Yang Shao ran after him with an umbrella, “Brother Pei, I had no idea the two Chens would be coming tonight. Next time we hang out, I definitely will make sure we won’t be bothered by outsiders.”

“Well, it has nothing to do with you.” Pei Yan paused to pat Yang Shao’s shoulders, “See you later then.”

“Okay.” Yang Shao opened the umbrella and handed it to Pei Yan. “Be careful on the road.”

“Do you think I’m stupid enough to go speeding at night like Chen Jiang?” Pei Yan accepted the umbrella, “Go and enjoy yourself. I’ll be going first.”

Yang Shao looked at Pei Yan and wanted to ask about the Shu embroiderer, but he remembered that he was going to receive the finished product tomorrow anyway, so there was no need to ask anymore. With Brother Pei’s character, he wouldn’t be one to pay attention to such trivial things, and him accepting to help him drive the embroiderer to their hometown may have been the warmest gesture between the two ever.

After sending Pei Yan off, when Yang Shao was about to return to the private suite, from outside the door he could hear Chen Jiang scolding a driver that was involved in a car accident with him about two months ago. He then kicked open the door and said, “Can you just stop? That night, this person was driving well while you were speeding! Because of you, another person still hasn’t been discharged from the hospital yet, so how dare you complain!”

Hearing what Yang Shao said, Chen Jiang’s face showed a little embarrassment before he retorted, “Yang Shao, don’t think that you clinging on to Pei Yan allows you to act like a senior in front of me!”

The atmosphere in the private suite suddenly froze as everyone here was a person of high social status. Usually, even if there was a bit of disagreement, it wouldn’t be made so obvious, but now that Chen Jiang had said such a sentence out loud, everyone grew a bit uneasy.

“Heh!” Yang Shao sneered, “I actually agree with you: that I cling to Pei Yan. But even if you don’t agree, you’re better off just shutting your mouth!”

“Yang Shao, since you aren’t so familiar with Chen Jiang yet, I’ll tell you that if he feels he got ridiculed, he’d start to forget himself,” Chen Sen tried to mediate by picking up some alcohol from the bar and trying to toast with Yang Shao, “I’ll toast you three glasses. Take it as me apologizing.” He didn’t even wait for Yang Shao to respond before he went straight to drinking the three glasses. He’s given Yang Shao enough face.

When Chen Jiang saw his own brother bending over backwards to apologize for him, his face quickly changed and he also apologized to Yang Shao softly. He then went to a corner and just started playing on his mobile phone.

Yang Shao kept sniggering inside his heart. Even if he continued to cling to his Brother Pei, truth be told, how many here wouldn’t if given the chance?

During this busy period of half a month of mostly staying home, Hua Jin seldom went to the store. After she finally finished her task, she finally found the time to do so. When she walked inside, Tan Yuan was sitting beside her workbench, in a daze. She didn’t even notice that someone had walked in.

“Tan Yuan, what are you thinking about?” Hua Jin only knew a little bit about lacquerwares, only knowing how to do some simple things, so Tan Yuan was the one in charge of taking orders for them. “Has there been too many orders recently that you’re exhausted?”

“There are no orders.” Tan Yuan snapped back to reality as she put down the lacquer pen she was holding and sighed, “We didn’t even get two orders for lacquerware for the entire month. If this goes on, I can only rely on your embroidery to keep me fed.”

“No problem.” Hua Jin then changed some of the decorations in the shop. “As long as you’re willing to ditch your Cao Yi, I’m willing to marry you and bring you home tomorrow.”

“Marriage is the grave of love. Will you still be willing to feed me even if I don’t marry you?” Tan Yuan put her hands together, “I don’t eat much, only a catty of abalone a day, then two catties of bird’s nest, and then five catties of Australian crayfish…”

*Note: 1 Catty = 1.3 Pounds = 0.45 KG | These 3 things are regarded as very luxurious and expensive products.

Yang Shao just stood at the door of the store, unsure if he should be bothering the two inside when he heard their conversation. He took another look at the sign at the door to confirm that he was in the right place. ‘This seems to be the place that the embroiderer said, but these two girls…’

‘Maybe I shouldn’t go in and disturb this emotional scene?’

While they continued to joke, Hua Jin noticed the blond young man standing at the door. She quickly stopped joking around with Tan Yuan and got to work, “Hello, welcome!” When Hua Jin got a closer look at the guy, she suddenly realized that he was the same pineapple guy she met a few months ago in the hospital.

“Hello. I’m to meet the honored embroiderer of your shop to pick up my custom order.” Yang Shao felt that he’s seen Hua Jin before, but he couldn’t remember where. With such a beautiful woman right in front of him, he put his best foot forward as he had always been the patient type, keeping even his speech quite polite.

“Are you that noble customer who requested the panda embroidery?” Hua Jin instantly responded, “Please sit down for a bit.”

‘Maybe it wasn’t just his hair that was golden, but even his wallet? That explains why he was so heroic in giving out red packets!’

Yang Shao sat on the sofa and picked up a brochure on the table. The brochure listed the full inventory of products that the store made. But before he could turn a few pages, that beautiful woman came back.

The other party put a wooden box in front of him, “Please have a look and see if they suit you.”

Putting down the brochure, Yang Shao gently opened the wooden box. The handkerchief on the top was embroidered with two pandas, one big and one small. Their eyes were lively and the embroidery even managed to give the pandas a fluffy feeling. He couldn’t help but exclaim, “What superb embroidery skills!”

“Although the pandas on this handkerchief are vivid, I think that maybe your elder would prefer this even more.” Hua Jin then took out the handkerchief placed at the bottom of the pile. Compared to the exquisite panda embroidery of the previous one, the three pandas on this handkerchief looked much simpler, looking nothing special at first glance. But upon closer inspection, one would find that this handkerchief somehow exuded the innocence and cuteness of a child.

