Yao Nan’s mother had prepared a congratulatory gift for the grand opening of Dahua Furniture.
Although she could no longer collaborate with the Hua family, she reminded herself not to be too greedy. After all, the profits from their previous partnership were unexpected blessings.
She resolved to work harder and travel further in managing her own factory, hoping to find more stable and superior sources of furniture.
In the afternoon, she took Yao Nan upstairs with the gift, hoping to avoid the peak hours. However, as she stood outside the top floor of Fuyun Furniture City, laden with bags and bags of fruits, and watched the throngs of people bustling into Dahua Furniture, she realized her idea of “off-peak” was quite different from reality.
The store was still at its peak of visitor traffic, and she couldn’t squeeze in.
Turning to her son, Yao Nan’s mother sighed:
“Our God of Wealth has fled.”
Alas, the God of Wealth had only briefly shown me favor.
After standing woefully for a while, Yao Nan’s mother finally sighed and led him toward Dahua Furniture.
As soon as they entered, they were spotted by Hua’s mother.
“Big sister, you’re here too! Come sit here,” Hua’s mother took Yao Nan’s mother by the hand into the living room showroom, and they both sat at the dining table.
Yao Nan’s mother looked around dazedly at all the customers inspecting the furniture and decor, feeling an eerie sense of having a bunch of strangers touring her own home.
The thought had barely passed when she realized she had inadvertently referred to Dahua Furniture’s store as “home.”
With renewed admiration, she looked around again and exclaimed:
“Sister, your family really knows how to do business. This idea is brilliant. Others would bang their heads and still wouldn’t come up with it.”
“It’s all Hua Jie’s ideas. The girl, I don’t know where she gets all these thoughts and knowledge from,” Hua’s mother said with a humble smile, yet her tone unintentionally revealed her pride and admiration for her daughter.
“It’s incredible, so many people here. If my place had this many customers in a month, I’d be grateful,” Yao Nan’s mother said admiringly.
“A lot of them have never seen a furniture store like this and come to check out the scene,” Hua’s mother chuckled softly. “It’s like suddenly being allowed to wander around a stranger’s house; I’d want to take a look myself.”
“Haha, exactly, it’s really like that,” Yao Nan’s mother continued praising without pause.
“It’s so beautiful. If anyone’s home could be decorated this well, wouldn’t they fall in love with their home? You wouldn’t even want to leave for work or school once you step inside, you’d just want to stay home and enjoy it every day.”
To think that after a lifetime in this business, one could still dream so wondrously.
In this era, people are moving beyond just meeting their basic needs and are starting to look for more enjoyment, striving for a better life.
Seeing how Dahua Furniture perfectly caters to every meticulous need with their arrangements, it’s truly hard not to be moved.
Many customers who walked in felt that even needs and desires they hadn’t noticed themselves were being satisfied here.
Even those who came just to look around, with no intention of buying furniture, found themselves impulsively wanting to buy something.
After a brief chat with Hua’s mother, Yao Nan’s mother patted her on the shoulder, telling her to go about her business without worrying about hosting her.
Hua’s mother, smiling, asked the Dahua Furniture sales assistant, Xiao Li, to pour a glass of water for Yao Nan’s mother, and then she turned to attend to other customers.
Xiao Li had just poured the water and hadn’t even begun to chat when she was pulled away by a customer asking about prices, rushing off to describe the furniture piece by piece.
Yao Nan’s mother grew even more envious.
She turned to look at Yao Nan, who was already curiously looking around, and sighed inwardly.
Forget it, expecting her own monkey to be like Hua Jie is a pipe dream, absolutely impossible.
As long as he stays healthy and out of trouble, pays a bit more attention to his studies, and makes some progress in sports, well, that would be enough for her.
Yao Nan was completely unaware of his mother’s silent criticisms. He was fascinated by the decorations and impressed by Hua Jie’s family when he suddenly spotted his brother Mo.
And Mo was holding a very cute dog. Yao Nan raised an eyebrow and dashed over.
With his mind on greeting and wanting to pet the dog, he accidentally mixed up his words:
“Dog bro!”
“…” Shen Mo looked up.
“…” Uh… Yao Nan’s face turned green, then red, as he quickly corrected himself: “Brother Mo!”
“…” Shen Mo’s face darkened.
…
…
Hua Zhaoyuan had just escorted a customer to his daughter, handled the payment, finalized the delivery time, and saw the customer out.
He took a deep breath, looked at his daughter, and suddenly felt as if he were in a dream.
It was just… today was too busy, busy to the point of not having a moment to breathe, busy even when eating lunch without noticing the taste of the food.
At that moment, a man walked in from outside:
“Brother Hua, your shop is really spacious! When I set out, I wondered if I could even find it. But as soon as I reached the entrance of Fuyun Building, the footprints led me right here!”
The visitor was an old friend who had grown up with him in a small town and had been assigned to Jinsong City by his employer ten years ago.
