Glass Butterfly

Tang Tu took a look at the scheduled itinerary for the next two months. February was full, but there was no important work in March.

"Hanyi." He stopped the girl outside the door who was about to get off work, "Have you received the invitation letter for the Tokyo Art Fair?"

"Accepted... I received it... But aren't we not going to participate?" Xu Hanyi withdrew his calf from stepping out, "After all, the transaction data of foreign galleries participating in the exhibition is not very good."

"Go and see this year." Tang Tu played with the phone, "You come with me."

"Huh? Me? Really!? Don't you bring Zhang Wenbin!" The girl excitedly threw the backpack back into the seat and turned on the computer, "Then I'll reply to the email right away!"

Tang Tu saw that Xu Hanyi not only opened the mailbox at the speed of light, but also opened the ticket and hotel reservation page, the sightseeing page of Mt. Fuji and Lake Kawaguchi, and even the official ticket sales page of Disney Ocean.

Although he would usually let Zhang Wenbin go free for three days to a week after going abroad on business, did Xu Hanyi get excited too early... Looking at the girl's busy but happy back, Tang Tu felt a little bit emotional about the young people's easy-going mentality.

Ruan Youqing was even two years younger than Xu Hanyi, but he hardly showed any childishness, he was always quiet and interesting.

Tang Tu thought of Ruan Youqing under the night sky in the first winter, that person could not speak intriguing love words, but the most plain sentence "It would be great if you were here" was like a cold needle repeatedly poking into the softest piece of flesh in his heart , it is stinging.Ruan Youqing who said that was like a star shining inadvertently, lonely and far away.

"Boss, would you like to help you book a ticket to Sapporo?" Xu Hanyi turned her head and raised eyebrows at him inexplicably.

"No..." He instinctively vetoed it without thinking, as if some secret had been exposed.

It's just that he hasn't been to Japan for a long time, so he went to see the art market there, after all, it is a place where art and business are combined to perfection.The artist's brand effect has spread to all of Asia and even the whole world.He went for it.

"Oh?" The girl turned her head slowly, but did not close the ticket booking page from Haneda to New Chitose, "Oh, you haven't been home for half a year, you have only seen Zhang Wenbin. But you can't say for sure , with such a good temper and good-looking person, maybe he has made other friends."

Tang Tu sighed deeply, all his thoughts about Ruan Youqing were out of order, the more he covered up, the more embarrassed he became.Contradictions are like a piece of ice stuck in the chest. Instinctively want to melt it, but reason is afraid that it will melt out of control: "Okay...let's order it."

Anyway, I should go and see if he is doing well. After all, I sent him so far away from home. I always have to know whether the artist I signed is suitable for the path they planned.

"Okay." Xu Hanyi had already selected the date and shift, and immediately clicked the ticketing button after he got a reply, "It's done! We can meet in more than two months!!"

"...What are you so excited about..."

Xu Hanyi blinked: "I mean, I'm with my Japanese best friend. It's been a long time since we've seen each other, so of course I'm excited."

"Hurry up and get off work." Tang Tu turned around and returned to the office angrily, and locked herself up with a bang.

Xu Hanyi picked up the phone and quietly sent a voice message to Liu Yan: "Someone can't help it!"

On New Year's Eve, Ruan Youqing called his family to report that he was safe, and his grandfather asked him when he would go back. He said that the contract had been signed for one year, and they would not be able to see each other until summer.Grandpa told him to pay attention to safety, especially in snowy days, and never go out alone.

Ruan Youqing had heard about the snow in Hokkaido before, but she didn't expect it to last for a whole winter like this, almost without stopping.Mr. Kawai often spends time in the studio recently. He said that he wanted to take a break this year and turned down some joint exhibitions. He will no longer be a visiting professor at the university, so he can spare time to concentrate on polishing his own works.Ruan Youqing often assisted her with some basic operations that required a lot of strength, and occasionally she could not avoid cooperating with Minato Watanabe.However, since the beginning of the new year, Minato Watanabe's attitude towards him has been very restrained and he has not made any small moves. I wonder if he has gotten used to his presence. Most of the time, that person just quietly makes his own cups and plates in the corner, without any sense of presence. .

"Youqing, do you want to try to participate in the competition?" Kawai dragged a plastic children's chair to sit not far from him when he was free, so that he could see his operation skills clearly, and it would not hinder him from carrying out hot melting in front of the electric kiln. The gelled glass is adjusted back and forth.They are not classified as teachers, students or master assistants, they only communicate with glass artists on an equal footing.Kawai said that he is too young, has too few works, and has not yet accumulated a strong personal style.Someday it will happen, and that day doesn't seem too far away.

"What game?" Ruan Youqing stared at the other end of the metal tube, and slowly sent the inhaled air over, watching the high-temperature jelly bubbling.

"The Kanazawa Glass Awards. You know?"

He nodded, a bit hypocritical can be said to be the Oscar of the glass art world.However, in the past 30 or [-] years, Japanese artists have won the Grand Prize. I have never heard of a few people who broke the monopoly: "Do you want to participate?"

"Pfft. Youqing, why are you doing this? I won the grand prize ten years ago." Kawai huddled up in the children's chair with his knees curled up, "I'm the judge."

Ruan Youqing kept spinning the steel pipe in his hands, using gravity and wet newspaper to shape it.After cooling down slightly, I checked the light blue and lavender dyed from the center of the canopy. The dye diffused irregularly, like blood vessels, and gradually disappeared from the top.

"Is this the head of a jellyfish?" Kawai ran over and stood beside him, observing the umbrella cover with a diameter of ten centimeters with great interest.

