Abstinence Pei, don't be too sweet when chasing your wife

The sky in Yang County is gray with a yellowish ochre tint.

When Gu Fanxing walked out of the high-speed rail station, the evening breeze, carrying the moisture of the mountain rain, blew in her face, forcing her to wrap her coat tightly.

Under the streetlight at the exit, a girl with a high ponytail was standing on tiptoe, waving her hands. Her voice was as clear as a mountain spring: "Stars! Here!"

It’s Ling Jiuer, her good sister.

"You're finally here!" Ling Jiuer rushed over and hugged her, her body still stained with the smell of mud. "The captain didn't sleep a wink last night, hoping that you, the 'cleaning god', would come to the rescue."

Gu Fanxing smiled as she shook him, and the melancholy in her heart faded a little: "Is the situation really bad?"

"It's terrible." Ling Jiuer pulled her towards the SUV parked on the side of the road. "The protective shed has collapsed in half, and rainwater mixed with yellow mud from the mountain has poured into the exploration area. The newly discovered porcelain layer is completely soaked in mud and water, and it will break if you apply the slightest force."

The car drove out of the county town and headed into the mountains.

"Is grandma okay?" Ling Jiuer suddenly asked, "I heard the captain talk about my aunt's situation. I'm so sorry."

"Well, grandma is being taken care of by Aunt Zhang." Gu Fanxing looked at the shadows of the trees passing by outside the window and said softly, "As for you guys, you've worked hard these past few days."

"I'm not afraid of hard work, but I'm afraid of working in vain." Ling Jiuer sighed, "You don't know how beautiful those porcelain pieces are. There's a piece with a lotus pattern on the bottom of the bowl, and the lines are as fine as a hair."

Gu Fanxing's heart tightened.

She understood this feeling too well - those objects that had been sleeping for thousands of years, carrying the warmth of time, but were as fragile as cicada wings. The slightest carelessness would lead to eternal regret.

The archaeological team's temporary base is in an abandoned primary school at the foot of the mountain.

The desks and chairs in the classroom were moved to the corner and simple camp beds were set up.

Ling Jiuer found her a clean bed and bedding. "Just make do with it for one night. When this is over, I'll take you to eat the sour soup fish in the county. It's much more authentic than the one in Huacheng."

Gu Fanxing nodded, and while packing her things, her fingers touched the cell phone deep in her backpack.

She hesitated for a moment, but still didn't turn on her phone. Now that she was here, she should focus on her work.

But when he lay down, the sound of rain outside the window hitting the iron roof made a crackling sound, which sounded very much like the sound of the old-fashioned wall clock in Pei Luonan's apartment.

The next day, just after dawn, Gu Fanxing was awakened by the noise outside the window.

She put on the blue work clothes issued by the team, walked out of the classroom in rain boots, and saw the team members carrying shovels and buckets and walking up the mountain. Everyone's face was covered with mud, but their eyes were bright.

"Awake? Come and have something to eat!" The captain shouted at her, holding up a white flour bun, his unshaven face stained with grass debris. "Jiuer said you are the best at dealing with porcelain fragments in the mud. Today, this exploration area is handed over to you."

Breakfast was corn porridge with pickles. Gu Fanxing stood under the eaves and finished it in a few bites.

The road to the ruins is more difficult than expected.

The heavy rain washed away the original stone steps, and they had to climb up the muddy slope, sinking half a foot with every step.

Gu Fanxing held onto the wild tree next to him, and his trouser legs were soon covered with yellow mud, like he was wrapped in a thick layer of armor.

"It's just ahead." Ling Jiuer pointed to the blue tent not far away.

Only when Gu Fanxing got closer did he see clearly that the so-called "ruins" were actually a cut-open hillside.

In the exposed loess layer, there are densely packed broken porcelain pieces scattered around, most of which are sunken in the semi-dry mud, with only a tiny corner exposed, like eyes forgotten by time.

"This is the edge of the kiln site. It must have been a dump of waste." The team leader squatted beside the exploration area and pointed out the lines in the soil. "Look at these layers. You can see the accumulation from different periods. Unfortunately, the rain has messed up the layers."

Gu Fanxing squatted down and carefully brushed away the wet mud on the surface.

A piece of porcelain with a bluish-gray glaze was revealed, with fine ice cracks on the edges, which looked very much like the Song Dynasty celadon porcelain she had seen in the museum last year.

