Smile Code (Lost Laughter) 失笑 - Zhu Le 祖乐

8

It seemed that when life hands you a golden finger, there's always a price to pay. Gu Yi watched as Liang Daiwen sorted and packed the silkworms, and she went over to help.

"Scared now?"

"What's there to be scared of? Back in middle school, I'd come home late after tutoring, and my schoolbag would hide a heating pipe and some street thugs I'd been fighting with. But this is the first time I've seen someone raising silkworms in a city center apartment. This is the most expensive silkworm farm in history."

"Not necessarily. Even if you live in a luxury apartment like Tomson Riviera, if a grade school's nature class requires raising silkworms, you still have to comply. A friend with kids recommended this to me, saying it cultivates patience. Now, I get it—the patience it cultivates is probably the little that remains after the education system has already taken most of it."

Gu Yi finally understood. Liang Daiwen—good-looking, his voice magnetic, sharp-tongued with clear logic, hated by everyone, and a persona that if measured by sarcasm, would score a perfect 10.

"You saw it, too. The curtains divide the living room, this half is for you to move around freely. I rarely cook in the kitchen, and there's not much food in the fridge, so you can order takeout and bring it home. Just don't dirty the room, and make sure to throw away the trash in time. The washing machine and dryer are in the bathroom, just dry your clothes and put them away, don't worry about drying them in public view. The study has my work things, so please try not to touch them. As for sleeping, you can sleep in my room, Auntie will come regularly to change the linens. I'm going to the studio."

Gu Yi quickly shook her head. "Sleep in your bed? I'd be overstepping. The sofa's fine, just the sofa."

"It's not convenient for you with a guy around." Liang Daiwen tossed her the key. "I'm leaving. You can rest before work."

Gu Yi stood at the door, the wind from the door closing waking her up. Although Liang Daiwen was harsh, bringing her back to his home wasn't out of affection, just simple politeness—politeness to the extent that he didn't even want to cause himself any trouble.

That's fine, then.

After taking a shower and wrapping herself in a towel, Gu Yi, still curious, pushed open the doors to the two bedrooms. One bedroom, aside from the bed, had nothing in it—just like his face. The other bedroom had been converted into a study, with an iMac, a drawing tablet, and walnut bookshelves filled with books. 

On the wall was a very unique painting—the frame was an old-fashioned, double-open, three-pane window frame, white paint with window latches. Outside the window were dilapidated ruins. The left window could be opened, revealing another painting: pink curtains, a pitch-black room with a wisp of smoke floating out, as if there was someone smoking inside.

She stared at the painting for a long time.

Lying on the sofa wrapped in a blanket, she could still smell the woody fragrance in the air. As a designer, she must have seen many aspects of the world that had nothing to do with her, the kind of elegance and charm that was similar to what she had seen in Yi Zhou—refined and high-class. Liang Daiwen had blended these into his life, but it seemed he hadn't truly integrated them into his heart. 

The small night lamp beside the sofa quietly brought on drowsiness, and she gradually melted into the soft sofa. Maybe it was because she had lived in rental apartments with hard wooden beds for so long, but she was easily softened by the sofa. She thought that if these sofa beds could be rented like in a youth hostel, it would be great. This was easily a thousand times more comfortable than her one-and-a-half-meter-wide hard bed.