Art

“Have you finished the Chinese medicine you were supposed to drink today?”

Hua Yu got up and walked over, closing the bedroom door behind her before stopping in front of Wei Yin.

At the mention of Chinese medicine, Wei Yin’s brow twitched. She glanced aside. “Chinese medicine is usually drunk at night.”

“Mm. You’re afraid of bitterness, so whether it’s morning or night, you still have to drink it. You kept whining at me, asking if you could take just one packet a day; I felt sorry for you and agreed.” Hua Yu said.

Wei Yin blinked, not understanding why Hua Yu was bringing up the medicine at a time like this.

Hua Yu reached out and hooked a finger under her camisole strap, giving it a casual flick.

With a soft snap, the thin strap bounced back and left a faint red mark on her rounded shoulder.

“Dressed like this, are you trying to catch a chill so the medicine can have a few more grams of coptis in it?”

Wei Yin covered her shoulder and stepped back.

Hua Yu followed, her gaze sweeping over her from head to toe.

The tank top was a black spaghetti-strap style, fitted and stretchy; whether she bent over or not, it only revealed a little soft flesh, a casual outfit with a hint of sex appeal.

The hot pants were pretty plain too, blue-purple denim, A-line skirt style, high-waisted, with the thigh exposed right down to the last inch.

If she went out and got hit by the evening breeze, then worked up a sweat after that, Hua Yu could only get angrier the more she looked, until she laughed in exasperation. “When the time comes, one dose in the morning, one dose at night; not a single packet less.”

Wei Yin was not entirely convinced. “It’s 27 degrees outside right now.”

“Yes, 27 degrees; a body’s ideal temperature,” Hua Yu said coolly, glancing at her. “Do you know what ideal means? Even people living at the equator will wrap themselves in cloth. Are you trying to use those scraps of fabric to teach an ideal body a lesson?”

Wei Yin’s face stayed blank, the soft flesh of her cheeks puffing up as she glared at Hua Yu from below.

Dr. Hua was really too, too, too venomous with her words.

“I’m not wearing long sleeves and long pants anymore!” Wei Yin protested. She was now seriously suspecting that her own outfit was too childish, so childish that it had no charm at all in front of Hua Yu.

What a perfect atmosphere they had just had; they could have talked about the past, poured out their feelings. Wei Yin would bring her rice, red sleeves adding fragrance to the room; instead, Hua Yu actually criticized her for wrapping herself in a bath towel.

She had already pressed herself close, and Hua Yu was still saying all that tsk-tsk nonsense.

Was that even the right reaction?!

Now that she had dressed properly, Hua Yu was back to saying she’d catch a chill and get sick, fussing over her like an old housewife and telling her to pay attention to keeping warm.

Was that the point?!

Ignoring her indignant expression, Hua Yu walked over to the ecological tank to change the turtle’s water.

Wei Yin sulked for a long while. When being hard wasn’t enough, she switched to soft.

“Anyway, I’m just not attractive to you, right?” Wei Yin said, pretending to be heartbroken. “We were fine back in college, and after finally reuniting, Dr. Hua’s attitude is like this. That’s just too upsetting.”

Hua Yu ignored her, finished changing the turtle’s water, and told Wei Yin to get some rest early.

“Yaqing’s coming back tomorrow; go build your career with her,” Hua Yu said. “And tomorrow you still need to go for acupuncture. Keep that in mind.”

Wei Yin muttered gloomily, “No.”

Hua Yu automatically translated that in her ears as “Okay.”

As Hua Yu passed by her, she paused and sniffed lightly. “What body wash are you using today?”

She always seemed to be able to catch the scent of tequila; it was the special fragrance from Wei Yin’s pheromones.

But she could also tell Wei Yin wasn’t secreting pheromones right now.

Thinking it over, maybe she’d applied something scented to herself.

“I put on baby cream,” Wei Yin said, lifting her wrist to let her smell. “It’s freesia.”

After Hua Yu had called her rough last time, Wei Yin had gone back and seriously started taking care of her skin. She hadn’t been willing to throw away the baby cream, so instead of just using it on her face, she started putting it all over her body.

Hua Yu smelled it, thinking that was probably the reason, though it still didn’t quite seem right.

Wei Yin asked, “Does Dr. Hua not like it?”

Her voice was a little timid. Hua Yu glanced at her and deliberately said, “I don’t like it.”

Then she kept going, adding another knife to the wound: “And the clothes you’re wearing; I don’t like those either.”

Wei Yin’s eyes immediately turned watery, as if a layer of fog had settled over them; she looked both angry and hurt.

Watching her expression, Hua Yu only felt that she looked like a kitten whose claws weren’t sharp enough. Once she got familiar with someone, she would reveal the instinct to act spoiled and shameless; but if pushed away, or scolded for being disobedient, she’d get scared and run to a corner, staring with big eyes, both timid and startled by everything.

“Don’t make that face,” Hua Yu said with a soft laugh. She took Wei Yin’s wrist, lowered her head, and brushed her lips once over the protruding bone at her wrist before pulling away. “I was teasing you.”

