The storm calmed down, but the tender atmosphere from before was also thoroughly destroyed by this uninvited guest.
Qiao Ling watched Chen Kuang come back with a calm face, feeling a kind of inexplicable panic, both her arms for a moment didn’t know where to place them.
She stared closely at his expression, thinking she must open her mouth first: “That… I.”
Chen Kuang, hearing her voice all flustered, finally lifted his head to look over: “Mm?”
Qiao Ling looked at his face, a pile of words stuck in her throat.
Should she take the initiative to explain? But if he wasn’t interested in these things at all, wouldn’t that make it look like pointing out where there’s no silver buried? [refers to revealing a secret by trying too hard to cover it up.]
She cursed herself in her heart once, weakly changed her words: “…It’s nothing, I just wanted to say once the bed sheets are done washing I’ll hang them, always letting you do all the housework also feels a bit bad.”
After speaking, Qiao Ling was about to escape back to her bedroom.
“Qiao Ling.”
She stopped her steps, turned her head to look at Chen Kuang, “What is it?”
Chen Kuang’s gaze was bright and sharp, not giving her another chance to dodge again, “You really don’t have anything you want to say?”
Qiao Ling, heart flustered, pretended to be dumb: “Ah… no.”
Hearing these words, the smoldering fire in his chest burned even fiercer, directly laying it bare: “That just now, was your ex-boyfriend?”
The hand hanging on one side moved slightly. Seeing there was no way to avoid it, she could only admit it.
“Yes, I also didn’t expect him to suddenly come over.”
He walked slowly towards her, “I never heard you mention it before, thought you were single since birth.”
“How could that be, you underestimate me too much.” Qiao Ling straightened her back, trying to prove her personal charm, talking nonsense: “I, I’ve dated eight or ten already.”
Chen Kuang lazily lowered his head and met her gaze, teasing: “Love saint reincarnated?”
“None of your business.” She said in a small voice.
The previously suddenly stifling atmosphere eased a bit because of this joke.
Qiao Ling recalled the tense standoff between the two men just now, remembered some things, feeling a little uneasy: “He… didn’t say anything over the line to you, right?”
“That person’s personality isn’t good, always likes saying nonsense things.”
She scratched her cheek, turned her eyes away, “…He holds quite a grudge against me, I’m just afraid he’d speak ill of me.”
Chen Kuang thought about those few sentences Gao Ziyao said just now, capturing her unusual expression, speaking without showing anything: “Why?”
“How did you two break up?”
Qiao Ling was poked right in her sore spot by these two questions, her fingers shrank into her sleeves, her face full of obvious difficulty.
She deliberately avoided looking at him, not giving him the chance to see through her guilty conscience through her eyes.
Qiao Ling retreated step by step toward the bedroom, forcing out two dry laughs: “Ah, why do people break up when dating, isn’t it just those few reasons.”
“Maybe because personalities didn’t fit, annoyed him, so he holds a grudge against me.”
Chen Kuang reasoned, frowning and guessing: “He was the one who initiated the breakup?”
“I see he wasn’t very polite to you, but just now your attitude towards him wasn’t bad, not angry?”
Qiao Ling fake-smiled and nodded, “Maybe because back then I was the one more at fault, always felt kind of guilty.”
“Letting him dump me could be counted as letting him vent his anger.”
Those few words Gao Ziyao said with that sarcastic tone had too many hidden meanings, it was hard for him not to mind. Chen Kuang didn’t plan on letting go of the chance, still wanted to keep asking: “Qiao Ling, you and him before, exactly…”
She swiftly cut him off: “Uh, that—I! Haven’t finished tidying the room! Let’s not talk now.”
Saying so, she scrambled into the bedroom, slammed the door shut.
Chen Kuang fell into silence.
Facing this door tightly closed against him, feeling vexed at her stiff turn of topic and her unwillingness to be frank with him.
Everyone has secrets they don’t want to say out loud.
He lowered his eyes.
Only, in front of Qiao Ling, he didn’t want to be that person excluded.
But clearly, she chose to shut him outside.
He wasn’t someone she was willing to open her heart to.
Those things she had experienced together with another man, those matters he wasn’t qualified to know…
This kind of unsolvable unknown made him agitated, chest blocked up hard.
Unbearable.
Chen Kuang turned around and went to the bathroom, for no reason stopped the washing machine, pulled out her half-washed bedsheets and threw them into the basket on the side, then continued washing only his own sofa cover.
After finishing this whole set of actions, he realized how meaningless he was being, leaning on the washing machine in self-disgust, veins on the back of his hand bulging, letting out a long sigh.
He wanted to know everything about Qiao Ling, wanted to cross the final basic boundary between people, completely mastering all of her without missing a single thread.
Even knowing this kind of possessiveness was disgusting, Chen Kuang could only watch it grow wildly with eyes wide open.
…………
In order to avoid that person at home catching a chance to ask about her and her ex again, Qiao Ling finished tidying up her room and went early to the shop.
Once she got off work, she would immediately go back to her parents’ house. If they didn’t see each other, naturally in a few days this topic would be forgotten.
Tonight there weren’t too many customers in the shop. During the gaps in guiding, she even had time to work on her own things.
Qiao Ling was well aware that offline DIY handcraft experience shops couldn’t sustain long-term development, so she kept trying to diversify her income. Besides running a short-video platform account related to the shop, she also opened her own small online store, selling some finished products or original design styles, occasionally accepting custom orders. But she wasn’t too confident in her own design level, so rarely posted custom links.
