Chapter 73

“Craftsmanship?” Zhu Ming asked in a daze. “What do you mean?”

“Forgotten already? It was when Mingming turned eighteen.” Yin Yu recalled. “I asked you what you wanted for your birthday, and you were very shy, saying you wanted a scarf I had knitted with my own hands.”

As she listened, Zhu Ming’s face paled. Hearing Yin Yu narrate this now was simply a humiliation.

Back when she was still naive and their relationship was good, Yin Yu had loved giving her presents.

Her gifts were unrestricted in style. Maybe a bookmark made from a flower she’d personally picked and pressed dry, maybe a flawlessly cute leaf. When the mood struck her, Yin Yu would take her walking down the street, buying expensive jewelry worth hundreds of thousands of yuan, or a two-yuan plastic ring from a street stall. She had given all of these to her.

Gifts too expensive, back then Zhu Ming didn’t dare accept them; they made her feel uneasy. Yin Yu noticed and stopped giving them. So the most expensive gift Zhu Ming had kept was a pair of headphones.

Those headphones were of excellent quality. Worn while playing music loudly, they could block out many strange auditory hallucinations.

Zhu Ming cherished them dearly, using them constantly until, after they parted ways, she smashed them.

And as for the scarf… it was just a few days before they separated that Yin Yu suddenly asked, “What do you want for your birthday gift?”

She had never asked when Zhu Ming’s birthday was, yet Zhu Ming hadn’t found it strange. Back then, her girlhood heart was full of poetry, her mind filled with romance and love.

Girls of seventeen or eighteen were exactly at the age of sweet-and-sour little thoughts. Although Zhu Ming was a loner, ostracized, she also knew that knitting scarves for boyfriends or girlfriends was a huge trend in class.

She’d seen those young couples glancing at each other behind the teacher’s back, seen their sweet smiles as they showed off received gifts… She was very envious. Yin Yu treated her so well, gentle, meticulous, and patient. But she always felt Yin Yu was light and drifting, as if she could ride the wind and leave at any time.

“I want… you to knit me a scarf.”

A hand-knitted scarf felt more intimate than something bought from a store. She didn’t know if Yin Yu had noticed this little thought of hers, but she agreed readily enough.

And this gift hadn’t been delivered until seven years later, today.

Zhu Ming relaxed her grip, suddenly feeling it was all rather pointless. “A belated gift forever loses its original value. Don’t you understand that? Besides, people change. Do you still think I’m a child, satisfied by such childish, shoddy things?”

“Then what do you want?” Even when her gift was scorned, Yin Yu didn’t get angry. Instead, she asked earnestly.

But it was precisely this attitude that made Zhu Ming feel even worse. She wasn’t angry because hand-knitting a scarf for her held no extra emotional investment, no special meaning whatsoever.

“What do I want…” Zhu Ming let out a long breath, licking her dry lips. “I don’t believe you don’t know. The truth. I want to know all the truth.”

Yin Yu glanced at Wenren Bai and refused very directly. “No can do. Because if I tell you, you’ll tell Wenren Bai. Once the Management Bureau gets involved, it’ll be very troublesome. Choose something else. Today’s your birthday, so I’ll try my best to satisfy you.”

Zhu Ming opened her mouth, but perhaps it was the alcohol today, or because it was her birthday, she felt a rare vulnerability. “I don’t really know what I want anyway. You won’t give me what I really want. So just give whatever you see fit. But this scarf doesn’t count. This is what you owed me.”

“Is that so? Let me think?” Yin Yu actually stood there on the street, thinking seriously. “Money?”

Zhu Ming’s eyes lit up. “I can acce—”

Yin Yu: “No, too vulgar. It doesn’t suit our Mingming.”

Zhu Ming: “…”

Yin Yu: “A house and a car? Boring. Mingming isn’t lacking those.”

Zhu Ming: “Bullshit, I’m totally lacking!”

Yin Yu: “Ah, gifts are such a hassle. I thought about it carefully. Doesn’t Mingming like me? Then how about… I give you my body?”

