That day, Yang Zhao and Chen Mingsheng chatted for a long time.
Yang Zhao showed Chen Mingsheng the pottery bowl, and asked Chen Mingsheng if it looked good. Chen Mingsheng looked at it for a long time, then shook his head and said, "It's not that pretty."
Yang Zhao said, "Which doesn't look good?"
Chen Mingsheng said, "There are no patterns."
Yang Zhao smiled. She put the pottery bowl back into the lockbox, and took Chen Mingsheng to visit her studio.
Yang Zhao's studio is very particular, whether it is the layout or the equipment, they are neat and orderly. After walking around, Yang Zhao and Chen Mingsheng returned to the apartment downstairs.
It's already evening.
Chen Mingsheng said: "It's getting late, I'm leaving first."
Yang Zhao looked at his watch and said, "Okay, I'll see you off."
Chen Mingsheng shook his head, "No need."
After speaking, he picked up the prosthetic limb standing by the table, folded it slightly, and held it in his hand. Yang Zhao sent him to the elevator. Chen Mingsheng looked at Yang Zhao and said, "Let's go here."
Yang Zhao nodded.
Chen Mingsheng stood beside her. Yang Zhao looked at the faint shadow on the ground illuminated by the corridor lights, and said, "Chen Mingsheng, I'll look for you next time."
With a ding, the elevator just arrived, and Chen Mingsheng walked in with his crutches on. When he turned around, Yang Zhao was looking at him squarely.
Chen Mingsheng chuckled, and the elevator door closed.
He didn't answer.
All the way downstairs, Chen Mingsheng pushed open the door of the unit and came to his taxi step by step. He opened the door and put the artificial limb on the back seat. When he returned to the driver's seat and just started the car, he saw another A car drove up.
Chen Mingsheng turned the car to the side to give way to the car behind, but the car did not pass by, but stopped beside the unit door.
Chen Mingsheng reversed the car and left. At the last moment, he glanced at the rearview mirror.
In that silver-gray Porsche, a man in a well-fitting suit got out.
When Yang Zhao heard the knock on the door, he thought it was Chen Mingsheng who had come back.
"You forgot to take what—" she just asked halfway, when she saw the person outside the door.
"Xue Miao?" Yang Zhao was a little surprised, "Why are you here?"
Xue Miao seemed to be in good spirits, with sparkling eyes. He conjured a flower from his bosom, handed it to Yang Zhao, and said with a smile, "Surprise."
Yang Zhao looked at Xue Miao, and flatly commented: "Frivolous."
Xue Miao scratched at the door, looked down at Yang Zhao, and said, "Aren't you inviting me in?"
Yang Zhao didn't bother to pay attention to him, turned around and entered the room, Xue Miao followed behind her.
Yang Zhao took out a bottle of mineral water from the refrigerator and put it on the table. When Xue Miao saw it, she frowned and said, "Xiao Zhao, I came from a long way, and you treat me like this. You are really cruel."
Yang Zhao said, "How long are you going to stay this time?"
Xue Miao sat on the sofa, loosened her neckline, and said, "How long do you want me to stay?"
Yang Zhao said, "I need to finish things up. Just wait a bit, and I can take them away tomorrow or the day after tomorrow."
Xue Miao tilted her head, "It sounds like it means 'take something and leave quickly'."
Yang Zhao said, "Almost."
Xue Miao raised her head, leaned on the sofa, and said with a sigh: "Cruel."
Yang Zhao sat opposite him and didn't speak.
Xue Miao lay down for a while, but Yang Zhao stood up before getting up, and walked to him.
"Are you asleep? Go inside if you want to—"
Halfway through Yang Zhao's words, Xue Miao's hand suddenly grabbed her arm. With a slight effort, Yang Zhao was defenseless and fell directly on Xue Miao's body.
Yang Zhao moved, but didn't break free.
"Xue Miao, let go." Yang Zhao said.
