Glass Butterfly

The day before Tang Tu's departure, they had twists and turns, and they finally got the Takahashi House they had been longing for.

After Zhang Wenbin took him to try it once during the New Year, Ruan Youqing liked the sense of anticipation of not knowing what the next dish would be, so he went there alone after New Year's Eve, and the menu was almost completely different from the previous one.At that time, he deliberately paid attention to it, and asked the young chef Satoshi Takahashi, who is the future fourth generation of Takahashiya, and got the answer that the dishes will change according to the month.

"In March, the state of seafood is still maintained." Mr. Takahashi, who is close to his age, said to him in standard Chinese, "At the end of the season of Hokkaido's famous white sea urchin, red pine leaf crabs are also beginning to accumulate fat. Mr. Ruan must come and taste it when he is free, just call me."

Early in the morning, Ruan Youqing called to reserve a seat in front of the board, and said that he would take friends there to eat. Takahashi teased him in a disappointed tone, "Don't shake me, every time I think I can see you and leave the best food, but you Always ad hoc cancellations.”

The phone was turned on hands-free, Tang Tu couldn't help frowning and looked up at him when he heard this, Ruan Youqing hurriedly said apologetically, "Today must be."

"It's rare to be a chef at such a young age." Tang Tu inserted the straw into the soy milk soft drink box, and said without beginning or end.

"You know he's young?" Ruan Youqing felt that the voice over the phone was unreal, not to mention that the voice of an adult man couldn't tell the difference in age.

The other party was obviously taken aback, and bowed his head for a long time before saying: "The last time the chef took a photo with you, Zhang Wenbin sent it to me by accident."

Their first stop in Sapporo was the Kotaro Migishi Art Museum, which neither of them had ever set foot in.

It was Tang Tu's suggestion the night before: "Go and have a look, you will definitely like it."

In fact, Ruan Youqing was not as interested in paintings as in sculptures, but Tang Tu's determination also aroused his curiosity, and he refrained from checking the information in advance, not wanting to destroy this mystery.

The Japanese painter who died young at the age of 31 left dozens of masterpieces. Ruan Youqing went up to the second floor and met his "must like" works at a glance.

That is the elf that flew here with the breath of the Showa era in 1934. On the blue sea, a big white butterfly spread its wings and flew over an unknown distance. As a pioneer, it explored this end of the ocean, not far behind. A few colorful butterflies followed closely behind.

"Butterfly flying across the ocean." Tang Tu whispered close to his ear, "The work he left in the year he died. He seems to like butterflies very much like you." He pointed to the nearby Walls, "There are also."

A painting with a metal frame, six butterflies of different colors and shapes are locked in a box, and each butterfly has a red thumbtack pierced into its chest.Ruan Youqing felt a chill in her heart, are these lifelike little guys corpses... That's right, when the butterfly doesn't move, there is not much difference between being alive and dead, the beauty of those specimens can linger for a long time... except the upper right corner that one.The pin on its chest fell off, or it might have been freed by it. The blue butterfly flew away from the paper, seeking freedom.

After leaving the art museum, Ruan Youqing took out his mobile phone and wanted to check this good Taro Migishi, but unfortunately there was very little about his life, and he did not know why this outstanding painter had a special liking for butterflies in the year before his death.

"It seems that I have never asked, why do you like butterflies?" Tang Tu seemed to see what was on his mind.

"I didn't particularly like it at first." In Ruan Youqing's memories, he always seemed to see butterflies flying nearby. "They seemed to like me, and they always flew towards me on their own initiative." He stretched out his hand and pressed it on Tang Tu's waistline.Even through several layers of clothes, the beautiful tattoo can be accurately caught, and the butterfly has been flying for a long time before choosing to stay in his palm.

"Let's go..." Tang Tu didn't change his face except that his earlobe was flushed, he lowered his head and moved his hand away, and clasped his fingers instead.

They walked all the way to Chase Park.The holiday park was full of people under the clear sky, and the front line of cherry blossoms finally came to Sapporo at the end of April. The large blooming cherry blossoms were like pink and white clouds slowly floating in the air. When the wind passed by, the slender petals swirled for a long time and fell slowly On stone bricks, grass, and people's hats or hair.

Here, the blooming of cherry blossoms is always accompanied by parting and new encounters.But Ruan Youqing was not sad at the moment, that hand was still tightly held by the people around him, Tang Tu still showed a decent smile in front of people, even if he was bumped into by a naughty child, he was not annoyed at all, just nodded politely to accept the parents Apologize, indicating that the other party is okay.Being around such a person, it seemed that blending into the crowd became much easier.

"Let's go." He moved his fingers.

Tang Tu smiled at him: "It's rare for you to join in the fun for so long."

After the sky darkened, the wind suddenly picked up, and when they arrived at Takahashi House, someone was earlier than them.A waitress in a dark kimono leaned down at the door to lead them in, took the initiative to take Tang Tu's windbreaker at the entrance, and hung it up carefully, brushing her fingers lightly over her shoulders to smooth out the wrinkles.

The leftmost two of the six positions in front of the board are occupied by two young men talking and laughing with the chef.

Seeing them seated, Takahashi took the initiative to greet them: "Mr. Ruan is here. This is your...friend?"

At first glance.

Ruan Youqing paused, not thinking for a while how to deal with it.The relationship between him and Tang Tu is that of an art manager and an artist, and also a relationship of friends that can be understood by each other. Now there is a deeper and more intimate relationship of lovers.But he had never introduced Tang Tu to others.

