“Wait. Let me guess. So, you were saying bad things about me in your chat room? And plotting against me?” Gu Shishi speculated. She zipped up her bag again.
Chen Kexin didn’t know what to say. “No, I didn’t…. really didn’t…”
But under Gu Shishi’s look of disbelief, she finally pulled off her mask awkwardly.
“Alright, I’ll admit that I was a part of it at the beginning. But I had stopped ever since the banquet.”
She raised her right hand. “I swear. Please… the fan.”
Gu Shishi chuckled and handed the gift box over to her.
Chen Kexin quickly took it over cautiously and opened it up solemnly. She only planned on taking a quick look at it, but after just one look, she gasped.
The streaming channel and the photos on the cellphone didn’t remotely measure up to the effect of seeing the items with one’s eyes.
Beautiful. A massive scene of lotuses. A quiet and elegant sort of beauty. Just one look and all of her heat and frustration dissipated.
As she took a closer look, the lines of the leaves were clear and their edges curled up naturally. The lights and shadows met each other perfectly, and she couldn’t find any faults with them!
The little dragonfly that stopped on top of a lotus was even more delicate and ingenious than it looked from the stream.
It looked like it was about to flutter its wing and fly away. Its motion was suggested within its stillness and the composition was superb!
The poem “On the Love of Lotus” was written on the flip side of the fan in delicate, lady-like, and smooth script. It was beautiful and out of this world. It perfectly conveyed the message of “should be appreciated from a distance but not touched”!
Chen Kexin swallowed hard. She started to get an idea of why her grandmother appreciated Gu Shishi’s work so much. She herself would also very much like to have work like these adorning her room.
She felt that the air had begun to cool around her just from looking at them.
All the boisterousness and background music in the shopping mall started to slow around her….
She couldn’t take her eyes off of the fan. She reached out her right hand and touched one of them, as though she could feel the leaves with her hand.
She paused the moment she touched the fan. The fan ribs were smooth but the handle and the tip of the handle had clouds carved on them. It was obvious that the clouds were carved by machines. The lines were smooth and acceptable, but it has no soul.
Chen Kexin sighed regretfully.
The fan would be perfect if the handle was carved by hand.
Now it was just short of being perfect…
She was about to put the box away as she was lamenting.
But then she stopped for a second.
As she looked again from a farther distance, she noticed that the boring cloud carvings seemed to blend in with the lotus leaves as part of the painting!
The lotuses were sitting on top of the cloud…
This is the lotus pond that belonged to Queen Mother of the Heavens?!
Chen Kexin looked up all of a sudden.
Gu Shishi smiled at her, “Ah, you noticed it now?”
Chen Kexin nodded with difficulty.
She suddenly realized that her grandmother was right… Gu Shishi’s painting was worth way more than 30,000 yuan.
Gu Shishi was selling it to her for dirt cheap.
She had taken a big advantage of Gu Shishi!
[Received fondness from Chen Kexin!]
[The progress of the “Chen Kexin” mission increased by 60%.]
Gu Shishi was a little stunned but she figured it out right away.
She smiled.
“Wait a minute…”
She was just about to take off when she was stopped by Chen Kexin.
She turned around and saw the awkward and troubled look on the girl.
“I read in the group chat that they are going to invite you to one of their gatherings, and they planned to insult you there. Just… don’t go. And don’t say that you heard it from me either!”
Chen Kexin stammered for a while before she was able to get that out.
“Oh? Is that so? I haven’t received the invitation yet.”
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