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Collection of Short Stories
墨書 Inktalez
The torrential rain pounded down on Su Zhi Xia's back as she scratched at the cracks in the cellar wall.
Her phone vibrated wildly in her pocket, the laughter from Lin Wanyi's livestream mingling with the sound of the rain:
"Everyone, take a good look! This is the treasure that the Su Family has hidden for a hundred years!"
As the purple clay jar was unearthed, Shen Yanbai's supplementary light illuminated her mud-covered face.
When the Jade Spoon slipped through her fingers, she suddenly recalled that snowy night when she was eighteen—
The young Shen Yanbai pressed the spoon into her palm:
"This spoon measures all your grievances."
Now, he aimed the camera at her cracked nails:
"Boss Su, trading the secret recipe for views isn't a loss, right?"
In that moment when Chen Pi Xiang's anger pierced her nostrils, she was horrified to realize that she could not smell that signature moldy bitter aftertaste.
I knelt on the blue brick floor of the cellar, the blue light from my phone stinging my eyes.
The smart temperature control system modified by Shen Yanbai displayed a constant temperature of 25 degrees Celsius.
The cold mud that could be stepped on barefoot seeped into my bones—
This was the temperature sensing method passed down through generations in the Su Family.
“Boss Su, the real-time monitoring data is all in the cloud.”
The Chief Reviewer tapped on his tablet,
The spectrogram exploded on the screen in glaring red,
“Chen Pi’s polyphenol content is below the standard value by 37%. Is this vintage a forgery?”
My nails dug deeply into my palm,
I reached for the hidden compartment in the cellar wall.
The chill of the Jade Spoon crept up my spine,
The spoon handle, engraved with “Guangxu Twenty Years,” pressed against my fingertip.
Three years ago, when Shen Yanbai installed the sensor,
He held my hand and said:
“Technology can measure a century-old Lao Jiao to an accuracy of 0.1℃.”
And now,
He stood behind the review panel,
The pocket of his white coat revealed the gold trim of the Michelin Guide.
“Please wait a moment.”
I scooped a spoonful of cellar water and held it on my tongue,
The moldy bitterness of thirty-year-old Chen Pi suddenly transformed into a cotton-like numbness.
Cold sweat instantly soaked my back.
The questioning voices from the review panel seemed to come through a curtain of water:
"The tests show that you have illegally used caramel coloring..."
The Jade Spoon clattered against the blue bricks, stirring up motes of dust in the air.
Shen Yanbai bent down to pick up the spoon, his movements slow and deliberate, as if cruel. The hem of his white coat brushed against my bare ankles—
just like that snowy night when I was eighteen,
when he warmed my frozen feet in his embrace,
the touch of his down jacket against my skin.
"The humidity in the cellar exceeds the standard."
He suddenly spoke,
his watch projecting a holographic data chart,
"Boss Su's temperature sensing method has an error margin exceeding 2.3% compared to the smart sensors."
I stared at the distorted reflection of myself in his glasses.
Seven years ago, we huddled in this Cave to hide from our creditors,
his warm breath melting the frost on my eyelashes.
Now, only the numbers flickering on the screen remained:
"Recommendation to immediately revoke intangible cultural heritage qualification."
The sound of raindrops striking the Glazed Tile suddenly intensified.
I grabbed the Spoon and began to scrape away the mud seal of the Opening the Cellar.
The Aged Mycelium pulsed through the soil like veins,
but the Smart Monitoring Device emitted a piercing alarm:
“Microorganism levels exceeded! Danger!”
“This is the true Centennial Cellar cluster!”
The sound of my shout shook the dust from the cracks in the walls,
causing the review team to retreat, coughing.
Shen Yanbai suddenly grabbed my wrist,
the chill of the Medical Rubber Gloves seeping into my skin:
“Is the burn on your palm from last week's hangover remedy?”
His fingertip brushed over my scabbed wound,
and a Holographic Screen popped up with a burn analysis.
The background noise from Lin Wanyi's livestream drifted in like a ghost:
“Babies, look, this is the plight of the heir to a Time-Honored Brand…”
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