TCRT_16
Chapter 16: The Name Card — Flirtatious Glances Thrown at a Blind Man
As a rule, after lunch Jie Yu'an would return to his bedroom for a forty-minute nap to rest his body. Today, however, perhaps due to the effects of the treatment, he had lain down for less than twenty minutes before getting up and heading to the study.
At that moment, Ji Qingzhou was reclining leisurely in the armchair beside the desk, listening to a record while holding a pencil and sketching away in his notebook.
Seeing Huang Youshu open the door and escort Jie Yu'an in, he hesitated for a few seconds, then rose and vacated the chair for its rightful owner: "Up so early? Is something bothering you?"
"Nothing is the matter," Jie Yu'an replied lightly and settled back into his usual seat.
The chair still held the warmth of the person before him. He paused for a moment, and only after the warmth had faded did he settle back into it.
When his head came to rest against the cushion of the armchair, a soft, delicate fragrance with a woody undertone drifted over him, lingering faintly at the edge of his senses.
Perhaps it was just his imagination, but he felt that once he sank into the cushion, the ache in his head eased a little as well.
Seeing that Jie Yu'an's manner was no different from usual, Ji Qingzhou thought nothing of it.
He pulled out the chair on the other side of the desk, sat down, and said: "If you want to hear the newspaper, have A' You read it to you. I have something else to attend to for a bit."
Upon hearing this, Jie Yu'an raised his right hand and rapped his knuckles once against the edge of the desk.
Huang Youshu immediately understood, picked out a copy of the "Xinwen Bao" from the day's fresh newspapers on the desk, and began reading aloud from the front page headlines.
To the backdrop of Huang Youshu's reading voice, thick with a Wu dialect accent, Ji Qingzhou used scissors to cut three sheets of white card stock bought from a foreign goods shop into small cards measuring roughly ten centimeters long and seven centimeters wide, twenty-four in total.
He then picked up his fountain pen and began drafting his name card on a copy of an old newspaper.
The English and French shop name and address for the back of the card posed no difficulty for him. After practicing a few times, he could produce a handsome script.
The Chinese text for the front, however, was another matter. No matter how many times he wrote it, he could not quite satisfy himself.
His handwriting was not unpleasant, but when it came to traditional characters, it lacked a certain ease and character.
He wrote the three characters of his name over and over, more than ten times, and the more he wrote them the more unfamiliar they seemed. He could not help but feel a creeping sense of irritation.
After practicing a few more rounds and still failing to achieve the style he was after, Ji Qingzhou simply gave up, thinking he would just pay the old man at the front shop to write them for him.
Just as he pushed the old newspaper aside and reached for a stack of cards to start writing the foreign text on the back first, Jie Yu'an spoke up from across the desk: "No more needlework?"
"The needlework is done. I am practicing my writing," Ji Qingzhou replied in a casual tone, then asked: "How is your handwriting?"
The words had barely left his mouth before he looked up, caught sight of the bandage over Jie Yu'an's eyes, and laughed at himself: "What a thing to say. What use would that be, asking you."
Ji Qingzhou said this entirely in earnest, but to Jie Yu'an's ears it sounded like a deliberate provocation.
Jie Yu'an did not consider himself a competitive person by nature, yet for some reason, whenever the other party used a provocation on him, he always found himself unable to resist stepping right into the trap.
It was probably because Ji Qingzhou's tone was simply too insufferable, he told himself inwardly. He sat up, tapped the desk with his right hand, and said: "Hand it over."
"What do you mean, you actually want to write?" Ji Qingzhou raised an eyebrow, and with some hesitation slid the fountain pen and old newspaper over to his side.
Seeing that Jie Yu'an had genuinely picked up the pen, he preemptively disclaimed any responsibility: "You are the one who wanted to write. If it comes out a complete mess, do not go saying I took advantage of you not being able to see."
Huang Youshu, reading the room, tactfully paused his newspaper recitation.
Without that accent-laden voice droning on, the room fell considerably quieter.
"What shall I write?" Jie Yu'an adjusted his grip on the pen by feel.
"Write my name then," Ji Qingzhou said, rising to his feet and moving to stand beside Jie Yu'an, in the mood to watch a good show.
Jie Yu'an held the fountain pen, touched the tip lightly to the paper to leave a small ink dot, then with a gentle turn of the wrist wrote out Ji Qingzhou's name in one smooth, unbroken motion.
The three characters did not come out overlapping or lopsided as Ji Qingzhou had imagined. On the contrary, they were neat and well-formed, the strokes precise and fluid, a remarkably graceful and assured running script.
Ji Qingzhou stared at the handwriting for a moment, his first instinct being to reach out and feel the bandage over Jie Yu'an's eyes, which was predictably dodged by a turn of his head.
"Can you actually see a little?" He deliberately leaned in close, tilting his head to peer at Jie Yu'an's eyes.