Zhu Ming was shocked. “Huh?!”

But unexpectedly, Yin Yu looked like she was actually seriously considering this gift. “Although I have no needs in that area, if Mingming needs it, it’s not impossible.”

Was this kind of thing something you could just casually give as a present?! Who was she trying to insult?!

Zhu Ming’s face turned black instantly. Without any politeness, she used all her strength to hurl the remaining pomelo at Yin Yu. “I do want your body—locked up in a prison cell!”

Yin Yu nimbly dodged, shrugging her shoulders. “That just won’t do, then.”

“Get lost!”

“That wish, I can grant you.” Yin Yu smiled, waved her hand, and disappeared from Zhu Ming’s sight.

Zhu Ming: “…”

In the dead of winter, a cold night, and on her birthday too, just her rotten luck to be so infuriated. Damn Yin Yu, anything else she refused, but when told to get lost, she rolled away swift and clean.

Zhu Ming nearly ground her back teeth to nothing, staring at the spot where Yin Yu had vanished, her gaze lost and dazed.

Wenren Bai walked over in a few steps, calling Zhu Ming’s name. Zhu Ming snapped back to reality and suddenly felt extremely guilty. How was she supposed to explain this to her Master?

She sheepishly picked up the pomelo that had fallen on the ground. The skin was cracked, and the side that hit the ground was a bit mushy, but the rest was still edible.

Zhu Ming was having a headache, not knowing how to explain this to Wenren Bai. When she looked up, she found her Master’s expression was even stranger than her own.

Grave, puzzled, with a touch of reminiscence and abstraction.

“Master.”

Wenren Bai made a sound of acknowledgment. Their eyes met, a moment of silence passing between them. It was Wenren Bai who spoke first. “What’s going on?”

Zhu Ming hurriedly recounted the whole affair. Actually, this messy business between her and Yin Yu was something Wenren Bai had more or less heard about in fragments. And through Wenren Tu’s efforts, the name Yin Yu had already been registered in the Management Bureau’s system, though the information was still sparse.

“So right now, she’s called Yin Yu.” Wenren Bai suddenly asked, “Has A-Tu met her?”

“We’ve met many times.” Seeing Wenren Bai’s strange attitude, Zhu Ming quickly asked, “Master, have you met her too?”

But to this question, Wenren Bai’s answer was somewhat strange. “I don’t know if the ‘her’ I saw is this ‘her’. Zhu Ming, from now on, any information relating to Yin Yu must be reported to me promptly. If she appears, you must contact me immediately.”

“Okay.”

Wenren Bai seemed unwilling to go into details, so Zhu Ming didn’t press further. But her curious gaze was like two lightbulbs, with no intention of hiding it whatsoever.

Wenren Bai had no choice but to say helplessly, “Perhaps Yin Yu finding you has little to do with the Zhu Family, but rather has something to do with our family… This matter involves some internal affairs of the Wenren Family. It’s inconvenient for me to say more. I can only disclose one thing: she might have possession of a Magic Artifact our family lost.”

As she spoke, this steady woman adjusted her eyepatch.

“Understood, Master. You don’t need to say more. I’ll definitely help you get it back.” Zhu Ming guaranteed with great loyalty. However, deep down, she slightly wanted to refute Wenren Bai: it wasn’t necessarily true that Yin Yu came for her because of the Wenren Family.

She had said so herself, she got close to Zhu Ming for Zhu Ming’s sake.

Zhu Ming felt she wasn’t lying about that.

Returning to the studio, Zhu Ming adjusted her mood before entering the door. Although she’d run into that damnable Yin Yu halfway, she couldn’t let her perfectly fine birthday be ruined because of her.

Putting on a smile, Zhu Ming hugged her pomelos and burst into the room. “I’m back!”

Wenren Tu, Yun Zouchuan, and Tang Qiaoqi had long since grown impatient. They rushed out from the side, nearly shoving a cream cake directly into Zhu Ming’s face.

“Happy birthday!”

