“She’s dead,” Chen Mian said. “No matter how similar that person is, they’re just a substitute.”
“It’s easy to imitate the form, but difficult to imitate the spirit. She is who she is, and no one can imitate her.” Chen Mian’s voice was unusually firm, but a hint of sadness could be faintly heard.
Artists' words are often somewhat obscure and require deeper exploration.
Liang Shi stared at her. "Do you know the real cause of her death?"
"I don't know," Chen Mian said. "It might be related to her mother? I'm not sure."
Chen Mian shrugged. "I thought you knew you were coming to me."
Her mood plummeted again, and she lost her guard; her outward indifference seemed more like a disillusionment with the world.
A deep sense of world-weariness was evident in her eyes and in every movement she made; it was extremely clear.
Beneath her dark blue hair lay her glands, and behind her ear, on one of the glands, was a lily tattoo.
She unconsciously stroked the tattoo, looked at Liang Shi and smiled indifferently, "I'm no one to her, so I can't control her."
The implication is that I have no right to investigate her cause of death, nor any right to do anything.
Liang Shi then asked, "Do you know why she jumped off the building?"
Chen Mian shook her head: "We haven't seen her since she jumped off the building."
Chen Mian didn't know much, and she knew very little about Qi Jiao's death.
It was Liang Shi who subtly told her that her guess was correct.
Upon hearing this answer, Chen Mian's expression changed slightly, seemingly mocking.
When Liang Shi asked her if she had spoken to Qi Jiao in middle school because of her, Chen Mian nodded.
Chen Mian said that Qi Jiao often mentioned a little sister to her back then.
She also said that she had seen Qi Jiao staring at her from the shadows.
Later, when they became more familiar, Qi Jiao told Chen Mian, "She's my little sister."
When Liang Shishi is mentioned, Qi Jiao will speak freely, her eyes crinkling with joy, and she will say that Liang is doing very well.
Therefore, Chen Mian would talk to her in the art studio and would readily meet with her after seeing her message.
He would grant her request, which was somewhat unreasonable for Chen Mian.
For Chen Mian, Liang Shi was Qi Jiao's "relic".
"Did you try to stop her?" Liang Shi asked.
Upon hearing this, Chen Mian curled her lips into a mocking smile, "I told her that I should live for the other person."
Liang Shi: "...Then she..."
"She might not be able to hold on much longer." Chen Mian held the warm glass, the water inside sloshing around, the veins on the back of her hand bulging. "She's already in so much pain, how can I selfishly ask her to live for me?"
//
After Chen Mian left the coffee shop, Liang Shi sat there alone for a long time.
For the first time ever, Chen Mian left Liang Shi his signature and a drawing.
With her painter's hand.
As Chen Mian left, her figure was desolate, but she asked her, "Can you get that person to take revenge?"
Liang Shi stared intently at her.
Chen Mian said, "Bad people should pay the price, right?"
“I’m willing to give anything,” Chen Mian said. “I’m willing to help her.”
—Help her escape.
—Let's also get an answer for Qi Jiao.
Chen Mian said, "Having come to this world, she may not have seen the sun, but she should at least have seen the moon."
There has to be some light, right?
At that moment, Liang asked, "Is the moon in your profile picture what you mean by that?"
Chen Mian did not give a direct answer, but only told her to take a closer look.
Liang Shi sat in the coffee shop, zooming in and zooming in on Chen Mian's portrait.
I saw a hazy figure in that moon.
Hidden faintly in the moonlight, it seems to be in a deep sleep.
The tip of the moon looks just like a simple lily.
Chen Mian said that Qi Jiao's favorite flower is lily.
Pure, beautiful, gentle—it embodies all the wonderful qualities in the world.
Qi Jiao said, "I don't need to live my life like a rose, proud and passionate. I'll be content to sway in the wind like a lily, peaceful and romantic."
Her wish was so small, like a pebble thrown into the ocean, disappearing without a trace.
Liang Shi felt as if something was blocking his heart.
This coffee shop isn't far from Minghui Jewelry. I spent a long time there, and it was only a little past eleven o'clock.
Liang Shi glanced at his phone, but had no desire to play with it at all.
