chapter 49 - couple's meal

At this time, the two of them had already exited the photography exhibition hall A and entered the art exhibition hall C, and the place Xie Ning pointed towards was a medium-sized art exhibition.

He just wanted to leave Zhuang Yan’s meaningful expression behind, but after walking through a little, he found that the paintings in this exhibition happened to be his favorite style.

He slowed down his footsteps and admired them one by one.

Zhuang Yan’s legs were long and caught up with him in just a few strides. “The paintings in this exhibition are pretty good. Do you like them?”

Xie Ning nodded.

“This artist is probably quite young,” he said.

Zhuang Yan was curious. “You can guess even that?”

Xie Ning smiled subtly. “I’m only guessing. The imagination in his paintings is rich, most of the content is bold, and the use of colors is quite daring. More established artists usually have a more stable style.”

Zhuang Yan curled the corner of his lip to praise him. “Amazing.”

Xie Ning’s face reddened when he heard the straightfoward praise, and continued to walk, a little embarrassed.

Finally, he stopped before a painting.

It was a painting of a soaring bird.

Its wings seemed to be injured. There was a faint blood stain, but it still seemed to rush towards the overcast clouds resolutely, flying towards the light above.

Zhuang Yan immediately remembered the tattoo on Xie Ning’s wrist.

It was also a bird. Of course, the outward appearance was different, but it gave off a very similar feeling.

Both seemed to not surrender to the darkness, and longed for freedom and light.

Zhuang Yan’s eyes were gentle, and he softly asked, “Do you like this one?”

This painting belongs to the exhibitionist, and was not on sale. Xie Ning was still hesitant, but Zhuang Yan had already asked the staff nearby about it.

The staff member said that if they want to buy it, then it would depend on the artist.

The painter of this exhibition seemed young, as Xie Ning had said, but he was still a little wrong.

It’s her, not him.

The female artist looked two years younger than Xie Ning, is beautiful, and seemed to have an excellent disposition, which made for a good first impression.

She thought that the one who wanted to buy the painting was Xie Ning, and looked sheepish.

“My teacher also loves this painting. I originally planned to give it to my teacher as a gift after the exhibition, so it’s not for sale.” She smiled apologetically at Xie Ning.

A hint of disappointment flickered across Xie Ning’s face. But as much as he liked the painting, he couldn’t take away someone else’s beloved possession.

He shook his head. “Then forget it.”

The female artist said, “There’s not a lot of people that like this painting. Most people think that the composition is messy and that the colors don’t match well...my teacher said so as well.”

Xie Ning thought about it. “But the artistic conception is very good. A blemish does not obscure the conception’s luster.”

The female artist seemed to smile. “It’s worth it to have drawn this painting if I could hear someone praise it like that.”

She took Xie Ning to look at her other paintings. “These are all my works as well. If you like it, then you can pick one and take it with you. I won’t charge you.”

Xie Ning was startled. “How could I do that?”

The two of them were both art students, and after talking for a little, they seemed close although they were strangers.

Xie Ning originally thought that someone like her, who was so young but already had her own exhibition display at such an event because of her excellence, would be more proud and arrogant.

But after interacting with her for a bit, he found her personality mild, her outlook a little uncommon but not ostentatiously so, and her opinions unique but not unreasonable.

Even Xie Ning, who wasn’t used to communicating, unconsciously talked to her for longer than he planned to.

Zhuang Yan, who was leaning against the door, couldn’t help but softly cough twice to interrupt them.

The female artist turned to look at him, and paused. “Zhuang Yan...Senior?”

Zhuang Yan also paused after she finished speaking. He looked at her again and found her familiar.

He thought it over for a long time, and finally flipped out a name. “Song Qingqing?”

Song Qingqing smiled generously at him. “I didn’t think that I’d meet a school senior here. I thought you were still abroad.”

Zhuang Yan made a sound in response. “I’ve been back for only a little while.”

