Shen Wanci stared at her as though she'd seen a ghost. "You'd make someone live like a widow for three years if you liked them? Then your love really is something special!"
Qin Yuezhi agreed with that. "True. But why is he so stubborn about making you move back? After all, you'll have to move out again in three months—it's utterly pointless."
Shen Wanci didn't know, and had no interest in digging into it.
In the end, dinner was eaten out—hotpot.
Shen Wanci ordered a super-monster-spicy broth base that made her break out in a full-body sweat, leaving her thoroughly refreshed.
That night, afraid the man would pull more tricks, Shen Wanci simply turned off her phone.
The next day she got up bright and early, loaded her luggage into the car, and moved to the new neighborhood she'd rented in.
Then she tidied up her appearance and headed to the place where she was about to start work—
Jingyuan Studio.
Mr. Xu was the head of the place, in his sixties this year, short in stature—but he looked utterly astonished when he saw Shen Wanci!
"You're the restorer that Little Qin mentioned, the one called 'Wanwan'?"
Shen Wanci nodded politely. "Yes."
Over the years Shen Wanci hadn't taken on many jobs, but every one she did take was extremely difficult, which made her quite famous in the industry.
But she didn't want to be exposed in front of everyone, so she didn't use her real name. The professional alias she'd chosen was even simpler and cruder—just Wanwan.
Before this, Mr. Xu had never met her in person, having only seen the works she'd restored. Her skill was consummate, her technique exquisite. A few of the pieces were ones even old hands in the industry weren't confident they could restore, yet Wanwan had pulled them all off.
So subconsciously, Mr. Xu had assumed Wanwan was someone about his own age—never expecting just a young little girl!
"I've seen the works you've restored. You're truly accomplished for someone so young!"
Shen Wanci smiled softly. "You flatter me. There's still a great deal I need to learn."
As they talked, Mr. Xu led her to an empty spot. "This is your workstation. Li Bai…"
He raised his voice to summon someone. "Go bring a few items over so our new colleague can have a look."
For a relics restorer, distinguishing the dynasty, characteristics, and authenticity of an artifact was the most basic requirement. Since he had personally gone to recruit her, this kind of onboarding assessment could have been waived—but Shen Wanci was so far from what he'd imagined… Better to follow the standard procedure.
Li Bai quickly brought up several artifacts from different dynasties and carefully set them out on the table. Seeing this, the others in the studio gathered around too, murmuring among themselves: "Wasn't the new arrival today supposed to be an expert? How is she a little girl?"
"Probably just someone padding the numbers, here to gild her résumé. Didn't expect to run into a tough nut like Mr. Xu, who's going to test her."
"I heard Mr. Xu made several trips in person for her sake. He's sure to be disappointed now!"
As they spoke, Shen Wanci had already identified the several items on the table—the dynasty, where they came from, even some of the minute details and conventions—everything spot-on, down to the last particular.
Li Bai was rather astonished. "That fast?"
He was Mr. Xu's student, had entered the field straight out of college, and it had been nearly ten years now. Honestly, even he as he was today couldn't identify these so quickly.
Mr. Xu nodded approvingly, an acknowledgment of Shen Wanci's theoretical ability. But how skilled her hands were could only be seen in practice.
Not having watched Shen Wanci restore an artifact with his own eyes, he didn't dare bring out a genuine one for her to experiment on, so he had Li Bai fetch a counterfeit used for assessments and had her restore it.
"Don't take offense—this is our studio's procedure. Those pieces are precious and irreplaceable, so we're a bit more careful when it comes to choosing people."
Shen Wanci said she understood.
Restoration work was tedious and monotonous, and on top of that, no one held out any hope for Shen Wanci—after all, a girl her age was at most qualified to be an apprentice. Seeing there was no more excitement to watch, everyone else dispersed.
It wasn't until just before quitting time, when they saw the finished restored piece, that everyone was stunned!
Someone sighed quietly: "When I first joined, this fragment took me three whole days to restore…"
Everyone was amazed by Shen Wanci's restoration—so fast and so good. Only Mr. Xu was the exception. Wearing his reading glasses, holding the restored fragment in his hand, he said nothing for a long while.
On closer look, it wasn't hard to notice his fingers trembling—shaking uncontrollably.
Mr. Xu lifted his head to look at Shen Wanci, his eyes filled with many complicated emotions: "What is your relationship to Ruxuan?"
At the sound of that name, Shen Wanci's eyes wavered violently—but it lasted only an instant, and no one caught it.
After a brief silence, she answered: "I've heard of her, but I don't know her."
Ruxuan—
Once the most dazzling pearl in the relics restoration world, an all-around restoration talent whose craft could be described as 'miraculous, the work of a divine hand.' Anyone in the trade had heard her name. But this pearl had vanished not long after making her name.
In all these years, no one knew where she had gone.
Mr. Xu pressed on: "But your restoration technique… is cast from the very same mold as hers."
"My grandfather was a relics restorer too. I learned from him."
Listening, Mr. Xu's expression gradually darkened. In the end he nodded and didn't probe further, but he was clearly very disappointed.
Whatever the case, Shen Wanci's ability was plain for all to see. Mr. Xu simply regarded it as having gained a talent and formally introduced her to everyone: "This is Wanwan, our new colleague."
Beside him, Li Bai was very surprised: "Wanwan? Is this the Wanwan I know of? But shouldn't that be someone of an older generation? How could…"
Could she have turned out to be a little girl—and such a pretty one at that?
Mr. Xu shot him a glare, signaling him to shut up.
"Wanwan, don't bother holding it against him."
Shen Wanci just smiled.
Afterward Mr. Xu introduced the others to her. There weren't many people in the studio—including her, only eight or nine in all—and they were all easygoing, sincere even in their praise, with none of the snide, passive-aggressive atmosphere… like when she'd been at the Bo Group.
Shen Wanci liked this very much—all the more so because this was the work she loved most.
After work, the studio people were going out to eat together, said to be a Jingyuan tradition: whenever a new employee joined, they'd all go for a meal as a welcome banquet.
The dining spot was a seafood food-stall joint, and across from the stalls was an upscale restaurant—
At the floor-to-ceiling window on the restaurant's second floor, Gu Chenye, standing by the glass smoking, happened to glance down below.
He tilted his chin and asked Bo Jingzhou beside him: "Look—isn't that Shen Wanci?"
Bo Jingzhou raised his eyes and looked in the direction he indicated. Sure enough, he saw Shen Wanci chatting and laughing with several people…