Chapter 35

Chapter 35

***

For better convenience, Xu Lian had specially packed a small wax melting stove into a large backpack, along with her other tools. With this, she was ready to visit Xiang ChangKong’s home for a second time.

Today was Thursday, so her shop was closed. She would usually stay home and make some candles, but Xu Lian figured it would be better to do it at Xiang ChangKong’s house. She could show her face and allow her future mother-in-law to see what her job entailed.

Xiang ChangKong had a morning shift today, so Xu Lian didn’t ask him to wait for her to arrive and instead entered the home with the key he had given her.

Weng ShuLi had different clothes today, but she was sitting in the exact same spot as last time. It seems she knew that Xu Lian was coming. Weng ShuLi raised her head when Xu Lian entered with her large backpack, but there wasn’t any change in her expression.

Xu Lian placed her backpack on the couch and smiled. “Hello Auntie, I’m here again.”

Weng ShuLi looked at the black backpack Xu Lian had bought. She seemed interested, but in the end, she didn’t ask. Weng ShuLi simply lowered her head and opened the book in her hand.

When Xu Lian came in, she had explicitly glanced at the book Weng ShuLi was holding. It was a different book from last time. This book was the latest work from Xing Xin, titled ‘Secret.’ Xu Lian sat down in the same spot as last time and said: “This book has also been made into a movie. Yao Feng Jing and Yu Yao made it.”

Weng ShuLi was obviously not a fan of either of these people, because she was indifferent to Xu Lian’s words. Xu Lian didn’t mind. She poured herself a glass of water, then started to take out the stuff in her backpack one by one.

The melting furnace, wax melting pot, her electronic scale, thermometers, wax blocks, gypsum, paper

cups….the small coffee table was instantly filled with Xu Lian’s things. Her busy movements finally made Weng ShuLi raise her head. She looked at the strange items on the coffee table, then looked at Xu Lian.

Xu Lian smiled at her and said: “I don’t know if Xiang ChangKong mentioned it to you, but I opened an aromatherapy candle shop in Starlight Park. These are the tools I use to make candles.”

Weng ShuLi didn’t reply. Xu Lian turned the electronic scale on, then poured some gypsum into a paper cup. “Don’t worry, I work quietly, so I promise not to disturb your reading.”

Weng ShuLi’s expression finally appeared to loosen a bit. It seems that she had never met such a brazen person before. She stared at Xu Lian for a while, but Xu Lian really did start making candles, so Weng ShuLi could only go back to her book.

Xu Lian measured the amount of gypsum, then glanced at Weng ShuLi before adding the appropriate amount of water. Weng ShuLi had wanted to use the move ‘ignore her’ to push Xu Lian back, but this sort of thing was ineffective to Xu Lian.

After all, her greatest strength was the ability to withstand solitude.

To her knowledge, Weng ShuLi had only started to ignore people in the last three years. Before the death of her husband, she had been a woman who cared for her family and knew how to live her life well.

Xu Lian had heard from Xiang ChangKong that Weng ShuLi had been a dancer in an art troupe when she was young. His father had fallen in love with his mother at first sight during an art show. Weng ShuLi was pretty and danced well. When she was young, she had been pursued by many men, but it was Xiang ChangKong’s father was the one who succeeded.

After their marriage, although Weng ShuLi had divided her energy into taking care of Xiang ChangKong and Xiang Nuan, her dancing skills didn’t diminish. She would go square dancing with her friends, participate in regular dance competitions with teams, and even teach others dancing in her spare time.

Xu Lian was very different from Weng ShuLi. She had lived in self-imposed isolation for twenty-four years. No one knew how to live in solitude better than Xu Lian. If Weng ShuLi enthusiastically attempted conversation with her, Xu Lian might’ve been the one to back down first, but Weng ShuLi had instead chosen ‘ignore her.’

In this silent tug of war, Xu Lian felt like she was in an excellent position to win.

Mixing the gypsum until it was in the most appropriate viscosity, Xu Lian dipped some black pigment onto the mixture with a toothpick. The moment the toothpick touched the gypsum, the black pigment spread into the mixture like ink on a painting.

Xu Lian turned the paper cup to let the pigment dye a pattern onto the gypsum, and once she was satisfied, poured the gypsum into a mold. While waiting for the liquid gypsum to solidify, she placed the block of soy wax into the melting pot and put the pot on top of the preheated melting furnace.

It was as if she was performing magic. Xu Lian didn’t make much noise, but she still attracted Weng ShuLi’s attention. When Xu Lian noticed Weng ShuLi’s attention on her, she didn’t feel uncomfortable. She just waited for the wax to heat up to the proper temperature, removing the gypsum container from its mold while she did so. When the wax was finally heated up, she poured it into the gypsum container.

Xu Lian inserted a wax core and fixed it in place with a clip. Xu Lian pushed it aside, then asked Weng ShuLi: “Does it look nice? This kind of basic candle sells quite well in our shop. It smells good too.”

She only brought two scents today, and they were both the most popular scents in her store. Many of her female customers had asked Xu Lian if she sold any perfumes with the same scent.

The air became filled with a light flowery fragrance. As Xu Lian began weighing some gypsum again, she asked: “Auntie, why don’t you learn to make a few candles with me? Instead of being bored at home, why not learn a craft to pass the time?”

Weng ShuLi looked at Xu Lian, then went back to her book.