He nodded and continued to heat the edges.When the umbrella cover returned to its soft texture, he quickly used the melted transparent glass rod to pull out the slender and soft jellyfish tentacles around the edge of the umbrella cover. Some of them were entwined and some were independent, roughly bending in the same direction.Then, fix the eight mouth wrists fired the day before in the center under the umbrella cover.

Kawai looked at those translucent, gorgeous and elegant wrists like skirt folds with approval: "It's really, so beautiful."

Ruan Youqing didn't have the habit of being overly humble like ordinary people. He just quietly separated the jellyfish from one end of the steel pipe with tools, polished it a little, and sent it to the cooling box.

When I took it out again, the jellyfish had already taken shape, standing on the table with several nearly one-meter-long mouth arms and dozens of tentacle filaments mopping the floor, lifelike.

"This one will be more beautiful with dark blue lights." Kawai said, "Put it on the ground, otherwise it will be a disaster if you get knocked down and fall."

"No, it's very stable." Ruan Youqing pointed to the tentacles that were only visible up close: "It's specially balanced."

"By the way! Do you want to take him to participate in the competition!" Kawai took the mobile phone from Kojima Sora, opened the official website and handed it to him, "It will end at the end of April, and there is still more than a month to go."

"let me consider it……"

"Although it is realistic to say this, artists always need some means to promote themselves. Now that there are so many artists, how to stand out among them is still inseparable from winning awards. You have to let the industry, critics and collectors see you value." Kawai patted his arm, "Young Qing has to believe in his own strength. Of course, if you participate, don't expect me to let you down. I'm not the only judge." After joking, she stretched her waist and went to work my own.

Everyone dispersed from the front of this Amakusa jellyfish, Ruan Youqing turned her head and caught Watanabe Minato's sinister eyes.

He didn't care, and moved the jellyfish to the corner alone.

"Young Qing come to help!" Chuan Jing called him.

They were busy all morning, and during their lunch break, Ruan Youqing had time to call Tang Tu about the Kanazawa Glass Award, and wanted to ask his opinion.

"Even if Mr. Kawai didn't say anything, I was going to ask you. I think you have the strength to win the prize, but it's up to your choice whether to participate or not." Tang Tu asked, "Are you hesitating?"

"I just think that there is no way to compare art...and many people are capable." Ruan Youqing doesn't like being used to teach others about his works, especially art is something that cannot be quantified and is very subjective.

"Art can't be compared, but art needs to be seen." Tang Tu's conversations with him were never in a hurry, neither forcefully driven, nor careless, "If you're just afraid that you won't get the big prize Then you might as well try it, as long as you are shortlisted, it is worthy of recognition. And it will be more convenient for me to introduce you to others." He smiled at the end, as if he was making excuses for being lazy.

"Then I'll give it a try." Ruan Youqing was not afraid of not winning the award, but was a little worried about the negative impact that losing the election would have on the gallery and his future development. However, Tang Tu encouraged him so nonchalantly, so he decided to challenge it.

He went back to the corner where the Amakusa jellyfish was placed and squatted down, inspecting it carefully, just like Kawai's comment, it was beautiful, but Ruan Youqing still felt that it was missing something exciting.The reason why I didn't agree to it is also because of this.

In mid-March, the snow that had finally stopped came back within two weeks. Kawai and Sora Kojima escaped from the snow and ice to participate in activities in Okinawa to escape the cold, and they said they came back a week later.Ruan Youqing can monopolize the studio most of the time. When she is alone, she does not wear a hearing aid, and there is silence in her ears, only the friction and knocking sounds of tools, so that the vibration of the mobile phone not far away is not noticed by other people.

In the afternoon, he put the potted plant-sized transparent tree trunk into Xu Leng Furnace. Finally he felt hungry. He changed his work apron and took a shower, only to realize that his phone was not with him. He threw the instant soup curry into the microwave to heat it up. The unread message turned out to be Xu Hanyi who hadn't been in touch for a long time.She asked nonchalantly: Surprised or not!Not surprisingly!Handsome guy, you have to remember to thank me!

Here's another one: When I didn't say...

Seeing that the two times were separated by about 20 minutes, Ruan Youqing's few intuitions made him inexplicably excited. He sent a message to Xu Hanyi and asked her: What are you talking about?

Xu Hanyi didn't reply, he dialed her number immediately without hesitation, but the line was occupied and couldn't be reached.While dressing and locking the door, he continued to dial until the girl's voice came from the receiver: "Hello, Teacher Youqing."

"Yeah. It's me." Ruan Youqing's heart was beating wildly, and she couldn't find a place to hide even though the goose feather snow was falling all over her head and face.

"Well, although I'm talking too much...but it should be a surprise to tell you now...I accompanied the boss to Tokyo to participate in the art fair. Today is the last day. He left more than three hours ago. Go to I'm looking for you. It stands to reason that you should meet now. But..."

Ruan Youqing looked up at the dim sky. It has been snowing all over Hokkaido for the past few days. When the snow is heavy, public transportation will be delayed from time to time. I heard that the New Chitose Airport was temporarily closed for 48 hours last week. Many people are waiting to cross the border. Tourists are trapped in the waiting hall.

"He landed in Sapporo two hours ago." Xu Hanyi said, "I don't know that you haven't met yet..."

The new snow was soft, Ruan Youqing ran to Otaru Station to check the timetable, and sent a message to Tang Tu at the same time:

--Where are you now?

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Someone is on the way to slap in the face.

Amakusa jellyfish is also known as the bride's veil.