A Sand Sculpture in the Red Dust - Chapter 21

Chapter 21 – Drunk Xiangfu Knows How To Keep Himself Safe

　　Double-sided embroidery?

　　Qin Jin first glanced at Li Xiangfu’s white fingertips, then looked at the plate after a moment.

　　The rice was delicious and the presentation was particularly beautiful. The carved radish flowers on the side fell on the edge of the plate, just covering the greasy stains left by the ribs.

　　It can keep people’s appetite at any time.

　　Thinking of the embedded bean candy from the previous day, Qin Jin pursed his lips and said, “If you had followed the trend and entered the entertainment industry, you would never have the same personality as other stars.”

　　Li Xiangfu laughed: “A virtuous character?”

　　Qin Jin: “Intangible Cultural Heritage Dissemination Machine.”

　　“…”

　　After making sure he had finished eating, Li Xiangfu was about to leave with the plate, but his hand was blocked in mid-air: “Let me take it.”

　　Li Xiangfu raised an eyebrow.

　　Qin Jin: “It’s raining outside, it’s hard to hold an umbrella while carrying things.”

　　Seeing that he insisted, Li Xiangfu did not continue to refuse.

　　The rain was so heavy that it splashed several centimeters on the ground. When walking back, the umbrella was tilted towards Li Xiangfu. He thought Qin Jin was a nice guy at first, but suddenly realized something was wrong: “You didn’t bring an umbrella?”

　　Qin Jin responded perfunctorily: “Forgot.”

　　“…”

　　When he returned to his residence, Li Xiangfu could only lend him his umbrella.

　　Witnessing Qin Jin’s back disappearing in the pouring rain, Li Xiangfu lowered his eyes and turned around…Li Anqing’s face suddenly visible in his sight.

　　He almost punched reflexively, but when he saw who was behind him, Li Xiangfu let out a long sigh: “Second brother, why are you here?”

　　Li Anqing did not answer, but asked: “Did you lend him an umbrella?”

　　It’s human nature, Li Xiangfu nodded.

　　After pinching off the raindrops that were falling on the door like a beaded curtain, Li Anqing said, “The last person to do this was the White Snake. From the moment she lent her umbrella to Xu Xian, she started the countdown to being locked up in the tower.”

(T/N:) The author is referring to the Chinese legend of the white snake where a snake spirit falls in love with a human who lends her an umbrella. The story ends tragically as the snake spirit is imprisoned in a Buddhist Pagoda by an abbot. Of course, here it’s mentioned the other way round but the implication is obvious.

　　After saying this, he said in a dull tone: “You should take this as a warning.”

　　Li Xiangfu: “…I think there is something wrong with your interpretation of art.”

　　•|•

　　Rainy days are suitable for sleeping. Li Xiangfu lay on the bed after entering the room. Judge Zhao sent text messages to all the contestants, reminding them to go to bed early as they would go out for field research early the next morning.

　　Having not slept well the whole night yesterday, Li Xiangfu threw his phone aside after making sure there was no new message. With his hands covering his eyes and accompanied by the sound of rain, he quickly fell asleep.

　　This sleep lasted from the afternoon until the early morning.

　　The next day the sky cleared up after the rain as if washed clean with pure blue.

　　The contestants gathered at the designated location. Because they were going to be out for a day, in addition to the tools needed for painting, everyone also brought their own food and water.

　　Qin Jin appeared wearing a mask and coughed from time to time. Someone suggested that he go back and rest.

　　”I caught a cold last night,” Qin Jin said hoarsely, “I’m going to buy some medicine. You guys go first.”

　　Several judges expressed concern and soon took the contestants away.

　　After they walked away, Qin Jin took off his mask. He no longer looked uncomfortable. He seemed to have noticed something and looked somewhere.

　　Li Anqing was standing not far ahead, his hands in his pockets: “Looks like we don’t have to wait until we get on the train, we can talk now.”

　　There were only a few small restaurants nearby, and in the summer the tables were all set up outside, so the two eventually went to one.

　　Sitting on the bench, Li Anqing was as straightforward as ever: “Have you ever sent cactus flowers?”