Upon entering, he first patted Hua Jie’s head and then handed over a large bag of hazelnuts and a small sack of onions.
Hua Jie quickly took them and placed them behind the counter, sweetly calling him ‘Uncle’ and thanking him.
Hua’s father patted the friend on the back and said they should all go out for dinner that evening; he had already reserved a table at Kangshang Pot Big Liquor Restaurant.
However, the friend patted Hua’s father on the shoulder and said, “We brothers don’t need to be so formal. I just came to see how things were going. Seeing the shop like this, I’m relieved. I’ll come by for a drink in a few days. I know it’s busy today, so go ahead and take care of the others.”
After saying this, he took a tour around a few model rooms, clucking his tongue in appreciation and without wanting to cause any trouble for Hua’s father, he quickly left.
It seemed he just came to check on how his brother was doing and drop off some gifts.
After sending him off, Hua Jie pulled out an envelope and handed it to her dad, “Uncle put it in the bag with the hazelnuts.”
When Hua’s father opened the envelope, he found one hundred yuan inside.
For this group of friends who grew up together with little money, one hundred yuan was a significant amount.
He took out the money and handed it to his daughter, saying:
“Make sure to record this in the ledger.”
“Okay,” Hua Jie responded, logging the entry and putting the money in a recently emptied drawer.
Next to the cash, there was also a bankbook with several new entries. She fiddled with the book before locking the drawer.
Leaning against the counter, Hua’s father watched the bustling crowd, surrounded by the noisy, lively atmosphere and the sounds of haggling.
Pressing his lips tightly, he let out a long sigh.
How long had it been since he last gathered with his brothers?
For one thing, without any significant events, it was hard to get all these busy friends together.
Moreover, everyone was short on cash; if they were to meet up, who would pay for the meal?
The world of adults comes with many considerations, and the friendships of their youth slowly drifted apart.
Even if Hua’s father wanted to be the big brother as in the old days, keeping everyone together and preserving their friendships, even trying to rekindle them, his heart was willing but his means were limited.
He had no social status or money, and the days when he could lead just by being tough and loyal, playing with everyone, were long gone. The adult world has a new set of rules.
He was too accustomed to the rules of youthful bravado and fistfights. Only as he grew up did he realize how ill-suited he was for the adult world’s new rules of money and power.
Despondency had seeped into his life, slowly eroding his spirit and enthusiasm, leaving him abandoned by the times.
“Dad, there’s someone picking at the sofa over there!” Hua Jie suddenly exclaimed.
Following her pointing finger, Hua’s father quickly strode over, embodying the spirit of a train conductor, and politely tapped the person on the arm to stop and inquire about their actions.
He had a method for handling these situations.
After sending off the troublesome customer, Hua’s father cracked a slight smile.
The years spent on the train weren’t entirely useless after all.
Having been a train conductor at least honed his ability to deal with other tricky situations.
Given the myriad eccentric passengers one encounters on trains, these minor mischief-making customers were nothing.
With a smile, he approached a customer asking about prices, his face relaxed and faintly displaying the ease and pride of his youthful days surrounded by friends.
Hua’s mother also had friends over visiting, chatting warmly with them while serving customers.
Every now and then, she glanced around, and spotting her husband in high spirits, she couldn’t help but smile.
“It really is all about the mindset whether someone is young or not. You’ve been busy lately, but you look so revitalized, as if you’ve shed several years,” said a friend from the railway bathhouse, leaning against the solid wood table, admiringly.
Laughing, Hua’s mother replied, “Oh, Wang Jie, you’re flattering me. I’m already thirty-nine.”
“Really, your cheeks are rosy, your skin looks great and smooth, and you seem so vibrant and youthful. Someone could believe you’re only thirty,” Wang Jie said as she playfully pinched Hua’s mother’s cheek.
A woman nearby, looking at the table Wang Jie was leaning on, asked:
“How much is this table?”
“If it’s just the table, it’s 750 yuan. But if you buy the whole set with chairs and a sofa, it’s cheaper,” Wang Jie, having been around while Hua’s mother explained it several times, had memorized the spiel.
Without waiting for Hua’s mother to speak, she cheerfully responded first.
The customer asked a few more questions, which Hua’s mother answered one by one, also warmly introducing other rooms. After seeing off this customer, she sighed and said:
“If only everyone who came into the store would buy something.”
“That would be quite the fortune,” laughed Wang Jie.
The two chatted for a bit more, then Wang Jie suddenly gestured with her mouth towards someone behind Hua’s mother and whispered:
“Owning a shop really changes things, huh? Have you already picked out a son-in-law to inherit the business?”
“Huh?” Hua’s mother turned to look and saw her daughter sitting behind the counter, looking up and chatting with a young boy, smiling.
The young girl’s cheeks were rosy, her lips red and teeth white, very charming.
Her round, cat-like eyes were curved, shimmering with a bright light as she looked at the boy.
