On the first day of the plum rainy season, Shen Yanzhi (Shou) was picking up old poems that were eaten by insects with a bamboo screwdriver. His fingertips were wrapped with half-dried glutinous rice paste, and he even breathed very lightly - he always acted like this, as if he was afraid of disturbing the old time on the paper.
When Xie Linzhou (Gong) broke in with his camera, the sound of the shutter made the rain fall from the corridor. He squatted by the threshold and took a picture of Shen Yanzhi's profile as he was writing a book. The person's eyebrows in the camera were quiet, and the thin calluses on his fingertips rubbed against the page, which was actually softer than raindrops.
"When Teacher Shen was repairing paper, it was lighter than the spring breeze." Xie Linzhou smiled with a mole on the corner of his lip and carefully put the collected magnolia petals into the bamboo basket, "But the alcohol cotton you used to wipe the camera was more careful than anyone else."
Shen Yanzhi is a person who guards the pile of old papers. He has stricter rules than Lao Mo: avoid sweat stains in the restoration room, use alcohol to wipe the camera, and even speak for fear of shattering the insect-eaten lines of poetry. But Xie Linzhou burst into the light with fireworks. He would bring him loquats and help him pick out shredded paper. When he was editing the letterhead of the Republic of China, he squatted next to him and counted the magnolia seals on the envelope, saying, "This mark has been drawn for three years, as if I am waiting for someone."
Xie Linzhou's attack was straightforward and soft: he brought him candied haws from Peiping, strung a magnolia bookmark with a red string, held his breath while he played the piano, and even forgot to raise his camera - for fear of disturbing the music of the piano, and even more afraid of disturbing his own beating heart.
Shen Yanzhi was restrained but sincere: he gave him a Peking inkstone to grind his ink, prepared hand cream when he went on a business trip to Peking, and the tips of his ears turned red when he bumped into his arms, but he secretly ate all his baked almond cakes.
From the moth-eaten poetry scroll to the "cloud habitat" on the rubbings, from the magnolia in the letters of the Republic of China to the rice wine under the grapevines——
He used his camera to record the way he was repairing books, and he used a bamboo knife to fill in his unspoken thoughts. The "pine smoke falling off the paper" in the old letter has not yet dried, and the newly cut magnolia already has the fragrance of ink.
"Rubbings need to be dried slowly to make them look good." Shen Yanzhi looked at the magnolia rubbed by Xie Linzhou and rubbed the ink marks with his fingertips.
Xie Linzhou leaned very close, and his breath fell on his ear: "Like us? You have to warm up slowly."
(——Repairing old paper is like sewing old dreams, I only know your warmth when I meet you.
The cool and restrained restoration artist was attacked by × Sunshine Active Photographer)
Intention: love