Chapter 20: The Village Girl

                                    

                                          

[Fan Hua]: Where are you? I'll come pick you up!
Hua Jin got up, turned off the store's power switch, and locked the door. Seeing that Tan Yuan hadn't replied to her message, she directly dialed her phone.
"Tan Yuan, tell me the address."
"HuaHua, I'm fine. Don't come over," Tan Yuan held her phone, looking at her weary reflection in the bathroom mirror, her voice choked with emotion.
"Nonsense, you're not fine." Flower Jin interrupted, "We've been friends for years, and I know your personality. Give me the address, I'll come pick you up right away."
Hearing Hua Jin's stern tone, Tan Yuan's originally restless heart calmed down. She took out a powder compact and gently pressed the tear stains at the corners of her eyes. Then she gave Hua Jin the address.
"Yuan Yuan?" A concerned male voice came from behind. Tan Yuan put her phone back in her bag and walked out of the restroom.
The two of them sat back in their chairs, with Tan Yuan bowing her head in silence. She gently stirred the coffee in her cup, her expression cold.
After a while, her boyfriend, sitting across from her, spoke up.
"I'm sorry, Yuan Yuan," her boyfriend's face showed signs of exhaustion. "Our three or four years of relationship, I shouldn't have said those things so harshly earlier. I'm sorry."
Tan Yuan glanced up at him, then turned her head away. "Cao Yi, what hurts me is not how harshly you said it, but that you denied all my efforts over these years, as well as my parents' efforts. Do you understand?"
"I didn't mean it that way," Cao Yi explained. "You clearly know that I have your best interests at heart. Why do you misinterpret my intentions? The lacquerware you make takes so much time and effort, yet doesn't bring in much money. Do you want to live like this for the rest of your life?"
"But do you know that fewer and fewer people in China are making lacquerware? If nobody else does it, and I stop doing it too, then who will carry on this craft in the future?" Tan Yuan tightened her grip on the coffee spoon in her hand. "Cao Yi, this is my father's lifelong skill, and I don't want it to be lost."
"What about me then?" Cao Yi's emotions became somewhat agitated. "We're going to get married and build a life together. And Uncle Tan and Aunt Gao are getting older. If they have any health issues, it will cost a lot of money. I respect your ideals, but ideals can't put food on the table. We need to survive, treat illnesses, and spend money. Even if the craft of making lacquerware doesn't die out in our generation, what about the next generation or the one after that? Sooner or later, it will vanish into the flow of history."
Tan Yuan smiled bitterly. "If I, as a successor of lacquerware craftsmanship, am not willing to continue, then others will probably be even less willing to engage in this industry. Cao Yi, do you still remember how we first met? Besides, you don't need to worry about my parents' retirement. My family isn't so destitute."
Cao Yi was stunned.
"Back then, at the handicraft competition in school, you saw the lacquerware I made and said it was rare to find someone who could wholeheartedly study traditional craftsmanship. You praised me and pursued what I was pursuing. But now you're advising me to give it up," Tan Yuan smiled, her eyes reddening and tears welling up. She closed her eyes, holding back the tears. "In these four years, who has really changed, you or me?"
"It's me who has changed, but people change. Back then, we were students who hadn't yet experienced the real world, and we didn't have to consider money and status..." Cao Yi felt uncomfortable under Tan Yuan's gaze, he turned his head. "You're different from Hua Jin. You have parents, education, and a brighter future ahead. Someone like her, a village girl from the countryside, without education or other avenues for development, apart from relying on Aunt Gao for a living, she doesn't have any other better way of life. If you spend all your time with her, you won't become better, you'll only become like her..."