Although the three pandas only had black eyes, somehow Yang Shao felt the warmth and tranquility of a family of three from their beady black eyes. The feeling he felt wasn’t easy to describe, but it felt like a culmination of the peaceful place they lived, where no disasters struck, and no sufferings felt. Only delicious food and beautiful scenery to be had.

Yang Shao flipped through all the other handkerchiefs, finding that each gave him a different feeling, but all of them were surprising in their own way. He got up from the sofa and thanked her solemnly, “I like these embroidered handkerchiefs very much. I’m not sure if it’s possible for me to meet the embroiderer myself, but I would really like to thank her personally.”

“You sure like to joke. I’m the one who embroidered these handkerchiefs.” Hua Jin smiled as she looked at this pineapple guy in front of her. ‘I’m really sorry if I don’t fit the old embroiderer image you’ve imagined.’

“You’re that extraordinary embroiderer?!” Yang Shao looked at Hua Jin in shock and the conversation instantly changed into something else, “You don’t even look 20 years old, and yet your embroidery skills are already so excellent! Truly outstanding!”

For beautiful women, even praising her ten times wasn’t enough. One should never criticize one either, not even half a sentence.

Hua Jin: “…”

‘Not even 20 years old?’

‘Isn’t he exaggerating too much? Nevertheless, I like it.’

“The handkerchiefs are made of Shu brocade, and the embroidery threads are made of pure mulberry silk…”

“Master!” Yang Shao said excitedly, “My grandma will definitely like these! Sorry for taking so much of your time!” After speaking, he picked up the wooden box and ran out hurriedly.

Hua Jin simply stared at his back as he was running, “H-Hey!”

Yang Shao turned to see Hua Jin come out to ‘see him off’ and shouted back to Hua Jin, “Master Embroiderer, please don’t bother seeing me off! I won’t disturb your sweet moment with your friend any longer!”

Hua Jin was dumbfounded as she watched the pineapple guy running away. He hasn’t even paid the bill yet, so why was he running?!

“Hua Hua, did that person just… rob us?” Tan Yuan couldn’t react in time as well. “He was even wearing designer clothing, so how can he even do such a thing?!”

Hua Jin turned to look at Tan Yuan, her friend of more than six years already. Did they still need to tell each other what happened?

After Yang Shao got the embroidery, he couldn’t restrain his own excitement. He had an inexplicable feeling that these handkerchiefs would definitely be liked by his grandma.

After driving home, Yang Shao simply slammed that car door without even bothering to lock it as he rushed into the house carrying the wooden box. His grandmother’s health hasn’t been too good for the past two years and she’s only grown more and more fond of talking about the past with the younger generation. Yang Shao was worried that if she kept on longing to relive the past, that her body would get affected, so he has always tried his best to make her happy in the present.

“Grandma!” Yang Shao ran into her room and saw the old lady sitting on the sofa watching an anti-war drama. He put the wooden box on her lap and said, “Quickly take a look at what I brought you!”

“Don’t run too fast or you might trip and fall.” The old lady wasn’t in any hurry to open the box. Instead, she reached out and patted her grandson’s forehead dry with a handkerchief. “You’re even sweating! Quickly, go to your room and change your clothes so you won’t catch a cold.”

“Grandma, I’m fine. Look at the gift I brought you first.” Yang Shao wiped his face haphazardly before asking the helper to bring the old lady’s glasses. “My gift this time will definitely not leave you disappointed!”

“Disappointed of what?” Yang Shao’s father, Yang Xue walked in from the outside followed by Pei Yan behind him.

“Brother Pei’s here too? Take a seat.” Yang Shao greeted Pei Yan and asked him to sit down.

“Auntie.” Pei Yan walked over to the old lady and had a few words with her that made the old lady smile, making her entirely forget about the gift box. In the end, it was only after Yang Shao’s reminder that the old lady remembered the item.

“Grandma isn’t lacking anything, so just keep your money to spend on yourselves and don’t waste it on me.” The old lady then opened the wooden box with a smile. When she saw the exquisitely embroidered handkerchief on the top of the pile, her smile brightened. “This embroidered handkerchief is very good. Great craftsmanship.” As she said that, she continued to flip them over until the very last one. When she saw it, her hands suddenly stopped, as if she couldn’t believe her eyes.”

“This is…” She took out the handkerchief with trembling hands and gently stroked the pandas on it. “Same. It looks the same.”

“Grandma…” Yang Shao saw that his grandma’s mood had suddenly shifted. Worried that her body might not be able to endure such an abrupt change, he immediately started to gently stroke her back before saying, “If these aren’t to your liking, I’ll take them away.”

The old lady stroked the handkerchief again and again, her voice gradually grew with nostalgia, “The handkerchief my mother made me looked like this as well. I never expected that seventy or eighty years passed by like a blink of an eye.”

Pei Yan looked at the handkerchief being gently caressed by the old lady and turned to look at Yang Shao.

‘Is this one of the panda handkerchiefs that Yang Shao commissioned Hua Jin to make?’

He bent over to pick up one of the other handkerchiefs the old lady had put aside. Pei Yan suddenly felt that the rolling fat panda embroidered on the handkerchief was staring at him with its pair of black eyes.

‘This fatty’s eyes are very dark, like the pupils of Hua Jin’s, that flowery peacock.’

———————

The author has something to say: [Yang Shao]: In front of beautiful women, I’m always ready to strut my stuff. But this beauty seems to be into other beauties as well?

[Tan Yuan]: I’m not. I don’t. Don’t speak nonsense!

[Hua Jin]: Excuse me, please advise me on the best way to collect debts while still remaining elegant and powerful. Urgent request. I’m online right now!