He picked up the car keys from the side of the table and drove the car back to the film crew in the suburbs, but at the first fork in the road, Liang Shi turned.
Head towards Minghui Jewelry.
In just ten minutes, the car stopped outside the Minghui Jewelry Building.
It had been five days since she and Xu Qingzhu had last seen each other.
Although I make video calls to them every day according to their schedules, nothing feels quite right when we talk through a phone.
Liang Shi arrived at the building at exactly twelve o'clock. She took out her phone to send a message to Xu Qingzhu.
But before he could finish, he stopped, parked the car, and went upstairs.
A new flower shop opened downstairs in their office building, and all kinds of flowers stood out brightly in the bleak autumn scenery.
When Liang Shi reached the entrance of the building, he turned into a flower shop and bought a bunch of purple baby's breath.
The proprietress has hearing difficulties and wears a hearing aid, but she has a sweet dimple when she smiles. When she gave Liang Shibao the painting, she handed her a blank greeting card and a pen.
Liang Shi sat there thinking for a few seconds, then wrote down on the paper:
[Xu Qingzhu's life should be like a sky full of stars, free, romantic, and ever-renewing. —L]
After Liang Shi finished writing the greeting card, he put it into the bouquet, feeling embarrassed to go upstairs with the flowers in his arms.
She found a secluded corner, stood there holding a bouquet of flowers, and it was lunchtime, so people passing by cast glances at her.
While she was hesitating to message Xu Qingzhu, some people approached her and asked for her contact information.
She politely declined, then looked down and texted Xu Qingzhu: "Are you resting?"
Xu Qingzhu replied instantly: 【Mm.】
Liang Shi: [Come down.]
Liang Shi: [I've come to find you.]
//
Not far downstairs from Minghui Jewelry, Sally and Lin Luoxi were bickering, while Xu Qingzhu stood by like a glowing light bulb.
She didn't seem uncomfortable at all.
After all, she had often been the third wheel between the two of them since college.
The two were outwardly bickering, but secretly they were deeply in love.
Newly reunited couples often experience a longer and more passionate honeymoon period than when they first started dating.
Sally felt stuffy today, so they came down early.
She was only a few minutes earlier than the regular employees, and Sally said she wanted to go eat at that army stew restaurant that's hard to get a reservation at.
When Xu Qingzhu came down, she was still looking at a document on her phone. She had just reached the end of the document when she almost bumped into someone on the road. Lin Luoxi pulled her back.
She hurriedly finished reading the document before exiting the office software.
She had just logged out and hadn't even put her phone down when Lin Luoxi patted her arm. "Hey, isn't that Liang Shi?"
Xu Qingzhu stopped and looked up, but couldn't find the right direction. Lin Luoxi had to forcefully turn her head around, saying, "There it is."
Xu Qingzhu then noticed.
Liang Shi was wearing a camel coat, her long curly hair cascading lazily over her shoulders, and she was holding a bunch of purple baby's breath when someone struck up a conversation with her.
An awkward smile appeared on her gentle face, but she still waved to the other person.
Sally chimed in, "I didn't realize Liang Shi was so popular."
Lin Luoxi scoffed, "Our bamboo isn't bad either, is it?"
Sally immediately retorted, "I didn't say Blanche was bad."
Lin Luoxi was very unhappy about her special favoritism towards Liang Shi, and when she was dissatisfied with her answer, she nudged her with her elbow.
Sally, with her blonde hair and blue eyes, should clearly be a cool and aloof beauty, but in Lin Luoxi's eyes, she became a silly and pitiful little thing, asking aggrievedly, "Why are you angry again?"
Lin Luoxi rolled her eyes at her. "I don't like you."
Sally: "..."
Xu Qingzhu didn't listen to their conversation; her phone vibrated slightly—it was a message from Liang Shi.
If it were just two simple sentences displayed on the screen, those two sentences would have surprised Xu Qingzhu.
But paired with that lonely figure and forlorn eyes.
Something in Xu Qingzhu's heart was touched.
Sally suggested, "Let's invite Liang Shi and have dinner together."
Xu Qingzhu put away her phone and walked towards Liang Shi without turning her head, saying, "You guys eat."