Tao Ling was caught off guard. He felt something hard and small on his palm. But due to a learned response, he accidentally pinched Wen Qingying’s fingertips as he gripped the unknown object.
After a moment of no reaction, Wen Qingying retracted his hand.
Tao Ling lowered his head. Using the light from the shop that had been thrown upon the curb, he took a look at his palm. Surprisingly, on it laid a piece of fruit candy.
He twisted the corner of his lips and looked at the golden wrapper, asking, “What kind of grown man carries candy with him? Is it to amuse children or your girlfriend?”
Wen Qingying, however, simply lowered down his eyes and looked at him. As silent as ever.
Tao Ling clenched that piece of candy and raised his head to look at Wen Qingying.
The young man wore a calm-looking expression on his face. But amidst the intersection between light and darkness, Tao Ling suddenly thought of the very old cliche metaphor.
This man’s facial features were exquisitely carved from marble, he thought.
The many words in which were so old-fashioned that people couldn’t care less about were apparently telling the truth. He didn’t know the reason for their existence merely because he had never placed himself in those situations before.
Wen Qingying – without having any idea what the other was thinking about – let him see the screen of his phone. It wrote: “Eating candy can help you sober up a little after drinking.”
Tao Ling smiled, brushed past him, and directly walked towards the flower shop. “Can I come in to have a seat?”
He stopped by the door, and only then did Wen Qingying come over.
When they entered the shop, Wen Qingying pulled out the chair beside the table and gestured to Tao Ling to sit down.
He then grabbed a cup to wash it at the back, turned around, and poured a cup of warm water for Tao Ling, beginning to clean up and close the shop later.
The fresh-cut flowers from outside were brought in first. After placing each bucket next to each other, the next ones to be brought in would be the flower pots.
Tao Ling didn’t feel dizzy at first, however, the side effects were starting to kick in after he sat down. He finished half a cup of water and stayed seated beside the table while watching Wen Qingying busying himself with work. Tao Ling had no intention to get up and help him either.
Barely a few minutes have passed yet like magic the entire shop was already packed with many beautiful flowers. Only a narrow path was left in the middle, making it seem as if the long sword of a fairy had slashed down from high up in the sky, forming a pathway by crashing the waves out of the sea of flowers.
Wen Qingying was tall, and although he was not bulky, his entire figure seemed to be full of strength—especially when doing work. That sense of strength did not arise from being able to lift a lot of heavy things, but instead from a different type of youthful liveliness.
Nearly twenty minutes have passed. Wen Qingying closed the glass door and sat in front of Tao Ling after getting his hands washed.
Seeing that Tao Ling wasn’t planning on interacting with him, he took out a stack of small cards from the gap under the table and began to write Chinese characters on them.
After watching for a moment, Tao Ling suddenly raised his hand. He grabbed the corner of the paper Wen Qingying’s hand was resting on.
The paper under his hand was pulled out, and its surface slid over, leaving a sudden chill on the side of his pinky finger. Wen Qingying looked at Tao Ling’s expression. He then took out a fountain pen and handed it to him.
Tao Ling wrote on the white paper: “Are you making these greeting cards for your customers?”
He pushed the paper over. Wen Qingying wrote on a new line: “That’s right, mister. These can be used with the flower bouquets that need them. I can switch the cards to blank ones if the customers are not pleased with how they look.”
Tao Ling’s characters were thin and nice-looking. However, he had a habit of writing in a very careless manner. Wen Qingying’s handwriting, on the other hand, was slightly more stylish and a lot neater too.
When the two lines of characters lined up together, Tao Ling suddenly felt that it looked quite artistic.
Just like a wild grassland and a field of daisies growing together.
Wen Qingying was a flower. Whereas Tao Ling was a dog tail.
What a crappy analogy, Tao Ling thought as he massaged his nose bridge.
He felt that perhaps because Wen Qingying had never spoken out loud before, there would always be a bit of formal writing used when communicating with people. But it wasn’t piquing at all.
This style matched up perfectly with his quietness. As though he was someone who’d always lived inside epistles.
“Why did you open a flower shop?” Tao Ling wrote.
Wen Qingying tilted his head and looked at the Hydrangea flower by the table. In the end he wrote: “My mom told me she used to be a florist in the past, and she really wanted to open another flower shop.”
Tao Ling recalled back the night he ran into Wen Qingying when he visited the cemetery. He sneaked a quick look at his face, and upon noticing that there was nothing wrong with it, he thought twice before asking, “Are you tired?”
