Qixi Festival
Liu Yuewang didn't add him immediately because she needed time to convey that she had asked her daughter "An Nuan" for her number—an action the other party might guess. If she added him right away, wouldn't it imply that she remembered his number, or that she had some direct means of finding out, such as that she herself was "An Nuan"...?
Five minutes later, Liu Yuewang submitted a friend request.
Liu Chang'an had already turned off his phone again and didn't see it immediately. He wandered around the campus, which resembled a green town. The newly built inter-campus driveway used asphalt mixture. In Liu Chang'an's opinion, the color and structure of this material were very beautiful. He looked at it carefully and thought that if he could cut out a section and inlay it as a work of art in the style of materials science, it would be more aesthetically pleasing than many random and meaningless paintings.
Liu Chang'an walked for a while, then sat under the shade of a tree by the roadside and stared at the asphalt road, the scattered withered leaves, the tires of passing vehicles, the girl's Little White shoes and short socks. Each scene was full of the beauty of life. Therefore, many people's pursuit of modern art works, apart from hype and money laundering, mostly stems from a shallow aesthetic sense and a lack of ability to discover beauty.
The more aesthetically pleasing and capable a person is of discovering beauty, the less they need to frequently participate in seemingly refined activities to elevate themselves or demonstrate that they can match the refined taste of the elite.
When Liu Chang'an felt lonely, he would quiet down and become like an observer of the world, or perhaps blend into it completely, indistinguishable from an ant slowly passing by or a falling leaf.
Until he saw a beautiful young woman.
She was tall and slender, her long legs seemingly taking up most of her height. Unlike many girls whose legs don't appear long even when they're tall because their upper bodies are too disproportionate, her waist was slender yet had a rounded, athletic shape, perfectly connecting to her hip line. She always seemed to hop around when she walked. The sunlight and shadows of the trees intertwined, creating a beautiful scene that seemed to travel through time. Her two ponytails, which hung smoothly behind her ears, were slightly disheveled. She casually flicked them with her fingers, tilted her head back, and smoothed her fluffy bangs. As if remembering something, the corners of her mouth curled up slightly in a sweet smile. Then she picked up her phone, made a call, and gave a slightly reproachful look. She hummed and spun around in place, unlocked a shared bicycle, and disappeared into the shadows as she pedaled through the tree-lined bike path.
Life is fleeting, and parting is easily heartbreaking. So let us not refuse frequent feasts and songs.
A vast landscape stretches before me, yet my thoughts drift far away; falling blossoms and wind and rain only deepen my sorrow for spring. Better to cherish the person before me.
Liu Chang'an stood up and stretched.
How can a man relieve his sorrow? Not with wine, but with a young girl.
Liu Chang'an found a secluded corner, removed his facial makeup, walked through the 1990s-style teachers' residential area, then walked to the roadside and continued walking back, revealing himself on what he thought was a very attractive asphalt mixture.
I remember 20 or 30 years ago, many asphalt roads would become soft and warm to the touch in the summer. Mischievous children wearing sandals would run around on them, and their shoes would sometimes get stuck, leading to tragic accidents.
Liu Chang'an returned home, changed his clothes, and kept most of his belongings in the downstairs storage room; he didn't even move his bed upstairs.
He took out his large oil-paper umbrella, then removed the canopy. As a man, a fancy umbrella canopy was certainly not his aesthetic, and a black and gray canopy was not suitable as a gift for a girl.
Qixi Festival is approaching, Liu Chang'an is preparing to give An Nuan a paper umbrella he made himself.
Modern people celebrate Qixi Festival, but because it lacks the traditional atmosphere of focusing on girls and the activities of praying for skill and worshipping the Seven Sisters, it has developed into a festival no different from Valentine's Day in February. This has been met with opposition and ridicule from many so-called traditional culture revivalists and disseminators. In reality, this is just a sense of superiority attached to what they are doing. It is neither noble nor interesting, and it is even somewhat foolish without their knowledge.
Nothing is immutable. Any symbolic meaning can change over time. For example, the Qixi Festival originally originated from the worship of natural celestial phenomena, but it was later imbued with the influence of love because of the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl.
Liu Chang'an didn't care about these things. Thinking that An Nuan might care about the first Valentine's Day after the two of them officially got together, Liu Chang'an made some preparations.
Making traditional oiled paper umbrellas is actually a very troublesome process, with a complex procedure that often involves eighty or ninety steps. While such products are not produced on assembly lines, assembly lines mean uniform specifications, materials, and shapes. As a refined gift, it lacks the meticulous attention to detail required for true craftsmanship.
The foundation of making oil-paper umbrellas is selecting bamboo. Currently, to find suitable bamboo in Junsha, one would probably have to go to a botanical garden with decades of history to cut it.
Liu Chang'an thought about it and decided it was best not to do such a thing, as it did not conform to the core socialist values.
Of course, most importantly, after selecting the bamboo, the bamboo used to make the frame not only has to undergo long periods of soaking in water, drying and polishing, but also other time-consuming processes that cannot be completed quickly.
Of course, it was impossible to select new bamboo, so we had to use this oil-paper umbrella made from bamboo that Mr. Ye Chenyu had carefully selected, a variety that is now extinct, as the base.
Mr. Ye Chenyu was once a financial magnate, but when he passed the business to Professor Liu, all that was left was an umbrella.
Professor Liu wasn't that wasteful; it was just that, being a state-employed worker during the era of public ownership, he received only ration coupons for food, meat, and drinks each month and had no ambition whatsoever. All that was left for Liu Chang'an was that rattan trunk and his ancestral umbrella.
Liu Chang'an showed no appreciation for his ancestral umbrella. He would even dismantle the bamboo umbrella made from the very same bamboo that Ehuang and Nüying had shed tears for, as long as his girlfriend was happy.
Just an analogy; this umbrella certainly hasn't been stained with the tears of Ehuang and Nüying.
His umbrella was too big; it had to be disassembled and remade from the same materials.
"Brother Chang'an, are you going to start the fire?"
Zhou Dongdong ran over with a small white airplane wing on her back and asked with great interest.
"Which eye of yours saw me preparing to start a fire?"
"This one and this one." Zhou Dongdong took off the Ultraman mask and pointed to his two eyes.
"I'll light a fire and roast Zhou Dongdong to eat."
"I'm not tasty at all!" Zhou Dongdong wasn't particularly scared, because all Chang'an- gege knew was eating. If she were tasty, he would have eaten her long ago.
"Do you know why I often cook delicious food for you?" Liu Chang'an put down the oil-paper umbrella and asked, pinching Zhou Dongdong's chubby cheeks.
"Because I'm clever and brave?" Zhou Dongdong asked uncertainly. Of course, she was sure she was clever and brave, but she wasn't sure about Chang'an's reasons.
"Because you don't taste good right now, I'll feed you more delicious food, and you'll become delicious, then I'll eat you up." Liu Chang'an released Zhou Dongdong's face.
Zhou Dongdong turned and ran, thankfully she had wings today, so she ran faster.
I'm going to make braised loach with chili oil later.
Zhou Dongdong ran back. Anyway, she wasn't tasty yet, and eating a little more loach wouldn't make her taste better right away.
This article fully demonstrates that Zhou Dongdong is a clever and brave child. He cleverly analyzed the current situation and circumstances and bravely faced the terrible future.