ATLAS TRANSLATES

Zhan Xi didn’t know when she fell asleep. She only remembered someone kissing her forehead in her drowsy state, and she mumbled, “What time is it?”

There was no answer.

Then the mattress dipped beside her as someone lay down. Her blanket was tugged a few times, but no one touched her. Zhan Xi never opened her eyes and drifted back into sweet slumber.

In the morning, her biological clock woke her at 8 AM. The hotel room’s curtains were blackout ones, making the entire room pitch dark. Zhan Xi turned on the bedside lamp and looked over to find Luo Jingyu sleeping next to her, making soft snoring sounds.

He was sleeping very close to his edge of the bed, lying on his side with his back to her. Both his arms were outside the blanket, and she could see his shoulder blades protruding under his white t-shirt, along with the indentation of his spine.

Zhan Xi got up and walked to the desk, where she saw a plant—green stems and leaves with clear veins, looking very natural. At the top of the stem were clusters of tiny yellow flowers with green receptacles. She couldn’t recognize what type of flower it was.

She went to the window and lifted the curtain to look outside. It was late May, and the weather was getting hot. The room faced east, making the morning sun particularly bright. Below was a small road that looked busy, with pedestrians and electric bikes coming and going. Even through the window, she could hear the faint bustle.

Zhan Xi knew Luo Jingyu had class at 9 AM. At 8:20, she sat down at his bedside and patted his arm. Luo Jingyu didn’t respond, his breathing deep and steady, clearly in deep sleep.

Zhan Xi decided to kiss his face, giving him two quick pecks. He finally woke up.

These days, Luo Jingyu no longer tried to hide his voice around Zhan Xi. After waking, he cleared his throat and rolled onto his back. The sunlight probably hurt his eyes as he raised his hand to block his face, letting out a long “Ugh…” sound, seemingly complaining about not getting enough sleep.

“Wake up! You’ll be late!” Zhan Xi rubbed his face with both hands and gave him a few pats. “Get up, Little Fish! It’s 8:30…”

Luo Jingyu squinted his eyes, not really catching her lip movements. He suddenly reached out and hugged her, pulling her down. Zhan Xi fell right on top of him.

She was wearing a nightgown with nothing underneath, and their bodies were pressed tightly together with just the blanket between them. Luo Jingyu acted like he hadn’t noticed anything, contentedly hugging her with his eyes closed, his hand gently stroking her back, still immersed in his sweet dream.

“Hey, let me go!” Zhan Xi was incredibly embarrassed. After pushing and patting, she finally managed to get up. Luo Jingyu finally opened his eyes, looking at her with gentle eyes, and signed: [Good morning.]

Zhan Xi signed back: [Good morning.]

Luo Jingyu raised his hands again to sign: [What time is it?]

Zhan Xi curved her right index finger to show him a “9”.

Luo Jingyu: “!”

He jumped up immediately, and at the same time, his wristband started vibrating—it was his 8:30 alarm.

Zhan Xi laughed heartily, slapping her thigh.

Luo Jingyu realized Zhan Xi was tricking him and relaxed. He made a face at her, ruffled her hair, and without thinking, lifted the blanket to get out of bed to look for his slippers.

It took just two seconds before his scalp tingled, and his legs quickly retreated back under the covers.

He looked up at Zhan Xi—too late, she had seen everything.

Zhan Xi stared at him blankly, recalling what she had just seen. Under Luo Jingyu’s t-shirt, he was only wearing grey briefs, revealing his long, bare legs. His skin was very fair, and if she wasn’t mistaken, there was hair on his calves…

Luo Jingyu: “…”

He swallowed and his earlobes had turned deep red. He reached over to grab his sweatpants from the bedside table and fumbled to put them on under the covers.

Zhan Xi silently walked to the closet to get her own clothes and pants, pretending to busy herself and not daring to look back at him.

When Luo Jingyu was washing up in the bathroom with his messy bed head, he still felt embarrassed.

