Through the thin layer of her nightgown, Su Ziceng could even feel the contours of Pello’s chest muscles. Her ears grew redder and redder, like drops of blood on agate.
After recounting last night’s events in detail, Pello finally relaxed his grip and, as if nothing had happened, sat back down, "So Hang Yishao is your fiancé, I didn’t know that."
"It was a joke made by our parents in the past," Su Ziceng didn’t know why she felt the need to explain. She observed Pello’s expression carefully; he had returned to his usual demeanor, no sign of his earlier rogue-like appearance.
"You don’t understand Hang Yishao well enough," Pello said with pity: "Right now, he is half-hooked and restless because of you, but your performance last night undoubtedly made him quite smug."
Su Ziceng shut her wardrobe with a slam, Pello’s pedagogic tone educating her made her feel even worse, "Pello, do you like me at all?" A blunt question, typical of Su Ziceng’s style.
"I’ve been waiting for you since you were born," Pello chuckled, with a gesture, "You’ve forgotten, when I was only five or six years old, I was already fantasizing about that little girl from the far East."
"I’m talking about liking someone, not that kind of elusive fantasy, but a tangible likeness," Su Ziceng’s dissatisfaction became more evident, her eyes reddening. Two pairs of red eyes stared at each other.
"How do you want me to answer?" Pello’s tone was, however, even more nebulous.
"Let’s change the question then, do you like Wen Maixue?" Su Ziceng carefully uttered the name.
"You and she are different," Pello felt a bit embarrassed when asked, but that was precisely the effect Su Ziceng wanted.
"Alright," Su Ziceng waved her hand, she didn’t want to hear the answer anymore, maybe she was afraid of the response, "Before the New Year, I’m going to Bianjing City."
An utterly unrelated comment. Pello smiled helplessly, another typical Su Ziceng move.
"When I’m like her, then you can answer my question," Su Ziceng knew, competing with Wen Maixue right now was utterly futile.
For Su Ziceng now, Mo City was like a place bracing for a stormy chaos. Perhaps going away for a while would allow her to calm down.
"Is it for Subi Auction House?" Pello also guessed Su Ziceng’s intentions.
"I plan to take a walk around Luli Street," Bianjing City’s Luli Street is a historic street that has weathered several dynasties, well-known across the country and even abroad.
"Luli Street is a mix of good and bad influences, it’s not quite right for you to go there," Pello analyzed for her. Moreover, Luli Street nowadays is not the same as it used to be, with government reconstruction and more new vendors than old hands, incidents of deception and dishonesty are not rare.
"Even you, a foreigner, know this, it’s really shameful to have our country’s reputation tarnished internationally," Su Ziceng mocked. Pello actually looked like a Z country native, bearing some resemblance to Ye Taina, but his nose and eye contours were much deeper than the average person from Z country. It’s his eyes, under the Sunshine, that glimmer with a layer of lake blue; and in the shade, they appear more like a dark pool.
"A friend of mine recently spent a lot of money on a set of yellow pear wood armchairs, only to realize later he had been duped," Pello referred to his "unfortunate friend" Shang Yin. Shang Yin had a variety of interests, in addition to alcohol and women, he recently got hooked on collecting yellow pear wood furniture, believing that even if one ends up with fakes, they can still be put to use as furniture.
So Shang Yin traveled all the way to Bianjing City and, after a myriad of cautions and considerations, engaged an alleged expert, then from a very unassuming shop, he found a set carved from full pieces of wood—a pair of armchairs and a round table that cost him over five million. Spending a few hundred thousand more, with a security entourage akin to transporting the central bank’s gold reserves, Shang Yin "welcomed" the furniture set to Mo City.
Old Master Wen was even alerted; in his earlier years, Old Master Wen had dabbled in antiques too. After close inspection, he identified Shang Yin’s set as fakes. They weren’t made from solid pieces at all, and the material had been switched with inferior jujube wood, crafted using spliced pieces.
Shang Yin had the director of the City Museum confirm it once more, and the matter infuriated him to such an extent that he smashed the set to pieces on the spot. It proves that collecting furniture as antiques is also highly inappropriate. Imagine finding out that it’s a fake, having to see it in front of you every day, sitting on it—it’s like sitting on pins and needles.
"It’s worth a look regardless, maybe genuine treasures can be found amid the dust," Su Ziceng’s trip was not solely for sourcing goods but more importantly, to find out other channels besides Chang Mei’s supply lines.
Su Ziceng initially wanted to invite Pello to accompany her, but after the recent incident, she decided against it.
On her way out of the dormitory with her packed luggage, she saw the peach wood trees planted at the beginning of the year again. The winter cold grew intense, and the trees stood resolute against the wind. She wondered if, after enduring the cold winter, they could really sprout branches and bloom abundantly. (To be continued. If you work, you are welcome to support it by casting your recommendation tickets and monthly tickets at Qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation.)