Song Qingqing is Zhuang Yan’s school junior from when he was studying abroad. Since they are both Chinese, their friendship was quite good and occasionally contacted each other after graduation, but the contact gradually stopped.

Xie Ning widened his eyes, looked at Song Qingqing, then looked at Zhuang Yan, not knowing when they suddenly became so close.

There was that starry guy before, and now a school junior emerged randomly from where?

Xie Ning unhappily pressed his lips together.

Song Qingqing’s eyes glanced over the two of them and she had a thoughtful expression on her face. “You two are…”

Zhuang Yan waved the tickets in his hand. “We just happened to have time and came together to look at the exhibition.”

Song Qingqing suddenly understood something.

After quickly reminiscing about their past, Zhuang Yan brought up the painting again. “My friend really does like that one.”

Song Qingqing hesitated for a little while.

Zhuang Yan wasn’t in a hurry. He turned his head to ask Xie Ning, “Are you cold?”

Xie Ning shook his head. “Not bad.”

There were a lot of people at the exhibition, and there was air conditioning as well, so it was actually quite warm.

Zhuang Yan extended his hand and took the coat that was in Xie Ning’s arms into his own. “Since you aren’t going to wear it, then let me hold it.”

Xie Ning: “...It’s not very heavy, though.”

Zhuang Yan laughed lightly.

Song Qingqing thought about it for a long while, and finally helplessly smiled at Zhuang Yan. “Alright. Since I owe you so many favors from before, I’ll give you this painting.”

Zhuang Yan lifted his eyebrows. “I’m still able to afford it.”

Song Qingqing: “...And I’m not lacking this bit of money either.”

She turned around and saw Xie Ning on the side, and as if she thought of something, her eyebrows moved slightly and she said, “Of course, if you want to pay I wouldn’t mind. Do you want me to write ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ next to my signature?”

Zhuang Yan smiled. “Anything works.”

Song Qingqing, resisting the urge to roll her eyes, quietly asked for Xie Ning’s name.

Xie Ning replied, “The Xie in thank you, and the Ning in peaceful.”

“Xie Ning?” Song Qingqing wrote down his name, and for some reason felt like she’d heard his name before.

Zhuang Yan casually asked, “What, do you guys know each other?”

Song Qingqing shook her head.

Zhuang Yan and Xie Ning both felt like Song Qingqing wouldn’t know Xie Ning, and only treated it as if she had heard a similar name before, since Xie and Ning were common words.

But right before they left, Song Qingqing suddenly said, “I remember now!”

Zhuang Yan asked, “What?”

“Xie Ning,” Song Qianqian said. “I think I’ve heard Auntie Xia Wan mention it before.”

Xie Ning stopped.

Song Qingqing continued to say, “Auntie Xia Wan said she has a son name Xie Ning.”

While she was talking, she looked towards Xie Ning curiously.

Xia Wan?

Xie Ning pursed his lips.

When he heard Song Qingqing say this, he also remembered.

During New Year’s, Xia Wan mentioned a girl who was an art student and even wanted to arrange for them to meet, but Xie Ning refused her.

Turns out she was going to introduce Song Qianqian.

Xie Ning thought that Xia Wan had given up on that, but he didn’t expect that she’d keep meeting Song Qingqing.

From the tone of her voice, Song Qingqing and Xia Wan’s relationship was probably quite familiar, and they had probably met multiple times.

And even mentioned him...Xie Ning’s expression slowly turned cold.

Song Qingqing saw that something was off about his expression and thought that she’d recognized the wrong person. She smiled awkwardly. “It could just be someone with the same name.”

Xie Ning shook his head. “That’s my mother.”

Song Qingqing was startled.

Xie Ning, without looking at her, unconsciously pulled at Zhuang Yan’s hand.

His palm was a little sweaty and sticky.

Xie Ning was afraid that Zhuang Yan, who was slightly obsessed with cleanliness, would be uncomfortable, and let go as soon as he started to pull on his hand.

Unexpectedly, Zhuang Yan held his hand.

