Ning Xue particularly respected her grandfather Ning Yanfan’s opinion.
With Ning Yanfan speaking up, Ning Xue could only agree to return home for a wedding ceremony.
Of course, returning home wasn’t as simple as just deciding to do so – they had to coordinate Ning Xue and Jonathan’s vacation time, which dragged the timeline from summer to November.
The Ning family was hosting the wedding of Ning Xue and Jonathan. As Ning Yanfan’s granddaughter, many people in China’s architectural circle wanted to attend the celebration. Mao Kangshan was among the guests.
Mao Kangshan wasn’t reluctant at all. Despite his usually frugal lifestyle, he pulled out the new clothes Xia Xiaolan had given him but he’d been too thrifty to wear and spruced himself up by shaving and getting a haircut…
Master Song’s wife secretly complained to Xia Xiaolan:
“Your master is just petty. He thinks Teacher Ning’s granddaughter isn’t as good as you, so he’s eager to show you off.”
To show off properly, one needed to look smart and presentable.
Xia Xiaolan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She often felt she had villainous tendencies, and as they say, birds of a feather flock together – even her teacher Mao Kangshan behaved this way… Well, a disciple couldn’t undermine her master. She fully supported Old Mao’s willingness to travel north.
As people aged, they often became childlike, and this was particularly evident in Mao Kangshan.
If the master wanted to show off his disciple, naturally the disciple had to cooperate.
Moreover, she and Ning Xue had been classmates. While Xia Xiaolan wouldn’t make a special trip for Ning Xue’s wedding in America, she could certainly attend the ceremony in China.
Ning Xue’s wedding was held at Ning Yanfan’s studio. Jonathan was quite pleased with this venue, finding it more meaningful than a hotel. Upon arriving in China, he immersed himself in Ning Yanfan’s studio, barely leaving – truly showing how like-minded they were.
On the wedding day, the studio was festively decorated with quite a few guests, mostly from China’s architectural circles and some from the Ning family’s relatives and friends. Surprisingly, Xia Xiaolan was Ning Xue’s only university classmate in attendance.
…Well, she wasn’t just the bride’s classmate, but also the groom’s.
Ning Xue disliked socializing, but today she and Jonathan followed instructions, dutifully making toasts at each table and accepting well-wishes from relatives and friends. Jonathan found Chinese culture interesting. Instead of a western suit and white wedding dress, they wore traditional Chinese wedding attire – bright red and festive.
Jonathan said he felt like a walking red pepper, and his parents – the Red Pepper Jonathan’s parents – had also come specially to China to experience a Chinese-style wedding.
This was Zhen Wenxiu’s second international wedding attendance.
Though far less luxurious than Ji Ya and George’s wedding, it went smoothly without any drama like Ji Ya’s wedding had.
Her daughter and son-in-law cooperated with her performance – no, her request – to hold a wedding in China, the foreign in-laws gave face by flying to China to attend, and the guests were close friends and notable figures in China’s architectural circle… With the wedding going so perfectly, Zhen Wenxiu was in high spirits from the joyous occasion, even greeting Xia Xiaolan with a full smile.
Xia Xiaolan wasn’t used to “Madam Ning” treating her this way.
She immediately chided herself silently for a few seconds – don’t hold grudges for too long.
Red Pepper Jonathan, inexperienced as a groom in China, didn’t know how to dilute the alcohol with water. After a round of toasts, he was swaying, leaning against a doorpost with a silly grin, trying hard to stand straight and pretend he wasn’t drunk… Xia Xiaolan couldn’t bear to watch. Was this the professionally exceptional Jonathan? He looked like a landlord’s foolish son.
Since Jonathan was beyond conversation, Xia Xiaolan could only talk with Ning Xue.
“I thought you would participate in the AIA Emerging Architect Award this year.”
It wasn’t that the AIA Emerging Architect Award was the only architectural award left in the world, but since Ning Xue now worked at GMP, given Kissinger’s personality, he would have been happy to have someone from GMP win this award again.
However, when this year’s emerging architect nominations came out, Xia Xiaolan had specifically checked and Ning Xue wasn’t among them.
When she called Kissinger, he said Ning Xue had refused to apply!
To Xia Xiaolan’s puzzlement, Ning Xue was frank: “Even if I could get nominated this year with GMP’s support, I don’t think I’d have much chance of winning. I want to develop myself further for two more years.”
Without the certainty of victory, why participate just to make up numbers?
This was Ning Xue’s personality. In her world, there was no room for “luck.” Back in China, she was always praised as ‘Ning Yanfan’s granddaughter,’ and Ning Xue couldn’t gauge her abilities.
After more than three years abroad, graduating from Cornell University with excellent grades and working at GMP, Ning Xue has seen too many outstanding colleagues.
She still had a long way to go, so she wasn’t in a hurry!
Jonathan couldn’t even stand steady against the doorpost anymore. Ning Xue went to support him, but after taking a few steps, she turned back to Xia Xiaolan:
“These days, many important architectural awards haven’t been won by female architects, let alone Chinese female architects… Xia Xiaolan, don’t let me be too lonely on this path!”
Few Chinese architects could make their mark internationally, and female architects were even rarer. Xia Xiaolan, who treated architecture as a part-time pursuit, had ironically gone the furthest so far.
But in these two years, Xia Xiaolan hadn’t produced any new representative works. Ning Xue wondered if Xia Xiaolan planned to focus on business and give up architectural creation.
Xia Xiaolan wanted to explain, but Ning Xue had already walked away supporting Jonathan.
Xia Xiaolan stood there lost in thought for a while.
As the wedding banquet ended, she left with a slightly tipsy Mao Kangshan, who was humming a tune. Xia Xiaolan glanced at her master once, then again, until Mao Kangshan finally noticed:
“Why do you keep looking at me? Do I have food on my face?!”
The old master hurriedly wiped his mouth and face. Xia Xiaolan shook her head: “No, no food. Your face is clean. I was just thinking about how I haven’t produced any works these past two years, wondering if you’re disappointed, Master.”
What if he was disappointed but hadn’t said anything?
Since the completion of Shangdu’s museum, Xia Xiaolan’s only work worth mentioning in these two years was Qihang’s new office building in Yecheng.
But Xia Xiaolan built the office building to make money, to quickly recover capital. She hadn’t put much thought into its design, keeping it conventional. She was even embarrassed to put her name on it – though she did the design, she felt ashamed of the authorship rights and simply gave them to Qihang’s architectural firm.
Thinking about it now, Mao Kangshan must be disappointed.
She thought Zhu Suizhou had lost his way due to Qiong Island’s real estate fever, but wasn’t she the same?
Mao Kangshan slowly lowered his hands.
“Did Ning Xue say something? Don’t mind her words. Creation requires feeling. When you have the urge to express yourself, it will show in your work. No stunning works means you haven’t reached that stage yet.”
How could he force her if she didn’t want to design?
Mao Kangshan was quite anxious.
He feared he wouldn’t live to see his young disciple reach the highest peak.
But such things couldn’t be rushed; Mao Kangshan’s urging would be useless.
Xia Xiaolan remained silent for a long while.
Did she still want to do architectural design?
…Ning Xue was taking time to develop herself – she had been too impetuous.