Wen Qingying answered very frankly: “Yes, I have to get up very early every day. Replenishing stock is troublesome too. Plus, my hands are very clumsy; I still don’t know how to wrap and decorate flowers. But I’m very happy with my job. Mister, are you a teacher from Sheng-Da?”
“Yes, but I’m doing administrative work for the time being, and so I teach classes only once in a while.”
“When mister starts teaching, can I attend your classes?”
“Sure, but…”
“Many things do not necessarily have to be listened to with ears. I can still experience your teaching inside the lecture room.”
There was indeed nothing wrong with these words. However, Tao Ling felt a little helpless about it. The lecture room is where ears and vocal cords are the most needed as they create many things that are much more valuable when they collide with each other. However, because he didn’t want to disregard Wen Qingying’s wish, he wrote back: “Okay.”
“What does mister teach? I can make up for the lessons I’ve missed first.”
“I’m a religious studies graduate, so I teach Daoism.”
Upon receiving the answer, Wen Qingying blinked a few times. His eyes were clear, though a trace of dismalness could be seen on his face. He continued writing: “Can studying religion help us overcome the loss of a loved one?”
The size of the characters was big, and they didn’t set up any extra space either. As such, when the conversation reached here, a sheet of A4 paper was already close to being filled up.
Tao Ling spread out his left hand and pressed it on the paper edge. He reread the last sentence a few times.
The hand he was holding the pen with slowly tightened, making its joints stretch out a bluish-white color. He didn’t write back, but instead glued his eyes on the paper, saying, “No, I don’t believe that it can.”
In fact, the tipsy feeling was still accumulating in his head, making Tao Ling unable to get rid of the dizziness whatsoever.
After a good while, he put the cap back on the pen, lightly set it aside with the paper, and unwrapped the candy Wen Qingying had given him before.
It was lemon flavored. Tao Ling looked down at the candy wrapper, and numbly folded it multiple times on his fingertips. Wen Qingying remained still for a moment and then began to draw on the cards again.
The drawings were all flowers and plants. After a few brief strokes, all types of flowers would then appear vividly on the paper.
By the time Tao Ling felt that it was about time to say goodbye, it was already midnight.
He was shocked when he saw the time. Clearly, Tao Ling felt that he sat down not too long ago.
“I’m going now. Sorry for wasting your time.” He wrote on the phone and waited for Wen Qingying to finish reading before proceeding to stand up right away.
Wen Qingying smiled, and stood up with him.
When they reached the door, Tao Ling realized that Wen Qingying was leaving too. As such, he waited in the corner.
The flower stands – designed like staircases – were still outside, keeping the nature of the shop on display after closing it. Wen Qingying went to Tao Ling and gave him that bouquet of daisies from before. It was wrapped in kraft paper by him.
“What a waste,” said Tao Ling.
After walking side by side for a while, Tao Ling asked as they approached the end of the street, “Which direction are you heading to?”
He tilted his head and glanced at him. Wen Qingying was looking straight up ahead.
It was only then that Tao Ling remembered the other party couldn’t hear. But because he felt a little tired to take out his phone, he simply poked at him and pointed in the direction he was going.
Wen Qingying smiled, pointing in the same direction as well.
They turned to a slightly more quiet street. Ten minutes later, Tao Ling halted his steps.
This was an old neighborhood; the street lamps were dimmed in yellow. Wen Qingying turned his head and swept a quick look at the neighborhood. He pointed at the crossing ahead and waved at Tao Ling.
Before Tao Ling could even respond, Wen Qingying had already left a mere back view to him.
There was a short crosswalk nearby, and Wen Qingying was currently striding over it.
It was cold in the middle of the night. A wutong leaf, that’d drifted from somewhere, turned and bumped on his shoulder. When it was about to fall down, Tao Ling raised his hand and grabbed it.
His hands were not clumsy at all.
Tao Ling watched the silhouette slowly drifting away. He smiled, and turned around to swipe his card to enter the neighborhood.
Upon getting inside the apartment, Tao ling threw away everything in his hands—except that bouquet of daisies.
He wanted to find a glass vase as soon as possible. He unbuttoned his collar with his other hand as he flew to the storage room. When he opened the cabinet door, he placed the flowers aside. Tao Ling carelessly swept his gaze over the area.
After two seconds, he picked up the bouquet again.
The kraft paper was opaque, thus he never noticed that under the flower stems——a small greeting card was inserted in the middle.
