Feast of Flowers

Not wanting to fall for her flirty provocation, Pei Yan stopped his car on the side of the road before opening his social media app to take a look. Some posts contained travel photos, some people were posting pictures of beautiful women, and some were just showing off their new cars, boats, or even planes. He had to scroll way up to finally see a post about lobsters.

[Fan Hua]: The food in this store is very delicious, but the only negative is that it is quite expensive. Having said that, this is not a problem of the store, but a problem of my wallet.

Having known mostly rich people in his lifetime and seeing the posts of his circle of friends, Pei Yan felt that the poor really do live much more difficult lives. ‘How does just eating seafood make a person sad about their wallet? What kind of lifestyle was that?!’

Perhaps it would be best if he stopped taunting that flowery peacock in the future as he finally realized that being poor wasn’t easy. Having thought about it, he sent Hua Jin a thumbs up.

When Hua Jin woke up the next morning, she found that the rain had subsided. She rubbed her aching knees before getting up and changing her clothes. Suddenly, Tan Yuan phoned her.

[Tan Yuan]: Hua Hua, are your knees hurting? You don’t have to come to manage the store today, you know?”

Turning the phone to speaker mode, Hua Jin sat in front of her mirror and started penciling her eyebrows. “I’m okay. My legs have improved a lot these past two years, so instead of just staying home alone, I might as well go find something to do in the store.

Tan Yuan remained silent for a while on the other line before speaking, “Hua Hua, why don’t we find a reliable Chinese doctor to help you take care of your legs once and for all? Otherwise, if it continues on like this, what’ll happen when we get old?”

“That is why we have to work hard to make more money now, so that when we do get old, we can live in the best nursing home, eat the best food, and hire the best family doctors,” Hua Jin replied cheerfully. “Working makes me happy, so don’t stop me from making the store some more money.”

“Then do be careful on the way, and just call me if you need anything.” Tan Yuan said seriously. “I’ll come by the store once I’ve had my lunch.”

“Just continue to rest after having your lunch. You don’t have to waste your energy by running around. Rest assured that I’ll definitely call you if anything happens. Besides, there’s so many rainy days throughout the entire year, so if I have to stay at home every time it rains, wouldn’t that make me so pitiful?” Hua Jin then looked at the time, “I’m already ready to go out, so just enjoy your rest today and stop worrying about me.” After saying this, before Tan Yuan could continue to persuade her, Hua Jin quickly hung up the phone.

When Hua Jin got out of the subway station, she had to open her umbrella while she waited at the pedestrian crossing. The intersection was full of passersby waiting like her that were standing so close together, but all were mindful of their eyes wandering about, to avoid the awkward scenario of meeting a stranger’s gaze.

“Hey, have you guys seen it? A blogger has revealed that the kind-hearted person who saved that person last month without leaving his name was most likely a certain young handsome man. He was in the Shu Province at the time because he was having an intimate get-together with a certain female artist. The two are suspected to be in love.

“Impossible! If there was such a thing, their studios would be energetically promoting it already! Why keep it so low-profile?”

“Maybe it’s because they still don’t want to expose the relationship to the public? Some netizens have already inquired on the young handsome man’s Weibo account and he didn’t refute anything.

“Maybe he’s just trying to capitalize on the trend?”

Hua Jin frowned slightly when she overheard the chat between two girls behind her. ‘Were they talking about what had happened between her and Pei Yan in the Jiangsu Province that time? But how did that matter become related to some artist?”

Even when the pedestrian signal turned green, she was still thinking about it as she went along with the flow of people. After only walking a few steps, she heard a woman scream before realizing that a golden retriever had just passed through her legs and very quickly disappeared into the street.

“Mingbao?! Mingbao?!” a woman in a long skirt and also wrist braces was flailing her arms around, her face contorted in fear and anxiety, “Mingbao! Where are you?!”

*Mingbao = Translates to ‘Bright Treasure’. A typical name for a pet in China.

Hua Jin saw that she was wearing sunglasses and she was flailing around aimlessly. Hua Jin walked up to her and calmly asked, “Hello, can I help you?”

“Have you seen my dog?” The girl turned to ‘look’ at Hua Jin, but though her eyes were wide open, they were dim. When Hua Jin saw her clearly, she knew that her guess was right and that the girl was blind, so she supported the terrified girl and looked around, “I’ll bring you away from the roadway first.”

“My Mingbao is usually very well behaved. It must have been frightened just now when it suddenly bolted.” The girl was grabbing Hua Jin’s arm tightly, “Please help me find him. There are so many cars outside… what if, what if…”

Her lips were visibly trembling as she didn’t dare to even say the possible horrific outcomes.

""

“Calm down first.” Hua Jin patted her on the back lightly, “It’ll be alright.”

Hua Jin’s attempt to comfort her didn’t help as the girl could no longer restrain herself from crying. If it wasn’t for Hua Jin holding her up, she probably wouldn’t even have the strength to stand.

“What happened?”

When Hua Jin raised her head, she saw two traffic police in their uniforms, so she hurriedly recounted what had just happened.

“Mingbao has been my guide dog for three years already, and it has never left me hanging in the streets like this ever. I’m worried that something might happen to him, so please, I beg of you to please help me find him.” The girl continued to helplessly hold Hua Jin’s hand, “He’s my family and I can’t live without him.” She held onto the dog’s empty leash tightly, as if hoping that the dog would return by itself to grab the familiar piece of rope.