Wei Yin raised a paw and stood frozen for a long time before saying awkwardly, “Only the wrist?”

Hua Yu patted her head. With her nutrition finally catching up, her hair had some elasticity to it now, like a fluffy cotton doll. “And your forehead.”

As soon as she said that, she lowered her head and kissed the top of Wei Yin’s head through her hair.

From her neck to the corners of her eyes, Wei Yin flushed bright red in an instant.

She was so happy she could barely contain herself, bouncing in place twice before pushing her luck. “Only kissing?”

This time Hua Yu really couldn’t guess what she was thinking. “Hm? What else do you want? Tell me.”

Wei Yin thought for two seconds. “A little dress.”

“A little dress?” Hua Yu couldn’t help laughing. “Buy it, buy it.”

Last time she had mentioned it casually, and Wei Yin had remembered.

Come to think of it, the clothes Wei Yin wore to the gathering were chosen by Hua’s mother, and Hua Yu really hadn’t given her any gifts before.

That was a little unreasonable.

Hua Yu reflected on herself; in the future, she should give Wei Yin gifts more often.

Having gotten her way, Wei Yin’s mood was like a bird let loose into the sky, free and delighted. She no longer clung to Hua Yu, but hummed as she ran back into the room to savor the feeling on her own.

A pleasant scent lingered in the air, but it wasn’t freesia; it might have been Wei Yin’s natural body fragrance. Hua Yu didn’t keep pondering it. She still had some overtime to do, and tomorrow she was scheduled for two surgeries; it was going to be another busy week.

-

“It’s hard to explain over the phone; why don’t you come to the shop?” The owner of Wuqi spoke to Wei Yin over voice call, enthusiastically inviting her to take part in an opening celebration event. “This is a close friend of mine. Her new store is opening, and she wants to invite a few artisans like you to liven things up. She’s quite generous; the appearance fee is high.”

Sure enough, Wei Yin’s attention was drawn away by “appearance fee.” “How high?”

“Based on your skill, I feel like you should get at least several thousand a day,” the owner said without pinning it down too firmly, repeatedly assuring her, “She’s rich and generous; if she likes the look of you, she’ll splash money around. You can go take a look first and get familiar with the place.”

Splash money around?

Wei Yin considered it for a second. “Send me the location.”

These days, Wei Yin had been in frequent contact with Wuqi. Once, when she went to the shop to consign some pieces for sale, they happened to run into someone setting up a mud-figure stall on the pedestrian street, and the owner had pulled her over to show her skills.

After that, the owner’s attitude toward Wei Yin became even warmer.

Come to think of it, Wei Yin’s craft had all been taught to her by the aunt upstairs when she was little. As a child, she loved to play. She lived in an old-style apartment building, always running up and down between floors; once she slipped into the aunt’s home. Seeing how jade-snow lovely she was, like a little pink dumpling, the other woman gave her a small ceramic snowman.

Wei Yin had been spoiled by her mother when she was young, and everyone she met liked her. That also helped build her thick, shameless tendency to climb up the pole as soon as she got a chance; every day she went upstairs looking for the aunt. A small lump of clay, kneaded and tugged in the aunt’s hands, could change into all sorts of shapes. To little Wei Yin, it was even more miraculous than magic.

Thanks to her extreme clinginess, which had reached peak levels, the aunt helplessly got used to her presence and even started teaching her craft. Her mother was already uneasy about leaving Wei Yin alone at home while she went out to work, and since the upstairs aunt was willing to take Wei Yin to play with clay—something that, in Wei Mother’s eyes, had absolutely nothing to do with art—Wei Mother was more than happy to go along with it.

And so, Wei Yin got an entire childhood of simple happiness.

If other people’s childhoods smelled like candy, then Wei Yin’s childhood smelled like mud.

Earth mixed with paint; after drying, it carried a lingering dampness that wouldn’t go away, even with the windows open.

Once the clay dried, it would produce dust and tiny fragments; with the slightest touch, they would flutter and dance in the beam of light streaming through the window.

When Wei Yin got tired from kneading, she would stare blankly at the dust for a while. The aunt never said anything to her; she only looked at her and smiled.

“What are you smiling at?” Xu Ya Qing, wearing a face covering, drifted the little car into a skid. “See if this is the place.”

Xu Ya Qing had just returned home and come looking for Wei Yin to hang out, only to be conscripted into being her driver.

Wei Yin rubbed her face, the corners of her mouth still curved with an unfaded smile. She turned and met Xu Ya Qing’s face, with only a pair of eyes exposed, and burst out laughing immediately.

“Pfft—hahahahaha.”

Xu Ya Qing angrily took off the face covering. “Where’s your humanity?”

After being away, she had gotten darker, and she had also gained weight.

For the vain and vainly proud Xu Ya Qing, this was one of life’s rare humiliations.

“You have no idea how rough the conditions were over there,” Xu Ya Qing said all the way to Wei Yin. “No wonder they barely ever saw a doctor in their whole lives. Those rolling mountains; that endless stretch of Gobi. My car broke down twice, and each time I felt like I was going to get stranded on the road, but every time, someone would pass through those godforsaken places. Human beings really are too adaptable to their environment…”

After she finished, Wei Yin gave her a round of applause. “Wow. So did your Dr. Zhang praise you?”

