Looking at the tearful sad cat emoji, Zhan Xi could feel the little boy’s disappointed mood. She wondered how a morning blind date could fail by lunchtime. From what he implied, it seemed the girl hadn’t liked him. She couldn’t help wanting to be an understanding big sister and comfort him.
[Egg Pudding]: Don’t be sad! With blind dates, it’s rare for both people to like each other on the first try. You probably just lack experience. Next time, prepare better. Girls like thoughtful, polite, and gentlemanly guys. If you meet a girl you like again, be more proactive in finding topics to chat about. Don’t give up easily – girls need to be pursued.
Luo Jingyu read “Egg Pudding’s” earnest advice, thinking to himself that there wouldn’t be a next blind date. He planned to have a serious talk with his sister and brother-in-law – given the situation, he really didn’t want to keep facing this repeatedly.
[Big Fish]: I’m not sad. I was mentally prepared. My conditions aren’t good.
[Egg Pudding]: Conditions can change! You’re still young. Work hard, save some money, and your conditions will improve in the future.
Luo Jingyu smiled lightly. The other person was wrong about this – his condition that affected marriage and relationships would never change. He decided to end this topic.
[Big Fish]: Is your fever better?
[Egg Pudding]: No, just checked – it’s 38.2°C. I slept all morning and plan to keep sleeping this afternoon.
[Big Fish]: Eat lunch what? Have anyone cook food you eat?
[Egg Pudding]: Try asking like this: “What did you have for lunch? Did someone cook for you?” I’ll answer: Don’t worry, my sister-in-law made me noodles for lunch.
Qin Fei was very nice. At lunch, seeing Zhan Xi had no appetite, she made her a bowl of noodles with vegetables and even cut half a sausage, saying that if she was still feverish in the evening, she’d have Zhan Jie take her to the hospital.
[Big Fish]: You rest well. If fever serious must go hospital.
[Egg Pudding]: Yeah, I know. Thanks for caring~
Luo Jingyu put down his phone. Shortly after, his mother Yan Yajuan arrived at the supermarket with lunch boxes. Seeing her son, she immediately asked about the blind date.
Luo Mingsung pulled his wife’s arm, waving at her not to ask. Yan Yajuan didn’t understand, but after Luo Mingsung used sign language to explain privately, she looked at Luo Jingyu with a pitiful expression.
Luo Jingyu felt frustrated: [Mom, don’t be like this. I was planning to stay all afternoon, but if you keep this up, I’ll leave.]
Yan Yajuan pursed her lips and gave him a side-eye: [Who wants to see you anyway?]
Luo Jingyu smiled, helping to open the lunch boxes and set them on the counter as his parents sat down to eat side by side. Looking at the dishes, Yan Yajuan pointed at the smoked fish, gesturing for him to eat.
He wasn’t picky and took a piece of smoked fish, giving his dad a thumbs up. The smoked fish was made by Luo Mingsung himself from large fresh grass carp – better than store-bought ones. Luo Jingyu had loved it since childhood.
In the afternoon, Luo Mingsung went home for a nap while Luo Jingyu kept his mom company at the store.
Qingque Garden was in southwest Qiantang, while his parents’ home was in the north – quite far apart. Luo Jingyu would visit once a week, either staying at the supermarket or going home for meals. He didn’t need to buy anything since his family ran the supermarket and had everything. He just needed to keep his parents company and chat.
Yan Yajuan sat behind the cash register knitting a sweater for Luo Jingyu – a moss green turtleneck style with an elegant color tone. She was exceptional at knitting and used quality yarn. Luo Jingyu was confident the finished product would rival sweaters costing hundreds or thousands in department stores.
Speaking of which, Yan Yajuan was his first crafts teacher.
When he was young and his parents still worked at the welfare factory, while other little boys were running around making mischief, Luo Jingyu liked to pull up a small stool next to Yan Yajuan and watch her do various handicrafts – beading, sewing, knitting… He was naturally quiet from childhood and could sit still for long periods. Give him some fabric scraps, scissors, pens, and thread, and he could fashion new clothes for Ultraman.