Childhood didn’t count, but since middle school, he hadn’t appeared in front of girls wearing just briefs. Even at home, since he slept in the living room, he always wore boxer briefs or added shorts on top. Luo Mingsheng had always taught him that boys shouldn’t be too casual, especially since there was a little sister at home.

This budget hotel didn’t serve breakfast, and Luo Jingyu usually ate outside. After getting dressed, he put on his backpack and wanted to tell Zhan Xi something, but she pushed him out the door. When he turned back in confusion, she said: “Hurry and go! You’ll be late. Don’t worry about me, I won’t starve myself!”

She also used sign language to help express herself, urging him to go quickly.

Luo Jingyu had no choice. He touched her face and turned to go to class.

He bought two meat buns and ate while running, but still arrived five minutes late. When he walked into Professor Xu Qingyan’s workshop, Professor Xu and the other three students were already prepared to start.

Xu Qingyan smiled at him and said, “Ha, how rare! Our model student Little Fish is late today.”

She was over forty, petite, with an elegant and kind demeanor. Luo Jingyu felt that Professor Xu was somewhat similar to Luo Xiaomei. She had been taking care of him since eight years ago, which was one of the reasons he could persist in learning pressed flower crafts.

One of the students, Sister Shao, who was thirty-seven, said to Luo Jingyu: “Little Fish, remember we agreed there’s a fine for being late. You’re treating us to milk tea this afternoon!”

Sister Zhu and Sister Ding giggled, and Luo Jingyu felt very embarrassed. He nodded, made an “OK” sign, and quickly sat down at his seat, taking out his tools from his bag and carefully unwrapping his homework to hand to Xu Qingyan.

The pressed flower class wasn’t like regular classes where the teacher teaches from the front while students listen below. Instead, five people would gather around a table, with the teacher demonstrating and explaining while everyone watched and listened, taking notes and practicing along with the teacher’s instructions.

The textbooks had illustrations with step-by-step explanations, both in color and black and white, though the text was all in Japanese. After starting with pressed flowers, Xu Qingyan began learning Japanese simultaneously. After more than ten years, she could now thoroughly understand the Japanese text in the materials.

She had very high standards for herself. When studying in Japan, she would completely immerse herself because her purpose for learning wasn’t just for herself but to bring it back to teach everyone else.

Xu Qingyan had extensive teaching experience and could teach from beginner to advanced levels like Luo Jingyu’s. For the students, it tested their comprehension abilities. Students needed to watch intently how Professor Xu demonstrated, understanding and imagining what the flower pattern would look like after being pressed.

During class, forget about playing with phones—if your mind wandered for even a moment and you missed one step, you wouldn’t be able to do the homework well, or might not be able to do it at all. After missing several steps, you’d basically fail the final project, wouldn’t get your certificate, and would have to retake the exam, which was another big expense. So, everyone was very serious during class, no one chatted, and they all listened with intense focus.

Luo Jingyu had the best seat, directly opposite Xu Qingyan. Every year this seat was reserved for him—it was everyone’s way of taking care of him.

Sitting in this position, he could clearly see Professor Xu’s lip movements and hand movements. However, since Luo Jingyu had absolutely no hearing, while others could watch and listen simultaneously, with Professor Xu’s explanations serving as a voiceover to her hand movements, it was different for him. When he read lips, he had to concentrate, and when reading lips, his eyes couldn’t focus on Professor Xu’s operations. When his eyes watched the operations, he couldn’t focus on reading lips.

It was really difficult at first, so difficult that he would secretly cry in his room at night because he couldn’t keep up and didn’t know how to do the homework.

Later, he mustered up the courage to ask Professor Xu for help, explaining that he couldn’t hear and really didn’t understand. Only then did she realize that this deaf student, although self-proclaimed able to read lips, still needed extra care.

After several years, Luo Jingyu finally gained experience. During class, his eyes were almost fixed on Professor Xu’s hands, and only when he had spare attention would he divert to reading lips. Professor Xu was also very thoughtful—sometimes for crucial steps, she would explain verbally first, wait for everyone to take notes, and then demonstrate the operation, which was much more friendly for Luo Jingyu.

