"A girl invited me to the street dance club to watch her dance."
Chen Wen answered honestly.
Jiang Qiuyi, on the other end of the call, paused. "Who?"
"Uh..." Chen Wen glanced blankly at He Ran, but still could not remember her name. He could only say, "The one who sat next to me when we ate before."
He Ran looked surprised beside him. Does he even report having meals with other girls to his girlfriend?
"Oh~" Jiang Qiuyi's tone remained calm. "Did you put it on speaker? She's right beside you, isn't she?"
Chen Wen hummed, turned his phone screen toward He Ran, and gestured for her to say hello.
"Hello, Senior Qiuyi, I'm He Ran~" He Ran greeted her brightly, refusing to be outdone as she launched her counterattack. "It's like this—didn't Master teach me how to make rings last weekend?"
"I happened to run into Master today, so I wanted to treat him to a milk tea and show him around the street dance club while he watched me perform the dance I just learned."
"Consider it thanks for his help last time~"
"Mm, I understand." Jiang Qiuyi did not intend to take the bait directly. Instead, she asked Chen Wen, "Do you want to go?"
"No." Chen Wen told the truth.
He Ran: "?"
Was he really that direct?
Couldn't he at least spare her feelings?
"Then don't go." Like the parent of a spoiled little brat, Jiang Qiuyi indulged Chen Wen completely. Then she changed the subject and said to He Ran, "Sorry, junior."
"Our Chen Wen is rather blunt, and he absolutely does not know how to compliment people."
"It wouldn't be good for him to go alone with you. What if he says something wrong and offends you? You wouldn't be happy then, either."
"The next time I visit the Finance University, I'll bring Chen Wen along to watch you dance. We can have a meal together or something."
Hearing Jiang Qiuyi reach that point, Chen Wen did not give the two women another chance to spar. He hung up directly and said to He Ran, "That's it. I'm leaving."
Before He Ran could continue, Chen Wen had already strode away, leaving her standing there in a daze.
Why... had things turned out completely differently from what she had imagined?
Gu Wen had called his girlfriend directly. Wasn't he afraid she would get jealous and angry?
My dear little girlfriend: Did you go straight home this afternoon?
Chen Wen had just gotten on the subway when he received Jiang Qiuyi's WeChat message. She seemed not to have taken what happened earlier to heart at all.
Chen Wen: Yeah, the Interpreter only has the last step left.
My dear little girlfriend: I get out at four thirty. Can you come pick me up? Let's go buy groceries together~
Chen Wen: Okay.
My dear little girlfriend: I'm about to start class. See you this afternoon~
Chen Wen: Mm.
Putting away his phone, Chen Wen sat on the subway and took out a book to read slowly, standing in stark contrast to everyone around him staring at their phones.
Thanks to the book and his handsome face, Chen Wen drew a great deal of attention on the subway. When his stop finally arrived, he gave his seat to an elderly lady who had just boarded.
After returning to his rental, Chen Wen cleaned as usual before putting on a mask and entering the craft room to begin the final stage of making the Interpreter.
On the tall worktable in the craft room lay a pitch-black longsword.
The main body of the sword was black, with a circle of silver-white edging around it.
At the end of the blade was a spiked crescent moon connected to a half-cross-shaped guard.
Chen Wen turned on the camera he had prepared, gripped the Interpreter's hilt, and swung it twice.
The weight and feel of the Zitan wood were just right. It was neither too light like ordinary wood nor too heavy like iron.
If not for the overly flamboyant shape of its guard, the Interpreter could have been used by old men in the morning park for sword-dancing exercise.
Setting down the Interpreter, Chen Wen took out some wood wax oil, dabbed a little onto a tissue, and carefully applied it to the blade.
As a consumable specifically used to maintain wood, wood wax oil made the surface especially bright and lustrous after application.
In the professional terminology of Bilibili, it was "injecting a soul" into the Interpreter.
Chen Wen recorded this part with a close-up shot. Enhanced by the wood wax oil, the Interpreter was completely renewed, like a real sharp sword reflecting a keen gleam beneath the lights.
Chen Wen inserted the Interpreter into the black oak scabbard, tested the feel of drawing it, and nodded in satisfaction.
It was a pity he did not know how to wield a sword. Otherwise, the video would probably have turned out even better.
Chen Wen walked to the wall, placed the Interpreter on the sword stand he had prepared long ago, and picked up the camera to shoot more footage.
At this point, the production video for the Interpreter had come to a temporary end.
Chen Wen returned to his bedroom with the camera, uploaded the footage to his computer, and planned to make a rough cut first.
At that moment, Si Jiao Ji messaged him on WeChat and sent over a video—the rough cut of last weekend's ring-making video.
Si Jiao Ji: Take a look and see if there's anything unsuitable. I'll revise it, then send it off for post-production.
Ill-informed Wen: Give me a moment. I'll take a look.
Chen Wen opened the video and began watching the roughly ten-minute short film.
He wore a mask throughout the entire process, and the camerawoman had also made sure not to capture the view outside the windows. Everything indoors had been filmed in the living room and craft room.
Chen Wen was still a novice when it came to editing, so there was not much he could advise on.
Si Jiao Ji had certainly not sent him the video to ask for his suggestions.
She simply wanted him to check whether there were any private details that could not be revealed, so she could remove or alter them beforehand.
Ill-informed Wen: No problems.
Si Jiao Ji: OK. I should post this video tomorrow or the day after. Remember to come support it when I do.
Ill-informed Wen: Okay.
After that little interruption, Chen Wen spent the entire afternoon making the rough cut.
At around four o'clock, he tidied up and headed toward the Music Academy.
Huajing Garden was very close to the Music Academy, only a few minutes away on foot.
Chen Wen took out his phone and checked his photo album, finding Jiang Qiuyi's class schedule.
Her last class on Friday afternoon was Vocal Accompaniment, held in He Yue Building, Room 301.
Perhaps because of his appearance, Chen Wen was not stopped by security or asked to show a student ID. He walked straight into the Music Academy campus.
Although Jiang Qiuyi had brought him here to look around before, Chen Wen had mostly forgotten the route and naturally had no idea where He Yue Building was.
Since he would never take the initiative to speak to strangers, Chen Wen did not ask anyone for directions. He wandered around, feeling his way through the campus, and only barely found Jiang Qiuyi's classroom at four thirty.
Just as the dismissal bell rang, Jiang Qiuyi walked out of the classroom with her classmates and spotted Chen Wen waiting down the hallway at a glance.
"Chen Wen!" Jiang Qiuyi raced through the crowd to him and threw herself straight into his arms.
Seeing the usually quiet and reserved Jiang Qiuyi hug an unfamiliar man like that, the people around them could not help staring in shock.
In an instant, Chen Wen drew countless gazes.
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