Chapter 34: A Glimmer of Hope

Because Zhulong Guangqi’s electronic lighting console hadn’t arrived yet, Shen Xici was on an unplanned break. However, the final scene wouldn’t take more than two days to shoot, so all things considered, he wasn’t far from wrapping up filming.

Sitting on the sofa, he watched through the floor-to-ceiling window as Sheng Shaoyan trimmed the dead branches and leaves of the bougainvillea on the small balcony.

Fashion really does depend on the face. Sheng Shaoyan was wearing a simple hoodie, his left hand casually tucked into his pocket, his right holding a pair of rusty pruning shears. The profile of his face, with its high, straight nose, deep-set eyes, and sharp jawline, looked remarkably like a scene from a magazine photoshoot.

Watching this scene, Shen Xici stared blankly for a while, his gaze following Sheng Shaoyan’s hand as it moved the shears through the waterfall of bougainvillea. On a whim, he picked up his phone, aimed the camera at Sheng Shaoyan, and took several shots in a row.

A shadow fell as Sheng Shaoyan stood outside the window, blocking the light. He asked, “What are you filming?”

His voice was mostly muffled by the glass. Shen Xici replied, dragging out his words with a smile so the person outside could read his lips: “Filming—a—hottie!”

A faint smile touched Sheng Shaoyan’s lips. He spun the shears skillfully in his hand before gripping them again, generously saying, “Then go ahead and film.”

The chaotic emotions from before had faded. Shen Xici touched the crystal bracelet on his wrist and began to plan for the future.

Unsure of the exact wrap date, Shen Xici first contacted his landlady to ask if he could extend the lease for a few more days. He planned to move out after finding a new place once his work was finished.

Although in the current timeline it was just over a month ago, for Shen Xici, it felt like five or six years had passed. He carefully recalled that after completing the procedures to suspend his studies, he should have moved out of the school dormitory and taken a plane followed by a bus straight to Sui County.

He had arrived earlier than the crew’s scheduled start date. Since there were no available rooms at the hotel, he took the opportunity to say he could rent a place on his own dime.

The film set was crowded and gossipy, and his daily routine of checking his vitals in the morning and evening was not something he wanted others to know about.

Later, when a room at the hotel became available, he used the excuse that he had already paid over a month’s rent, so the room could be given to someone else. The crew was large, and many actors had their own demands. The assistant director in charge of living arrangements was more than happy to have an extra room to allocate and readily agreed with a smile.

He had thought he might have to explain things to the landlady since he couldn’t rent for a full month, but to his surprise, she sent a voice message saying, “No rush, no rush. Buying a house and moving is a big deal, take your time.”

Although he was moving, buying a house?

Was the auntie overestimating him? He had no money at all.

Another voice message came through. Through the earpiece, the landlady’s voice was cheerful, “Congratulations in advance, my boy! May your days be happy and harmonious!”

Shen Xici wore a contemplative expression. Did the landlady think he was ending the lease because he was buying a house, and was thus congratulating him in advance?

This misunderstanding didn’t seem to pose a problem. The landlady wouldn’t require him to rent for a full month, nor would she take back the apartment immediately.

Shen Xici expressed his sincere gratitude: “Thank you, Auntie!”

The glass door slid open, and the wind blew the white, plant-patterned lace curtains. Sheng Shaoyan came in from the balcony. “I have to go out for something.”

Shen Xici was making a list of things he could take from the apartment when he returned to Ningcheng. Hearing this, he nodded. “Are you taking the motorcycle? If so, can you buy me a purple leaf cake? From that shop we passed last time.”

“Okay.” Sheng Shaoyan stood there, waiting. He noticed Shen Xici had lowered his head again, seemingly typing something on his phone.

Aren’t you going to ask where I’m going or how long I’ll be?

Taking a jacket from the closet, Sheng Shaoyan put it on and walked slowly to the door.

The living room remained silent.

