lost spark

A week after Ye Ting came to the studio as an assistant, Qu Yixiao took over two large pieces of pure blue pyrophyllite to carve landscapes.

Pyrophyllite is a very common type of carved stone. It has rich colors, smooth texture, cheap price and easy circulation. Pure color is suitable for painting.

Calligraphy and painting are the foundation of all seal cutting. Qu Yixiao is proficient in calligraphy and painting, and can directly hold a brush and draw ink on the stone, but the difficulty of carving is much greater than that of fonts. Moreover, the stone itself is prone to brittleness, which also increases the dynamics. The difficulty of the knife.

When moving the knife, Qu Yixiao must draw every line clearly to ensure a clear outline.This requires a quiet environment and full attention, Ye Ting wandered around outside knowingly, not to disturb him.

The most eye-catching thing in the living room are the rows of tall bookshelves. He had to look up his head to see the top. Every floor was full of scrolls. He picked one of the scrolls at random, and when he opened it, he saw a picture from near to far. Qingshan flying bird map.

In the picture, the mountains are overlapping colors, the clouds and water meet, and the birds pass through the fog and fall on the lake, breaking the tranquility. An old work from more than twenty years ago.

Ye Ting dug out some playful pictures of pavilions and pavilions. Different from the first one, these pictures were all made by "Qiu San", that is, Ding Chuang.As if getting some kind of cue, Ye Ting switched to the opposite shelf.

Sure enough, on the third floor, he found Qu Yixiao's calligraphy works. He was not very familiar with the fonts, except for running script, regular script and cursive script, he couldn't name the other fonts, but only recognized one of them.

——A glass of wine in the spring breeze of peaches and plums, ten years of night rain in the rivers and lakes.

Ding Chuang came out of the house to pour water, just in time to see him standing in front of the bookshelf.Ye Ting said that he came to be an assistant, but in fact he only circled around Qu Yixiao, Ding Chuang didn't dare to order him, but Ye Ting would take the initiative to solicit some small things.

Walking over to glance at the content in his hand, Ding Chuang understood it at a glance, and enthusiastically explained: "This was written by Brother Qu a few years ago."

"I know." Ye Ting saw the signature and date.

"It's very well written, isn't it? The teacher also likes it very much. Although it is a copy, but you see, every time you turn the pen and return to the peak, it is different from the original work, and it incorporates a unique style." Ding Chuang simply boasted: "The teacher said that this painting is a good interpretation of the foundation of seal cutting. Art is the embodiment of emotion. Calligraphy and painting have their own experience. Only the stone in hand can be called their own creation."

"Your teacher is very good."

Ye Ting didn't look up at Ding Chuang, but he was listening carefully. He couldn't understand how profound a word could be, and he hadn't read the original works so he couldn't compare them. It was just that when he was concentrating on appreciating these lines, he was thinking about what Qu Yixiao had in mind. emotion.

"Did you say Mr. Fu? Of course he is amazing." Ding Chuang graduated from junior year and spent his holidays in the studio to receive customers all day long, but he never idled. When he talked about Fu Wangfeng at this time, he looked proud, "Say he is It’s not too much to reach the pinnacle.”

He was full of respect and praise, Ye Ting was amused by his smug tone, and said: "You are also very good."

"Ah... me?" Ding Chuang was a little embarrassed and smiled.

Ye Ting came here every day during this period, and after getting in touch with him a lot, Ding Chuang found that he was a very gentle person, not as difficult to get along with as he thought at first: "Actually, Brother Qu is also my teacher, and he taught me many times. Me, he's very talented."

"Well, I know too." Ye Ting carefully put away the calligraphy scroll and put it back in its original place.

Thinking about it, Qu Yixiao and Ye Ting seem to have known each other for many years, so they must be very familiar with each other.

Filled with water, Ding Chuang pushed open the door and went out to the edge of the corridor. Strong heat rushed towards him, extending infinitely along the telegraph poles of different thicknesses on the wall. At home, when he looked back, the hands of the clock were also reminding him that it was almost time for dinner.