Xue Miao lowered her head, and Yang Zhao could feel her hair being pressed down little by little because of Xue Miao's approach.
"Xue Miao." When Yang Zhao spoke again, there was already a hint of warning in his words.
Xue Miao said in a low voice, "Xiao Zhao, I quarreled with her again."
Yang Zhao took a deep breath and said, "Let go."
Xue Miao let go of Yang Zhao gently, Yang Zhao stood up, took a pack of cigarettes from the table, and lit one.
Xue Miao looked at her frowning and said, "Women don't smoke."
Yang Zhao didn't even look at him, he held a cigarette between his fingers and said, "You are a man, so you don't smoke."
Xue Miao said: "I want to think about my health."
Yang Zhao chuckled and sat across from the sofa.
Xue Miao quietly looked at Yang Zhao's face through the hazy smoke.
After a while, Yang Zhao flicked the ashtray in the ashtray on the table, and said unintentionally, "What are you looking at?"
Xue Miao shook his head, his eyes shifted to the coffee table, where there was a book. Xue Miao picked it up and looked at it. It was a book on history. He flipped through a few pages, and just happened to see a sentence, and read it casually.
"History is vague, just like the human soul, half real, half false, half living in dreams, half rooted in reality..."
Hearing these words, Yang Zhao narrowed his eyes slowly.
"That's right." Xue Miao closed the book and said with a smile, "It's half reality, half dream."
Yang Zhao raised his eyes, at that moment, Xue Miao's smile was extraordinarily handsome. She suddenly thought of something else.
Is man's desire—women's desire also divided into two halves
A man like Xue Miao - mature, handsome, humorous, rich, he is every woman's dream.
She felt the strong smoke filling her lungs, and she thought of someone else.
"Xiao Zhao..."
When Yang Zhao came back to his senses, he saw Xue Miao looking at him silently, and he said softly, "What were you thinking just now..."
When the cigarette was exhausted, Yang Zhao put out the cigarette butt.
"nothing."
Xue Miao looked at Yang Zhao and said, "I had a fight with my wife."
Yang Zhao said, "You just said it."
Xue Miao said, "Xiao Zhao, I don't want to be patient any longer."
Yang Zhao said, "It's up to you whether you can bear it or not."
Xue Miao laughed suddenly, rubbed his temples, and said, "Okay, okay, it's all my own business."
Yang Zhao stood up and said, "If you take the things away, I will start to take a vacation. The two-month vacation, we negotiated before."
Hearing that Yang Zhao was going to take a vacation, Xue Miao deleted all the sadness before, and stood up straight.
"Are you going on vacation now?"
Yang Zhao said, "That's right."
Xue Miao stretched out three fingers and said, "How about resting after the autumn auction, I will give you a 30% bonus."
Yang Zhao shook his head, "No, we agreed."
"Oh, Xiao Zhao..." Xue Miao let out a long sigh.
Yang Zhao frowned and said: "This is what we agreed before. This time the job is over, and I want a two-month vacation."
Xue Miao said, "Just for your brother?"
Yang Zhao paused and did not speak.
Xue Miao didn't notice, he spread his palms and said, "Xiao Zhao, excessive supervision won't do children any good."
"That's my family's business, you don't need to participate." Yang Zhao raised his eyebrows as he spoke, and said in a calm tone, "I think you can't take care of yourself anymore."
Xue Miao repeatedly failed, and finally went to take a bath in disappointment.
Yang Zhao arranged Xue Miao to rest in the guest room, and went back to the room by himself.
She lay in bed, thinking about the day. Chen Mingsheng's appearance always flooded into her mind unknowingly. Yang Zhao took his mobile phone and found his number.
She thought about it and wrote a text message.
[Chen Mingsheng, I'm Yang Zhao.]
After sending the text message, Yang Zhao put the phone next to his pillow. After a while, the phone vibrated. Yang Zhao turned around and took the phone in his hand. It displayed on it - "An unread text message".
Yang Zhao clicked on it, and there were three words inside.
