Cinderella Innocent and Boss Charming - Chapter 202

Chapter 202 You Can Turn Your Interest Into Work
As soon as Du Xiaoxian returned home and was changing shoes at the entrance, she received a call from He Sen. He asked her if she was at home and said that he could come up to pick up the painting since he was passing by. Du Xiaoxian hurriedly answered that she was at home and told him to come up quickly.

After hanging up the phone, Du Xiaoxian took off her wet coat and took it to the balcony to hang up. She heard the rain knocking on the window glass, tick-tock, tick-tock. It was as if thousands of soldiers and war horses were suddenly galloping over, which could make anyone tremble in fear who heard it. Du Xiaoxian was glad that she had returned early, or else she would be drenched in water.

She went to the kitchen and made herself a cup of hot tea, slowly taking a few mouthfuls of it, feeling much warmer.

The doorbell rang. She knew that it must be He Sen. So she opened the door, and there he was. She saw that his hair and clothes were wet, with his long, soft hair stuck together, and he looked rather messy.

Du Xiaoxian hurriedly let him in and said, “Teacher He, why didn’t you take an umbrella?”

“When I got off the bus the rain suddenly started to get heavy,” He Sen said. “The station was only about ten meters away but it’s enough to get me wet.”

Du Xiaoxian went to the bathroom to get a dry towel for him to wipe his hair and said, “Just take off your coat and hang it up.”

“No need, the down coat is not afraid of water.” He Sen wiped his hair and looked at her carefully. “Xiaoxian, you don’t look so well. Are you feeling uncomfortable?”

Du Xiaoxian forced a smile, “No, I just feel a little cold.”

Only then did He Sen realize that there was no heating in the room. He felt a little strange and asked, “Why don’t you turn the heating on on such a cold day?”

“I just got back,” Du Xiaoxian said. “I haven’t had time to do that.” As she spoke, she walked to the wall and turned on the central air conditioner. Then she went to the kitchen to make a cup of hot tea for He Sen.

He Sen sat on the sofa, warming his hands with the cup in his palm. He glanced at the backpack on the other end of the sofa and said, “Are you really going on a long journey?”

“Yes,” Du Xiaoxian sat down, “that’s why I said I might not be coming to the exhibition by then.”

“Did you encounter any difficulties?” He Sen looked Du Xiaoxian over carefully and felt that something was wrong. The little girl wasn’t very outgoing, but every time he saw her, he could feel her happiness. Even if she didn’t say anything, she would keep a smile. But now, he could only see the sadness on her face.

“There’s no difficulty. I just want to leave this place.” Du Xiaoxian lowered her head and her voice was weak and sad.

He Sen was a very sensible person. His intuition told him that Du Xiaoxian’s departure must have something to do with Gu Nianbin. He did not have a good impression of that cold and alienated man, so he did not ask any further. He only said, “No matter what, you are the main character on the day of the exhibition. You must come. I will inform you when the time comes.”

“You won’t be able to reach me. When I leave, I’ll leave my phone behind.”

“Then do you have a phone number for me to contact you? Like, how can I reach your friend?”

Du Xiaoxian thought for a moment and gave him Du Huayue’s number.

He Sen typed the number into his phone and looked at Du Xiaoxian. He said seriously, “Xiaoxian, I don’t know what happened to you, but you are an independent person. You have your own friends and career, and you can’t just abandon everything only because you want to leave an environment. That isn’t right, do you know?” You have great potential in painting. You can totally treat this as your own career. Many people only treat interest as an interest in their lifetime, but you can turn your interest into work. This is very rare and lucky. Xiaoxian, I hope that under no circumstances or in no circumstances will you give up drawing. Can you do that?”

Du Xiaoxian lowered her head in silence. The drawing was her childhood pastime in order to relieve loneliness, but over time, it really became an interest. Especially after she officially began to learn painting, she saw so many colors and really liked them. She just couldn’t give up her passion for it. As long as she started painting, she could forget her fatigue. She loved these colors and loved to express her inner thoughts. It would be great if drawing something could become her future work.

After a moment of silence, she whispered, “Teacher He, if I don’t have any money, can I still draw?”

“Of course,” He Sen was a little surprised. “You can make money by drawing. When you get famous, you’ll make a lot of money.” He paused for a moment, then added, “Perhaps some of the paintings will be sold on the day of the exhibition. Other than the commission for the gallery, the rest will be yours. You will earn the money by your own abilities.”

This was indeed good news for Du Xiaoxian. She didn’t have any long-term consideration before and thought that she had to have Gu Nianbin’s support to continue drawing. Because painting brushes and paper were very expensive. If it was like Teacher He said that she could earn money by painting, then there would be no need to worry about her livelihood in the future.

“Teacher He, I will definitely come on the day of the exhibition,” Du Xiaoxian finally gave He Sen a positive answer.

“That’s right,” He Sen laughed. “Let’s go and show me the paintings.”

The storm finally subsided after half an hour, and the crackling noise disappeared, turning into rustling sounds like spring silkworms nibbling on mulberry leaves.

After sending He Sen away, Du Xiaoxian took a shower and went to sleep in her room. She thought that she would be awake all night again or wake up in the middle of the night. However, she did not. She only woke up once because of hunger, but not long after, she fell asleep again. It was as if she hadn’t rested for so long and was so tired that she would fall asleep as soon as she closed her eyes.

She went to bed early, so she woke up early. The sky was gray. She stood by the window and watched the world after the heavy rain that was still enveloped by gray. Du Xiaoxian suddenly felt it strange. When she was in a good mood, she saw that the world was bright and colorful. But now that she was depressed, the world was dim and with only one color.

