Ink Marker directed the woodworking tools to work far faster than Shen Le could do the job himself.
For this picture frame, even with all kinds of power tools to help him, Shen Le would've needed two full workdays to finish it on his own. With more than a dozen woodworking tools working together, it was done in less than a day!
"You're already finished?"
Shen Le held the picture frame in his hands, looking it over from every angle in astonishment.
The lines were smooth and flowing, the design vivid and exquisite. It was clearly the work of a master craftsman. Every feather on the mandarin ducks was fine as a hair. One duck faced forward, while the other craned its neck to look back. They nestled close together, their poses intimate:
"So beautiful!"
"Of course! We've been doing this for years!"
After the carving, he applied the paint and waited for it to dry. Early the next morning, Shen Le took the picture frame to the hospital. The husband still hadn't been discharged and was half-reclining in bed while his wife packed up their things. Shen Le smiled and handed her the frame.
"You've survived a great ordeal, so good fortune must lie ahead. It's just a little something from me. After all, the accident happened at my place..."
The wife blushed, looking a little embarrassed as she prepared to refuse. But her husband had already sat up in bed, staring intently at the smooth carvings on the back of the frame.
"This..."
"This craftsmanship feels so familiar..."
The picture frame rested on their knees as the couple sat shoulder to shoulder, quietly leaning against each other.
Zheng Xiaohua had an IV needle in one hand. With the other, he pointed out details on the frame, explaining them to his wife:
"Look, there's a lily along the edge of the frame. See how the stamen ends here with a little hook? When I was a kid, my dad taught me to carve wood, and this was his technique..."
"And here, the lotus leaves have a wave pattern, with the edges curled slightly inward. That was my mom's specialty. The headboard on the bed at home... Ah, we sold that bed..."
"And the feathers on these mandarin ducks..."
One by one, every detail he'd once overlooked now came back to him with crystal clarity, stirring up memories from his childhood, youth, and early adulthood.
"Mm..."
His wife listened intently without the slightest hint of impatience. After reminiscing for quite some time, the father suddenly changed the subject.
"By the way, I've thought it over. I'll still teach Linlin carpentry. These days, knowing one more trade means having one more way to get by.
"He likes this kind of thing, too. It'd be a shame to waste the skills Grandma taught him when he was little..."
"Sounds good..."
Was that it, then?
How had the picture frame worked?
Little Ink Marker, you'd sworn it would help. So how well had it worked? Had the couple stopped fighting for now, or would they never fight again?
Shen Le stepped back to the hospital room entrance and quietly activated his Spirit Eye, watching from a distance.
The couple leaned against each other, faint wisps of light shifting around them. One was brighter, the other dimmer. Whenever the two drew close, the light crackled softly, then they bounced apart.
But with the picture frame between them, Shen Le could see a tiny vortex spinning over it.
The light around the husband and wife was drawn into the vortex. When it swirled together and emerged, the faint crackling was gone, along with that dangerous feeling that it might flare up at any moment.
The vortex kept blending their auras together, and the couple's energies grew more and more harmonious, their flow smoother and smoother. After watching for a while, Shen Le finally relaxed.
It seemed Little Ink Marker had been right. This little guy really did know his stuff.
Perhaps the things it made wouldn't help couples who no longer loved each other at all, who'd grown completely estranged. But for couples who clearly still loved each other and were only driven to irritability and arguments by the pressures of daily life...
It worked like a charm!
Take good care of each other!
You have to make it work!
Your parents and your in-laws stood by each other for a lifetime, weathering countless storms together.
They'd want their children and family to be just as happy as they were...
Smiling, Shen Le slung the Ink Marker over his shoulder and strolled away. Halfway there, his phone suddenly rang.
"Hello? Mr. Shen? When is your Puppet coming in to work? The customers have been waiting a long time!"
What?
Little Puppet had to work, too?
What time was it?
Shen Le checked his watch and gave a rueful smile. One thing after another had come up over the past couple of days, and he'd been so excited that he'd completely lost track of his schedule.
Only after the call did he realize it was past nine, well after the time he was supposed to take Xiao Ling to work.
What a blunder. She was definitely late today. They'd dock her wages, her bonus, her performance pay, and her attendance bonus...
Huh?
His arrangement with the owner of Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant was only a verbal agreement, and, as far as he could remember, they hadn't even mentioned an attendance bonus.
Either way, being late was never good. Shen Le apologized a few times, went home, picked up Little Puppet, and hurried to Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant. The moment he stepped through the door, a lamb bone came flying at him.
"Whoa!"
Shen Le dodged sideways, leaning back to evade it. Before he could even steady himself, a loud crash rang out ahead. A table burst apart right in front of him.
What was going on?
Shen Le fled outside. Only then did he use the doorway as cover, cautiously peeking back inside. Good grief!
The two people fighting in there were definitely over six feet two, and probably weighed more than two hundred pounds each.
Worse still, whenever they raised an arm or kicked out, huge muscles bulged beneath their skin. They could've gone toe-to-toe with professional boxers.
The two men rolled and tumbled as they fought, going back and forth across the restaurant. Tables were smashed to pieces, chairs kicked over, and all the waitstaff had fled to the kitchen to peek out at the commotion.
At least there were no other customers in the restaurant, so the two could wreck the place to their hearts' content. Otherwise, if they hit another customer, they'd be looking at a guaranteed seven-day stay in the detention center!
...Could anyone still come in here? Was it even suitable for a puppet show?
Clinging to the doorway and trying to make himself as inconspicuous as possible, Shen Le asked with his eyes what was going on. The owner flashed him a radiant smile, sauntered over, and took Xiao Ling from his hands. Then she began to sing softly.
"Leaving Emei, I came to South of the Yangtze,
"Where such beautiful lakes and mountains fill the world;
"On one side, Baochu Pagoda is reflected in the shimmering water,
"On the other, fine pavilions stand beside Three Pools..."
Her song was like a breeze, like a gentle rain, quenching the fire in their hearts—and the fury of the two fighters. Shen Le stood to one side, and by the time she finished the verse, the two men had sheepishly stopped fighting.
Only then did the owner smile and walk in. She handed Xiao Ling to the waitstaff and told them to continue the performance. Then she went up to the two fighters, held out her right hand, and demanded without a hint of hesitation,
"Pay up!"
Who still carried cash around these days?
Shouldn't she be bringing over a payment scanner?
Shen Le grumbled silently to himself. Then he saw the two fighters—one clutching his swollen forehead, the other pressing a hand to his bleeding nose—each pull out a thick wallet.
They opened them, emptied them, and set them on the table. Two thick stacks of red bills, each worth more than twenty thousand, were tossed onto the only table still standing. They didn't even bother to count them.
The owner finally smiled. She nodded, letting the two men slink out of the restaurant with their tails between their legs, never to return.
Then she picked up the bills from the table, tapped the stacks into neat piles, and swayed gracefully toward Shen Le...
Was that enough to cover the damages?
Was she going to make me pay, too?
P.S.
Happy birthday, Red Comet Mars!