Qiao Ling’s heartbeat was very fast, the frequency almost about to overlap with the clinking sound of silver being hammered around her.
Even though Chen Kuang lived just downstairs from her, she still hadn’t thought that one day he would walk into her shop, sit in the seat she was familiar with day after day.
Watching him leisurely playing with her silver-hammering tools, a strange visual impact spread across her nerves.
Chen Kuang saw she wasn’t speaking, put down the hammer, further teasing: “The one who talked big after drinking was you. If anyone should be so scared they can’t speak, shouldn’t it be me?”
“This reaction of yours, what does it mean?”
The two young ladies next to them who were secretly eating melon seeds [吃瓜, chīguā: slang for onlookers watching drama] were already almost so excited they were about to faint.
Listen, listen to this conversation!
Qiao Ling naturally saw the inner meaning of their blushing faces, even more embarrassed, leaned closer, slightly bent over, and said in a low voice: “Um, can we go outside to talk?”
Chen Kuang didn’t follow up, instead guessed in reverse: “Then take the chance to lock me outside, and continue hiding from me?”
Qiao Ling: “……” Did she look that despicable?
“I want to make something. Is the group-buy package okay?”
Chen Kuang took out his phone, sat in place without moving: “That way you have no reason to ask me to leave again, right?”
Her heart pounded with embarrassment, just like the moon’s tidal force on the sea, the closer she was to him, the higher her pulse surged, approaching the critical point of what she could bear.
Qiao Ling couldn’t do anything with him, “…Fine, what do you want to make?”
Chen Kuang flipped through the group-buy list, “A ring then. Is this hard?”
Qiao Ling shook her head.
Chen Kuang straightforwardly paid, scanned the group-buy code for her.
As the saying goes, the customer is God.
She couldn’t just because she had said a bunch of drunken “peach-colored” words [桃色, táosè: refers to things related to romance or sex] to this God the day before, not serve him wholeheartedly.
Qiao Ling silently recited the Heart Sutra in her heart, turned around and took out the silver-hammering toolbox for him, “I’ll teach you step by step. First, choose a style you want to make.”
Chen Kuang casually chose a simple style with a twisted pattern in the middle.
Qiao Ling measured the circumference of his middle finger, matched the ring size, then gave him the most basic silver strip.
She bent her waist slightly, using the tool to demonstrate lightly without real force, speaking softly with a faint fragrance: “Use the hammer to first flatten the silver strip, don’t use too much force, to avoid hammering it too flat, otherwise the size will become bigger.”
While Qiao Ling was speaking, a strand of black hair from her shark-clip-bundled hair fell down, just sweeping across his forehead.
Suddenly, like the itch of a cat’s tail sweeping by, exploded across his face.
Chen Kuang’s shoulders stiffened, his line of sight swept over, couldn’t help reminding: “Your hair, it’s loose.”
Qiao Ling blinked, quickly tucked the loose hair behind her ear, “Oh.”
She handed the hammer to him: “Try this step first.”
After saying that, as if to ease the inexplicable awkwardness in the air, Qiao Ling asked: “Why didn’t you go to the bar tonight?”
“On workdays there are fewer people. Xia Tian and I have fixed holidays every month. We arrange time off.”
Chen Kuang tried hammering once, confirmed the strength, raised his eyes and teased: “Today was originally Xia Tian’s day off.”
“But I still snatched his day off.”
Qiao Ling spoke without thinking, puzzled: “Why?”
Chen Kuang held the hammer, did not speak, just stared at her like that.
The answer was within the silence.
The ambiguity was also within the silence.
Qiao Ling reacted and suddenly straightened up, turned her head to the other customers.
She seemed to hear the sizzle of a kettle boiling, her face burning unbearably.
Ugh ah…
The meaning was—he specially came here for her.
After that, in order to avoid contact with him, Qiao Ling’s patrolling frequency among the customers doubled compared to usual. If she could stay with others, she absolutely would not go near him.
But Chen Kuang learned very fast. Clearly it was his first time doing this, yet he was very skillful.
Maybe because his work also involved craftsmanship, he picked it up quickly.
Resulting in the process going very fast, Qiao Ling had to go over to teach him the next step in no time.
Seven or eight people packed into a small shop, clearly there were still so many strangers around, yet she felt the atmosphere gradually being swallowed bit by bit by that man’s magnetic field, making her lose the sense of security of “fighting on home ground.”
The style Chen Kuang chose, this “Mobius ring” style, was the shop’s top-selling style. The hardest part was using two pliers to clamp both ends, then twisting out the pattern by turning both hands in opposite directions.