Xu Ya Qing’s ears twitched. “What Dr. Zhang?”

“Dr. Zhang; Zhang Rong,” Wei Yin said with complete composure. “You went to such a remote place to help her finish seeing the patients, and you almost ran into danger. Shouldn’t Dr. Zhang know about that?”

“What’s the use of her knowing?” Xu Ya Qing looked away awkwardly. “Besides, it wasn’t that rough.”

Wei Yin instantly went expressionless. “Oh, it’s right here that we stop the love-brained car.”

This place was bigger than Wei Yin had imagined. The decor was understated but rich-looking; the entrance floor was made of a single slab of marble, the first floor had a tall ceiling, and in the center stood a naturally shaped welcoming stone, a full three meters high.

“The first floor is for the art exhibition,” Xu Ya Qing said, looking around in awe. “The second floor is the auction stage. Not bad at all.”

The exhibition’s theme was “Dusting with Light,” and included portraits, clay sculptures, stone carvings, ceramics, embroidery, and art designs whose materials were impossible to identify at a glance.

Xu Ya Qing was immediately drawn in, immersing herself in the different exhibits so completely that she didn’t even notice Wei Yin being pulled away.

Wei Yin went with the owner to the office; the shop’s boss was inside.

The owner was probably in her forties or fifties, not someone who had deliberately maintained her appearance, but she had excellent spirit and presence; it was obvious she was a healthy, vigorous elder.

“Were the twelve zodiac animals made by you?” The woman skipped the small talk and asked before Wei Yin could greet her.

Wei Yin said yes. “I’d had that idea for a while; I wanted to make a complete set of ceramics.”

“And the patterns on them; are those your original designs too?” The woman’s gaze landed on Wei Yin, seeming to carry a scrutinizing edge.

Wei Yin nodded. “Mm.”

“Liar.” The woman cut her off coldly. “Rat, ox, tiger, rabbit; the patterns on the foreheads of the twelve zodiac animals; not a single one is your original work.”

Wei Yin’s brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

“If the boss doesn’t believe me,” Wei Yin said, standing up, “then there’s no need for us to discuss cooperation.”

She showed no intention of explaining at all.

This was not only about her professionalism; it was also about her character.

Back then, how she had lain on the floor, using her chubby little hands to draw those patterns line by line, Wei Yin remembered every detail.

If those weren’t her original designs, then that was the biggest joke.

The owner was stunned too. Looking back and forth between them, she said, “No, what’s going on here?”

Wei Yin said nothing and headed out. “Goodbye.”

The owner hurriedly grabbed her, then looked at the woman and motioned for her to explain quickly.

The woman’s expression darkened with embarrassment. “I’m sorry. I didn’t expect you to know her. She never told me about you.”

Wei Yin didn’t turn around. She returned the words in kind. “It’s fine; Aunt Bai never told me she had a friend either.”

“And besides… she had cancer for six years, and not a single person ever came to visit her.”

The silence behind her was instantly deathly still.

When Wei Yin was little, Aunt Bai never seemed to leave the house. When Wei Yin called her out for a walk, she would only smile and say she didn’t like seeing people.

It wasn’t until Sun Bai suddenly lost a great deal of weight in the space of half a year that Wei Yin learned the aunt had cancer.

The year she met Wei Yin, Sun Bai had been diagnosed with colon cancer. She sold off everything she owned and came to the small attic, intending to spend the last stretch of her life with her clay.

Maybe it was because she’d met a kid like Wei Yin, weak-bodied and fond of playing around, pestering her every day; Sun Bai silently endured six more years.

Wei Yin still remembered the last time she saw Aunt Bai. Before the hospital bed, Aunt Bai looked cheerful as she told Wei’s mother her money was all spent and there was no need to keep treating her.

Yet the skeletal woman didn’t seem so lifeless, because the joy flickering in her features made her look less like a corpse.

Even though Wei Yin knew that joy wasn’t because there was hope of living, but because she was about to embrace death.

Sun Bai said that life was about enjoying yourself while you could; her greatest wish was to spend all her money just in time before she died, not a single yuan more.

Wei’s mother ignored her, took out her own passbook, and shoved it into the doctor’s hands, telling them they absolutely had to keep treating her.

Mom said that over the years, the tuition fees you charged Xiao Yin for teaching her were already quite a lot anyway; just take it as repayment for lessons.

Sun Bai listened with a smile as she scolded her; that night, she removed her own IV tube and left quietly.

Wei’s mother had never been influenced by art in her life, and naturally she didn’t understand this extremely artistic way of dying. After Sun Bai’s death, she would often mutter in Wei Yin’s ear, always repeating the same line.

“Money is life; she just ran out of money, so she ran out of life.”

Standing there, Wei Yin pulled her thoughts free from the past, then turned to look at the expensive art exhibition.

“She had no money and no life either; just take the gallery of images. I won’t use the patterns inside anymore.”

After saying that, Wei Yin smiled; whether it was mockery or resignation, even she didn’t know. Without looking back, she left.