Gripping the keys in his hand, Sheng Shaoyan opened the door. After waiting a moment and seeing that Shen Xici was still looking down, he had to speak up. “I’m going out to buy something. I’ll be back before dark.”

Hmm? Why hasn’t Sheng Shaoyan left yet?

Shen Xici’s mind was busy calculating how much money he could save by taking things back with him. Hearing the voice from the doorway, he distractedly replied, “Okay, be safe on the road!”

Sheng Shaoyan went directly to the old lady’s fruit stall.

The old lady was shelling pumpkin seeds. When she heard him ask about a goldsmith, she teased, “Oh my, what is the handsome boy planning to do?”

He immediately thought of Shen Xici’s “hottie” comment through the glass, the way his left dimple appeared when he smiled, his eyes sparkling. Sheng Shaoyan’s expression softened. “Granny, it’s a secret.”

Seeing that Sheng Shaoyan didn’t blush or feel embarrassed, the old lady was a little disappointed but nodded repeatedly. “Granny understands, Granny won’t tell anyone!”

Sheng Shaoyan said, “The landlady can’t be told either.”

“Alright, alright!” The wrinkles at the corners of the old lady’s eyes crinkled with laughter. “This is a surprise, Granny definitely won’t tell.” She gave him directions. “For the girls of our ethnic minority here, if they don’t have some gold and silver adornments on festival days, they can’t even step out of the house. The one thing the county town doesn’t lack is goldsmiths. Go find this person, his craftsmanship is praised throughout all the villages around!”

Sheng Shaoyan memorized the route. “Can I make it myself?”

“Yes, yes,” the old lady praised repeatedly. “The handsome boy is so good to his A’Di!”

The goldsmith the old lady recommended was on the other side of the county, in the same direction as the village where he and Shen Xici had helped retrieve the Polygonatum. The goldsmith was a taciturn old man, dressed in an indigo-dyed homespun robe, his hands rough and calloused. He sized up Sheng Shaoyan. “Why did you think of coming to make a ring yourself? To make this thing look good is no simple matter.”

Sheng Shaoyan had indeed considered buying a finished product after returning to Ningcheng, but after he put the crystal bracelet he made on Shen Xici, Shen Xici never took it off, whether showering or sleeping. He clearly loved it.

“I can learn.”

For three consecutive days, Sheng Shaoyan left early and returned late. Although Shen Xici was curious, he didn’t press the matter since Sheng Shaoyan hadn’t mentioned it himself.

With no filming scheduled, Shen Xici had free time and scrolled through rental apps. The options were either too expensive, the apartments were in poor condition or bad locations, or the complexes were subpar.

After two days of searching, Shen Xici’s eyes were a bit tired. He put down his phone, planning to do some housework to stretch. To his surprise, he walked around and found that the clothes from the washing machine were hung up, the bougainvillea on the balcony was watered, the floor was clean, and there wasn’t a speck of dust on the few pieces of furniture.

Is Sheng Shaoyan some kind of magical house-elf? He did all the chores!

Left with nothing to do because of his diligent roommate, Shen Xici went to the balcony. He picked up the shears and, just for something to do, snipped a couple of thin branches from the bougainvillea. Suddenly, he remembered a nice apartment he had rented in his past life. The landlord was wealthy, hands-off, and a good person who owned several fully furnished properties for rent. One of them had a very spacious balcony.

Thinking back carefully, that apartment also seemed to have one bedroom and one study. It was beautifully decorated, and the security in the complex was very strict. He had liked it a lot when he saw it, but the rent was a bit high, so he had painfully declined and rented a cheaper one.

With his past self’s homework to copy, Shen Xici quickly found the landlord’s contact information on the rental app. After confirming that the apartment was still available, he quickly negotiated, paid the deposit, and arranged to sign the contract and move in upon his return to Ningcheng.

The goldsmith’s shop was not small, but it felt cramped after being filled with various tools and racks. The air was filled with the smell of burning flames.