"It seems your handwriting is not even up to the standard of a blind man."
"Not even close, I bow in complete defeat!" When he needed something from someone, Ji Qingzhou took his talent for flexibility and humility to its fullest extent.
He then placed a card beneath the tip of his pen and said: "Now write Shiji Clothing Shop."
"What is that?"
"My shop name. I am making name cards."
Jie Yu'an now understood what the other person had been rustling about busily practicing all this time.
He was just about to put pen to paper when he heard the person beside him say: "Wait."
Ji Qingzhou leaned sideways against the desk, one hand pressing down the card, the other taking hold of Jie Yu'an's writing hand and adjusting the angle of the pen tip to where he wanted it.
Feeling the warmth enveloping the back of his hand, Jie Yu'an instinctively moved to pull away, but Ji Qingzhou had only held on for a moment before letting go, giving him no time to react.
"There, write it like that, horizontally!"
Jie Yu'an suddenly felt as though he had walked straight into his trap.
But he thought to himself that helping Ji Qingzhou out was no great trouble, if nothing else it would spare his own ears from listening to that sighing and groaning any longer, so he put pen to paper and wrote out the characters for Shiji Clothing Shop.
"Not bad at all, writing this well without even being able to see, truly impressive, worthy of a former colonel who is fluent in multiple languages!"
Ji Qingzhou's tone was exaggerated. He shifted the card slightly and said: "Write my name one more time, Master Calligrapher!"
"Speak properly."
After his reprimand, Jie Yu'an put pen to paper again and wrote out his name once more with steady composure.
"Many thanks!" Ji Qingzhou picked up the card, gave it a wave to dry the ink, and set it aside, then gathered up the remaining two stacks of cards and brought them over.
In a sincere tone he said: "Honestly, your writing is far better than that old man who charges three fen a character. Handwriting like yours at a street stall could easily fetch over two jiao, so, could you possibly write twenty more for me?"
Jie Yu'an: "How many?"
"Twenty-three, to be precise."
Jie Yu'an set the fountain pen down decisively, gripped the armrests of the chair with both hands, and made to lean back toward the armchair.
Ji Qingzhou quickly caught him by the back and pushed him upright again, snatching up the pen and pressing it into his hand.
"Please, I am begging you, just write twenty more for me. It will not take much effort on your part."
"No."
"Then what would it take for you to write them?" Ji Qingzhou slumped over the desk, gazing at him with pleading eyes.
A pity that all those longing looks were being thrown at a blind man. Jie Yu'an paid them no mind whatsoever.
"How about this," Ji Qingzhou heaved a deep sigh, as though the decision he was about to make required an enormous sacrifice on his part.
"If you agree to write twenty-three more name cards for me, from this day forward the dividing line on our bed will be abolished. My half of the bed is yours to sleep on however you like, and I will not say a single word about it."
"What about the silver dollars owed from before?"
"I said 'from now on'. What came before does not fall within the terms of cancellation."
Jie Yu'an moved to lean back into the armchair again, and Ji Qingzhou quickly grabbed his arm: "Alright, alright, the previous ones are cancelled too. But you have to promise me that after helping me finish this time, we will have chances to work together in the future."
"Such as?"
"Such as when I have grown the business and need a brand logo designed, or a shop sign written, you will give me a preferential rate."
Jie Yu'an privately thought this was most likely never going to happen, and agreed: "Fine."
"Then it is settled."
Afraid he might change his mind, Ji Qingzhou hastily picked up a card and placed it beside Jie Yu'an's hand, took hold of his right hand to adjust the position, and said: "Write it then. Shiji Clothing Shop."
Once Jie Yu'an had finished writing the five characters, Ji Qingzhou reached out and nudged the card into position, and Jie Yu'an duly put pen to paper and added his name below.
This cycle repeated a few times, and Ji Qingzhou gradually relaxed, his mind beginning to wander.
He looked over at A' You and asked: "Don't you think this scene looks a little like a master giving a one-on-one tutorial?"
"Ah?" Huang Youshu looked puzzled.
Ji Qingzhou pumped his fist: "A grandmaster teacher, teaching live online!"
Jie Yu'an's response was to set the fountain pen down flat out.
"I was wrong, I was wrong, come on, keep writing," Ji Qingzhou hurriedly picked the pen back up and pressed it into his hand.
After that he pressed his lips together, reined in his urge to talk, and quietly played the role of a helper.
The two of them worked together like this, one adjusting the position of the cards and the pen tip, the other simply writing, and in one go they finished the front side of all twenty-four name cards.
Once they were done, Ji Qingzhou spread the cards out across the desk to dry.
Looking at those familiar yet faintly unfamiliar characters, he clicked his tongue and remarked: "Even though we have no real foundation between us as a couple, what you just did is actually quite romantic when you think about it. Writing my name so beautifully with your eyes closed."
