What Are Your Tastes? chapter 22

Emotions

After the terrace of the studio was renovated, the decoration proceeded in an orderly manner. Two rows of solid wood tables and benches in the center, a white ladder-shaped flower shelf by the east window, temporarily empty for lack of plants.

The opening of the sculpture class was briefly mentioned only on Weibo and local forums, without extensive advertising. Strictly speaking, it was a side business with limited space and time constraints. Small and refined was preferable, and furthermore, Lu Yunchu didn’t like exaggerated marketing tactics.

He stayed in the studio on Saturday during the day, continuing to handle related matters. Just after lunch, someone pushed open the terrace door from outside. “Hello, is Teacher Lu…”

Their eyes met, and the boy’s voice abruptly stopped.

“Tao Jin?” Lu Yunchu looked at him in surprise. “Are you here to inquire about the course?”

He hesitated for a moment, nodding slightly. It was a coincidence that Tao Jin had found Sabrina’s information on Weibo before and had seen the introduction of the sculpture course on the forum, not realizing they were both from the same person.

“Please have a seat for a while,” there was no one else at this time, and Lu Yunchu made coffee, “Do you drink coffee? I’ll pour you a cup.”

“Uh, I… yes, thank you.” Tao Jin’s voice and appearance gave the impression of fragility, and because of his shy personality, he always blushed when speaking.

“I didn’t expect to see you again,” Lu Yunchu placed two cups of coffee on the long table, “Is Sabrina doing well?”

“She’s fine, really thank you,” his hand moved, touching his pocket, “Do you want to see her photos?”

“Sure.” It had been over a week since he last saw the little one, and Lu Yunchu was a bit nostalgic as he watched Tao Jin take out his phone and open the album.

Tao Jin now lived with his mother, and there was a bright little house for Sabrina. The first photo Lu Yunchu saw was of the lazy little dog lying on a red velvet cushion. There were also two videos of it playing with a ball, with the soft voice of a woman, probably Tao Jin’s mother, in the background.

“She’s really lively.”

“Yeah.”

Talking about Sabrina eased Tao Jin’s initial nervousness he had when he entered the room, and he began to sip his coffee slowly.

“Do you need sugar?” Lu Yunchu asked. “I usually drink it unsweetened, so I didn’t add any.”

Maybe the coffee was a bit bitter, as the young man’s brows furrowed slightly, but he still shook his head. “It’s fine. I think it’s just right.”

Lu Yunchu knew his age—second year of high school, not yet eighteen—but among the kids signing up, he was the oldest.

Generally, by the high school stage, the likelihood of trying to learn a skill out of interest was very low. If one was inclined towards an art major, they were more likely to choose a targeted exam-oriented training institution.

Lu Yunchu personally had no outdated ideas, but from the perspective of a student, he inevitably had to give an appropriate reminder, so he told Tao Jin, “This is just a hobby class.”

“I know, I… I really like it.” Talking about this, he seemed to become embarrassed again, his fingers twisting tightly. “I’m not very interested in schoolwork.”

“I see…” Lu Yunchu couldn’t help but be curious. “Have you considered pursuing it professionally?”

“No time,” he shook his head mechanically. “I’ve drawn many pictures, all by myself. Before… my parents didn’t let me learn these things.”

Just by looking at his expression, Lu Yunchu could understand his feelings. “What about now?”

“Now… some things happened, and I had some conflicts with them,” his eyes slightly dodged. “My mom isn’t that strict with me anymore. She wants me to do something else to distract myself.”

He didn’t say what had happened, and the logic in his words was quite strange. After having conflicts with his family, they became less strict instead—Lu Yunchu didn’t quite understand the cause and effect but sensitively realized that he shouldn’t ask further.

“I understand,” Lu Yunchu indicated that he didn’t need to say more. “But hobbies will definitely take up time, you need to manage it well.”

“Mm,” he clutched the empty coffee cup, his tense facial nerves finally squeezing out a smile after a long time. “I should go home now.”

“I need to go out too, let’s go down together,” Lu Yunchu locked the terrace door. “By the way, if you’re willing, you can show me your drawings.”

“Really?”

“Mm, as long as you’re willing.”

“I…” He slowly walked down the stairs, the iron steps making a clanging sound. “Thank you.”

“Say hello to Sabrina for me.”

“Okay.”

The boy’s back gradually turned into a white dot under the overly bright sunlight. Lu Yunchu walked in the opposite direction, heading towards a place he planned to visit that day—Art Street.

Most of the raw materials for his daily work were bought from building material wholesalers, but for teaching, he thought it was necessary to visit an art supplies store.

There was an alley near the university town, with several such stores on both sides. At the entrance stood a pavilion with an antique charm, and to the east of the pavilion was an osmanthus tree. Every late autumn, the tree’s golden flowers filled the air with fragrance and scattered everywhere. Because of the picturesque scenery, students often came here to sketch, and thus the alley was called Art Street.

When he was a student, Lu Yunchu often visited, and after resettling in Senn city, he found that not only the pavilion and osmanthus tree but also the old shops were still there, which made him feel nostalgic, even though the shop assistants no longer recognized him.

It wasn’t yet November, and the osmanthus flowers hadn’t all fallen. On a clear afternoon, smelling the fragrance of osmanthus and strolling along Art Street should have been a relaxing and pleasant weekend activity, but Lu Yunchu’s good mood was abruptly ruined when he ran into an unexpected person.

“Yunchu, is that you?”

As his path was blocked, Lu Yunchu’s vision slowly focused.

“It really is you,” Meng Xiao continued. “Long time no see.”

Indeed, it had been a long time.

Lu Yunchu couldn’t even remember which year he had been with Meng Xiao, or when they had broken up. In total, it was less than a year.

They had been in Italy at that time, and he never imagined that the cliché story of witnessing his boyfriend cheating would happen to him. He punched the guy, moved out of their shared apartment, treated him like a stranger, and when he returned to China, Meng Xiao completely disappeared from his sight.

Meng Xiao had one-quarter European ancestry and had left China in his early teens, with his parents also settled in Italy. Lu Yunchu once thought that Meng Xiao would never return to China, and they would never meet again.

But here he was, back, and in the same city where he lived. Calling it fate would be too flattering, as in Lu Yunchu’s mind, Meng Xiao was now just a source of pollution, even the air he breathed was contaminated.

Dust danced in the sunlight, and a distant face appeared in the shop window. Lu Yunchu intended to walk past him directly. Meng Xiao spoke again, “Did you grow your hair out?”

Indeed, Lu Yunchu had grown his hair out after returning to China, and Meng Xiao had never seen him like this. He paused his steps. “What does it have to do with you?”

“It doesn’t,” Meng Xiao wasn’t annoyed. “I just wanted to say it suits you. Your aura is more perfect now.”

“Thank you,” Lu Yunchu replied without hesitation. “But I know that simple fact every day when I look in the mirror, no need for your comment.”

“Yunchu, it’s been so long, do you still need to be so hostile?”

“If you don’t block my way, I won’t be hostile.” Lu Yunchu pushed the man in front of him forcefully. Taking advantage of his moment of unsteadiness and surprise, he quickly walked through the alley.

Encountering someone so unpleasant naturally ruined the day’s outing. However, Lu Yunchu’s temper came and went quickly. Once he returned to his familiar territory, his nerves immediately relaxed.

The sun was starting to set, and the southwest-facing wall of the studio was bathed in the golden glow of the setting sun.

Meng Xiao’s return had nothing to do with him; the feelings that had turned into irretrievable trash years ago had long since decomposed to nothing.