　　Qin Jin took out a newspaper from the rest area and said while killing time reading it: “I have already given your brother a negative answer to the same question.”

　　After a moment of silence, Li Anqing seemed to be trying to determine whether the words were true or false. After a moment, his heart suddenly moved, and he slowly uttered a name: “Qin Jiayu.”

　　Li Xichun mentioned that there was a card sent with the dried flowers, with “Welcome back, My Friend” written on the back. Li Xiangfu had many bad friends in the past, but he only had one close friend.

　　Qin Jin did not show any emotion when Qin Jiayu’s name was mentioned. He said indifferently, “I have hired a lot of people to watch the Cangyang train station day and night. If he really shows up alive, I will be notified immediately.”

　　After witnessing Qin Jin’s strange attitude towards Qin Jiayu, Li Anqing secretly thought that the so-called brotherly love might still be a debatable subject.

　　He calmly analyzed various possibilities and suddenly frowned. Regardless of whether it was Qin Jiayu or not, what should he do if someone arranged for the contestants to be disadvantageous to Li Xiangfu?

　　Thinking of this, he stood up and was about to go out.

　　Qin Jin: “There are more than one of my people on the judges, and they are all first-rate.”

　　Obviously this possibility had been taken into account long ago.

　　Li Anqing paused, truly learning what it meant to be comprehensive: “Are you pretending to be sick in order to let the people behind the scenes relax their vigilance?”

　　”The person behind the scenes?” Qin Jin sneered and put the newspaper aside. “These are all unfounded speculations. I’m just in case.”

　　•|•

　　The hiking distance is slightly longer.

　　After walking and stopping for more than an hour, Judge Zhao, who was leading the way, finally stopped, turned around and said with a smile, “We’re here.”

　　Everyone looked up and saw an extremely clear lake in front of them. It was divided into two areas by a winding ravine. Each part was oval in shape. From a distance, it looked like a pair of big eyes growing on a human face. When the wind blew, the eyes swayed.

　　Judge Zhao put down his heavy backpack and said, “Please use this lake as the theme for your creation.”

　　Because they had walked for too long on the way here, the judges allowed them some time to rest, and the competition was scheduled to start on time in thirty minutes.

　　Contestants eliminated in the first round, such as You Fang, were also in the team. They had a lot more freedom and could spend most of their time taking pictures and chatting.

　　As the two of them were close to each other, You Fang came over and asked, “Do you want to go to the bathroom?”

　　Li Xiangfu: “There is no public toilet nearby.”

　　You Fang: “I saw one when I came here. It’s still early. Let’s go together?”

　　Li Xiangfu shook his head: “Dry toilets are not safe, especially in places like this. Whether you slide down or someone is hiding inside, there is nothing you can do if you encounter one.”

　　You Fang’s eyelids jumped: “We can always go to the grove.”

　　”There might be snakes in the woods.”

　　Feeling that he was being a little too argumentative, Li Xiangfu smiled apologetically and said, “Go ahead. I don’t really need to go to the bathroom.”

　　He walked up to a higher point and began to choose the angle from which he would paint later.

　　Landscape painting is what Li Xiangfu is best at, and he quickly found a perfect spot that would allow the glacier in the distance to be included in the painting.

　　After determining his position and waiting for the competition to begin, he used a branch to design a double-sided embroidery pattern on the ground. He was ready to start work right away after returning, but suddenly he exerted a little force with his fingers and the fragile branch was instantly broken.

　　Li Xiangfu frowned…it seemed that the two foreign judges were always keeping an eye on this place.

　　He remembered when he was talking to You Fang, one of the foreign judges happened to pass by with a camera in his hand, taking pictures of the surrounding scenery.

　　Before he could think about it, Judge Zhao suddenly clapped his hands and announced the start of the competition.

　　With plenty of time, Li Xiangfu calmed down, thought about it calmly and started drawing. The other contestants were similar, and one of them closed his eyes for five or six minutes before concentrating on drawing.

　　Some judges even got inspired and started painting.

