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“And to your right, you can see the painting The Fall of the Mask , depicting the gods and goddesses who fought against the previous Heavenly Emperor. While no date nor author has been credited to this piece, we estimate it was created before or during the start of the Xia dynasty.”
Shi Qingxuan felt his mind go elsewhere as the museum guide, Xie Lian he believes, goes on and on about the paintings and sculptures that Shi Qingxuan couldn’t even remember the names of, let alone all the details Xie Lian rambles about. He feels that at least half the class could agree as they seem just as absent-minded as he does. The only ones listening seem to be the eye-patched instructor and some history nerds.
No disrespect to Xie Lian; he seems like a wonderful and passionate individual. It’s just that today feels like an off day for Shi Qingxuan. He fought with his brother, Shi Wudu, a couple of days ago regarding Shi Qingxuan’s recent move-out. No words have been exchanged from them since and it has started to bug Shi Qingxuan whether he has acknowledged it or not. As the group started heading forward, Shi Qingxuan found himself slowing down, eventually coming to a complete stop. He gave up on trying to join the group even though they were a measly 3 meters away from him.
“I might as well make the most of it” , he thought as he started walking to one of the benches in the middle of the hallway. It faced an enormous painting, a beautiful garden lake with a small open enclosure. It has a table with two individuals sitting side by side, drinking their hearts away at the number of bottles scattered across the floor. One silhouette clad in nature’s colors, smiling from ear to ear, while the other is in head-to-toe black clothing, silently sipping from his cup.
Shi Qingxuan gazes at the painting as he pulls out his sketchbook from his bag, overused pencil in hand. He starts by drawing the composition, adding in big details as he tries to work down to the smaller details. As he sketches in a crouch-like position, he fails to notice a young man approaching his bench. He sits down wordlessly, looking at the painting in front of him instead. Shi Qingxuan turns his head to the stranger, sitting up straight so as to not make himself feel stupid-looking. All previous worries about his brother vanish as a giddily feeling enters Shi Qingxuan.
“Uh hey,” he says as he makes eye contact with the man next to him.
The stranger turns to him, “Hello” he says.
“What brings you here um..”
“He Xuan”
“He Xuan” Shi Qingxuan repeats, “I’m Shi Qingxuan. Ha, looks like we both have ‘Xuan’ in our name.”
“I guess we do” He Xuan kept a solid expression, “I’m just trying to kill some time before I head to work.”
“Oh really?" Shi Qingxuan asks, curiosity peaking again. "What do you do if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Just here and there types of jobs," He Xuan responds, "I owe a friend some favors.”
“Oh, that sounds fun” Shi Qingxuan smiles softly.
“Uh, what about you?” He Xuan asks, slightly looking away. His attention remains on Shi Qingxuan even as his head turns.
“On a field trip. I’m a fashion design major and my teacher decided to take the class on a field trip to this historical gallery.”
“And your class?”
“Long gone I’m sure. I kinda left them a while back haha..” Shi Qingxuan says sheepishly. He should probably go find them soon. “They come looking for me eventually” , he thinks to himself, he doesn’t want to leave He Xuan quite yet.
“What do you think of the painting, Xuan-xiong?”
“It’s a well-made painting with a lot of focus on detail.” He Xuan says, his face turned to a more serious expression as he continued looking at the piece, “It depicts two of the five Elemental Masters chatting away, the former Wind Master and Earth Master. It is said that they used to be close friends before a disaster struck and fractured their once close-knit relationship.”
Shi Qingxuan appears a bit shocked. “I didn’t know you knew so much about paintings or history.”
He Xuan slightly smiles as he chuckles a bit, “What? Do I look like someone who wouldn’t?”
“Oh no no! I didn’t mean it like that, it’s just, I just–”, Shi Qingxuan was completely flustered.
“Don’t worry about it,” He Xuan swats his hand slightly, “I work part-time here from time to time and I just happen to have a very chatty coworker who happens to know a lot about history.”
“Oh, well that makes a lot of sense, I MEAN NO I–!” Shi Qingxuan's eyes widen as he holds his hands out in defense, waving side to side. Every word that Shi Qingxuan spills out makes him feel like crawling into a hole. His words keep coming out wrong and he just can’t do anything about it. Way to go, Qingxuan…
He Xuan’s previous chuckle now turns into a soft laugh. Shi Qingxuan’s eyes soften as he starts laughing too, gently though as he is reminded of their surroundings. Their laughing fit simmers down as they sit in silence. Not an uncomfortable silence that makes you want to try to fill in the gaps but one that makes you feel like you can talk at any moment without worry.
“So,” Shi Qingqiu sparked up, “what else can you tell me about the painting, He-xiong?”
“Uh well, as I previously said, they were close friends. They were always seen around each other, never far apart from one another. As the tale goes for these two, something caused a split between them, and they were never seen since. It is still unknown to many historians what may have caused the drift but many agree it has to do with the former Water Master of their era.”
He Xuan started looking hesitant in continuing, worried his rambling may have caused Shi Qingxuan to be uninterested but to his surprise, Shi Qingxuan leaned in, eager to hear more. Strange to Shi Qingxuan as he himself never really listened to history lectures, always finding his mind wandering elsewhere as soon as years and dates started to enter the conversation.
He Xuan continues, “The location in which the painting is based is said to be at the Wind Master’s old home, where he lived and grew up in before ascending to his godship. There are many interpretations of Wind Master as both a male and female god, the latter is more widely seen and depicted across art, media, et cetera. Earth Master is also depicted as both a male and female god too like the Wind Master, many believing it to be because of Earth Master’s close relationship with Wind Master.”
By now, Shi Qingxuan has a leg crossed, and an arm on his leg as his head is supported by his hand. “Fascinating, all so fascinating He-xiong,” he says as he gazes at He Xuan with a grin.
As they chatted, they had unconsciously been shuffling closer and closer. Once at the ends of the benches, now only a gap the size of a hand sits between them. They kept on chatting about common interests and plans they had laid out for the rest of the day as a voice called out to their direction.
“Shi Qingxuan, there you are!”
Shi Qingxuan looked up to see his professor walking closer, slightly furrowed eyebrow now softened a bit. “I thought that one of my students had just got up and left the building or something of the sort. The class is getting ready to leave now.” He Xuan also looked up, it seemed like he was glaring at Shi Qingxuan’s professor. His professor seemed to have returned the look with one of shock which quickly morphed into a smug one.
“I’ll be right there Hua-laoshi, sorry for the trouble hehe..”
Hua Cheng nodded as he walked away, not towards the exit but instead to the tour guide. Shi Qingxuan didn’t think too much about it as he put his sketch notebook and materials back into his bag. He leaned slightly as he stood up, hands brushing one another.
“Thank you for your company He-xiong,” Shi Qingxuan said bashfully, “It was a very lovely meeting and talking to you.”
“The feeling is mutual. Goodbye now, see you around?”
“See you around.”
Shi Qingxuan threw another of his grins as he turned to walk to the exit. Once Shi Qingxuan was out of sight, He Xuan reached into his pocket, taking out a small piece of paper. On the paper was written a phone number along with a small doodle of a smiley face winking with its tongue out. Under the phone number was written, call me -shi qingxuan <3 . He Xuan chuckled to himself slightly as his eyes were still glued to the paper. “You aren’t as slick as you think you are, Shi Qingxuan” , he thinks to himself. A small fluttering sensation still resided in He Xuan as he got up.
“I hope we meet again very soon.”