With her son there, Yan Yajuan left the cashier and stocking duties to him. Being a grown man who hadn’t eaten a proper lunch, Luo Jingyu got hungry in the afternoon. He simply took a can of chips from the shelf to eat, and when passing the beverage aisle, grabbed an orange juice too.
Yan Yajuan glared at him. Luo Jingyu smiled sheepishly: [I’m hungry.]
[Come home for dinner tonight, your sister and brother-in-law are coming.] Yan Yajuan put down her knitting to sign.
Luo Jingyu ate his chips, thought for a moment, and answered: [I can’t. I took an order with a tight deadline, I have to start working tonight.]
Yan Yajuan didn’t force him, knowing her son had been working very hard these past few years, sometimes working day and night without rest when busy. It pained her, but she understood it wasn’t easy for her son to achieve his current success. As a young person who couldn’t hear and hadn’t gone to university, he had to work harder than ordinary people to establish himself in society.
At 4:30 PM, Sister Feng came to take over the store. Both Luo Mingsung and Yan Yajuan were over fifty and couldn’t keep up physically, so they only minded the store during the day and hired Sister Feng to work until 9 PM.
After Yan Yajuan finished handling the cash handover with Sister Feng, mother and son left the store. Luo Jingyu pulled up his hood and put on his mask again, walking forward with his hands in his pockets.
Yan Yajuan caught up in a few steps and patted his arm. Luo Jingyu turned to look at his mom, and she signed disapprovingly: [Don’t hunch when you walk, young man. Stand up straight and look energetic.]
The eyes visible above Luo Jingyu’s mask curved slightly, and he nodded gently, straightening his back a bit. Yan Yajuan sighed, waving him away with a look of disgust: [Go on, go on, just looking at you annoys me.]
Taking the subway back to Qingque Garden, it was already 6 PM when Luo Jingyu got home.
He was very hungry, so he first made himself a bowl of noodles, then boiled a kettle of water and tended to the twenty-plus potted plants inside and outside. Looking at the gray ceramic jar on the shelf, he thought, time to get to work.
Luo Jingyu sent a message to “Egg Pudding.”
[Big Fish]: Teacher Egg, I’m home. Tonight I plan to make one Casablanca lily. If you think it’s okay, I’ll finish three lilies tomorrow.
Luo Jingyu’s studio was in the living room. In the rectangular space, there was no dining table, chairs, sofa, or coffee table – just a huge white workbench and two rows of cabinets filled with various tools and materials.
He turned on the heating, changed into a comfortable navy blue tracksuit, made a cup of jasmine tea, prepared all the necessary tools and materials, and officially began working.
The art of pressed flowers, originating in Europe, was transformed and promoted by a Japanese female artist in the 1940s into a unique craft technique that has now spread to many countries, including China.
The process involves cutting and dyeing various fabrics to make petals and leaves, then using special pressing tools – pressing irons – to press and attach different gauge wires, finally assembling them into a flower.
The art of pressed flowers isn’t difficult to start, but it takes years of learning and practice to make them delicate and lifelike. Because it’s entirely handmade, those with superb skills can make each flower look vivid and lifelike, permanently preserving the flower’s form and color, turning it into an exquisite craft piece that mass-produced silk flowers can’t compare to.
In China, due to the recent popularity of Hanfu culture, pressed flower art has been more commonly applied to hair accessories, clothing decorations, and jewelry. Larger pieces are also used in interior decoration, runway settings, high-end banquets, and premium exhibitions.
Undeniably, this is a niche art, and Luo Jingyu had been practicing it for ten years.
He sat properly at his workbench, drawing flower patterns on new satin-fixed fabric.
A Casablanca lily has six petals, each composed of two single petals, and each single petal requires two pieces of fabric backed together for strength. So just the petals of one Casablanca lily need twenty-four pieces of fabric, and completing an entire flower with leaves, stamens, and stem takes four to five hours.
That night, Luo Jingyu only planned to make one sample. If he wanted to make all three at once, he’d have to pull an all-nighter. Although the final product only needed three flowers, he planned to make four or five to compare flower patterns.
Just like fresh flowers, each pressed flower looks different due to variations in petal dyeing and pressing shapes. He needed to see which three would look most beautiful together.
Once Luo Jingyu became fully absorbed in his work, time flew by.