Normally, customers would do this step very slowly. But after Qiao Ling finished teaching Chen Kuang, just as she breathed a sigh of relief and turned around to leave, he held the pliers and almost in two seconds completed this step: “What’s next.”
Qiao Ling looked back: “??”
Chen Kuang clamped that silver strip, quite amused as he stared at her.
She could only walk back again, helpless: “The next step is engraving.”
Teaching engraving was the most time-consuming. Qiao Ling moved a stool to sit beside him, “Engraving requires patience. If you carve it crooked, there’s no way to restore it. Practice first.”
Chen Kuang watched her lower her eyes, demonstrating lettering on the practice plate, and suddenly asked: “It’s almost ten o’clock, what time do you get off work?”
Qiao Ling’s hammering action paused, suppressed her nervousness, “Wait, at least wait until these customers all finish.”
He looked up at the shop, where there were only two or three customers left, “Then it’ll be soon.”
Qiao Ling gritted her teeth, always feeling like that sentence was some kind of death countdown.
After that, Chen Kuang didn’t say much more, chose a few letters and started engraving his own ring.
While Chen Kuang was engraving, the last two customers in the shop also took their finished products and left satisfied.
Now it was truly just the two of them left.
The sudden two-person world made Qiao Ling feel even more off, deliberately picked a seat far away and sat down.
Chen Kuang lowered his head seriously, engraving the last letter, suddenly spoke: “Sitting so far from me, can you even hear me clearly when I talk?”
In this kind of situation, distance was the only defensive measure that could give her a sense of security.
Qiao Ling was cleaning the table surface, urgently stammering: “You, you want to say what?”
“I can hear, you just talk like this is fine.”
Just at that moment, over on Chen Kuang’s side, with a bang, the hammer fell to the ground, he hissed out a sound.
Qiao Ling suddenly looked over, saw him covering the fingers of his right hand, brows tightly knitted.
Hit his hand!?
She put down what was in her hand, walked over in big steps, “How is it? Let me see your hand.”
When she walked up next to him, Chen Kuang’s tightly knit brows suddenly relaxed, he released his perfectly fine hand, meeting her gaze and hooked his lips: “At least when speaking with someone, the distance should be like this, right.”
Qiao Ling reacted, surprised: “You, you tricked me into coming over?”
From the start when she heard from her cousin that he was already twenty-eight years old, plus his usual unsmiling appearance, she had always thought Chen Kuang was that kind of very proper older man.
She completely hadn’t expected he also had this kind of side.
To achieve his goal, not hesitating to act and play tricks, what’s the difference from childish boys.
For a moment, Qiao Ling’s heart was all messy, she should have been angry, but facing his eyes that carried a smile, she couldn’t get angry no matter what.
After tossing and turning the whole night, she finally realized the fact that she couldn’t play against Chen Kuang.
Like a rabbit that had already fallen deep into a trap, she gave up struggling and pulled over a stool and sat down, sighed: “Come on, whether to kill or to cut, say whatever you want to scold!”
Chen Kuang saw her with her brows lowered and eyes drooping, like a child waiting for punishment after doing something wrong, continued hammering in his hand.
“Scold you for what.”
“What I want to ask about is my bicycle.”
“You’ve been avoiding me, how would I know what’s up with it.”
Qiao Ling lifted her gaze, like a small sapling that was wilted but suddenly perked up.
Mm?
He, he never planned to talk about her drunken nonsense at all?
Then why did she spend the whole night feeling awkward for nothing!
Also makes sense, he’s that much older than her, surely a lot more mature, wouldn’t bother with these small things.
She just said a sentence that caused misunderstanding, it’s not like she really… slept with him…
Cough.
Qiao Ling cut off the messy thoughts in her head, explained the situation: “This matter really does need to be talked about. I found a club, it can be repaired, but the store manager said you have to personally go there once.”
In a few sentences she retold the situation at the store to him, after saying it, she couldn’t help but add a sentence: “Didn’t expect your bike to be that expensive.”
Chen Kuang didn’t think much of it, brought the ring closer to look carefully: “Buying a better one for commuting, nothing wrong with that.”
“The better the bike’s quality, the less effort it saves for people, right.”
Qiao Ling nodded.
Didn’t understand, but respected it—anyway, she wouldn’t spend nearly a hundred thousand to buy a bicycle.
…Unless one day she suddenly got rich with five million!
“After work, go with me once. I don’t know where it is.”
“Tonight?”
“Mn, if it’s a mountain bike club, it shouldn’t close that early.”
“…Alright.”
Chen Kuang handed the engraved ring to her to do the next step.
Qiao Ling reached out to pinch one end of the ring, but he didn’t let go. Instead, at this moment, he pinched the other end forcefully, pulling toward himself.
