Chapter 130 – Mo Fei’s Flower Arrangement Art
Yang Yi walked around the campus with a big bouquet of flowers, which attracted the attention of many students who stayed in school during the holidays. However, others didn’t think he was going to confess his love.
Looking at Yang Yi’s appearance in a white T-shirt, big pants and flip-flops, it didn’t look like he was going to confess his love.
Moreover, Xiao Luo was also very considerate to separate the different kinds of flowers for Yang Yi, and wrapped them into bundles with newspapers… So, Yang Yi looked more like a little brother delivering flowers.
Of course, Yang Yi didn’t know this. He just hurried back with great strides.
As soon as he went upstairs, Yang Yi was dumbfounded to see that several large vases and small vases were laid out in the living room. They had just been washed, and the wet water traces stretched from under the bottom of the vase to the bathroom.
“……” Yang Yi’s forehead seemed to have several black lines hanging down from it.[1Like this. HERE. This is apparently called Taresen which is similar to another manpu, the horizontal lines, in that they both emphasize the surprise one character feels. However, where taresen emphasize shock, horizontal lines emphasize rather stupefaction. Expanded explanation is HERE.]
“Hey, you’re back? What kind of flowers did you buy?” Mo Fei rolled up her pants, showing her fair calves and playful feet. She walked out of the bathroom on slippers. She was holding a newly washed vase. When she saw Yang Yi, she showed a bright smile.
It was as if an iceberg had melted, the bright smile made Yang Yi forget what he was going to say.
“Mama, is there any more?” Xixi poked her head out of the bathroom, and she still had a black brush in her hand. It seemed she has been helping her mother a lot.
“No! But don’t come out yet. Mama’s going to wash your hands with soap!” Mo Fei shouted as she put down the vase and hurried back to the bathroom.
Yang Yi gently placed the big bouquet of flowers on the table, then turned to look at the vase and the water stains on the floor. He shook his head helplessly.
Forget it, just pretend you can’t see it!
Wait for everything to be done, and then slowly clean up.
Since there was a noisy little girl at home, Yang Yi’s obsessive-compulsive disorder has actually improved a lot. Of course, another way to put it was that he could choose to ignore it for a period of time.
…….
After a while, Mo Fei came out with a giggling Xixi.
“You just had a fever, and you’re soaking in so much water!” Yang Yi said a little reproachfully, “You’ll have a relapse in a while!”
“It’s all right. I basically didn’t soak in water. I wash it using the shower head. What’s more, the sun was scorching hot today that it made the water very hot, so it will definitely not affect me.” Mo Fei said with a smile.
She was really in a good mood, and maybe she had fun washing vases with her daughter in the bathroom, but now she was talking with a smile.
Mo Fei’s smile was actually very beautiful, like a hundred flowers blooming. She was more beautiful than when she was cold!
They were all adults, and they should know how to take care of themselves. Yang Yi didn’t say anything more.
Instead, it was Xixi who couldn’t wait to interrupt. She held her father’s hand and said, “Papa, I tell you, the water is really hot. Mama said that if Xixi takes a bath with this water, Xixi will be cooked. Then just now Mama asked Xixi to wash her hands, but Xixi didn’t dare…”
Yang Yi touched the little girl’s head amused. It took a long time for her to tell her story before she stopped.
“Where did you get these vases?” Yang Yi finally had a chance to ask the question in his mind.
“Don’t you know? In that painting studio!” Mo Fei raised her head proudly, and the ponytail that was tied up was very youthful and beautiful. “There is a big box containing these beautiful vases, but they are not antiques. They were used to grow flowers before, but I don’t know why they were put away.”
Yang Yi understood. He had cleaned up the studio, but because it was rarely used, it was basically left unused, and he never thought of opening it to know what was inside. After all, they were left behind by Grandfather Hu.
But… Mo Fei took it out now, which was also fine. Anyway, Grandfather Hu also said that Yang Yi could use everything in the house freely, and even the furniture he didn’t want could be changed – it was best to keep as much furniture as possible, but the old man still understood that young people had young people’s aesthetics, so he only asked Yang Yi to take good care of the house and kept his memory.
These vases might have been used by Grandpa Hu’s wife before, right?
Why put it away? Naturally, there was an answer to this question.
But Yang Yi didn’t plan to tell Mo Fei about this. He smiled and said, “it doesn’t matter. Now that you’ve found it, take it out and use it. But be careful not to break it… These are mainly porcelain, which are easily broken. It’s not good if Xixi got cut by the broken pieces!”
Mo Fei nodded and said, “I actually want to buy glass vases made with tempered glass. They’re transparent and not easy to break. But these vases are beautiful! Look at how well the flowers and birds are painted on it, and how bright the colors are after they are washed clean!”
“Did you hear what Papa said?” Mo Fei also educated Xixi, “These vases can’t be touched casually, oh, if they got broken, Papa will be very angry!”
However, the little girl’s big eyes were full of wisdom. She said unconvinced: “Papa will not be angry, Papa will not be mean to Xixi! Only Mama will!”
Yang Yi couldn’t help smiling.
Mo Fei was so embarrassed and angry that she pulled Xixi over and slapped the screaming little girl in the butt. Of course, she didn’t use any force: “When has Mama ever been mean to you?”
“Has, has, Papa never spanks Xixi’s butt!” Xixi pursed her small mouth and would rather die than surrender to the forces of evil.[2This is again an exaggerated description. That or they were just playing around or it was just describing how kids are sometimes so dramatic even if you’re not doing anything to them. But this is just my guess. I know some kids who are like this.]
…….
Mo Fei wanted to arrange flowers, and Yang Yi, who had nothing else to do, of course also help. He took the flowers wrapped in the newspaper apart according to Mo Fei’s instructions, and then took them to the bathroom to wash the mud off the roots.
This wasn’t enough. In order to keep the blooming flowers fresh, Mo Fei had to cut off the leaves at the roots of the stems, and even burn the roots of some flowers.
“This preserves the nutrients it stored to the maximum extent and prevents it from rotting.” Mo Fei explained to Yang Yi.
Of course, Mo Fei also has to cut the branches into different lengths, depending on the arrangement.
Not all flowers were treated in the same way. For example, daffodils needed to be in light salt water and lilies in sugar water. Yang Yi didn’t understand this at all, so he could only sit aside with Xixi and watch Mo Fei’s “performance” admiringly.
The art of flower arrangement was fastidious. Picking which big flowers have to be inserted first below, and which smaller flowers should be on top was just a small skill.
“Each layer must have an odd number of flowers of the same type. The number can vary[3As long as it’s odd.]. This is because an odd number of flowers of the same type will form a more unique image.” Mo Fei explained.
“Color combination is also very important. This will depend on where the vase is placed. For example, in a more festive place, or in your coffee shop, you can use thick, warm flowers with red, orange and yellow colors. At home, living room and bedroom, you can use clean and comfortable neutral colors!”
Mo Fei said with a smile: “Of course, it’s not all one color. Different types of color combination will have different effects, especially when there is a sharp contrast… “
She has just finished a small vase flower arrangement of lilies and daisies. Although it wasn’t complicated, after the combination, the pure white of lilies and the bright colors of daisies were organically combined, which was neither monotonous nor too lively.
It looked like a work of art!
TN: If you like my translations support me in ko-fi: Here.
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