The world was peacefully quiet, the room warm, the flower tea fragrant. The fabric and tools before him seemed to come alive, gradually changing shape under his deft hands.
This was something Luo Jingyu had done hundreds of times. At his current skill level, he no longer worried about ruining the fabric with dye or pressing. He enjoyed the process and didn’t find it tedious at all.
His pressed flower teacher had once publicly said he was very talented. As a boy, he could stay focused, was meticulous, had a spirit of exploration, and was humble too. Luo Jingyu had been so embarrassed at the time, and even now he could remember the inquiring looks from his female classmates that day.
Actually, it wasn’t as dramatic as his teacher had said. Luo Jingyu made pressed flowers purely because he loved it.
He had been captivated from the first pressed flower he saw at fifteen.
Pressed flower art indeed requires patience, physical effort, and aesthetic sense, with mostly female enthusiasts. Flowers are beautiful things, and many master artists on the platform were female teachers.
However, after learning that the new generation master of a famous Japanese pressed flower school was male, Luo Jingyu wondered if he too could pursue pressed flowers as a lifelong career.
Two hours later, all the fabric pieces were dyed and left to dry naturally. Luo Jingyu went to take a shower.
After showering, he took a sip of jasmine tea and checked his phone, finding that “Egg Pudding” hadn’t replied to his message.
Luo Jingyu thought she might still be resting. Having a fever must be uncomfortable – sleeping all day was normal.
—
Zhan Xi wasn’t resting. Instead, she was already in the hospital’s infusion room getting an IV.
Two hours earlier, there had been a big family fight at home. It started when Zhan Jie came home from work and Zhan Xi told her brother she planned to move out and rent her own place.
Zhan Jie absolutely refused, saying it wasn’t safe for a girl to live alone and it was a waste of money. When Zhan Xi just mentioned “Think about sister-in-law’s feelings,” Zhan Jie assumed Qin Fei had been bullying Zhan Xi and angrily went to confront her. Zhan Xi couldn’t stop him.
This really stirred up a hornet’s nest. Qin Fei cried and screamed, rushing to Zhan Xi and yelling: “Zhan Xi, do you have any conscience?! When you’re sick at home, I make you noodles! Get you water, medicine, check your temperature! Cook for you every day! When have I ever bullied you?! When did I ever try to drive you out?! You ungrateful thing! None of you Zhans are any good! I’ve had enough!”
Weiwei was scared and cried loudly, trembling under his blanket.
Zhan Xi couldn’t explain her predicament. She repeatedly told her brother that Qin Fei had never bullied her, that moving out was her own idea. But she was sick and weak, and to Zhan Jie, she looked like she was being intimidated into silence by Qin Fei’s “lion’s roar.” He even said something outrageous like “This is my house, I decide who stays and who goes!”
Qin Fei was so angry she wanted to go back to her parents’ home. Zhan Xi’s head felt like it would explode, her temperature suddenly spiking to 39°C, nearly making her faint. Zhan Jie frantically took her to the hospital, while Qin Fei, worried about Weiwei, reluctantly stayed behind crying.
In the infusion room, Zhan Xi lay weakly in her chair while Zhan Jie sat beside her with a sour face, asking: “Was it that Luo girl who put you up to this?”
“It has nothing to do with her.” Zhan Xi was thoroughly annoyed. “Brother, can you just listen to me properly? You and sister-in-law are family, I’m just your sister. I’ve lived at your place for half a year now. Don’t you think it’s weird for me to keep living there?”
Zhan Jie fumed: “What’s weird about it? Back home, doesn’t everyone live together?”
“You said it yourself – ‘back home.’ Back home, doesn’t everyone have a three or four-story house?” Zhan Xi felt like coughing up blood. “How can you compare the town with the city? How big is your place?”
“Hey! You ungrateful girl, now you’re complaining my house is too small?” Zhan Jie was quite angry. “Even if it’s small, there’s still room for you! I promised Mom and Dad I’d take good care of you!”
A passing nurse turned to look at him: “Excuse me, could you please keep your voice down?”
“Sorry,” Zhan Xi apologized to the nurse.
