Chapter 19: CH 19

“Such a coincidence?” Hua Jin asked while she walked to the door, “Were you… just passing by?”

Pei Yan remained standing right outside the door, “What else could it be? Do you think I especially came to see you?”

Hua Jin laughed when she heard him say this, “It’s raining outside, so why don’t you come in and sit for a while. I’ll make you some tea.”

At first, Pei Yan wanted to say that he could never enter such a shabby shop, but somehow, his legs subconsciously followed Hua Jin in.

Having already entered, he found that although the shop was a little small, it was cleverly laid out so that people could relax in it.

Nearby an embroidery display was a small table and chair. Because Pei Yan’s legs were too long, when he sat on the chair, he had to bend his legs a lot, which made him look quite pitiful.

“Sit on this instead,” Hua Jin said as she pushed the chair she usually used when she embroidered and offered it up to Pei Yan. She then placed a cup of tea on the table.

“I didn’t expect your store to be here,” Pei Yan said while obliging to change seats. He suddenly remembered that this place wasn’t far from where she informed him of Chen Sen’s cursing.

“Although a lot of people nowadays prefer to buy things online, customers find shops with physical stores to be more trustworthy.” Hua Jin raised her head and glanced out the window, “Not to mention the fact that just being here, displaying embroideries, serve to deepen people’s impression of the craft when they pass by.

Pei Yan took a sip of the tea and found that the leaves and the water used were all very ordinary. Usually, he would have been more picky about the tea he drank, but because he went out a bit too early and found that his mouth had gone a little dry, he tolerated the tea he was given.

When the conversation died down, the atmosphere of the shop suddenly grew too quiet. When Pei Yan glanced through the store, he saw that there was an incomplete koi embroidery being worked on on an embroidery frame. The brightly colored koi seemed to be swimming in water, its scales glistened under the sun, looking quite radiant. He had to blink his eyes a few times before he finally realized that the koi wasn’t really glistening, only that it looked too real.

Pei Yan put down the tea cup and stood up, “I should be going then.”

Hua Jin nodded.

But because Pei Yan just stood there doing nothing, Hua Jin could only stare at him quizzically. He felt that her gaze was asking him, ‘Why aren’t you leaving yet?’ He felt a little guilty for now reason, so he placed an invitation card on the table.

“What is this?” Hua Jin looked at the simple yet elegant card and then turned back to Pei Yan, only to see his face had turned a little uncomfortable. She was just about to take the card, but stopped midway.

“There’s going to be a traditional art exhibit happening in a few days, but because some of the pieces are too expensive, attendance is by invitation only. If it strikes your fancy, you can go and attend it.” Pei Yan himself didn’t understand anything about art, be they embroideries, lacquerware, or pottery, but since the organizer of the event sent him several invitation cards this morning, he subconsciously thought that Hua Jin might be interested in this kind of thing.

“Thank you,” Hua Jin happily replied as she held the invitation, but then she looked at Pei Yan suspiciously and asked, “Are you asking me to buy this?”

“No.” Pei Yan coldly replied. “I was going to just throw it in the trash, but didn’t expect to meet you here. I consider giving it to you as recycling.”

Hearing this, Hua Jin wasn’t angry at all, but instead happily replied, “Next time you find yourself in need to recycle a few things, don’t forget about me! I’ll happily take these troublesome things off of you.”

Pei Yan: “…”

“Bro, is it really here?” Chen Jiang looked at the embroidery shop across the street and asked doubtfully, “Maybe you guessed wrong?”

“Heh!” Chen Sen chuckled. “When Pei Yan got out of his car that night, he was still acting normally towards me, but it wasn’t long after he got called over by that woman that his attitude towards me completely changed. She must have told Pei Yan something.”

“Bro, I think you’re going about it the wrong way,” Chen Jiang reasoned. “If you hadn’t scolded Pei Yan in public, we wouldn’t be having this problem, right? So, blaming the girl isn’t right.”

“Girl this, girl that! Can’t you stay focused for once when a girl is involved?” Chen Sen glared at Chen Jiang angrily, “And I see you’re still in the mood to talk nonsense. Because of Pei Yan’s cold attitude towards us two, the family is breathing down our neck, so tell me, what are we supposed to do?!”

“You know I’m not smart enough to think of a good solution, but think about this: if that woman really knows Pei Yan and you make trouble for her, wouldn’t that just make things worse? Bro, why are you handling things like a brainless extra in a TV series?” Chen Jiang then put his hands in his pockets and said, “If you insist on having me make a plan, why don’t we go to her store and buy several things, that way we might get into her good side and she ends up praising us to Pei Yan.”

“Are you so afraid of Pei Yan that you’re also afraid of a woman who might have some kind of relationship with him?” Blue veins bulged out of Chen Sen’s forehead, “What else are you afraid of, huh?”

“You’re hopeless,” Chen Jiang replied calmly. “Go ahead if you want to, but count me out of it.”

“Hmph!” Chen Sen stomped away, but he only took two steps forward before he scurried back to Chen Jiang’s side.

“What–” Chen Jiang was about to ask what had happened when he saw a very familiar person walk out of the store on the opposite side of the road.

‘Pei Yan?’

“Pei, thank you.” Hua Jin knew how precious this opportunity was as she had even heard Aunt Gao mention it a few days ago. She mentioned that the exhibition would not only include works of modern masters, but there would also be cultural relics that have been passed down for thousands of years on display. If one could manage to go, then it could be regarded as a blessing of a lifetime. Unfortunately, the exhibition this time around wasn’t open to the public and only a select few experts and scholars were invited for research and discussions.

