Chapter 148: Happy Birthday, Shen Yanhui

After arriving in Mali, Gu Yan was in no rush to find the glass artist.

During the day, Shen Yanhui took her out to wander around.

This city on the edge of the desert had a strange vitality. People came and went in the market, brightly colored fabrics were piled into small hills, and the air was filled with the fragrance of spices and roasted meat.

Gu Yan was led by the hand by him, weaving through the crowded throng like two ordinary tourists.

At night, the two would entangle themselves in the hotel bed until death.

Gu Yan was exceptionally passionate, not coyly begging for mercy, more fervent than at any other time.

Shen Yanhui knew of her lingering fear, so he no longer restrained his desires, possessing her over and over again until she was too exhausted to remain conscious, only then would he stop.

They spent three days in such leisurely comfort.

Gu Yan finally dug out the contact information Xu Yuan had sent and reached out to this glass artist named Antoine Maurice. Both parties agreed to meet at a small local cafe.

The artist was a Frenchman, over fifty years old, with messy hair and a beard, wearing a white shirt stained with paint.

When he saw Gu Yan, he was stunned for a moment: "You are the Chinese client my assistant mentioned?"

Gu Yan nodded and reached out her hand: "Mr. Antoine, hello, I am Gu Yan."

Antoine shook her hand, his gaze carrying a hint of surprise.

"I thought you would send an assistant to negotiate." He paused, "I didn't expect you to make the trip yourself."

Gu Yan: "This piece is very important to me."

Antoine looked at her and was silent for a few seconds.

"Miss Xu Yuan said in her email that you want to recreate a painting in glass. This idea is very interesting, but..."

He spread his hands.

"I cannot leave right now. I have discovered a special ore here that can be used to make a brand-new type of glass glaze. I have been searching for three months, and I am about to find the vein with the highest purity."

Gu Yan had not expected the other party's refusal to be so direct; her heart sank: "Can you not wait until you are finished to come back?"

Antoine shook his head: "Mining veins wait for no one; if I miss this time, I don't know when the next will be."

Gu Yan opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but not knowing what to say.

She had traveled thousands of miles, even getting trapped in Dubai for this, and it was still not going to work?

Just then, Shen Yanhui moved.

He had been sitting quietly to the side since entering, and at this moment, he finally tapped the tabletop and raised his eyes to look at Chang Su.

Chang Su understood, stepped forward, took a palm-sized box from his briefcase, and placed it on the table.

Antoine looked at the box, stunned: "What is this?"

Shen Yanhui's tone was very calm: "Open it and see."

Antoine opened the box suspiciously.

Inside was a piece of ore the size of a fist, gleaming under the dim light of the cafe. It was blue-purple, as if a part of the night sky had been solidified inside.

Antoine's eyes lit up instantly.

He picked up the ore, brought it before his eyes to examine it carefully, his fingers gently stroking the surface, his whole person as if frozen in place.

"This... this is..."

Shen Yanhui picked up his coffee cup and took a sip: "The highest purity sample of the ore you are looking for."

Antoine jerked his head up to look at him.

"How did you know—"

"You have one month." Shen Yanhui interrupted him, "Finish what she wants, and this ore is yours. If you don't finish it, I will find someone else."

Antoine's expression changed repeatedly; he looked at the ore in his hand, then at Shen Yanhui: "Deal."

Gu Yan was taken aback.

Just like that... it was done?

She turned her head to look at Shen Yanhui.

He still had a calm expression, holding his coffee cup, looking unruffled.

Gu Yan stared at him for a few seconds and suddenly smiled: "Mr. Shen, you have eyes and hands that reach the heavens."

Shen Yanhui put down the cup, a smile flashing in his eyes: "Reaching the heavens is not the word for it, it is just that I am particularly attentive to my wife's affairs."

Gu Yan curled her lips upward, leaned over, and kissed his cheek: "Thank you, husband~"

Shen Yanhui curved his lips, took her hand, and interlaced his fingers with hers.

"So, the matter is settled, can we go home now?"

Gu Yan nodded heavily.

——

Antoine returned with the two of them.