"First, clean off the mud and water on the surface, then use bamboo sticks to pick out the porcelain pieces one by one." She took out a small brush and bamboo scraper from her tool kit, her voice full of professional calmness. "Don't use metal tools, they will scratch the glaze."

The team members took action immediately.

Gu Fanxing knelt in the mud covered with plastic sheeting, her body almost touching the ground, her eyes only a few centimeters from the porcelain slabs. The small brush in her hand gently swept across the mud, her movements as gentle as if she were caressing a baby's skin.

Ling Jiuer was holding tweezers next to her, ready to pick up the loose fragments at any time.

"Slow down, there seems to be a larger piece underneath this piece." Gu Fanxing suddenly held Ling Jiuer's hand, his eyes fixed on an arc exposed in the mud, "It's the bottom of a bowl, and the pattern is quite complete."

It took them a full half hour to remove the bowl base completely. After rinsing it with clean water, the peony pattern on the bottom of the bowl gradually became clearer, the inky lines flowing across the blue-gray glaze, as if it had come alive.

Gu Fanxing looked at the patterns and suddenly felt a familiar throbbing in his heart.

This moment of "dialogue" with craftsmen from thousands of years ago is something she has been obsessed with since she was a child.

"Put it away carefully." She took the bottom of the bowl and placed it in a storage box covered with a soft cloth. "The glaze of this kind of celadon porcelain is thin and cracks easily."

When Gu Fanxing stood up, she realized her knees had already gone numb and her waist was so sore that she couldn't straighten up. She pounded her back and walked towards the tent. Ling Jiuer handed her a bottle of water and said, "Rest for a while. The captain asked the kitchen to make ginger soup to drive away the cold."

The tent was filled with the spicy aroma of ginger soup. Gu Fanxing held the enamel bowl, looking at the ginger slices floating in it, and suddenly remembered the brown sugar ginger tea Pei Luonan made for her. He always liked to add two red dates to it, saying "this way it's not spicy."

"What are you thinking about?" Ling Jiuer came over and nudged her with her elbow. "Your face is red."

"Nothing." Gu Fanxing hurriedly drank a mouthful of ginger soup, "It's just a little spicy."

Ling Jiuer smiled mischievously: "I think you are thinking of someone?"

Gu Fanxing's face turned even redder and she put the bowl on the table: "Don't talk nonsense."

"Are you talking nonsense?" Ling Jiuer looked at her and asked back with a smile.

Gu Fanxing didn't say anything, but lowered his head to pick at the peeling paint on the enamel bowl.

Those details that she had deliberately ignored were exposed one by one by Ling Jiuer, and they were like dust in the sun, suddenly having nowhere to hide.

The rain started to fall again in the afternoon. They were sorting the porcelain pieces they had cleared out that morning in the tent.

A palm-sized piece of porcelain caught her attention.

There is half a gardenia painted on it, the brushstrokes are as childish as a child's graffiti, and there is a small fingerprint on the edge of the petal, as if it was pressed there accidentally by the craftsman.

"This must have been done by an apprentice." Gu Fanxing looked at the fingerprint with a magnifying glass. "Maybe it was his first time glazing, so his hands are still unsteady."

"Maybe it's a little girl." Ling Jiuer came over to take a look. "Just like you, she has someone hidden in her heart and got distracted while drawing."

When it got dark, they finally finished sorting out all the porcelain pieces they had cleaned that day. Gu Fanxing dragged her exhausted body back to the dormitory and fell on the bed, not wanting to move.

The porcelain pieces she had cleared today now lay quietly in their storage boxes, carrying the scent of earth and the warmth of time. The worries in her heart, however, were like fragments stuck in the mud, clearly visible, yet impossible to sort out.

She picked up her phone and opened the chat box with Pei Luonan, but ultimately sent nothing. She stuffed her phone back under her pillow, turned over, and forced herself to close her eyes.

She had to get up early tomorrow, as there were still more porcelain pieces waiting to be saved. As for the turmoil in her heart, perhaps it should be removed slowly, like cleaning dirt from porcelain pieces, and allowed to settle slowly.

But she didn't know that some marks, once engraved in the heart, are like ice cracks on porcelain. They may seem broken, but they have already become a part of life and can never be erased.