After the nurse left, she tried to reason gently with Zhan Jie. “Brother, please consider sister-in-law’s feelings. You’re always working overtime, it’s really hard for her. You don’t cook, don’t do housework, don’t take care of the kid, and now there’s me too. She has to cook extra food every night, and can’t even take Weiwei out to play on Sundays. Aren’t you just adding to her burden? It’s easy for you, just saying words, but put yourself in her shoes. Sister-in-law is an only child – if she had a brother who lived at your place and you had to cook for him every day, would you like it?”
Zhan Jie’s lips moved, and after a while he finally said: “Then how am I supposed to explain this to Mom? She’ll definitely think my wife and I bullied you.”
“Don’t tell her yet. I’m going back for New Year’s Day, I’ll tell her myself.” Zhan Xi continued persuading Zhan Jie. “Brother, I’m twenty-three, not a child anymore. Don’t keep controlling me, I feel suffocated too.”
Zhan Jie raised an eyebrow: “What are you suffocated about? Did you secretly find a boyfriend?”
Zhan Xi rolled her eyes in frustration: “I’m done talking to you. My head is killing me. I’m moving out no matter what – unless you can lock me up and keep me from going to work.”
“…” Zhan Jie was silent for a moment, then asked, “Where are you planning to rent?”
Zhan Xi was exasperated: “Where else would I rent? Obviously near the company. Your place is so far, I spend three hours commuting every day. The subway crowds are driving me crazy.”
After this initial communication, Zhan Jie went outside to smoke. Zhan Xi looked at the clock on the wall – it was already past 11 PM. She took out her phone and found many unread WeChat messages.
Excluding the unimportant group chats, in the [Four Little Fairies] group, Luo Xinran was sharing entertainment industry gossip with the other two.
In the work group, the HR sisters were discussing what performance their department should do at the annual meeting. Someone had @ed Zhan Xi three hours ago, saying she was the youngest, pretty with a good figure, and should perform. Before Zhan Xi could even see it, the group of women had already happily assigned this task to her.
Ji Guilan had sent three video call requests, which Zhan Xi knew about – her mom had later called Zhan Jie, who had managed to brush it off.
Lin Yan had sent another “good night” at 10 PM.
Wang He had messaged around 8 PM, saying he wanted to meet Zhan Xi a week earlier, next weekend.
Finally, there were messages from “Big Fish.”
At 6:51 PM, saying he was home and would make one flower tonight.
At 10:43 PM, two messages— Big Fish: I finished making one Casablanca lily, is it pretty? Big Fish: Casablanca_lily.jpg
In the photo, a purple-red Casablanca lily stood quietly in a glass vase. The glass was crystal clear, the flower vibrant and gorgeous, with three green leaves on the stem, each leaf’s veins distinctly visible.
In her feverish state, Zhan Xi looked at how the photography light fell on the flower, making it appear like a fresh bloom covered in morning dew.
[Egg Pudding]: You’re lying, this is clearly a real flower.
Big Fish: This is a pressed flower, I just finished making it. Only one.
[Egg Pudding]: I don’t believe you!
Big Fish: Really, I’m not lying.
[Egg Pudding]: Hold it up and take a picture, show your hand. Then I’ll believe you.
Luo Jingyu stared at the screen, not understanding what she meant, but he did as asked.
He picked up the flower with his left hand, held his phone with his right, found a good angle to capture both his left hand and the flower, and sent it to “Egg Pudding.”
Big Fish: Look, do you believe me?
Big Fish: I made 4 hours. Tomorrow I plan finish three lilies, three together more pretty.
Zhan Xi reclined in the IV chair, squinting at the photo. The flower was made so exquisitely! Even the raised purple-red spots on the petals were recreated – how could this be fake? Made from fabric? It was too lifelike!
Her gaze shifted to the left hand holding the flower stem. His gesture was natural and relaxed, thumb and index finger gently pinching the stem, the other three fingers casually curved, each finger joint long and beautiful. She could see his slender yet strong wrist bone – it looked like something drawn in a manga. A word came to Zhan Xi’s mind — flawless.
The 39-degree fever wasn’t for nothing – before her brain could process it, her hands had already typed:
[Egg Pudding]: Your hands are so beautiful, I love them.
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