Shen Yanhui specifically bought a place in the Beijing Suburbs and renovated it into a glass studio. Floor-to-ceiling windows, large chimneys, and professional furnace equipment were all fully provided.

Gu Yan spent almost every day immersed there, designing, discussing, revising, and experimenting.

Together with the artist, she transformed that painting, Floating Light Leaping Gold, into the language of glass, stroke by stroke. How to embody the water surface, how to capture the light and shadow, and how to solidify and fix those golden fragments scattered into thousands of pieces.

When Shen Yanhui was not busy, he would go to pick her up.

Sometimes it was in the afternoon, sometimes in the evening. The car would stop at the end of that small road, and he would lean against the car door, watching the tightly closed studio gate.

The door would always open a crack.

Gu Yan would poke half her head out from the crack, her hair a bit messy, her face occasionally smudged with dust; when she saw it was him, her eyes would brighten.

Then she would squeeze out and close the door tightly behind her, fearing he might see one second more.

He would not ask, just open the car door and wait for her to get in.

Sometimes she would complain: "It's so hard... what if I can't make it?"

He listened, saying nothing.

She continued, "If I can't make it, you won't have a birthday gift."

Shen Yanhui: "Then I won't celebrate."

She was stunned for a moment: "Won't celebrate?"

"With you here, whether I celebrate or not is the same."

She glared at him: "Shen Yanhui, you're saying that too early. If I really haven't prepared anything, just wait and cry."

"Alright." He let out a low laugh.

She lost her temper from his laughter and leaned on his shoulder: "Don't worry, I will definitely make it; I can't bear to let you cry."

A month of time passed in a flash.

Finally, the day before Shen Yanhui's birthday, the item was completed.

On his birthday, Shen Yanhui and Gu Yan returned to Man Island.

She excitedly told him to close his eyes, took his hand, and walked outside step by step.

He was very cooperative, the corners of his mouth curved the entire time.

Finally, they stopped at the door of the small exhibition hall filled with her paintings.

She let go of his hand, circled behind him, and gently pushed his shoulders: "We're here, no peeking."

He smiled, letting her maneuver him.

The door was pushed open.

She brought him to the center of the exhibition hall and stopped in front of that huge glass installation.

"Ready."

Shen Yanhui opened his eyes.

He stood in the center of the exhibition hall, surrounded by the paintings of hers he had collected over these years. And directly facing him was a huge glass installation.

Floating Light Leaping Gold had come back to life inside the glass.

The sunset fell onto the water's surface, shattering into ten million golden scales. Those golden scales flowed and shifted under the light, as if the real surface of a lake had been frozen at this very moment.

He found it hard to describe his feelings when seeing this glass artwork that Gu Yan had spent an entire month of painstaking effort to complete.

It was as if something was slowly swelling in his chest, filling every corner, and then flowing along his blood vessels to his limbs and bones.

His palms felt slightly numb, and his breathing became very light, so light that he could not even hear it himself.

He took a step forward and stood still in front of that installation.

Sunlight shone in from outside the window, landed on those golden scales, and refracted, scattering a patch of broken gold onto him.

He reached out his hand.

His fingertips gently touched that layer of glass.

"How is it?" Her voice carried a hint of unconcealable pride, "Is it a surprise?"

He did not speak, just continued to look at the installation.

She circled to his side and tilted her head to look at him: "Don't you like it?"

He finally spoke: "I like it."

Gu Yan's eyes curved, she wrapped her arms around his waist from behind and pressed her face against his back: "Happy birthday, Shen Yanhui."

Shen Yanhui's movements paused.

Happy birthday.

When he was young, Pei Wanjun would say it to him. Later, when he was alone out in the world, he never heard it again.

Today, he heard it again from his little girl's lips.

He turned around, pulled her in front of him, and hugged her. Gu Yan leaned against his chest and could hear his heartbeat.

Very fast.

Faster than at any other time.

She curved her lips, tilted her face up in his embrace, and said deliberately: "Mr. Shen's reaction is so cold?"

Shen Yanhui let out a soft laugh and bit her earlobe: "Cold?"