Deaf people’s visual abilities are stronger than hearing people’s, and their visual memory is deeper. For example, if you show hearing people and deaf people ten pictures in sequence, then scramble them and ask them to arrange them in the original order, Luo Jingyu would do it more accurately. This is because when memorizing, he wouldn’t mentally repeat the key information in the pictures like hearing people do—he just looked at the images and could remember them.

So when watching Professor Xu’s demonstrations, Luo Jingyu could better understand and remember the key points.

This class was teaching the Serratula flower, a kind of wildflower that was extremely difficult. The entire flower had many small, dense petals, and the stamens were clustered together in a granular state. When making it, you had to use cotton to roll and then wrap each stamen, no bigger than a fingernail, tightly in fabric, making sure no cotton showed through.

The petals and stamens needed to be filled in a way that was both saturated but not too dense—if you didn’t get that balance right, it would look ugly.

Making such flowers thoroughly tested the craftsperson’s patience and finger dexterity.

After Xu Qingyan demonstrated one step, she let the students roll their own cotton and wrap the stamens. She paid special attention to Luo Jingyu, emphasizing again the precautions he might have missed “hearing.”

Luo Jingyu was very grateful. It was this kind of tacit cooperation that allowed him to complete his homework well, and in all these years, he had never failed a major project.

The morning class had no break. At 11:30, Professor Xu let everyone order takeout for a lunch break of over an hour. Luo Jingyu quickly took out his phone to text Zhan Xi.

[Big Fish]: Huanhuan, I’m done with morning class. Are you eating?

[Egg Pudding]: I didn’t eat breakfast until after 9, had a sandwich and yogurt. I’m not hungry yet, I’ll go out to eat after 12. Don’t want to order takeout.

[Big Fish]: We finish class early this afternoon, wait for me to eat.

[Egg Pudding]: Okay! I’ll definitely wait to eat with you. This afternoon I’ll look around nearby, found out there seems to be an exhibition hall and a big supermarket. What do you want to eat? I’ll buy some things.

[Big Fish]: Fruit would be good, there are more lychees now.

[Egg Pudding]: Got it~

[Big Fish]: Then I’ll eat my takeout.

[Egg Pudding]: Mm-hmm, eat more, focus on your class, don’t worry about me, I can take care of myself.

Luo Jingyu looked up to find Professor Xu and the three sisters all watching him, each with a meaningful expression.

Luo Jingyu: “?”

“We’re waiting for you to answer what you want to eat,” Sister Shao handed him her phone and said, “Just watching you text and smile silly, what’s up? Got a girlfriend?”

Luo Jingyu’s face immediately turned red. He quickly glanced at Sister Shao’s phone and randomly chose black pepper beef with rice.

After Sister Shao placed the order, she looked at him and said to the others: “Hey! Our group’s pet really has something going on!”

They had joked years ago that Luo Jingyu was their group’s pet—well-behaved, handsome, and easily embarrassed. At this level, he was the only male student left, quietly studying every day and doing very well. He naturally attracted people’s affection.

Luo Jingyu pressed his lips together and quietly opened his phone’s photo album, picking out a photo of himself with Zhan Xi, holding his phone wanting to show it but not daring to. Sister Shao quickly snatched the phone to look and exclaimed: “Oh my! Little Fish’s girlfriend is so pretty! They make such a good couple!”

Everyone crowded around to look at the photo. Even Professor Xu came over excitedly. They all praised Zhan Xi endlessly, saying just by looking at her face they could tell she was a very well-behaved, cute, and gentle girl.

Luo Jingyu watched them chattering, reading one person’s lips then another’s, seemingly all praising Huanhuan. He was very happy, his eyes and mouth curved in smiles.

However, this time he didn’t mention that Huanhuan was hearing. The sisters didn’t ask anyway, and thinking of the reactions from Fang Xu, Yue Qi, and his mother, Luo Jingyu felt that if he said it, he would just get another round of criticism.