Qiao Ling, without any defense, was pulled over by him using the ring as a medium—
The distance between the two instantly shortened.
His face kept enlarging in front of her eyes. Qiao Ling was so scared she held her breath, blankly looking at him.
Chen Kuang’s gaze lowered slightly, bringing up old words again: “Say sorry.”
“I’ll treat that sentence as if I never heard it.”
Qiao Ling’s hand supporting the table edge trembled slightly.
As expected! He still came for that matter!
Just now she was even thinking he wouldn’t stoop to fussing over small things—she overestimated him!
She was completely defeated under his roundabout patient tactics.
Qiao Ling sighed, lowered her head and obediently said: “Alright, I’m sorry.”
Chen Kuang slanted his eyes at her annoyed expression, the corner of his mouth hooked up.
………
A little past ten o’clock, Qiao Ling closed the shop, took a taxi bringing Chen Kuang to that mountain bike club.
Just as he expected, this shop really wasn’t closed.
The club manager finally met the owner of the TopFuel9.9XTR, excitedly chatted with Chen Kuang for a while, then went to the garage in the back to push his bike out for detailed discussion.
The whole time acting as background decoration, Qiao Ling felt like she was attending a professional class that had nothing to do with herself—just like that meme of a primate trying to understand two humans having a conversation.
She looked at the mountain bikes displayed for sale in the shop, half understanding, half randomly touching them, looked toward Chen Kuang who was idly wandering beside her, and asked: “So you’re a mountain bike enthusiast? Same as them?”
“You’ve participated in competitions?”
“Played in one or two amateur competitions.” Chen Kuang’s eyes were even darker and brighter at night, scanning these bikes, answering: “More for commuting.”
“When I was in university, everything was always rushed, hated that walking was too slow, public buses and subways also cost money, so I often rode a bike.”
“Got used to it. Now going to and from work, I still prefer riding.”
Just three simple sentences, and Qiao Ling listened feeling a little dazed.
If she didn’t understand wrong, a few years ago when he was still in university, was he really so tight on money that he was unwilling to even take buses or subways?
But now he could casually buy a bicycle worth a hundred thousand.
In just a few short years, exactly what had he experienced?
Although her family wasn’t considered rich, from childhood to now, she had never worried about transportation expenses when going out.
Someone willing to put in more physical effort pedaling just to save that part of the money—
Exactly what kind of life did he live?
The person beside her suddenly stopped talking. Chen Kuang turned back, stared at her face, let out a laugh: “What are you feeling sad for?”
He found that on her face there always appeared all kinds of emotions he didn’t understand, inexplicable.
Qiao Ling came back to her senses, guiltily looking around at random, “Oh, nothing, what did you say?”
In Chen Kuang’s eyes there was depth, after a moment he moved his gaze away, the corner of his eye quietly lifting slightly.
The shop owner pushed his bike out. Chen Kuang and he checked over the damaged area on the bike again, then formally confirmed the brand and model of the parts being transferred in from another place.
After signing, Chen Kuang directly prepaid the new parts’ cost at the shop.
Qiao Ling stood to the side, originally wanting to ask if she didn’t need to pay for the bike repair, but thinking of the price of those parts… she still didn’t say anything.
In case he followed the flow and asked her to take out her payment code, she really would max out her credit card, wuwu…
………
Coming out from the club, within a few minutes, the night sky began to drizzle with rain.
It wasn’t easy to hail a taxi, and the two of them didn’t stand around outside foolishly, they slipped into a convenience store at the street corner.
Qiao Ling turned her head, moving her gaze from the rain outside the window to the man wandering between the shelves.
It seemed like ever since hearing him talk about himself at the club, the atmosphere between the two of them had slightly, faintly changed.
Among the colorful products, the solid dark blue of his T-shirt especially stood out.
Broad shoulders and slim waist, like a walking clothes hanger.
Qiao Ling couldn’t say clearly—at first, she only thought he looked good, but later discovered that anything related to him held fatal attraction for her.
She couldn’t help being curious about Chen Kuang.
Qiao Ling followed after, lowering her head, silently stepping on his footprints.
“That… for the repair fee, I really don’t need to help pay?”
Chen Kuang lifted his hand, picked up a bottle of mini-sized vodka, glanced at her: “You want to reimburse me?”
“You didn’t hear that amount just now?”
In her heart she grumbled: Is he certain I don’t have that much money, looking down on who!?
…He really saw through her.
Qiao Ling used the chance to ask back: “Then what about you? I thought bartender wages were just so-so…”
With her hands behind her back, she teased: “Looks like you earn quite a lot, huh.”
“How much does my ge pay you a month?”
Chen Kuang saw through the probing in her words, cleverly replied, hooked his lips: “At my age, having some savings isn’t strange, right.”
