The suffocating silence lasted for half a minute, and Tao Ling lowered his head to reply to Wen Qingying: “I wasn’t really looking at anything, just talking to my colleague.”
If it weren’t for the suspicious red on the tip of his ear, this sentence would’ve been very convincing.
Wen Qingying didn’t ask any more questions but just said, “Sir, you have a good relationship with your colleagues. I rarely see you smile like this.”
Tao Ling was stunned: “Really? What smile?”
He clearly felt that he himself was angry just now. Wen Qingying said, “I can’t really explain it, but you smiled very beautifully. It feels like you’re really happy.”
At this point, Tao Ling couldn’t suppress the throbbing in his heart and simply lied half-truthfully: “The content is about you.”
Wen Qingying stood by the flower stand at the door, and when he saw this sentence, he was still for a while and then suddenly put his phone into his pocket and entered the store.
Tao Ling watched him walk towards him and suddenly felt a little nervous.
But before Wen Qingying came close, someone outside stuck his head out and shouted to Wen Qingying, “Nephew!”
Hearing this shout, Tao Ling raised an eyebrow.
Wen Qingying noticed the shift of his gaze, followed his gaze and looked back, and saw Wen Tongwei.
Wen Tongwei walked into the store with a smile and patted Wen Qingying on the shoulder: “Nephew, I didn’t talk to you properly last night!”
Tao Ling immediately understood the identity of this person. He stood up and saw that Wen Qingying didn’t react, so he said, “Hello.”
“Hey, hello.” Wen Tongwei seemed to have just seen him, and his body tilted slightly, and he glanced at him from beside Wen Qingying.
Tao Ling wasn’t sure what Wen Qingying’s attitude towards this person was, so he simply walked to his side, glanced at him from the corner of his eye, and, seeing that he had no obvious expression, he said to the visitor, “May I ask who you are?”
“I’m his uncle.” Wen Tongwei pointed at Wen Qingying and asked, “And you?”
Tao Ling replied calmly, “I’m the partner who opened this shop together with him. Uncle, please sit down first. I will go to pour you some water.”
Wen Qingying finally took out his phone and typed, “Uncle, please sit down. I will go to pour you some water.” After showing it to Wen Tongwei, he walked over and pulled out a chair under the table, motioned Wen Tongwei to sit down, and turned back to wash the cups.
Wen Tongwei took the opportunity to turn to Tao Ling: “My nephew really can’t hear anything?”
“Yes,” Tao Ling replied.
Wen Tongwei: “Then how do you guys communicate?”
Tao Ling: “Phone. But I’m also learning sign language right now.”
Wen Tongwei: “Is sign language difficult?”
Tao Ling thought for a moment: “It’s still difficult to communicate fluently. It will take a long time to learn.”
At this point, Wen Qingying turned around, took out his phone, and typed again: “Uncle, are you here for something today?”
Wen Tongwei obviously never came to see Wen Qingying for no reason, but seeing how complicated it was to communicate with Wen Qingying, he seemed a little hesitant. After reading Wen Qingying’s question, he mumbled to himself, “Then I’ll talk to your partner about it.”
Wen Qingying didn’t say anything, and Wen Tongwei smacked his lips slightly and still turned to Tao Ling: “Say, can you help me convey it to him?”
Tao Ling: “That works.” After saying these few words, he could see that this uncle was probably not a sincere relative, so he took out his usual attitude in the office and asked indifferently, “Do you want me to interpret it simultaneously or tell it to him later?”
Wen Tongwei tentatively said, “I’ll talk and you type?”
Tao Ling had no expression on his face. If it was someone else on the other side, he probably would’ve changed his expression as he thought of how arrogant this person was.
But this was Wen Qingying’s uncle, and he can’t afford to offend him, so he sent a message to Wen Qingying: “He said he’ll talk to me; I’ll pass it on to you.”
Wen Qingying was still typing, and Tao Ling said again, “I’ll listen first; don’t worry about me; I’ll pick the lines to tell you about, and I won’t tell you if I’m feeling lazy, okay?”
The messages came almost at the same time: “Sir, you can just listen. You don’t need to pass it on to me at the same time; it’s too tiring. I’ll have to trouble you, sir.”
Tao Ling said to Wen Tongwei, “You go ahead.” While sending a message: “Why are you saying this again? It’s me, so what’s there to worry about? If you don’t want to know anything, then that’s fine. If you don’t want to tell him anything, then that’s also fine. It’s all up to you. If there’s anything that I can answer, then I’ll take the initiative and answer, okay?”
Wen Qingying stood by, smiled, and nodded.
At the same time, Wen Tongwei asked, “Is my nephew still living with the Yun family?”
Tao Ling: “No, he has never lived there.”
Wen Tongwei: “Why? Although my sister died, she married into the Yun family after all, and my nephew is also a member of the Yun family.”
Tao Ling glanced at Wen Qingying and said, “His surname is Wen, not Yun. Uncle, have you never seen his older sister? It would be strange if our Qingying could stay in the Yun family.”
Wen Tongwei obviously expected this answer, and his expression was a little regretful: “How could he just leave like that? Then at least the Yun family should take care of his life; after all, he is a disabled person.”
“Uncle, look, if the Yun family can take care of his life, does he still need to open a flower shop here? He can’t speak or hear, so he can only open a small shop. He didn’t finish college, and he couldn’t find a job.” Tao Ling said, “And for so long, no family member has come to help him.”
Tao Ling pushed his glasses here and pretended to be puzzled: “Uncle, speaking of which, where were you before? Why has no one come to see Qingying?”
Wen Tongwei rubbed his hands and smiled: “We haven’t been in touch for many years.”
“No wonder.” Tao Ling smiled, “I didn’t even know Qingying had an uncle.”