Unnoticed, Shen Mo had come to stand next to Hua Jie, now talking to her about something.
The two kids were very close, conversing back and forth, their eyes locked on each other.
The scene was like a poster, very pleasing to the eye.
She pursed her lips, nudged Wang Jie, and chuckled as she shook her head:
“Nonsense, that’s my daughter’s classmate, they are desk mates, and they get along well.”
“The kids are still young, they don’t understand these things yet.”
“Oh, kids these days know a lot. What isn’t on TV? They probably know no less than you.” Wang Jie pursed her lips, “Keep a close eye, huh? At this age, girls only care about looks. As a mother-in-law to be, you really have to screen that boy well, see what kind of character he has, if he’s ambitious, and whether he has prospects for the future.”
“That boy is actually quite good, he does well in school, and his character is also—no, no, it’s not like that. That boy is really just her classmate,” Hua’s mother nearly got roped into Wang Jie’s narrative.
“Really~~~” Wang Jie raised her eyebrows, clearly skeptical.
“Oh dear.” Hua’s mother helplessly patted Wang Jie on the shoulder.
After chatting for a bit longer, realizing she wasn’t much help and was only keeping Hua’s mother from her work, Wang Jie left a gift and departed.
Standing at the door and stretching, Xiao Li called out from behind:
“Boss lady, can we customize these double-layer curtains? An outer layer of blackout curtains and an inner layer of light sheer ones?”
“Yes, we can,” Hua’s mother turned and smiled.
She walked back into the shop to help Xiao Li attend to the customers.
Her face, always bearing a patient smile, was either flushed from the heat or from the sheer joy of good fortune, remaining rosy throughout.
Oh, when did she suddenly become the boss lady?
…
…
Over a thousand kilometers away in Beijing, the Qingmei Biennale second screening began.
This round, Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts re-invited another group of professors and famous painters, eight judges in total, each choosing five paintings, culminating in forty selected works.
In this round, another 20 paintings will be eliminated.
The same grand hall, all the paintings laid out on the floor.
The teachers meticulously screened each painting, this time with even greater caution, reaching out only for the very classical ones, otherwise not at all.
Many teachers passed the first row without selecting a single painting.
As they started on the second row, the judges began to wonder if their standards were too high?
After all, these were still students in learning, and like many painters during their educational journey, they too had shaky foundations and immature strokes, merely clumsily imitating their teachers and famous artists without any unique style of their own.
A female judge in a modified cotton cheongsam with waist-length hair took the lead. She glanced over the paintings on the floor and then walked past rows of artworks, circling around to get a general sense of the overall quality of this batch.
Then she returned to the first row and began to lower her standards to re-select.
Even after a second review, she found none appealing.
Technically, they were fine, but all lacked interesting expression.
If these were the newcomers to compete with them, the old masters, in the art market, then their status in the art world was safe for many more years.
She didn’t know whether to feel relieved that there was no strong new wave or saddened by the lack of successors in the art world.
The cheongsam-clad judge frowned and couldn’t help but speed up. She was a meticulous painting artist whose works had not yet traveled abroad, but her reputation was significant domestically.
Many institutions had extended offers to her to head their Chinese painting departments, but she was still in a phase of painting solo and seeking breakthroughs, whimsically turning down all official invitations.
She was defiant and proudly unrestrained, extremely impatient with anything dull.
Speeding past row after row, overtaking one teacher after another, she was about to turn around and complain about the lackluster standards of this Qingmei Biennale when her eyes were suddenly drawn to a pitch-dark painting.
Pursing her lips, she stepped over a row of paintings to stand before it.
The painting was titled “Sunset Over Snowy Mountains,” yet it lacked the brilliance of a sunset, instead filled with a dark, oppressive sense of gloom that seemed to swallow the whole world and extinguish all light.
What was merely a gouache of a snowy sunset somehow evoked an eerie, apocalyptic atmosphere.
The cheongsam-clad judge stared at the edge of the painting, as if she could also see the suffocating darkness engulfing a city.
She lowered her head slightly and noticed that the artist’s brushwork was bold and daring, with layers of dark hues that felt oppressively heavy, as if choking the throat.
The narrow strip of lingering sunset was like the last struggle of all beings.
The overall composition was not particularly distinctive, but the perspective and structure were satisfactory, and the expression of negative emotions was captivating.
The qipao-clad female teacher felt a thrilling release while viewing this painting, akin to shouting or smashing things, which soothed her anxiety from spending half a day unable to select a single piece.
She cracked a smile and without hesitation picked up the painting, marking her first acquisition of the day.
For a long time thereafter, it remained her only find.
“Teacher Bai, you are too critical,” a male judge chuckled, though what he really meant was “your taste is too peculiar,” though he left it unsaid.
Teacher Bai in her cheongsam just smiled. The current extreme desire and pursuit for ‘individuality’ among people were beginning to show. Those old guards who clung to stability and resisted change would sooner or later be overwhelmed by the tide of change.