News from Taiwan

Chapter 15 How is it possible?
The first thing Jiang Guier saw was Li Tou's penmanship, which was vigorous and elegant. Seeing the words was like seeing the person. Shen Huaizhou's handwriting was just like his personality, aloof and proud.

His calligraphy flows smoothly, its fluidity concealing a sharp edge, restrained yet stoic.

She looked carefully at the words on the paper:

"Seeing this letter is like seeing the person in person; I love it."

I caught a cold this morning and felt unwell. After thinking about it, I realized it was because I was craving your cooking.

Having been away from home for so long, I wonder if your cooking skills have improved. You can't just use half salt and half sugar like before. You need a little salt, two spoonfuls of sugar, and simmer it for a little longer with firewood to make the braised pork delicious.

After a long pause, I wrote: My beloved, please remember this well.

"Are you sure... this is what it says?" Jiang Guier looked at Shen Huaizhou with some doubt.

Shen Huaizhou frowned. "Miss Jiang, please speak frankly."

Jiang Guier stared at the paper in front of her, looking at it again and again. The shirt she was wearing clung to her skin, and she could smell its cool, faint fragrance.

She couldn't believe what she was seeing. This was a letter her great-grandmother had treasured for decades. Although she had never seen it before, the fact that it had been kept for so long must have been a special kind of affection. Not to mention that the letter didn't even have a signature.

What is the content of this letter?

It's just a short, unremarkable piece of text, what's so special about it that it's worth treasuring?
“I didn’t mean anything by it. I just felt that if the contents of this letter were just this, why would my great-grandmother have treasured it for decades? The letter contained only a brief greeting and mentioned making braised pork... it just felt a bit disjointed.”

Her fingernails dug into the cuffs of her shirt, embedding themselves deep into the fabric.

She lowered her head and muttered to herself, "Why does Grandma keep thinking about it, even on her sickbed? It can't be because she wants to eat braised pork, can it?"

Shen Huaizhou kept his eyes on Jiang Guier, noticing even the small movements she made with her hands and the slight trembling of her eyelashes as she spoke. "Don't worry, I recorded the entire repair process. I'll show it to you."

As Jiang Guier followed his movements, she noticed that there was a camera clipped to a bracket on the repair table.

Shen Huaizhou handed over the camera casually. Jiang Guier's fingers brushed against his palm, and she consciously took half a step back. The silver bracelet on her wrist drew a cold arc under the light, and that halo landed right on his tense jawline.

"Okay, thank you. Please wait a moment while I take a look." Jiang Guier lowered her head and began watching the video.

"The video is quite long, so you can skip ahead a bit."

As he spoke, Shen Huaizhou slid his finger across the camera screen and adjusted it to a suitable position. "You can start looking from this position; this is where the text begins to be recorded."

Jiang Guier nodded and consciously glanced at the video's length, which was a full four hours.

She secretly calculated in her mind that she received the call at around 6 a.m., which would be 2 a.m. four hours earlier.

He wasn't asleep?

As soon as the thought popped into her head, Jiang Guier couldn't help but turn to look at Shen Huaizhou. Sure enough, she saw the dark circles under his eyes and his whole body looked extremely tired.

She was in such a hurry when she came in that she didn't even notice.

The other party worked through the night to produce results, and she questioned them as soon as she arrived, which was somewhat impolite.

"Um, Ms. Shen, if you're tired, you can go and take a rest."

Shen Huaizhou lowered his eyelashes further, concealing the turbulent emotions in his eyes. The long eyelashes also covered the dark circles under his eyes. He shook his head. "No need."

"It's really okay, you must be tired after staying up all night." Jiang Guier insisted that he go and rest.

Even capitalists' cattle and horses need rest time.

She glanced at the video; it would take at least an hour to watch, and if she were to scrutinize the details and look for problems later, it might take two hours. So why make the other person stand there waiting? Why refuse to rest?

She doesn't understand.

“Ms. Jiang, the restoration work is definitely not faked.”

Shen Huaizhou's voice was a little hoarse. He pointed to the camera screen with his fingertip, "I'll watch it with you. You can ask me anything you don't understand. In the video, you can see all my work and how I used these fiber residues as a basis to reconstruct the structure bit by bit."

"Well... how about we sit down and watch?" Jiang Guier gestured that she was wearing high heels.

Shen Huaizhou nodded, and the two sat down on the rattan chairs at the tea table.

Jiang Guier lay on the recliner and began to watch the video carefully. When she saw something she didn't understand, she would manually change the playback speed and watch it again.

The video clearly shows the moment the tweezers parted the paper, and Shen Huaizhou's profile as he held his breath while picking up the pen, all of which flowed slowly across the screen.

What captivated her most were those hands—beautiful, strong, and with distinct knuckles.

Meanwhile, Shen Huaizhou, who was off-screen, was sitting opposite her. He had somehow gotten around to wearing a modified white Chinese-style stand-up collar shirt. To the naked eye, it appeared to be made of a combination of linen and satin fabric, with a few bamboo leaves embroidered in the same white silk thread on the chest, giving it an elegant and unique look.

He was holding the purple clay teapot on the edge of the tea tray with his well-defined knuckles, pouring the unknown packet of tea leaves from the table into the teapot.

As the tea leaves fall into the teapot, the sound is as soft as falling snow, and the green buds and leaves are accompanied by a delicate fragrance.

The water was now boiling. He turned his wrist slightly, and the boiling water poured into the teapot. The rising steam blurred his features, but one could clearly see that his knuckles, gripping the teapot handle, were white, and his grip was steady.

A fragrant aroma of tea wafted over.

"Miss Jiang, is there any question you have that I can help you answer?"

"No need to thank me." Caught red-handed, Jiang Guier turned her head calmly and continued watching the video in her hand.

"Thump." On the coffee table beside him, there was a light blue Ru kiln teacup with ice crack patterns, containing a light tea soup.

"Thank you."

When she was more than halfway through the video, Jiang Guier reached for her now-cold teacup, just as she was about to ask a question. But when she looked up, she found that the person opposite her had fallen asleep in the recliner.

Shen Huaizhou was probably tired. He rested his left hand on the armrest and his right hand on the edge of the chair, only half an inch away from the tea tray, where the freshly brewed tea had already lost its heat.

Jiang Guier then noticed that Shen Huaizhou had superior features, and the ends of his hair falling over his forehead made him appear less sharp.

His skin was also very fair, and the pale blue veins at his wrists were clearly visible, creating a striking contrast with the ginger-yellow rattan chair.

Jiang Gui'er was so captivated by the sight that she lost her grip on the teacup, which slipped from her hand.

"Clap."

When I looked up again, I met Shen Huaizhou's deep eyes...

　The next chapter will be available soon, my darlings.

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(End of this chapter)