"It's a friend." Seeing him in a daze, Tang Tu took the initiative to reply to Takahashi for him. His generous smile should be perfect in the eyes of others, but in Ruan Youqing's eyes, he could see a trace of exploration and precaution, maybe it was just now Tang Tu misunderstood the hesitation.

"It's not a friend, it's a boyfriend, but he can speak Japanese, and his English is also very good. Don't worry, Takahashi-kun." Although he was not sure what Tang Tu thought, since he himself didn't want to be friends with Tang Tu, then he wouldn't. Hope others think they are just friends.

As soon as the voice fell, the scene seemed to be still for a few seconds, and then there was a brisk laughter, which turned out to be the two diners next to him.When entering the door, Ruan Youqing only caught a glimpse of their intimacy, and only then did she see the exact same black rings on their ring fingers. Are they actually a same-sex couple...

"Sit down." Takahashi turned around and took out a wooden food box from the safe to show them, in which were neatly stacked the fresh ingredients provided to them tonight.Although the lighting is not very bright, the full luster of the ingredients is still attractive: "If you come two weeks later, many things will be out of season."

Ruan Youqing had been wearing hearing aids all day, and her ear canals felt uncomfortable.He took a look at Tang Tu, took off the earplugs and put them aside, and finally he felt clean. The other party also understood what he meant, intercepted all of Takahashi's conversations, and took the trouble to exchange pleasantries for him.

Takahashi has studied abroad in many countries, and he can speak Chinese, English and French well. He chatted happily with Tang Tu. Ruan Youqing asked the kimono waitress for a plate of ice cubes, which he added to Tang Tu's teacup from time to time.

As the dishes were served on the flat plate in front of them, the sound of communication gradually decreased.Takahashi only briefly introduced the dishes, and most of the time he was busy with his head down, marking the fat fish with a flower knife, or skillfully pinching the rice balls.After a few thick sashimi and appetizing seaweed appetizers, there are some fresh and plump sushi, followed by Hokkaido's unique white corn tempura, a layer of crispy batter wrapped in sweet and creamy corn kernels, which makes it crackle when you bite .Tang Tu would frown and nod almost every time he finished a dish, Ruan Youqing couldn't help but feel complacent, he really liked these cold dishes.

"Hokkaido-produced red pine leaf crab." Takahashi put the crab leg meat that had just been quickly burnt with an open flame gun on the flat plate in front of them, and the bottom layer was covered with crispy perilla leaves.The crab meat naturally spreads out like Japanese spruce pine leaves, soft, tender and sweet, worthy of the reputation of the representative of Hokkaido.

At the end of the meal, it was a solid bowl of soup curry.Locally picked fresh vegetables invade the spicy curry in the broth, warming you from head to toe.But it might be a little exciting for someone.

Tang Tu filled a spoonful of soup and blew it for a long time before hesitatingly dipped the tip of his tongue in the soup to test it, and then took a sip slowly.I don't know if he thinks it's hot or spicy, so he hastily picked up the iced tea beside him and poured it down.

"Don't you like spicy food?" Takahashi was very careful, "I'll change a bowl for you."

"Thank you, sorry." Tang Tu handed the bowl back.

A dinner, eating and chatting, three hours passed in a blink of an eye.When Ruan Youqing paid the bill this time, Takahashi didn't leave the board, but just watched them off.

"Do you like it?" He asked Tang Tu when he went out.

"I like it, it's delicious. Especially the fresh crab and scallops. It's very sweet." Tang Tu was obviously very satisfied.They walked slowly to the station and took the bus back to Otaru, but they were not in a hurry to go back.

"The luggage hasn't been packed yet," Ruan Youqing reminded him.

"Yeah. Soon." Tang Tu pulled him towards the canal: "Let's go."

Half an hour later, Ruan Youqing stopped him and said, "It's time to go back." Afraid that Tang Tu would be tired from the journey, he abruptly stopped on the side of the road.

Tang Tu sighed: "Okay."

"Spring will pass soon." Ruan Youqing said, "When summer comes, I will go back."

"... Mmm." Tang Tu raised his hand and rubbed the top of his hair.

In the evening of the next day, he sent Tang Tu to the airport. In the waiting hall, the two of them didn't kiss each other like in the movie, and Tang Tu didn't look back reluctantly.They only hugged gently, and Ruan Youqing watched him go out of the customs and into the security check.

It wasn't until he got on the car back to Otaru that his mind suddenly went blank. Almost at the same time, his phone started to vibrate.

Tang Tu sent two messages in a row.

— is about to take off.

——I seem to miss you a little bit.

Ruan Youqing replied to him:

--Me too.

It turns out that falling in love is really so nasty.Ruan Youqing was a little worried about how to spend the next two months. He heard that long-distance love is prone to problems, and he didn't know how to comfort an insecure lover.

But it didn't take long for him to know that this worry was unnecessary. After Tang Tu went to work, sometimes he couldn't leave a word for three to five days.And Ruan Youqing has a new colleague here, a girl who just graduated from Hokkaido University, who came here under the name of Miu Kawai, and also wants to become a glass artist.But compared to Ruan Youqing, her foundation is much weaker. She only came into contact with the medium of glass in her senior year, so she was extremely slow to learn everything. Ruan Youqing also taught her the most basic blowing skills instead of Kawai Meiyu during her breaks.He is not very good at explaining, so he can only demonstrate it to her personally over and over again.

Kawai praised his patience and handed over the new assistant almost entirely to him.But Ruan Youqing just wanted to try out some of her own ideas before returning to China. After all, the conditions of the old factory buildings in Venice are very different from those here, and I am afraid that such an opportunity will be difficult to come by in the future.So he resolutely gave up his habit of traveling around on weekends and kept all his time in the studio.