Luo Jingyu. He slept too little and was always a bit sleepy.
However, all craftsmen have experience of staying up late. When Luo Jingyu ordered milk tea for everyone, she asked for a cup of coffee for herself and also made a cup of strong tea. She drank it to wake herself up and devoted herself to learning and making pine cordyceps flowers again.
—
Zhan Xi rested in the hotel room in the morning, visited the exhibition hall in the afternoon, went to the supermarket to buy some fruit snacks, and finally went to the bookstore to pick out a book, ready to take it back to the room to read slowly.
It has been a long time since she had such a leisurely day. At the end of the day, Chi Guilan really did not contact her. Zhan Xi actually thought a lot in her mind. She reviewed her life, study and work experiences from childhood to adulthood. Some fragments that she had never realized were problematic before now seemed to have deep meanings.
Her mind gradually became clearer, and several ideas took shape. She thought about chatting with Xiaoyu in the evening and listening to his opinions.
Luo Jingyu sent her a WeChat message, saying that the class would end around 5 o'clock that day. When Zhan Xi stayed in the room until almost 5 o'clock, she suddenly wanted to pick up Xiaoyu after class, just like those students in college who waited for their lovers to finish their evening self-study. She had never experienced this before. Xiaoyu didn't work, so she couldn't go downstairs of his workplace to wait for him to get off work.
He did it as soon as he thought of it. Zhan Xi knew which building Luo Jingyu was attending class in. He pointed it out to her through the window and it only took a few minutes to walk there.
Zhan Xi wandered to the lobby on the first floor of the office building. There was nowhere to sit and it was quite hot, so she went to the convenience store next door to buy a strawberry cone and ate it slowly while standing in the corner of the lobby.
This was the scene that Luo Jingyu and her three sisters saw when they came out of the elevator.
The girl was standing not far away, wearing the simplest smoky gray long-sleeved T-shirt, jeans and white sneakers. She was tall and thin, with her long hair tied behind her head. Her smooth and beautiful face was not made up, and she was holding an ice cream cone in her hand and licking it.
Sister Shao saw Luo Jingyu standing still, and followed his line of sight to see Zhan Xi. Several sisters immediately shouted, "Oh my, it's Xiaoyu's boyfriend!"
Luo Jingyu naturally couldn't hear it. Zhan Xi had already walked up to him with a smile, still licking the cone.
Luo Jingyu smiled, pointed at the three sisters who stopped with him, and signed to Zhan Xi: My classmates.
He was very nervous because he had shown the photos of Huanhuan to the sisters without her consent. He didn't expect Huanhuan to wait for him after class. He didn't know what she would say. He didn't dare to introduce her as his girlfriend, or even hold her hand.
He was very clear that he and Huanhuan were still in a semi-underground relationship. In public places where no one knew, he was a frank and stable boyfriend. However, in front of people he knew but was not familiar with, he lost some confidence. He really didn't want to be discouraged again.
Zhan Xi looked at the three ladies. Xiaoyu said they were classmates, but in fact they were all older sisters. She called out sweetly, "Hello, sisters. My last name is Zhan. You can call me Xiao Zhan. I'm Xiaoyu's girlfriend."
Luo Jingyu kept looking at her face, and when she saw what she said, she felt like her heart was hit.
Zhan Xi had already taken the initiative to hold his hand, with their fingers clasped tightly together.
Sister Shao and the others really didn't expect Zhan Xi to be able to speak. They naturally thought that Luo Jingyu's girlfriend was also a deaf girl. They were stunned at first, but soon reacted and said enthusiastically: "Hello, hello, Xiao Zhan, do you want to have dinner with us? Your Xiao Yu eats alone every day, why don't you join us for dinner today?"
Zhan Xi looked at Luo Jingyu, and Luo Jingyu signed to her: You say, tomorrow.
Zhan Xi understood and said with a smile: "Thank you, sister. We won't eat together today. How about tomorrow? Xiaoyu only slept for three hours yesterday and he still has homework to do tonight. I want him to finish it early and catch up on some sleep."
I only slept for three hours yesterday!!
The sisters all looked enlightened and understood what he meant!
Tsk tsk tsk, this fighting power is worthy of being young! How could they know that Luo Jingyu had fought back and forth between Qiantang and Shanghai the night before? At this moment, everyone was smiling slyly. Sister Shao said, "Okay, okay, then you go on a date, we're going to have dinner. We agreed to eat together tomorrow!"
Before leaving, Xiao Ding avoided Luo Jingyu and kindly said to Zhan Xi: "Xiao Zhan, let me remind you, Xiaoyu's homework tonight is very complicated, it will probably take six or seven hours, we are all ready to stay up late. Boys are more energetic when they are young, I understand, you can only persuade him, he spent so much money to come to class, he must do his homework, other things are not urgent, but he still needs to get enough sleep, otherwise his body will not be able to bear it, understand?"
Zhan Xi: “?”
Zhan Xi: “!”
Oh no! She understood.