Making a platinum ring was hard on the hands. Because it was very hard, it required repeated annealing and hammering. The most difficult part was the hand-drawn wire texture. The force and depth of each cut needed to be controlled with minute precision. When adding the second and third cuts, the direction of the first cut could not be damaged. Additionally, the gold-carved pattern had to be engraved cut by cut. Sheng Shaoyan was extremely demanding about the finished product’s quality; if there was even the slightest flaw, he would melt it down and start over.

The old master stood with his hands behind his back, watching as Sheng Shaoyan’s technique became more and more skilled. The wire drawing was fine and beautiful, and the pattern was as if measured with a ruler, not a millimeter off from the design drawing. He nodded in satisfaction.

“This pattern is nice. Is it a star?” The old master wasn’t sure. It looked different from the usual star patterns, more like a totem symbol, and more beautiful.

“Yes, a star with a trail of light.”

The inside of the ring was also imprinted with Sheng Shaoyan’s own fingerprint, which he had created by pressing his finger onto the metal surface with an ink pad and then carving along the lines with a needle.

The old master had watched him sit there for three days. “Are you getting ready to give it to someone? A wedding ring?”

Sheng Shaoyan shook his head. “For a proposal. The wedding rings will be bought separately later.”

Close enough, the old master gave Sheng Shaoyan some advice. “You’ve put so much effort into this proposal ring, you must treat her even better in daily life. When the time comes, show her the cuts on your fingers, and it will definitely be a success.”

A layer of skin on Sheng Shaoyan’s finger had been scraped off by the wire-drawing and carving knife, and it had already scabbed over. He was silent for a moment. “I didn’t do well in the past. I hope I still have a chance in the future.”

“Young people, who doesn’t take a few wrong turns? It’s good that you’ve come to your senses.” The old master thought for a moment, then slapped his head. “I think I have a wooden ring box here somewhere. It’s made of decades-old wood, has a nice fragrance, and would go well with your ring. Wait, I’ll go find it for you!”

The light in the room gradually dimmed. The lamp was turned on. The ring was placed in the wooden box. It had a classic curved shape, the band not too wide, and the texture on it was like silver threads soaked in morning mist, glowing with a silver satin-like luster under the light.

The old master put on his reading glasses, looked at it carefully, and judged, “Many beginners’ wire drawings have different depths. Yours, every single one is neatly arranged, the texture is smooth and even. Young man, I’ll say it again, with this level of dedication, you will definitely succeed.”

“I’ll take your good wishes.”

The motorcycle weaved through the streets of the county town. The once unfamiliar scenery had gradually become familiar. He could clearly distinguish which restaurant he had eaten at with Shen Xici, the corner they had passed on their evening walks, where to buy purple leaf cakes, from which tree they had plucked a leaf to play a tune, and on which wall the flowering vine that Shen Xici had once pointed out to him climbed.

It had only been a month.

There would be many more months, many more years to come.

The motorcycle sped up, wrapped in the twilight, and stopped in front of the small building with beige exterior walls.

Shen Xici had checked tomorrow’s weather forecast. It was going to be a clear day. Zhulong Guangqi’s equipment had arrived, so he would most likely have to be at the film set in the morning.

When the crew sent out tomorrow’s call sheet, sure enough, his scene was the first one.

The sound of a door opening came from the entrance. The tall, long-legged man was bowing his head to change his shoes, effortlessly making a simple black jacket and shirt look elegant.

“A’Shao, you’re back? A little earlier than the past two days.”

Shen Xici stood by the floor-to-ceiling window holding a script, his fine hair stirred by the wind. Behind him was a magnificent sunset painting the sky for a thousand miles.

Sheng Shaoyan walked closer. “Yes, I finished what I was making, so I came back.”

It would be a lie to say Shen Xici wasn’t curious. The man had been gone early in the morning for the past two days and usually didn’t return until it was completely dark. “What did you make?”