　　Judge Fang was an exception. He had no patience at all and paced around with his hands behind his back. When he saw Li Xiangfu’s focused expression, he couldn’t help but be lustful again, thinking that Qin Jin was just using him to hit him, and when things calmed down after he went back, it wouldn’t be too late to find a way to get him.

　　The path of the sun in the sky gradually shifted, the angle of refraction changed, the lake surface was completely exposed to the sunlight, and the blue waves were rippling.

　　After an unknown amount of time, Li Xiangfu was the first to put down his brush. He didn’t care about the paint on his sleeves and waited patiently for the paint to dry.

　　The other three contestants also stopped drawing. When Mo Yijing was handing in her painting, she passed by Li Xiangfu. After a quick glance, she suddenly felt that this man definitely deserved the first place.

　　The four judges passed the paintings around, exchanging a few words in low voices from time to time. After about a quarter of an hour, Judge Zhao said, “We have finished scoring. We will scan and report to the association later. We will announce the final results after we are sure they are convincing to the public.”

　　The results would not be known until the next day, but the competition had already ended and everyone felt much more relaxed on the way back.

　　When we were almost at Tianxi Ancient Village, You Fang was as enthusiastic as ever: “I’ll treat everyone to a barbecue tonight.”

　　One contestant was embarrassed: “I’ll treat you. You paid for the first day.”

　　You Fang waved his hand nonchalantly: “It’s fate that we know each other. No matter what, we must get drunk tonight.”

　　People in the village don’t eat out often, and when they went there was only one table of guests.

　　We chatted, drank and talked about interesting things as the sky gradually darkened.

　　You Fang stood up again and took the initiative to fill everyone’s glasses with wine. When he passed by Li Xiangfu, he saw that he was a little drunk and swayed his body, then lowered his head to hide his sinister look.

　　He returned to his seat and opened a new text message: [The car is at the village gate. Find a way to get the person out. Don’t make any more mistakes. The balance will be paid to you on the spot.]

　　You Fang quickly replied: [ok. ]

　　The atmosphere was quite lively, and everyone drank one glass of wine after another, and they all looked drunk. Li Xiangfu suddenly stood up staggeringly, and You Fang came over to help him: “Are you okay?”

　　Li Xiangfu waved his hand, reluctantly walked to the side to call someone, and sat down unsteadily after hanging up. When the dinner was about to end, he lay on the table motionless.

　　When almost everyone had left, leaving only the drunk Judge Fang, You Fang came over at the right time and said, “I’ll take you home.”

　　Unexpectedly, Li Xiangfu firmly refused: “I can’t let my colleagues send me off.” As he was speaking, he suddenly waved his hand: “Here!”

　　An exceptionally handsome man was walking towards them from a distance.

　　You Fang was stunned: “This is…”

　　”My second brother.” Li Xiangfu stood up by holding onto the table and put his arm around Li Anqing’s shoulder. He was drunk but spoke seriously, “It’s so late now… As a boy, I’m not safe walking at night after drinking… I have to be picked up by my family.”

　　“…”

　　”Don’t talk nonsense, go back quickly.”

　　Li Anqing was about to walk back with the help of the man. Before leaving, Li Xiangfu turned back and kindly warned You Fang: “When you were going to the dry toilet in the suburbs during the day, I wanted to tell you that you have a poor sense of safety… You are irresponsible…”
to end. He walked a distance away before asking, “If I don’t come to the ancient village, what are you going to do?”

　　Li Xiangfu said vaguely: “At least ask two people to go back together. I have anti-wolf spray on me for an emergency…”

　　After a pause, he continued: “Boys must learn to protect themselves when they are outside!”

　　“…”

　　Neither of them noticed that there was a person hiding behind the wall.

　　The foreign judge who was hiding in the dark and preparing to take action called Qin Jin to report the situation. Unlike his usual performance, he spoke fluent Chinese: “The contestant named You Fang is very suspicious. Li Xiangfu has been picked up by his second brother.”

　　At this point, he couldn’t help but sigh: “Boss, I have never seen a man who is so good at protecting himself in my life.”

　　He was not given any room to play a role throughout the whole process.

　　“…”