Jie Yu'an rubbed the back of his right hand, as though brushing away someone else's warmth.
Then, in an even tone, he said: "If it were Sanwang's name, I could write it just as well."
"Sanwang? Who is that?"
"Ask A' You."
Ji Qingzhou turned to look at Huang Youshu beside them.
Noticing the look of awkwardness on the manservant's face, he gathered that the answer was probably not anything flattering, but still said encouragingly: "Go ahead and tell me. I am in a good mood right now and will not get angry."
Huang Youshu stretched his lips into a smile and said: "Sanwang is a dog that Young Master Luo has kept since he was small. He named it 'Fu Wang Cai Wang Yunqi Wang*,' and everyone just calls it Sanwang."
*t/n; Fu Wang Cai Wang Yunqi Wang (福旺財旺運氣旺, fú wàng cái wàng yùnqì wàng) means "prosperity flourishing, wealth flourishing, luck flourishing". The name contains three instances of the character "Wang" (旺), which gives the dog its nickname "Sanwang" (三旺), literally meaning "Three Wangs".
"Then why not just call it Wangwang?" Having already anticipated something along these lines, Ji Qingzhou did not feel the slightest bit annoyed.
He thought to himself that Jie Yu'an's idea of cutting remarks was roundabout at best, neither crude nor indecent, and carried absolutely no sting as far as he was concerned.
Huang Youshu, thinking he was asking in earnest, replied: "It was called Wangwang before, but at some point the name just changed. If you want to know, you could ask Young Master Luo."
Ji Qingzhou gave a casual nod and said offhandedly: "Whoever gave a dog such a long name is quite a character. One of these days if I get the chance, I will have to ask that Young Master Luo about it."
.
Perhaps due to a lack of reputation or an insufficiently eye-catching shop sign, over the following days Ji Qingzhou did not receive a single custom order. The name cards he had handed out brought in nothing but mending, patching, and alteration work.
When there was no business, Ji Qingzhou passed the time by browsing fabric shops, silk and satin houses, and foreign cloth merchants, picking out materials to take back and make into garments.
The dress form he had commissioned from the rattan shop arrived at the store within the agreed week. Impressed by their craftsmanship, he paid extra to commission a male dress form as well.
Busy with one thing and another, ten days passed in the blink of an eye, and the weekend came around again.
That day happened to be one of Jie Yu'an's acupuncture sessions. Ji Qingzhou stayed home with him through the morning treatment, and after lunch headed to the shop to work for a few hours.
As evening drew near, he returned to the Jie family mansion. Just as he was about to make his way to the main dining room to wait for dinner, the Aunt Liang called out to him and led him upstairs to the west wing, to Shen Nanqi's private sitting room on the second floor.
The small westward-facing sitting room was bathed in the light of the setting sun, half the room washed in the red glow of the evening sky.
When Ji Qingzhou arrived, Shen Nanqi was standing before the full-length mirror in her pale peach qipao, arranging her loosely curled hair where it fell across one shoulder.
"Auntie, were you looking for me?" He stepped into the sitting room as he spoke, and noticing several outer robes draped over the sofa, had a fairly good idea of why she had called for him.
"You have come at just the right time. I simply cannot decide. Tell me, which coat should I pair with this?" Shen Nanqi's tone was slightly hurried, as though she was pressed for time.
Ji Qingzhou looked carefully over the coats laid out on the sofa.
There was a dark green cape with white rabbit fur trim at the cuffs, a light camel-colored Western-style coat, and two others: a short black vest embroidered with a bamboo pattern, and a wide-sleeved robe in silk brocade.
"What sort of occasion are you attending?" Ji Qingzhou asked, picking up the light camel coat and holding it out to her as he spoke.
"I was thinking the same, only it would be too warm to wear."
Shen Nanqi took the coat and draped it over her shoulders, then replied: "It is the seventieth birthday banquet for Old Master Bao, Bao Xunsong. You must have met him before. Around the New Year, did he not invite your Dangui Garden troupe to perform at the Bao residence?"
"...Now that you mention it, I think I do have some recollection of that," Ji Qingzhou gave a vague murmur of agreement: "After coming to the Jie household, everything from before feels as though it happened in a previous life."
He offered this with an air of wistfulness, then promptly changed the subject: "Do you have a knitted cardigan, or perhaps a cashmere shawl?"
"A what?"
Seeing Shen Nanqi's puzzled expression, Ji Qingzhou suddenly remembered that knitwear at this time was likely only used for undergarments and warming articles, such as woolen socks, knitted gloves, and knitted hats.
"I do not have whatever knitted cardigan you are talking about, but I do have two shawls, both foreign goods given to me as gifts that I have never used," Shen Nanqi finished speaking and asked Aunt Liang to go to her wardrobe and fetch the two shawls.
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