Chapter 4

So a little later Zhang Qian went with Chu Fei to the antique market on Hanzheng Street.

Because Chu Fei knew that as his mother He Peiling got older, she had also grown more and more devout, believing in Buddha and Guanyin and the like...

Maybe she was also trying to atone for herself?

Chu Fei used to refuse to think too much about it, but now that he was going back to his mother, it would be good to bring her something.

The antique market had everything under the sun, a jumble of genuine and fake, good and bad mixed together. But Chu Fei wasn’t a professional at this sort of thing. He was just here to pick out a few things that caught his eye, and the only thing he was after was cheap...

Fine, the real reason was that he truly didn’t have much extra money on him.

All the way there, Zhang Qian kept her arm linked with his, drawing a lot of looks from people around them, while Chu Fei himself strolled along absentmindedly, glancing around as he walked.

There were plenty of nice things, but he couldn’t afford them, and he didn’t want Zhang Qian paying for them either, so he could only act indifferent. He knew that the moment he showed even a hint of liking something, Zhang Qian would buy it for him no matter how expensive it was...

Even though they had broken up two years ago.

But when they passed a cluttered street stall, Chu Fei suddenly stopped in his tracks. He stared strangely at a bronze pot mixed in with a pile of junk on the stall, one that gave off a faint glow. It looked like something very old, and despite being so unusual and eye-catching, why was nobody else even glancing at it?

"Do you see that bronze pot?" Chu Fei tugged at Zhang Qian.

"Looks like some broken piece... You’ve taken a fancy to it?"

Chu Fei looked around at the passersby. No one else was paying attention to that bronze pot. Even Zhang Qian beside him couldn’t see it glowing. Was he the only one who could?

So Chu Fei led Zhang Qian over, pretending to rummage casually through the pile of odds and ends, then picked out a bracelet made of something that looked like jade and carved with a Guanyin figure. "Boss, how much for this?"

"Five hundred!" The stall owner, scratching his toes, was leering at Zhang Qian beside Chu Fei with her white cleavage spilling out. In this season, there really weren’t many women daring enough to dress like that.

"I’ll take this broken bronze pot too. One hundred yuan for both."

"Two items, minimum two-fifty!"

"One hundred!" Zhang Qian took out her wallet, pulled out a hundred, and casually tossed it in front of the owner. Then she bent slightly, smiling faintly. "Boss, is that okay or not?"

"Okay! Okay!" The owner stared at the deep, pale valley of her cleavage and swallowed hard. How could he still bring himself to say no?

"Thanks!" Zhang Qian laughed softly, straightened up, and hooked her arm through Chu Fei’s as they left.

Back in the car, Zhang Qian turned the bronze pot over in her hands again and again, but couldn’t see anything special about it. At most, it had a somewhat archaic shape. The top, though, was missing a large chunk, and it looked as if it had been smashed...

But wasn’t this supposed to be a bronze vessel?

How could it have been broken like this?

So Zhang Qian curled her lips slightly.

"Why did you buy it? This thing probably isn’t even worth ten yuan."

Maybe everyone else thought the same, which was why it had been tossed into the pile of junk like garbage.

But Chu Fei knew that wasn’t true at all, because the moment he took the bronze pot into his hands, he suddenly felt as if something were calling to him.

He stuffed the two items into his backpack at random, then headed straight for the train station.

Before boarding, Chu Fei stood on the platform and took one last look at the sky over Wuhan, then looked at Zhang Qian as well. At last, a faint, relieved smile appeared on his face. "I never thought the person who would come see me off in the end would be you... Zhang Qian, I’ll remember you for the rest of my life."

"Why are you suddenly being so sentimental? When you come back after the New Year, I’ll have someone introduce you to a few good jobs!"

Zhang Qian openly leaned into Chu Fei’s arms and kissed him on the lips before watching him board the southbound bullet train. At that moment, of course, she could never have imagined that when Chu Fei came back again, he would be completely different.

With the speed of the bullet train, by seven or eight in the evening Chu Fei was already standing outside the exit of Shenzhen Railway Station.

"Xiao Fei! Xiao Fei, I’m over here!"

"Mom! Didn’t I say you didn’t need to come pick me up? I’m not that helpless, I know how to find my way around..." Seeing that his mother looked a few years older again, Chu Fei was overwhelmed with guilt. He rushed forward and hugged her hard. "I’m sorry, Mom. I’m late!"

"You’re here... and that’s enough!" He Peiling’s nose stung with emotion. The son she had missed day and night had finally come back to her side!

"Come on, this room is yours. Knowing you were coming, I bought everything new... It’s a little small, but for now you’ll have to make do. Once we have money, we’ll get you a bigger room."

He Peiling held her son’s hand, her face filled with a deeply contented smile. God knew how long it had been since she had felt this way.

"Mm, it’s fine. It’s only a place to sleep." Chu Fei casually tossed his backpack onto the bed. "Mom, I’ll go take a look at the shop with you. Starting today, you need to get more rest!"

"Good! Good!"