Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“What a nice day it is today!” After lunchtime ended, Yuan Zhou carried a chair out of the restaurant and prepared to sculpt his blocks of ice.
The consistently cloudy Chengdu became sunny today. The sunshine felt warm on his body. Besides, it wasn’t dazzling and was of perfect temperature.
“It’s really not bad to sculpt in the sun.” The complexion on Yuan Zhou’s face became milder. Meanwhile, he took a look at the crowd that surrounded to watch the lively scene on the street.
That’s right. The onlookers were a little more than those in normal times recently as Yuan Zhou had suddenly changed the sculpture material recently. Also because of the unfinished work of “Two Dragons Chasing A Pearl” last time, they were still waiting for him to complete the other dragon.
“Will Boss Yuan continue sculpting that dragon until it’s completely finished?”
“I’ve already posted the video on the Internet. Many net citizens asked me for the latter part in the comments area.
“Yeah, I also posted the video and conveniently obtained hundreds of likes.”
“Exactly. Boss Yuan has long been very popular on the Internet, not only because of the ice sculpture.”
The people who said that were mostly those regular customers and the vendors who ran a business at the side. These people liked coming to watch Yuan Zhou sculpt whenever they were free.
After all, the moment when Yuan Zhou sculpted was quite enjoyable to them.
Suddenly, a girl came up from behind. She squeezed into the crowd of people when they were surrounding to watch the scene while discussing in whispers for fear of disturbing Yuan Zhou.
The girl was very young. Her hair was neatly tied in a bun and her bright and clean forehead was bare. Nevertheless, she was plain-looking and gave people a sense of familiarity. She was dressed in a white long-sleeved shirt and a grey coat as well simple black pants with a pair of white small leather shoes. Besides that, she held a big box in her hand.
Her whole person looked relaxed and refreshing. She walked straight towards where Yuan Zhou got seated.
“Huh? Who’s that?” After she passed through the crowds, somebody suddenly realized and said that.
The girl had begun to talk with Yuan Zhou when the onlookers gazed at each other.
However, the onlookers didn’t stay close to them and thus couldn’t hear them clearly. And that was also the reason why they discussed at the beginning.
After all, Yuan Zhou couldn’t hear them whisper at this distance. But at the same time, they couldn’t hear Yuan Zhou and that girl talk, either.
The girl didn’t really care about the onlookers’ thoughts. She looked at the door without a shop sigh and then at Yuan Zhou and finally said, “May I ask if you are Boss Yuan?”
Yuan Zhou looked at the girl and then searched his memory earnestly. He didn’t answer her until he confirmed that he really didn’t know her, “Yes, I am.”
“Somebody asked me to bring this thing to you.” Seeing Yuan Zhou nod his head, the girl immediately took up the box in her hand and handed to him.
However, the girl appeared quite earnest when she handed the box to Yuan Zhou. The faint smile on his face was gone and there appeared a serious expression, instead. She handed the box to Yuan Zhou with her two hands.
“Thank you. Sorry to trouble you,” Yuan Zhou stood up and received the box with his hands and then said.
“You are welcome.” The girl shook her head.
The box was grey and looked to be of good texture. With dark stripes on the surface, the box was approximately as wide as a 17″ laptop bag and had a height of 25cm. However, it wasn’t heavy at all.
“Can I have a look?” Yuan Zhou asked with a puzzled look on his face.
“Sure, of course you can.” The girl nodded her head, “I was told to give it to you.”
“Hua Hua”. The box wasn’t difficult to open. Yuan Zhou untied a black ribbon and directly removed the cover of the box.
“This is..?” The suspicion and surprise on Yuan Zhou’s face became more obvious.
Because it was a pair of gloves in the box. More specifically, it was a pair of old and familiar boxing gloves.
This pair of gloves consisted of three colors, black, red and white. The part at the wrist was red while the logo on the gloves was white. The logo was an English word “Reyes”, which was supposed to be the brand of the gloves.