Qiao Ling nodded.
Only five years older, saying it like he’s seventy or eighty.
She followed Chen Kuang wandering around the convenience store, watching him pick up a small bottle of vodka, strawberry juice, and Yakult. It wasn’t until he finished checking out that she couldn’t help asking: “What are you buying these for?”
Chen Kuang carried the bag over to the window-side bar counter, leaning lazily against the edge: “Wasn’t it what you said.”
Qiao Ling froze, “What did I say?”
He crossed his arms, unhurriedly repeated: “Tomorrow, continue teaching me convenience store bartending.”
Facing Qiao Ling’s gradually coming-back-to-her-senses and embarrassed expression, Chen Kuang’s eye corner lifted even higher, leaned down and said: “Don’t worry, I don’t freeload for nothing.”
“Wasn’t this the WeChat message you sent me at midnight?”
Qiao Ling’s vision went black, her tongue went numb.
Aoo! How did she forget about that!!!
She recalled all kinds of scenes from herself being drunk last night, couldn’t help curling her toes, raising her hand to block her face and softly said: “…You, you don’t have to take it so seriously.”
Chen Kuang opened the plastic bag, “Then not learning anymore?”
Qiao Ling glanced back over, hesitated: “Since we already bought the things…”
“What kind of cocktail can these three things make? Yakult can also?”
“Mn, home bartending is just very simple.” Chen Kuang took out the convenience store ice cup from the bag, tore it open, and poured vodka, strawberry juice, and Yakult in a 2:4:4 ratio into the cup.
The milky white and pink colors gradually blended in the ice cup, looking very pretty.
Finally, he put on the lid, stirred with a straw, pushed it in front of her.
Qiao Ling asked: “That’s it?”
Chen Kuang nodded.
Qiao Ling mimicked the shaking action of him using a shaker at the bar without holding anything, “Don’t have to shake it like this?”
Her mimicking was clumsy, yet carried an irresistibly endearing charm.
Chen Kuang pressed down the corner of his mouth, explaining: “Convenience store bartending doesn’t need to be that troublesome. If there’s a shaker at home, shaking it evenly is even better.”
“Try it?”
Qiao Ling nodded, thinking with strawberry juice and Yakult in the drink, even if it was bitter, it wouldn’t taste too bad.
Under his gaze, she pinched the straw and took a sip, lifted her head with both eyes lighting up at the same time: “Mn!”
“Mn, what kind of review is that?” He found it funny.
Qiao Ling swallowed that mouthful of sweet wine, “It’s just very delicious! Doesn’t taste like alcohol at all, like a beverage.”
Chen Kuang folded his arms, teased: “That’s why you’ll drink too much. Cocktails are like this, very misleading for people.”
Qiao Ling bent her eyes as she let her thoughts scatter: “Sounds like a wizard’s special magic potion.”
Chen Kuang outlined a faint smile, didn’t speak.
Outside the window, the fine drizzle continued, rain dripping down from the eaves, creating a refreshing kind of noise.
The two sat by the convenience store window, watching the rain-wetted city late at night, facing each other in silence yet harmonious.
Qiao Ling had drunk about half of the pink-colored cocktail, secretly observing the person next to her playing on his phone.
After finishing this drink, they would have to call a taxi and go back, the two would be separating again.
Tomorrow she would work as usual, and at night he would continue working at the bar.
When would the next chance to spend time together like this be?
She spat the straw out from her mouth, quietly opened her mouth: “Um.”
Chen Kuang stared at his phone without looking up: “Mn?”
“I still want to explain a little.” Qiao Ling shook the ice cubes in her plastic cup, “Even though I said sorry to you, that sentence from me last night wasn’t that kind of meaning.”
The puffiness under his eyes lifted slightly, knowingly asking: “Which sentence?”
Her face reddened: “You clearly know…”
“What I mean is,” Qiao Ling bypassed his teasing, “you can rest at my place during the day.”
“I rented a one-bedroom at Zhoucheng Huating and live by myself. On weekends I go back to my parents’ house.”
“According to my going out when you get off work, and you going out when I get off work, from our schedules, even if we’re under the same roof, it wouldn’t conflict. We might not even see each other.”
The more she spoke, the more embarrassed she got herself: “Of course, I’d only lend you the living room… the bedroom and such, you can’t go in.”
Chen Kuang slanted a glance at her.
“That’s the solution, that way neither of us has to lose anything.”
Qiao Ling was very satisfied with her idea: “Let’s do it like that, what do you say?”
Her throat was dry and trembling, waiting expectantly for his next-second answer.
However, three seconds later, Chen Kuang put down his phone and looked at her, eyes calm.
Very decisive.
“I refuse.”