[I know.]
She looked at these three words and imagined the tone of their voices when they came out of Chen Mingsheng's mouth.
It should be a flat, slightly muffled sound.
Or, Yang Zhao thought... it could be brisk, the kind of tone he used when teasing her.
This is a very wonderful feeling. Yang Zhao held the mobile phone and looked at the simple three characters. It was her first experience like this, and she didn't know how to describe how she felt.
It was as if her expectation had finally been answered.
The next day Xue Miao left with the pottery bowl. When leaving, he left Yang Zhao a gift box.
Yang Zhao took the box and asked him, "What is this?"
Xue Miao smiled and said, "For you."
After Xue Miao left, Yang Zhao opened the box.
Inside is a set of emerald jewelry - necklace, earrings, bracelet and ring. Yang Zhao estimated the price of this set of jewelry, and finally locked them in the safe.
That night, she went to school to pick up Yang Jintian.
Yang Jintian usually lives on campus, so she negotiated with the teacher to take him home for the time being at night.
Senior three students have to go to their evening self-study until half past nine, and Yang Zhao's apartment is not too close to the Experimental Middle School. When Yang Zhao brought Yang Jintian home, it was almost eleven o'clock.
"Show me your test paper, you can take a bath and rest." Yang Zhao said to Yang Jintian.
"I didn't bring back the test paper." Yang Jintian said.
"Xiao Tian." Yang Zhao stood in the middle of the living room, the windbreaker hadn't been taken off yet, she looked at Yang Jintian and said, "Don't lie to me, give me the test paper, you go wash and sleep."
Yang Jintian lowered his head and frowned, threw his schoolbag on the sofa, and went into the bathroom without looking back.
Yang Zhao dug out Yang Jintian's test paper by himself, took it to the desk in the study and put it away. Then he went into the kitchen and heated up a pot of milk.
After Yang Jintian came out of the shower, Yang Zhao poured the warmed milk into the cup.
"Xiao Tian, you drank this."
Yang Jintian took a look and turned away.
"I don't drink milk."
Yang Zhao said, "Drinking milk can help you sleep."
Yang Jintian said impatiently: "I am old enough to still drink milk, if you want to drink it, drink it yourself."
Yang Zhao had no choice but to put the cup aside.
Yang Jintian sat on the sofa and wiped his hair, and said to Yang Zhao, "I'm hungry."
Yang Zhao: "What?"
Yang Jintian said: "I'm hungry, is there anything to eat?"
Yang Zhao stood up and said, "I'll call and order takeaway for you. What do you want to eat?"
Yang Jintian frowned and said: "What time is it and I still order takeaway, you can make me some, just order noodles."
Yang Zhao was dumbfounded.
"You didn't have dinner?"
Yang Jintian said: "Eat, eat more at five o'clock."
Yang Zhao looked at his watch, more than six hours had passed, no wonder Yang Jintian was hungry. She picked up the key and said, "My sister will buy it for you, just wait."
"No need." Before Yang Jintian finished speaking, Yang Zhao had already left the house.
There are two 24-hour convenience stores around the apartment. Yang Zhao bought a curry noodle, reheated it in the store and brought it back.
But when she got home, Yang Jintian had already fallen asleep.
Yang Zhao glanced at Yang Jintian who was lying on the bed, and then at the curry noodles in his hand, which was about to get cold, stood there for a while, and finally threw the noodles into the trash can.
She walked into the study room, sorted Yang Jintian's test papers into categories, and read them one by one.
When she was tired, Yang Zhao picked up the mobile phone on the table, her mind was a little confused, she didn't know what she was doing. When she regained consciousness, she had already found Chen Mingsheng's number.
She sent a text message—
[Chen Mingsheng.]
Not long after, I received a reply.
[Um.]
Yang Zhao thought for a while, then continued to send—
[Can you cook?]
The reply took a little longer this time.
[Yes, what's the matter.]
Yang Zhao sent another one—
[Can you teach me.]