Xu Lian stayed at Xiang ChangKong’s home until the afternoon, making a bunch of fragrant candles, some with beehive wax, some with soy wax. When she finally decided to leave, she filled her backpack with only the candles she made. Xu Lian didn’t intend to take her tools home and instead packed them into a large paper bag and placed them in Xiang ChangKong’s room.

After all, Xu Lian intended to visit often. Leaving her tools here meant that she wouldn’t have to lug everything along every time she came.

When Xu Lian exited Xiang ChangKong’s room, she found that Weng ShuLi had already returned to her own room. Xu Lian walked over to Weng ShuLi’s room and found her door open. She knocked on the door, and still standing outside, said: “Auntie, I’ll be going back. See you next time.”

Weng ShuLi didn’t answer, and Xu Lian didn’t wait for a reply. She simply turned around and left.

When Xiang ChangKong came back that evening, he found the paper bag full of Xu Lian’s tools on his desk. With a smile, he closed the bag, then found a candle next to his textbooks.

Compared to the many fancy candles in Xu Lian’s store, this particular candle was the most basic kind of candle placed in a gypsum container. The container was hexagonal and had black paint randomly smudged on it. It looked very much like an ink landscape painting.

After finding a box of matches, Xiang ChangKong lit the candle. It’s faint light gave off the tiniest bit of warmth. Xiang ChangKong turned off the lights in his room, leaving only the small lamp on his desk to illuminate the candle. He adjusted the lighting, took a photo of the candle, then sent it to Xu Lian.

Xiang ChangKong: Thank you for the candle. It’s really nice. [picture.jpg ]

Xu Lian: Did you take the photo on your cell phone?

Xiang ChangKong: Yeah, why?

Xu Lian: It looks pretty good. Then I’ll ask you to take photos for me from now on. (*´艸`*)

Xiang ChangKong: I can’t. (－‸ლ)

Xu Lian: I don’t think men are supposed to say they can’t?

Xiang ChangKong:…

I was suddenly taken for a drive…

(T/N: An internet slang basically about porn. Like, asking someone to drive you basically means ‘yo share your porn stash with me.’ It’s a slang that references sex. I find it equal parts confusing and hilarious that this slang is in here. Basically, Xu Lian was like ‘men aren’t supposed to say they can’t [perform], lol’ and by perform she means sexually. )

Xu Lian: By the way, I’ve recently tried making a few dishes by myself. I feel like I’ve made a lot of progress, so next time you should come by and try it!

Xiang ChangKong’s face heated as he replied with an ‘alright.’

Every time he goes to Xu Lian’s house, they don’t just eat…

Xu Lian: Goodnight ☾

Xiang ChangKong: Good night, have a good rest.

As they both said their goodnights, Wei YiChen’s business was at its peak time.

While Wei YiChen was playing billiards in a private room with Ah Mao, a flustered waiter ran in. With a voice shaking with panic, he said: “Brother Chen, Brother Mao, there are two guests outside…”

Wei YiChen put down his billiard stick and asked: “What’s wrong?”

“I, I don’t know. They act like they’ve drunk too much, but they haven’t….” Thinking back to the two guests, the waiter thought that the situation might be more complicated than it looked. Initially, the guests weren’t any trouble, and they didn’t even drink much wine. But then they suddenly got excited and made a fuss.

“We’ll go have a look.” Wei YiChen called for Ah Mao, and the pair walked out.

The two people the waiter mentioned was a man and a woman. They definitely looked out of place in a bar, and it seems that they don’t come to such places often. When Wei YiChen saw the two, they were already happily dancing in the middle of the dance floor, with half of their clothes on the ground. A crowd had gathered around them, whistling and applauding at the duo’s antics.

Wei YiChen and Ah Mao squeezed through the crowd, picked up the clothes on the floor, and then tried to drag the man and the woman off the dance floor. The man and woman were so inebriated that when they saw people trying to drag them away, they shouted: “What are you doing? Don’t pull me!”

Wei YiChen and Ah Mao signaled towards their other brothers to help forcibly pull them away. The two drunkards struggled and cursed the entire time, causing other customers to watch the commotion.

After the drunken duo was pulled away, the incident was soon forgotten by the other people in the bar. The dance floor soon changed the song, and everyone continued to drink and dance.

Back in the lounge, Wei YiChen threw a small plastic bag at Ah Mao with a thunderous expression on his face. Ah Mao looked at the small bag thrown at him. His face twisted as he asked: “Brother Chen…where did this stuff come from?”

Wei YiChen sneered. “It fell out those two people’s clothes.”

Ah Mao quickly knelt in front of Wei YiChen.”Brother Chen, this didn’t come from us. We wouldn’t dare touch these things! You told every single one of us that if we even looked at such things, we’d get ten punches to the gut!”

Wei YiChen snorted, then sat down on a nearby sofa. Ah Mao has been with him for a long time. He understood this little brother’s personality. If he says it’s not something from them, then those two customers bought it elsewhere.

When he first thought of opening a bar in this street, Wei YiChen made sure he understood the rules of Qingnan Lane. This….was someone on the brink of breaking the rules?

“Check out those two and see which stores they regularly visit.”

“I understand.” Ah Mao looked down at the little plastic bag again. “Uh…what about this thing?”

Wei YiChen replied: “Throw it in the toilet and flush it away! And those two people, they’re not allowed to enter our store in the future.”

Ah Mao quickly nodded. “Yes, I’ll go do it now.”