When the two traffic policemen saw that the blind girl was bawling, one tried to comfort her with warm words, while the other tried to find the dog by going towards the direction it went in.

The traffic policeman who stayed behind looked like he was in his mid to late twenties or early thirties. He was using his walkie-talkie to talk with his other colleague about the lost golden retriever. Afterwards, he borrowed a stool from a nearby store and asked the blind woman to sit in a corner and wait.

“Are you her friend?” The traffic policeman asked Hua Jin out of the blue when she handed a piece of tissue to the blind woman.

“I was just passing by when I coincidentally got involved,” Hua Jin shook her head.

Hearing this, the traffic policeman couldn’t help but look at her a few more times. After checking the time, he realized that this woman must have been rushing to work. ‘Won’t she be late because she stayed here for so long? But me being alone with a blind female civilian isn’t too suitable either…’

After thinking about it, he used the walkie-talkie to contact a nearby female colleague of his, before smiling apologetically to Hua Jin, “I’m sorry but can I ask you to stay for a little while longer? One of my female colleagues will be here very shortly.”

“It’s alright.” Hua Jin saw that the blind girl had already calmed down a lot so she couldn’t help smiling, “It seems Mr Policeman is trying to make everyone feel safe.”

The young traffic policeman blushed at Hua Jin’s teasing, but he still raised his police cap and stated, “Serving the people. That’s what we’re supposed to do.”

After a while, the policeman finally received another call from his colleague saying that the dog had been found. There were a few wounds on his body, but was in good health overall. When Hua Jin finally saw the blind woman crying out in joy, she knew that the dog had been found. She finally decided to go and rush to the store.

“Wait, your name…?” When the traffic policeman saw Hua Jin sneaking away from the blind woman, he couldn’t help but ask.

“Please just call me Red Scarf.” Hua Jin turned her head and waved goodbye. Even before the blind girl could get up and thank her, she had already crossed the sidewalk when the light turned green. Hua Jin thought to herself, ‘If I delay opening the store any later, I might start to lose opportunities to make money! One must never miss such things.’

‘Red Scarf?’

The traffic policeman could hardly hold his serious expression and ended up choking and coughing instead.

“Has she gone?” The blind woman was a bit disappointed. “I haven’t thanked her yet.” Her world was a scene of pitch black darkness and Mingbao was her eyes. The moment he ran away, the only source of security she had in this world disappeared with him. It was only when a hand reached out to support her arm did she finally manage to emerge from her endless fear.

That person didn’t even leave an address or even a name, so she had no way of even sending her a thank you.

Once she managed to open the store gate, Hua Jin first lit the incense. Seeing that there weren’t any customers yet, she went to her embroidery station and started embroidering a koi painting. Among their products, koi embroideries was one of the best-sellers, so when they weren’t busy, she always started on one to replenish their stock.

Since it was raining quite heavily outside, Hua Jin put down her needle for a bit and got up to turn on the music player of the store. In order to create an ambiance of simplicity, extravagance and exquisiteness for their customers, the store had many light background music CDs.

On such a rainy day, there inevitably wouldn’t be too many guests that stopped to peruse embroideries, so Hua Jin made herself a cup of tea and absentmindedly stared at the raindrops pitter-pattering down the window.

“Hello.” A sharply-dressed woman in sunglasses walked into the store and pointed at a cheongsam displayed on the wall, “Can this cheongsam be further customized?”

“Of course.” Hua Jin glanced at the woman’s figure, but the woman’s scrunched up face seemed to denote her discomfort at being scrutinized.

“You’re quite slender, so why not try and put on that cheongsam to see the fit?” while saying this, Hua Jin had already started to remove the cheongsam on display.

“There’s no need.” The woman handed Hua Jin a note with her 3 sizes, “I’ll pick it up three week later.”

Seeing that the woman was about to turn around and leave, Hua Jin hurried and stopped her, “Ma’am, please wait for a moment.”

“Is there anything else?”

Although the other party was wearing those huge sunglasses, Hua Jin could still feel her eyes have become impatient, so she tapped the table with her index finger and put on a smile, “I’m sorry if I failed to inform you, but as long as it’s a custom order, our shop requires me to collect a 30% deposit as down payment.”

“You think I can’t afford such a paltry sum of money?” The tone of the woman in the sunglasses grew even more frigid.

Hearing the offended tone of the other party, Hua Jin immediately put on a helpless expression, “Ma’am. Looking at your decorum and the way you dress, I know for certain that you aren’t such a person. But, I am merely an employee here, so I dare not make my own decisions. If my boss knew that I took a custom order without receiving the deposit, I’ll be fired.”

A non-existent boss could always appear to take the blame when necessary.

The tone of the woman softened noticeably, “Forget about it then. It isn’t easy on you either. So how much is it? I’ll pay right now.”

“Thank you very much. You really are too kind.” Hua Jin showed her the shop’s QR code to the other party without forgetting to put on a grateful and exuberant look.

The woman left happily as Hua Jin gratefully sent her off. She felt that she had just helped a little employee out from a big mess.

Of course, having just received a large deposit, Hua Jin’s mood was good.

Coincidentally, Pei Yan, who was standing just outside the store, saw this entire scene play out. He suddenly felt that the term ‘flowery peacock’ could not adequately describe this woman anymore.

‘How is she a ‘flowery peacock’ when she’s clearly more of a chameleon!’

——————————–
The Author has something to say” [Hua Jin]: Self-respect? What’s that?