Just like last night when He Sen commented on her paintings. He said that paintings and words were actually the same. They were both meant to tell a story or express an emotion. It’s just that words were expressive and easier to understand, while the paintings were expressed in colors and lines. He Sen said that her early paintings were colorful and bright, making people feel enthusiastic, unrestrained, and happy; but her later paintings were mostly colored with cold tones, giving people a faint sense of sadness. He Sen also said that this was a good thing, because she did not know how to hide her emotion, so her paintings were what she used to vent her real emotion. This was what people who knew painting appreciated the most.

Du Xiaoxian stood there silently for a while before going to wash up. She even made herself breakfast. Because the taste of hunger was very uncomfortable. She used to be able to endure hunger. Perhaps it was because her life had been so good recently, she was so hungry that she couldn’t stand it even if she hadn’t eaten for only one night. Actually, she didn’t have an appetite, but she didn’t like starving herself, so she should fill her stomach more or less.

She felt that she was slowly returning to her original world. It was as if she had had a wonderful dream. Finally, she woke up. She was a little melancholy, but she felt at ease in her heart, because that was the world that belonged to her.

When she was carrying her bag and left, she met the apartment manager in the lobby. He was an old man in his fifties, but he didn’t look old at all. He looked like a middle-aged man in his forties. He always wore a neat suit, his hair was not messy at all, and he maintained a friendly smile on his face. It was easy to get close to him. He nodded at her from afar and greeted her respectfully.

When the elderly bowed to her, Du Xiaoxian was always a little uncomfortable. Every time, she wished she could bow ninety degrees in return. However, Gu Nianbin could just straighten his back calmly and nod slightly before walking past him. She always felt that it was impolite, but Gu Nianbin said that it was she who was being impolite to the old apartment manager by feeling uncomfortable towards his respect. He said that everyone had their own role in this society. If she respected him, she had to acknowledge his role. It would make the other party uncomfortable to make such a fuss. She did not quite understand, but she felt that what Gu Nianbin said was right. She was actually used to agreeing with all that Gu Nianbin said.

Then what about her role? What was she playing? In the Gu Group, she heard Shao Boqing and Zhou Ting call her President Gu’s little girl in private. She also heard a clerk say that she was the president’s little pet canary. She did not know what a canary was before, and only understood it when she watched TV. She felt awkward, but she never mentioned it to Gu Nianbin. Gu Nianbin said that she was someone he liked, and someone he wanted to spend his life with. Those words were still in her mind, but now the ending was sad.

She felt that she was nothing but a tiny speck of dust, floating from place to place, just for the sake of survival. No matter what, she had to live well. For the sake of her mother in heaven, she had to live well.

She did not tell Du Huayue in advance. Anyway, Du Huayue had given her a set of keys. She opened the door, packed her luggage, and then went out to buy something. She did not have much money and could not afford to eat outside anymore. She had to cook for herself. The pots and pans were ready, but she needed to buy the oil, rice, and seasonings.

Du Xiaoxian was picking fresh flowering cabbages in the supermarket when someone suddenly reached over a hand before her eyes and snatched away the flowering cabbages. She was startled. Then she turned around and saw that it was Du Huayue.

Du Xiaoxian was surprised, “Brother Ah Yue, why are you here?”

Du Huayue smiled and said, “You didn’t call me, so I thought you probably would move in by yourself. I handed over my shift and took a nap before running over. I wanted to buy some ingredients to cook a delicious meal to celebrate your housewarming. Then I didn’t expect to see you the moment I came in.”

Du Xiaoxian showed him what was in the cart. “Brother Ah Yue, I’ve bought these. Do you still need to buy anything else?”

Du Huayue casually flipped through the ingredients in the cart and said, “You’ve bought almost everything we need. It’s okay, I’ll come and buy again if we miss anything. Anyway, it’s not far.”

After buying the vegetables, the two came to the fresh area to buy meat. Du Huayue bought the pork and also wanted to buy fish. Du Xiaoxian stopped him, saying that one meat dish was enough. Besides, there were eggs.

Du Huayue ignored her and caught a big grass carp from the fish tank with the net. He asked the staff to handle the fish and make it clean before putting it into a bag. Then he said, “You don’t understand. We’ll cook the head of the fish today. I’ll cut the rest into a few small parts and salt them, then store them in the fridge. Every time we can cook one small part. It’s very delicious. Although the fish is expensive, we can have it for several meals. It’s worth it.”

Du Xiaoxian blinked at Du Huayue, “Brother Ah Yue, how do you know so much?” When she and Gu Nianbin lived together, they had meals at home pretty much, but Gu Nianbin didn’t let her stay in the kitchen for fear of the smoke might choke or fume her. That’s why she only learned how to cook noodles after so long. She didn’t expect Du Huayue, who had never cooked before, to be so economical, which surprised her.

“I learned all this from others. I didn’t know anything about cooking in the past because my mother didn’t even let me enter the kitchen. Last time when I went to my colleague’s house to visit, they cooked dishes like this.”

At noon, Du Huayue played the role of the chef. He cooked braised fish head, fried flowering cabbages, scrambled tomatoes and eggs, and a plate of fried pork with green peppers. They were all home-style dishes, but his cooking skill was not bad. Du Xiaoxian said while eating, “Brother Ah Yue, please teach me about your cooking skills. In the future, you can come back from work and have food ready-made.”

Du Huayue smiled and said, “That’s good. I’m tired of eating fast food every day.”

The two of them talked and laughed, chatting nonstop. Du Huayue did not ask how Du Xiaoxian broke up with Gu Nianbin from the beginning to the end, and Du Xiaoxian did not mention it at all. It seemed that there was never such a person, nor was there such a thing that happened. They were only brothers and sisters who supported each other in the bustling metropolis and struggled to live, looking forward to the future.