Tao Ling was caught off guard. He felt something hard and small on his palm. But due to a learned response, he accidentally pinched Wen Qingying’s fingertips as he gripped the unknown object.
After a moment of no reaction, Wen Qingying retracted his hand.
Tao Ling lowered his head. Using the light from the shop that had been thrown upon the curb, he took a look at his palm. Surprisingly, on it laid a piece of fruit candy.
He twisted the corner of his lips and looked at the golden wrapper, asking, “What kind of grown man carries candy with him? Is it to amuse children or your girlfriend?”
Wen Qingying, however, simply lowered down his eyes and looked at him. As silent as ever.
Tao Ling clenched that piece of candy and raised his head to look at Wen Qingying.
The young man wore a calm-looking expression on his face. But amidst the intersection between light and darkness, Tao Ling suddenly thought of the very old cliche metaphor.
This man’s facial features were exquisitely carved from marble, he thought.
The many words in which were so old-fashioned that people couldn’t care less about were apparently telling the truth. He didn’t know the reason for their existence merely because he had never placed himself in those situations before.
Wen Qingying – without having any idea what the other was thinking about – let him see the screen of his phone. It wrote: “Eating candy can help you sober up a little after drinking.”
Tao Ling smiled, brushed past him, and directly walked towards the flower shop. “Can I come in to have a seat?”
He stopped by the door, and only then did Wen Qingying come over.
When they entered the shop, Wen Qingying pulled out the chair beside the table and gestured to Tao Ling to sit down.
He then grabbed a cup to wash it at the back, turned around, and poured a cup of warm water for Tao Ling, beginning to clean up and close the shop later.
The fresh-cut flowers from outside were brought in first. After placing each bucket next to each other, the next ones to be brought in would be the flower pots.
Tao Ling didn’t feel dizzy at first, however, the side effects were starting to kick in after he sat down. He finished half a cup of water and stayed seated beside the table while watching Wen Qingying busying himself with work. Tao Ling had no intention to get up and help him either.
Barely a few minutes have passed yet like magic the entire shop was already packed with many beautiful flowers. Only a narrow path was left in the middle, making it seem as if the long sword of a fairy had slashed down from high up in the sky, forming a pathway by crashing the waves out of the sea of flowers.
Wen Qingying was tall, and although he was not bulky, his entire figure seemed to be full of strength—especially when doing work. That sense of strength did not arise from being able to lift a lot of heavy things, but instead from a different type of youthful liveliness.
Nearly twenty minutes have passed. Wen Qingying closed the glass door and sat in front of Tao Ling after getting his hands washed.
Seeing that Tao Ling wasn’t planning on interacting with him, he took out a stack of small cards from the gap under the table and began to write Chinese characters on them.
After watching for a moment, Tao Ling suddenly raised his hand. He grabbed the corner of the paper Wen Qingying’s hand was resting on.
The paper under his hand was pulled out, and its surface slid over, leaving a sudden chill on the side of his pinky finger. Wen Qingying looked at Tao Ling’s expression. He then took out a fountain pen and handed it to him.
Tao Ling wrote on the white paper: “Are you making these greeting cards for your customers?”
He pushed the paper over. Wen Qingying wrote on a new line: “That’s right, mister. These can be used with the flower bouquets that need them. I can switch the cards to blank ones if the customers are not pleased with how they look.”
Tao Ling’s characters were thin and nice-looking. However, he had a habit of writing in a very careless manner. Wen Qingying’s handwriting, on the other hand, was slightly more stylish and a lot neater too.
When the two lines of characters lined up together, Tao Ling suddenly felt that it looked quite artistic.
Just like a wild grassland and a field of daisies growing together.
Wen Qingying was a flower. Whereas Tao Ling was a dog tail.
What a crappy analogy, Tao Ling thought as he massaged his nose bridge.
He felt that perhaps because Wen Qingying had never spoken out loud before, there would always be a bit of formal writing used when communicating with people. But it wasn’t piquing at all.
This style matched up perfectly with his quietness. As though he was someone who’d always lived inside epistles.
“Why did you open a flower shop?” Tao Ling wrote.
Wen Qingying tilted his head and looked at the Hydrangea flower by the table. In the end he wrote: “My mom told me she used to be a florist in the past, and she really wanted to open another flower shop.”
Tao Ling recalled back the night he ran into Wen Qingying when he visited the cemetery. He sneaked a quick look at his face, and upon noticing that there was nothing wrong with it, he thought twice before asking, “Are you tired?”