“Miss, the thing you made is so pretty.” At this moment, suddenly a voice sounded beside her.
Qiao Ling stopped her hands and looked up, saw it was a customer girl, and glanced again at the original design she was just about to finish in her hand, feeling a bit shy: “Ah? Really…”
“Yes, can I take a look?” The girl pointed, then took over this delicate and small pure silver bracelet from Qiao Ling’s hand.
The bracelet was very light, with a lot of details. The plain circle part had small niche patterns engraved on the inside, the clasp was a hollowed-out design, with a freely moving rhinestone embedded inside the hollow part. After wearing it, the diamond would probably shimmer inside the hollow cage following the wrist’s movements.
“So pretty, is this for sale?” she asked.
Qiao Ling nodded, slowly explaining her design concept: “It’s for sale, it’s an original design I plan to post on the online store. This style is called ‘Ling · Soul.’”
“Everyone living in this world has their own helplessness and restraints. The diamond in the hollow part is like our original soul locked in a cage.”
“Even though locked inside, it still jumps and glows with our movements, ringing out a bell-like crisp sound, reminding us—it has always been there.”
“Even if restrained, the soul has never died.”
The customer girl blinked after hearing, as if amazed, “So impressive…! Do you give every item a name and write a story like this?”
“Mm.” Qiao Ling scratched her head, seeing more and more customers couldn’t help coming over to listen to their conversation, feeling a kind of shyness from her little hobby suddenly being discovered and recognized.
“I quite like writing these little concepts… it’s meaningful, and also looks like a proper work, right.”
“So awesome! You should sell it at a higher price, putting so much effort, it’s cheaper than what other shops sell.” The young lady gave her a thumbs-up, encouraging her: “Shop owner, you’ll definitely get popular!”
After speaking, she held that unfinished bracelet again, carefully rubbing and examining it: “Really so delicate… your craftsmanship is really good…”
“So attentive, you’ll definitely get noticed.”
Because she was used to self-deprecating, plus her family didn’t support her doing this, suddenly being praised felt unreal, always feeling the other party was just casually being polite.
Qiao Ling looked at her, smiled gently, not saying anything.
After chatting, the customers returned to making their own accessories.
Time slipped by minute by minute, Qiao Ling sat at her work desk polishing jewelry, but her thoughts couldn’t pull out from that scene just now.
Maybe in ordinary people’s eyes, her craftsmanship was already quite good.
However, even after working hard for so long, she still had that bit of unwillingness to admit defeat, but the fact was… she could only make these little trivial things.
She didn’t have the talent to inherit and develop ethnic silver jewelry culture.
Knock knock.
The glass door at the shop entrance was knocked with a dull sound.
Why are there still customers coming when it’s almost closing time?
Qiao Ling turned her head to look and saw Chen Kuang’s tall, slender figure standing at the shop door.
?!!
Why is he showing up again! At this time, isn’t he supposed to be at the bar!
Qiao Ling put down the thing in her hand and walked toward him, her face still carrying a bit of awkwardness, both hands stuffed into her apron pockets, “…You’re not working? Something up?”
Chen Kuang walked into the shop, familiarly sitting down in the waiting area, tilting his head up to talk to her: “Although it’s the National Day holiday, tonight’s customers weren’t as many as expected. According to the shift schedule it’s Xia Tian’s turn, so I got off early.”
Qiao Ling moved her eyebrows, puzzled: “You always slacking off and leaving early like this, with Xia Tian’s kind of serious personality, wouldn’t he get mad?”
“I’m slacking off early?” Chen Kuang was helpless, correcting her wording: “Don’t talk nonsense, makes it sound like I’m a person with bad character.”
“At most I just didn’t do overtime.”
“I’m just a wage earner, not super passionate about bartending, once it hits time, I don’t want to stay even a minute longer.” When he tilted his head, his throat habitually tilted a few degrees too. His Adam’s apple moving up and down while speaking was very sexy.
“Why would I need to fight for performance opportunities with Xia Tian.”
“He’s someone who’s set on becoming the best bartender in Binyang.”
“People with dreams are all impressive.” Qiao Ling saw no customers on that side needing her, so simply sat next to him, stretched her legs straight, heels poking on the floor swinging side to side for fun, “What about you? Xie Lisheng said you used to not even eat when writing code, not only aiming for perfection but always trying to innovate, optimizing programs.”
Chen Kuang took out his phone and swiped, “He even told you that?”
Qiao Ling nodded.
He let out a light laugh, really understanding that person: “What did you give him in return? That he would patiently tell you so much.”
“So it turns out exchanging favors is his usual trick.” Qiao Ling
Naturally she couldn’t tell him what she promised Xie Lisheng, “It’s nothing much. I wasn’t finished talking yet. So do you still like writing programs now?”
“Your interest in IT, is it the same as Xia Tian’s drive for bartending?”
“You really don’t plan to go back and continue studying it?”
Chen Kuang’s brow furrowed slightly, the crease very faint, guessing at her purpose: “You really want me to go back into IT and keep working on programming?”
“Why?”
“Not exactly…” Qiao Ling stared at her hands that had grown calluses from long-term silver hammering, “I just feel like, if one can do work they like, they’ll live a fuller life.”
“Like Xia Tian, even though being a bartender, there’s not really much room for salary growth, and the work hours aren’t good for health, but every time I look at him, he really does seem like the most satisfied person in the world.”
“As long as people like the drinks he makes, as long as his skills keep improving, he’s happy. Being able to be that pure is really rare.”