Sheng Shaoyan looked at him. He had wanted to say something, but felt that words were too shallow. His pre-amnesia self had probably said countless things, both soft and hard.

He had one hand in his pocket, the wooden ring box already warm from his body heat.

Although he had lost his memory and was still unclear about many past events, including why he was injured and what had happened before, he had Shen Xici.

It was like finding a piece of driftwood in a sea shrouded in mist, just as he was about to be swept away by a vortex, allowing him to cling and hold on.

He already had a fulcrum.

Without him noticing, on this fulcrum, a bud had sprouted, grown branches and leaves, and blossomed.

Taking out the palm-sized wooden box, Sheng Shaoyan handed it over solemnly. “Shen Xici, I want to—”

A sharp pain suddenly exploded in his nerves. In an instant, it felt as if hundreds and thousands of needles were crashing through his bone marrow and blood vessels. Even his vision blurred for a moment.

Sheng Shaoyan lowered his head, his hand holding the ring box instinctively tightening, his knuckles turning white and blue. The hard corner of the box dug into his palm, but compared to the intense pain, it was less than a thousandth of the agony.

A few seconds stretched to a hundred, even a thousand times. Countless memories surged in like a flood breaking through a dam. Every brain cell felt a tearing pain from the immense impact.

The hand holding the small wooden box was still between them, but Shen Xici subconsciously felt that something was wrong. “A’Shao, what’s wrong with you?”

Sheng Shaoyan stood frozen like a statue. After an unknown amount of time, he slowly raised his head, his gaze focusing inch by inch, meeting Shen Xici’s eyes again.

The intertwining of past and present memories created a momentary confusion. Sheng Shaoyan’s voice was hoarse. “It’s nothing. I just felt a little unwell for a moment. I’m fine now.”

“Really?” Shen Xici felt that the look Sheng Shaoyan had just given him was very light, yet very heavy. It was clearly just a few seconds of eye contact, but it seemed to have crossed countless years.

He reached out to touch Sheng Shaoyan’s forehead. “You don’t have a fever.”

Not only was his forehead not hot, it actually felt a little cool. It should be nothing.

Sheng Shaoyan thought he would have dodged. Disliking physical contact with people was his former instinct.

But at this moment, he found that his body seemed to have grown accustomed to it, not flinching or avoiding, letting the other person touch his forehead.

“Is this a gift for me?”

Hearing this, Sheng Shaoyan’s fingertips twitched, and he subconsciously wanted to pull the wooden box back. But seeing Shen Xici’s outstretched hand, his movement froze, and he finally handed the small wooden box over.

He felt that Sheng Shaoyan was a bit strange, but he couldn’t quite describe what was strange about him. Shen Xici took the box, shifting his attention to the gift, and said expectantly, “This box itself is beautiful. What’s inside? Did you make it?”

As he spoke, he opened the lid. When he saw what was inside, he was stunned for a moment—a ring?

On the velvet cloth, the silver surface of the ring seemed to gather the light of the stars.

Understanding the surprise and confusion in Shen Xici’s expression, Sheng Shaoyan hid the cut on his finger. He heard himself answer, “It’s a thank-you gift.”

A string in his heart trembled slightly. Shen Xici looked up. “What thank-you gift?”

“Don’t misunderstand. It’s just a gift, nothing more.” Sheng Shaoyan looked at the person before him and said slowly, “To thank you for saving me, I specially made a gift. Other things would have taken too long, there wasn’t enough time, so I made a ring. You can wear it on your middle finger as a decoration. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to force yourself.”

To thank you for saving me?

Shen Xici used the excuse of looking at the ring to lower his gaze, hiding the emotion in his eyes.

The sun sank below the horizon. The light of the evening clouds in the sky faded like an extinguishing flame, gradually revealing the deep blue of the sky behind it.

A breeze blew in from the balcony.

Sheng Shaoyan didn’t dare to look at Shen Xici anymore.

He thought with a glimmer of hope.

Could it be that my memory hasn’t fully returned yet?