After eating, before class started, Professor Xu sat beside Luo Jingyu to chat.

Luo Jingyu typed on his phone to tell Professor Xu that his girlfriend was from Shanghai and had come to spend the weekend with him.

“How long have you been dating?” Professor Xu held a cup of hot white tea, smiling as she asked.

Luo Jingyu shyly typed: [Known each other for half a year, dating for 3 months.]

“Not bad, not bad. You’re twenty-seven now, right?” Xu Qingyan said, “It’s time you had a girlfriend. You’re such a good young man—if you weren’t in Qiantang, I would have wanted to introduce someone to you.”

Luo Jingyu smiled.

Xu Qingyan asked further: “Are you busy this year? How many pieces did you make for the Flower Festival?”

Luo Jingyu typed: [500.]

“That’s not much. I didn’t make any this year, being in Japan, couldn’t be bothered.” Xu Qingyan said.

Luo Jingyu thought Professor Xu was really amazing. She could even give up big orders like the Flower Festival. He couldn’t do that yet—he had to work himself to exhaustion to make at least some.

“Oh right, I remember now, you made so few because you were making that cherry blossom tree in January and February, right?” Xu Qingyan seemed to suddenly remember this, and the topic caught the attention of the other sisters. They were all senior practitioners in China’s pressed flower circle and had heard about this, but Luo Jingyu still naively thought no one knew he made it.

He remembered Fang Xu’s words and became nervous, not knowing what to do. He only saw Sister Shao saying: “Little Fish, that tree was made by you, right? In Qiantang, it could only be you. I can’t think of anyone else.”

Seeing everyone looking at him, Luo Jingyu could only admit it with a nod.

He thought, please don’t laugh at him again. Words like “crazy” and “idiot”—just thinking about those words made him terribly upset.

Unexpectedly, Xu Qingyan said: “Little Fish, you did very well, very thoughtful. I saw the photos. The entire scene arrangement was perfectly matched. Did you design it all yourself?”

Luo Jingyu: “…”

He nodded with mixed feelings, still feeling uneasy inside.

Sister Shao asked: “How long did it take? If someone asked me to do it, I wouldn’t dare. The workload is too huge, but it turned out really beautiful, super awesome! Where did the tree go afterward?”

She sat far away, so Luo Jingyu didn’t type but wrote on paper for her to see: [One and a half months. The tree is at my home, to be installed at the client’s home.]

Sister Zhu patted Luo Jingyu’s arm, and when he turned to look, she said: “Little Fish, that client came to ask me about this job. I live far away, and I didn’t even dare quote a price. No one had done anything like this before—quoting too high wouldn’t work, quoting too low wouldn’t work either. I even discussed with Professor Xu about how much to charge, but Professor Xu said this job was suitable for you. You’re in Qiantang, why should we get involved?”

Luo Jingyu blinked at her, then turned back to look at Xu Qingyan. The professor smiled and said: “I thought you were the most suitable. This takes too much work. They all have families to care for and not enough time. In the end, you really completed it beautifully. When are you installing it at the client’s home?”

Luo Jingyu lowered his eyes to type: [Client said May, but I’m not free. Scheduled for next month.]

“That’s good,” Xu Qingyan said. “Keep up the good work. You really should have had a major piece by now. After finishing that tree, you actually should have promoted it more. It was too quiet. Think about it more, though since it’s a private client, I can understand keeping it low-key.”

Luo Jingyu didn’t know how to describe his feelings at this moment. His palms were sweaty, wanting to smile but not daring to, only able to lower his head and secretly rejoice with pressed lips.

He thought, Huanhuan was right—Fang Xu was really lying to him. There weren’t so many negative comments. They all said it was good, even Professor Xu said it was good. He hadn’t brought shame to Professor Xu or tarnished the reputation of pressed flower artisans. He was so happy! He had to tell Huanhuan when he got back that he had been praised!