Wen Qingying answered very frankly: “Yes, I have to get up very early every day. Replenishing stock is troublesome too. Plus, my hands are very clumsy; I still don’t know how to wrap and decorate flowers. But I’m very happy with my job. Mister, are you a teacher from Sheng-Da?”
“Yes, but I’m doing administrative work for the time being, and so I teach classes only once in a while.”
“When mister starts teaching, can I attend your classes?”
“Sure, but…”
“Many things do not necessarily have to be listened to with ears. I can still experience your teaching inside the lecture room.”
There was indeed nothing wrong with these words. However, Tao Ling felt a little helpless about it. The lecture room is where ears and vocal cords are the most needed as they create many things that are much more valuable when they collide with each other. However, because he didn’t want to disregard Wen Qingying’s wish, he wrote back: “Okay.”
“What does mister teach? I can make up for the lessons I’ve missed first.”
“I’m a religious studies graduate, so I teach Daoism.”
Upon receiving the answer, Wen Qingying blinked a few times. His eyes were clear, though a trace of dismalness could be seen on his face. He continued writing: “Can studying religion help us overcome the loss of a loved one?”
The size of the characters was big, and they didn’t set up any extra space either. As such, when the conversation reached here, a sheet of A4 paper was already close to being filled up.
Tao Ling spread out his left hand and pressed it on the paper edge. He reread the last sentence a few times.
The hand he was holding the pen with slowly tightened, making its joints stretch out a bluish-white color. He didn’t write back, but instead glued his eyes on the paper, saying, “No, I don’t believe that it can.”
In fact, the tipsy feeling was still accumulating in his head, making Tao Ling unable to get rid of the dizziness whatsoever.
After a good while, he put the cap back on the pen, lightly set it aside with the paper, and unwrapped the candy Wen Qingying had given him before.
It was lemon flavored. Tao Ling looked down at the candy wrapper, and numbly folded it multiple times on his fingertips. Wen Qingying remained still for a moment and then began to draw on the cards again.
The drawings were all flowers and plants. After a few brief strokes, all types of flowers would then appear vividly on the paper.
By the time Tao Ling felt that it was about time to say goodbye, it was already midnight.
He was shocked when he saw the time. Clearly, Tao Ling felt that he sat down not too long ago.
“I’m going now. Sorry for wasting your time.” He wrote on the phone and waited for Wen Qingying to finish reading before proceeding to stand up right away.
Wen Qingying smiled, and stood up with him.
When they reached the door, Tao Ling realized that Wen Qingying was leaving too. As such, he waited in the corner.
The flower stands – designed like staircases – were still outside, keeping the nature of the shop on display after closing it. Wen Qingying went to Tao Ling and gave him that bouquet of daisies from before. It was wrapped in kraft paper by him.
“What a waste,” said Tao Ling.
After walking side by side for a while, Tao Ling asked as they approached the end of the street, “Which direction are you heading to?”
He tilted his head and glanced at him. Wen Qingying was looking straight up ahead.
It was only then that Tao Ling remembered the other party couldn’t hear. But because he felt a little tired to take out his phone, he simply poked at him and pointed in the direction he was going.
Wen Qingying smiled, pointing in the same direction as well.
They turned to a slightly more quiet street. Ten minutes later, Tao Ling halted his steps.
This was an old neighborhood; the street lamps were dimmed in yellow. Wen Qingying turned his head and swept a quick look at the neighborhood. He pointed at the crossing ahead and waved at Tao Ling.
Before Tao Ling could even respond, Wen Qingying had already left a mere back view to him.
There was a short crosswalk nearby, and Wen Qingying was currently striding over it.
It was cold in the middle of the night. A wutong leaf, that’d drifted from somewhere, turned and bumped on his shoulder. When it was about to fall down, Tao Ling raised his hand and grabbed it.
His hands were not clumsy at all.
Tao Ling watched the silhouette slowly drifting away. He smiled, and turned around to swipe his card to enter the neighborhood.
Upon getting inside the apartment, Tao ling threw away everything in his hands—except that bouquet of daisies.
He wanted to find a glass vase as soon as possible. He unbuttoned his collar with his other hand as he flew to the storage room. When he opened the cabinet door, he placed the flowers aside. Tao Ling carelessly swept his gaze over the area.
After two seconds, he picked up the bouquet again.
The kraft paper was opaque, thus he never noticed that under the flower stems——a small greeting card was inserted in the middle.