There had been obvious abrasions at the part of the knuckles of the gloves. And the thumb of the gloves was also severely damaged. The black surface was quite badly damaged, which revealed the white color under the surface.
However, that pair of boxing gloves with such severe damage was nevertheless kept very clean. It could be obviously seen that the owner must have taken good care of the gloves.
“A man called Song An told me to give it to you, Boss Yuan,” the girl said softly.
“To me?” Yuan Zhou was originally a little dumbfounded. The name of Song An wasn’t familiar to him. Instead, it sounded quite strange.
Once he heard the words, Yuan Zhou felt uncomfortable. He instantly lifted his head and gaze at the girl. Then, as if obtaining an answer, he quickly lowered his head.
“He is a boxer.” The girl nodded her head and added.
“A boxer.” Yuan Zhou repeated the two words once with a look of astonishment.
The memories connected. The boxing gloves and the boxer who often got wounded on the face. However, he had never mentioned his own name to others.
“Yes. He said he wanted to put the gloves in your restaurant. And he also said there are many interesting customers in this restaurant.” The girl nodded her head and then said, “He said he was quite grateful for the existence of this restaurant.”
“Ah, okay. I will take care of them for him. He can come to fetch them whenever he’s free.” Yuan Zhou’s heart suddenly trembled when he touched the gloves. He raised his head abruptly and said decisively.
“But he …” When the girl heard that, she thought she hadn’t made herself understood. Thinking of the things she was instructed, she immediately opened her mouth and prepared to tell him clearly.
However, she hadn’t got started when Yuan Zhou interrupted her, “All right. I get it. Sorry for bothering you to pass me the gloves. I will take good care of them.”
Though there wasn’t any change on Yuan Zhou’s face, Yuan Zhou had interrupted a girl’s utterance so rudely for the very first time. Besides, his voice was quite loud.
He lowered his head and took a look at the gloves in the box. Even the usual calmness vanished from Yuan Zhou’s face. He raised his head and covered the box heavily and after that, he looked at the girl.
“Okay. I’m leaving now.” The girl was stupefied first when she was interrupted. But when she found Yuan Zhou lowered his head and sounded a little sorrowful as if he had understood something, she stopped to nod her head and say goodbye to him.
“Thank you for bringing this to me. I will treat you to water next time. Goodbye.” Yuan Zhou nodded his head. He waited until the girl turned around and also turned around and went back to his restaurant.
With the box held in his arms, Yuan Zhou stood like a pole and stayed put for a few seconds. Then, he put it on the flower rack at the side and placed it neatly. The next moment, however, he felt it inappropriate and thus changed several places.
However, he still didn’t find a place that he felt appropriate eventually. Therefore, he had no choice but put it on the dining table temporarily. Then, he turned around and closed the door of the restaurant.
The door obstructed all sunlight. Standing in the tiny restaurant where it suddenly became dark, Yuan Zhou didn’t turn on the light at once habitually. Instead, he stood there for about ten seconds and then went upstairs with the box in his arms.
“Ta Ta Ta”. The restaurant was as quiet as always, leaving only Yuan Zhou’s footsteps echoing in the room.
Just in a little while, Yuan Zhou went back to his own room on the second floor and put the box in his hand on the desk.
Yuan Zhou was seated in front of the desk. He stared blankly as if to be in a daze and no one knew what he was thinking about at that moment.
The onlookers outside nevertheless didn’t know why Yuan Zhou behaved like that.
“Meow Meow Meow? What’s going on?”, “Why did Boss Yuan go inside and even close the restaurant?”, “What did that girl say to Boss Yuan?”, “I don’t care about that. I just want to know what happened to Boss Yuan? He didn’t look good.”
After all, Yuan Zhou had never behaved like that. The series of actions just now seemed to be out of bewilderment.
If Sun Ming were there, he might be able to recognize that kind of bewilderment. It was similar to his actions when he got to know about his parents’ death years ago.
Yuan Zhou got seated in front of the desk in his own room silently…