He went into the house and closed the door to shut the heat wave outside. Ye Ting was still concentrating on looking at the chaotically placed works, taking them out and putting them back in, tirelessly, but he had to interrupt aloud: "By the way, I want to eat at noon today." What?"

"It's up to you."

Ding Chuang reported the names of several dishes to ask for Ye Ting's opinion, which was no different from the previous few days. Ye Ting couldn't help laughing and said: "I see that you usually like snacks and spicy food, but you eat so lightly for lunch."

"That's right, because Brother Qu, you should know, right?"

Ye Ting was suspicious: "Know what?"

Ding Chuang was surprised by his question, the closed cup was shaken and said: "Anyway, in these years, I have never seen Brother Qu eat spicy food. For convenience, I don't care what to eat."

Aside from the superb technique of seal cutting, Ding Chuang's most intuitive impression of Qu Yixiao is the regularity of diet.When they are busy, they often stay in the studio all day, and work together for three or four years. Ding Chuang rarely sees Qu Yixiao slackening his meals.

It is not the high-quality requirements of the food, but the taste is too single and stale, with caution and rest that do not match the age.Ding Chuang even knew which porridge Qu Yixiao liked to drink and which ones he liked to eat.

For Qu Yixiao, there seems to be nothing more important than filling his stomach, but most of the time he behaves very casually and doesn’t mind eating anything. Ding Chuang once saw Qu Yixiao eat the same porridge for three meals a day. The same broth was kept in an insulated box for two days.

"In the past, Brother Qu was a very contradictory person in my eyes."

As far as money is concerned, Qu Yixiao was rich and lived well, but such a smart person couldn't see through money.

When Ding Chuang first came, Qu Yixiao was alone in the studio. He would help Ding Chuang order takeout, and he would simply remind people to remember to make up money.Qu Yixiao has a good temper, and Ding Chuang certainly wouldn't go whoring for nothing, but the other party was so straightforward, which made him somewhat uncomfortable.

This was the first and only time he had an unpleasant experience with Qu Yixiao.unilateral.

Then one day he took the initiative to order takeaway, tidying up the table in the afternoon, and saw two paper tickets pressed in one corner of the thick calligraphy sticker, Ding Chuang knew that Riqu Yixiao didn't mean to humiliate himself that day.

Qu Yixiao can't say nice words, he can only frankly guard things that he doesn't want to cross the border, a few yuan, a dozen yuan, dozens of yuan, not bad.

"Brother Qu, why are you so clear?" Ding Chuanghui asked him equally frankly.

"It's not that I have to care about it, it's that I'm used to being poor, and I'm also used to not having any extra money to pay for things that don't belong to me. For some things, I still have to make sure that I don't owe them both, so as to avoid entanglement in the future."

On a summer night, only a cool breeze can make people fall asleep, and the cloudy mood came up again. Ding Chuang's words circled in his mind all afternoon, and at night, he couldn't sleep, and couldn't sleep peacefully.

Ye Ting doesn't like summer, because summer means increasing suffocation.

A few years ago, the family hurriedly went abroad, like fleeing, sweat replaced tears, and farewell became a luxury, leaving the teenage Qu Yixiao alone in the old alley house, where the once bustling place was turned upside down overnight.

And then... the picture in his mind only flashed for a second, and Ye Ting didn't dare to think about what would happen next.

The night was dark, the moonlight crawled through the window and sprinkled on the wall, Ye Ting touched his chest, suddenly heard someone arguing downstairs, the women's squealing voices became more intense, Ye Ting's heart was more sad than the hazy moonlight.

He wanted to open the window countless times to scold these two people for disturbing the people and tell them to be quiet.In the end, he could only move secretly to the sleeping Qu Yixiao, wanting to raise his hand to gently cover Qu Yixiao's ears.

Qu Yixiao's taste has changed, not only that, according to Ding Chuang's words, Qu Yixiao's life has been very hard these years, Ye Ting has not heard a single word from him, and there seems to be a kind of friendship between them on the surface. beautiful.

The money given by her mother will definitely be able to support Qu Yixiao to go to college, but besides studying, living expenses are not small expenses. Ye Ting can only comfort herself after thinking about it. Qu Yixiao has no father or mother, and is alone. , Work-study is a normal thing.