Having said this, it seems that there is no need to translate to Wen Qingying. Wen Tongwei was still unwilling to give up. “Although it is like this now, it is still appropriate for my nephew to say something to his father, right?”
Tao Ling said “hm” in confusion: “His father? Where is he?”
Wen Tongwei said, “I meant his stepfather.”
“Alas.” Tao Ling sighed, deliberately keeping his mouth closed.
“That Yun He is too much.” Wen Tongwei said angrily, “Even if he is not his biological son, he is at least on the household registration book! He treated her son like this after my sister died?”
Tao Ling: “It’s not about Uncle Yun. In this situation, think about it, uncle. Auntie… Auntie is gone; there is no blood relationship; Qingying even left their house. The Yun family is just like distant relatives at best. How can they be a family? The Yun family is not a charity. The money and power will definitely be left to their own family. ”
At this point, Wen Tongwei seemed to have nothing more to say. Tao Ling took advantage of his inattention and raised his eyebrows at Wen Qingying. Wen Qingying blinked and responded, turning to take care of the flower rack.
Seeing that Wen Tongwei was about to speak again, Tao Ling said first, “Uncle, um, I have something to tell you.”
Wen Tongwei: “Go on.”
“So,” Tao Ling cleared his throat, a little embarrassed, “Qingying and I have invested a lot in the initial stage of the flower shop, and the rent in the city center is also expensive. I have encountered some problems during this period, and I’m short of money. Uncle, you are an elder, so I shouldn’t say this… But if you have enough money, can you lend us some?”
Wen Tongwei looked embarrassed and said, “I, I am in a difficult situation too. ”
After this, both sides fell into an awkward silence. After a long time, Wen Tongwei said, “I have something to do, so I’m leaving first.”
“Take care.” Tao Ling stood up.
Seeing Wen Tongwei going out, Wen Qingying put down the kettle and sent him out.
Seeing him disappear at the door, Tao Ling shrugged: “Who wouldn’t know how to say these things? Hmph.”
When Wen Qingying came in, he didn’t ask anything. Tao Ling knew that he probably knew his uncle’s character, so he didn’t say much.
Tao Ling kept thinking about what Xia Chi said. In the afternoon, they went back to Wen Qingying’s place and sat on the sofa with their shoulders leaning against each other to rest. He grabbed Wen Qingying’s hand and played with it back and forth. He pretended to turn over the inside of his arm casually and saw a small scar.
Wen Qingying’s skin color was cold and fair, and the scar was faintly pink, but the surrounding area was abnormally blue and white, so it wasn’t too difficult to recognize.
The moment he saw it clearly, Tao Ling’s heart tightened immediately, but he remained calm and maintained the same state as before. After seeing clearly, he turned his hand over again and gently stroked it.
After a while, Wen Qingying sent him a message: “Sir, you seem to be very interested in my hand today.”
Tao Ling was stunned. He didn’t know why, but it was easier for him to be choked when talking to Wen Qingying. After a while, he responded, “When did I lose interest in your hand? It’s so pretty.”
Wen Qingying smiled gently, and Tao Ling lowered his head and kissed his wrist. Wen Qingying struggled slightly to free his hand, then reached out to tilt up his chin.
Tao Ling didn’t struggle either; he just raised his head with Wen Qingying’s hand, opened his mouth slightly, and waited for the kiss.
He was obsessed with Wen Qingying’s hugs and kisses. It wasn’t like oxygen, which he needed to survive, but like sunshine and wind. He can live without these, but he will never be happy.
Maybe even on cloudy days, he would become a nameless wooden puppet, and he himself would never be able to discover the change and cast it off.
Fortunately.
The last day of the platform course was an in-class test. After grading and uploading the scores and dealing with some year-end summaries, Tao Ling can be considered to have ushered in the winter vacation.
As the year draws to a close, the flower shop business was particularly good. Tao Ling helps in the shop every day. Sometimes when he thinks about the past few years, he feels that life has suddenly become a real life.
But life was really a bit difficult.
Even though Wen Qingying took care of the purchase and most of the trivial matters, Tao Ling still felt tired, physically tired.
He couldn’t help but admire Wen Qingying. He got up early and went to bed late, worked hard, and was still so energetic and never complained of being tired.
It turned out that the physical strength of young people should not be underestimated.
On the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, after lunch, Wen Qingying was arranging fresh-cut flowers at the door. A woman came over from across the street. She was pretty, but her expression was a little gloomy.
She stood in front of the flower stand.
Wen Qingying raised his eyes and nodded to the woman. Tao Ling just came out of the store and put his arm around Wen Qingying’s shoulder and asked, “Hello, what kind of flowers would you like to order?”
The woman looked at Tao Ling for a long time without moving. Tao Ling turned his head and looked at Wen Qingying, then raised his voice and said, “Hello, customer, are you here to buy flowers?”
“Hello, I want a bunch of zinnias.[mfn]
[/mfn]” The woman said softly.
Tao Ling felt that the woman was a little strange, but he didn’t investigate further and replied, “Apologies, it’s not the flowering season for zinnias now, but you can look at other flowers.”
The woman asked, “Aren’t they all grown in greenhouses? I thought they were always available.”
Tao Ling smiled: “Although they are all artificially cultivated, climate is still an important factor. Zinnias are not cold-resistant, and even if they bloom, the shape of the flowers wouldn’t be perfect.”
The woman nodded: “Yes, zinnias are not cold-resistant, just like love. ”
Tao Ling frowned slightly, a little surprised. The woman said, “Sorry, thank you.”
She turned around to leave but took two steps and suddenly turned back. She looked at Tao Ling and asked, “Excuse me, this is a bit presumptuous, but are you gay?”
TL: Happy Chinese New Year!
Thank you so much for translating, I really love this story