“Why were you so slow coming back? We were getting so impatient.”

So they had secretly hidden a cake here, just waiting for this moment.

The group returned to the cleaned-up dining table and pushed Zhu Ming to make a wish. Zhu Ming put down the fruit, but when it came time to make a wish, she found she didn’t know what to wish for.

It was all Yin Yu’s disruption that had messed her up, making her suddenly feel that this world simply wouldn’t satisfy a willful wish.

But a sense of ritual was still necessary. So, wish it was. Even if it didn’t come true, it was fine. She would strive towards the wish herself: I hope everyone I care about is well, healthy, and that everything goes smoothly for them.

Then, blow out the candles and cut the cake.

The cake was sweet but not greasy, exceptionally fragrant. As they were eating, Wenren Tu suddenly leaned close. “Where did you get that scarf?”

Zhu Ming choked, suddenly feeling guilty for no reason. She should have summoned righteous indignation and thrown Yin Yu’s damn scarf into the Trash Can. Not only had she not done that, she’d worn it back.

Zhu Ming instinctively avoided Wenren Tu’s gaze. “I was too cold. Bought it on a whim at the supermarket.”

Wenren Tu reached out and touched it. “This one feels even more comfortable than my 4,900 yuan one, and the style is nice too. I didn’t expect supermarket goods to be this competitive. Tsk, sure enough, can’t fall into the consumerist trap. I’ll go buy one myself another day.”

After the eating and drinking, Wenren Bai drove, conveniently taking Tang Qiaoqi home. Wenren Tu stayed at the studio to sleep overnight, and Yun Zouchuan went back to school the next day.

The lively studio fell quiet and cold again. Zhu Ming went back to her unchanging routine.

That scarf had been thrown into a drawer and stored away the very next day, out of sight, out of mind.

Wenren Tu, on the other hand, made a special trip to the street corner supermarket. She came back quite disappointed. “How come I didn’t see this model for sale? Did everyone with good taste buy them all out? Hey, where’s yours? Why aren’t you wearing it anymore?”

Zhu Ming coughed dryly twice. “I’m in the studio every day, barely go out. When would I get the chance to wear a scarf?”

“Right, I almost forgot.” Wenren Tu suddenly pushed Zhu Ming. “Quick, go find it. I want to check the tag. If all else fails, I’ll buy one online. When the weather’s cold, a heartwarming scarf makes a perfect gift for someone.”

Tag?! It was knitted by Yin Yu herself! Where would a tag be?!

Zhu Ming hemmed and hawed. “Supermarket cheap goods, no tags.”

Wenren Tu didn’t believe her. “No way. Just let me see, what if there’s a brand name on it? Ugh, so dawdly. Can you be any lazier!”

Really unable to refuse, Zhu Ming had no choice but to lead Wenren Tu into her bedroom, pointing at the drawer. “Dig through it yourself.”

She didn’t want to lay eyes on this scarf a second time anyway.

Wenren Tu quickly found the red scarf and inspected it meticulously. The more she inspected, the darker her face fell. All the excitement and curiosity from before vanished completely.

She then shoved the scarf back into the drawer and walked towards Zhu Ming with a sullen face.

Zhu Ming was playing on her phone. She looked up, completely baffled.

Before she could even ask what was wrong, Wenren Tu reached out her finger and poked Zhu Ming hard on the forehead—once, twice, three times… Poking until Zhu Ming’s head was bobbing. Wenren Tu said, exasperated by her failure to meet expectations, “You. Just you. You hopeless thing. I see now, you’re beyond saving!”

After poking her, she turned and ran off.

Zhu Ming’s forehead was red from the pokes. Question marks filled her head, impossible to shake off. What on earth was that about?

She had no choice but to face the big red scarf again, inspecting it just as carefully and meticulously as Wenren Tu had.

This inspection finally revealed the issue. At one end of the scarf, several small characters were embroidered with golden thread: Happy Birthday Mingming ^_ ^

Indeed, it even had a smiley face at the end.