As if he realized that Xie Ning didn’t want to talk about this topic, Zhuang Yan boldly took his hand and waved at Song Qingqing. “We’ll be leaving first.”

The art exhibition hall C used to be a sculpture exhibition hall, and had a long aisle in the middle.

Perhaps because of how it was built, the wind in the hall was quite strong, and Xie Ning shivered, shrinking back.

Zhuang Yan had put his coat on him sometime earlier.

“Are you thirsty?” Zhuang Yan asked.

Xie Ning shook his head. “I’m okay.”

Although he said that, Zhuang Yan still bought a drink and held it in his hand when they passed by a vending machine, afraid that he would get thirsty on the way there.

Zhuang Yan asked as he walked, “What are you thinking about?”

Xie Ning unconsciously replied, “Thinking about Song Qianqian.”

As soon as he finished, both of them paused.

Zhuang Yan raised his eyebrows and looked at him. “Thinking of her?”

His tone was uncomfortable.

Xie Ning recalled the Song Qingqing they just met, and didn’t feel comfortable in his heart either.

This time, not because she was Zhuang Yan’s school junior, but because she mentioned Xia Wan.

But he didn’t want to talk about such troubles in front of Zhuang Yan. He thought about it and asked, “I was thinking about how you made her change her mind and sell the painting to us.”

Zhuang Yan’s expression improved slightly. “Well, about this. She used to study abroad with me at the same school, and the treatment of Chinese people at the time wasn’t that great. She’s also a girl with little experience, and was almost tricked by others.”

“Seeing how she was a fellow citizen, I helped her a couple of times.” Zhuang Yan continued, “Then something went wrong with a couple of her courses, and if she got stuck, she would probably need to delay graduation. At that time, she’d already received a letter of recommendation from an art school, and nothing could go wrong, so she asked me for help.”

In that case, Zhuang Yan asking her for a painting really wasn’t anything big.

Xie Ning smiled. “You’re always so nice.”

Zhuang Yan declined to comment by lifting the corners of his lips, as if he liked to hear Xie Ning praise him like this.

Actually, Song Qingqing was abroad and alone when she suddenly met Zhuang Yan, a handsome guy who helped her out a couple times, so it would be impossible for her to not have felt anything.

But later on, she found out that Zhuang Yan had no such intentions, and slowly gave up on her sudden feelings.

Zhuang Yan was naturally aware of these feelings, but he wouldn’t talk about these sorts of things in front of Xie Ning.

After walking through the whole, large exhibit, the two of them were covered in a thin layer of sweat.

“It’s not early anymore,” Zhuang Yan said. “I’m guessing that it’ll be too late if we go back now and make dinner, so why don’t we eat out today?”

Xie Ning glanced at his watch. Although it was past 5pm, it wasn’t considered too late.

Zhuang Yan quickly said, “I’m a little tired, and don’t really want to make dinner.”

“Ah.” When Xie Ning heard this, he didn’t doubt him and said, “Then let’s eat outside today.”

Zhuang Yan lifted his eyebrows and smiled, starting the car.

If Zhuang Yan had prepared early on, then today’s dinner would have been arranged neatly, complete with things like a revolving table, candlelight dinner, etc.

But it was hard as hell to make a reservation on the fly. In the end, Zhuang Yan took Xie Ning to a hotel that still had reservations left for a couple’s meal.

When the waiter got the check, he looked at the two and asked hesitantly, “Are you two a couple?”

Xie Ning looked at him suspiciously.

The watier hurriedly explained, “It’s like this. Since today is Valentine’s Day, if a couple is dining together, then there’s a 50% discount.”

Xie Ning paused. Before he had time to speak, he heard Zhuang Yan hold his hand and assure, “Yes, we’re a couple.”

The waiter nodded and marked something on the receipt.

Xie Ning saw the waiter’s retreating back and he opened his mouth.

After a long while, he still hadn’t said anything, as if he was tolerating what Zhuang Yan said.

Twitter: @jiyangtrans

as an apology for the long silence, i squeezed out two chaps in one day! :D thank you for waiting!