Although many of the objects could be viewed through the Internet, the experience of seeing it in person was totally different to seeing it in photos.

“I did it because I wanted to, so there’s no need to thank me,” Pei Yan tried to humblebrag though his raising his chin proudly and his dreamy eyes filling with pride and laziness gave him away, “Okay then, since I’m busy, I’ll be leaving first.”

“Wait a minute,” Hua Jin pulled on Pei Yan’s sleeve before she ran back to the store and quickly came out with a palm-sized box she was shoving onto Pei Yan’s hand, “A token of my appreciation.”

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It was now Pei Yan’s turn to eye Hua Jin suspiciously, “There’s no love letters inside, right?”

Hua Jin: “…”

“Mr Pei, since you’re such a busy man, I’ll stop wasting more of your time. You may leave.” Hua Jin said this while thinking, ‘How could anyone still write love letters in our day and age?!’

“Che!” Pei Yan sneered as he returned to his car. When he opened the box, he found a tie inside.

He then picked it up and looked at it. The blade of tie was embroidered with two kois that were connected to each other, while the tip of the tail had “Years of Joy” embroidered on it.

“Years of Joy…” Pei Yan disgustedly threw the tie onto the passenger seat, but after driving a short distance, he took a deep breath and parked the car on the side of the road before carefully folding the tie back up and neatly putting it inside the box again and securing it.

Only after he finished doing so was he able to breathe a sigh of relief. The restlessness in his heart was successfully suppressed.

“Bro, are you still going then?” Chen Jiang chidingly elbowed Chen Sen.

Chen Sen was already angry and annoyed, but he knew he couldn’t make trouble anymore but he didn’t relent, “I’m still going! If not, I’ll call you grandpa!”

Chen Jiang was taken aback. If their grandparents heard him say this, the both of them would have been beaten badly. He tiptoed to make sure Pei Yan’s car was really gone while he carefully thought about the things he just saw. He has never actually heard of any woman having a close relationship with Pei Yan, ‘But judging by the way they chatted in front of the store just now, could it be that the two… were in a relationship?’

As soon as Hua Jin put away the invitation, she saw two men walk in. The man in front looked vaguely familiar to her, but she couldn’t remember where she had seen him before.

“You!” Chen Sen glared at Hua Jin as he saw her eyeing him curiously, “What great stuff do you have here? Take them out and I’ll pick out two.”

Chen Jiang remained silent as he looked at his brother, who just a few minutes ago was threatening to find someone to beat her up, but was currently trying curry favor.

“Sir, the items on display are all for sale, but if you aren’t satisfied with these, we also accept custom orders.” Hua Jin then took out a brochure and offered it to them, “I wonder if I can help you with anything?”

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“What can you do?” Chen Sen walked to the sofa and sat down, eyeing the store critically.

Having heard the man’s voice, it slowly dawned on Hua Jin who this man was. ‘Isn’t he the person who was cursing Pei Yan out in public under a street lamp a month or two ago?’

Though she didn’t know if the other party was really here to buy something or is just out for revenge, Hua Jin’s smile never faded as she guided him through their brochure, “I’m an expert at embroidery and I also know a little bit about lacquerware, though I am no expert.”

“Then wrap these two for me,” Chen Sen pointed out randomly.

“You mean these two?” The smile on her face was sincere, “The pattern on the piece on the left is called ‘Wealth and Fame’. During the embroidery, nearly ten types of stitches were used. Be it the fabric of the piece or the embroidery threads, all of them were sourced from–”

“There’s no need to introduce them further,” Chen Sen simply handed his credit card to Hua Jin, “Just swipe my card already.”

“Thank you for the purchase,” Hua Jin replied as she took the card and quickly entered the total amount on the credit card terminal, “Sir, please enter your passcode.”

Chen Sen glanced at the total bill and found that these two tiny things weren’t cheap at all. In the end, he reluctantly entered his passcode. While Hua Jin was wrapping the two objects up, he turned around to see Chen Jiang was still curiously looking at a fan. He couldn’t help but bark at him, “Come and get the stuff!”

“Oh!” Chen Jiang then ran to where they were and grinned at Hua Jin, “Beauty, why don’t I give you my number so that you can call me when you’re free to have some fun?”

“Sir, you sure know how to joke.” Hua Jin’s mouth might be smiling, but her eyes were saying otherwise. “A person like me has to rush around every day just to make a living. I really don’t have time to play.”

“If your life is so hard, why don’t you ask Pei–” Chen Jiang snorted dryly but was interrupted by an exasperated glare from Chen Sen.

As soon as the brothers left, Hua Jin happily sent Tan Yuan a WeChat message.

[FanHua]: [TangYuan], the stuff we’ve put on display for a year have finally been sold for a high price!

Both pieces were actually exquisitely made and were very artistic. It took a lot of effort to embroider them so the asking price was high. Over the past year, many have asked about them, but none have ever been willing to pay.

Just as Hua Jin was beginning to think that the two pieces were going to become permanent display pieces, a spendthrift saved the day.

After a short while, Tan Yuan replied, but oddly, it wasn’t about the purchase.

[TangYuan]: Hua Hua, even if I were to continue making lacquerware for all my life, would I even have a future?

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The Author has something to say: Chen Sen: Even if my family scolds me to death, I’ll never bow down to Pei Yan! Buying Pei Yan’s woman’s things at a high price is me bowing my head?! No, it was a strategy!

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