Chapter Seven: Wrong Crystal

  Name: Lu Li

  Gender: Female

  Age: Appearance around thirty

  Occupation: Owner of Lapis Lazuli Workshop

  Address: No. 16 Beixingli, Bomei Village

  As she pushed open the door and entered, a crisp "ding" sound rang out in the girl's ear, and she couldn't help but stop to find the source of the sound. A white ceramic ball, just like the delicious rice cake she had tasted when she was young, had a long light blue paper strip tied to it with a thin thread, as well as a small golden bell. As the girl pushed open the door and entered, the late summer evening breeze also came in with her, gently sending over the paper strip, which lightly fluttered up, ding-dong, ding-dong, and it turned out that the golden bell was singing happily!

  Where has the owner of the store gone?

  The girl looked around the small shop with some curiosity. From the outside, it seemed to be a dimly lit store, like an ordinary glass and jade workshop, decorated with bright artificial lights and thick red and green colors, showcasing the expensive objects in the hot glass cabinets. However, the small shop surprised her, with its glass house, open glass roof, allowing the vibrant sunset and golden sunlight to pour down from above, making the ancient furniture seem as if it had been carefully crafted by a skilled hand, with a fine line of gold appearing on the smooth and warm contours that had been polished by time. Suddenly, they seemed vivid and alive.

  She had never seen a workshop decorated so neatly, nor had she ever seen so many crystal clear glass objects. The girl couldn't help but exclaim in her heart. As she walked slowly, she carefully examined those delicate and transparent things, just like looking at an old friend she hadn't seen for a long time, the warm smile from the bottom of her heart was also comparable to the colorful jade stones! It's really not wrong to come here! The girl whispered to herself in a corner of her heart, because that negative emotion that made her panic naturally emerged again when facing these crystal clear glass objects, just like the night they first appeared, overwhelming.

  The girl had always disliked crystal, a natural and extreme aversion that appeared since childhood! Her father was a craftsman who made crystal, so infatuated with those kiln-burned dead objects that her mother's beautiful face always carried a faint sadness, until the moment she gave birth to her sister, and then passed away. So, the father who liked crystal named his twin daughters after the thing he loved most in his life.

  "Sister is Ruka, so let's call the little sister Rio then!" Father said with a big smile on his face. It was less than a month since Mother had passed away.

  I hate Luli the most! Although a five-year-old girl doesn't quite understand the meaning of death, she has an innate jealousy towards Luli. Perhaps this resentment was planted in her small embryo since her mother's pregnancy and accumulated over ten months, gradually engraving itself into her young heart. It's as if to replace her deceased mother, continuing to hate those beautiful things that took away her happiness and husband!

  Identical girls, but among the sisters, there is only one Ruka and of course, only one Rina! So, having an identical appearance doesn't mean they are the same.

  The girl hated those words and faces that compared herself to her sister, the cold-blooded adults who praised her sister and ridiculed herself, often concluding with "if they didn't look exactly alike, who would believe they're sisters", the girl hated those words more than she hated glass.

  "You probably don't know, Rie, that glass is very difficult to melt and shape. If the temperature isn't controlled properly, it often ends in failure; and because of this, every piece of glass in this world is unique," said her father, gazing at the sparkling object in his hand with a deep affection that the girl had never seen anywhere else, not even on herself. But that was okay, liking glass was right, so her beloved father who loved glass could be forgiven too. From that moment on, the girl began to like glass, simply because of her father's words: "Every piece of glass in this world is unique!"

  The first girl didn't like Ruri, while the second girl did, so they're different people! The girl often told herself that she liked Ruri and her sister disliked Ruri, this distinction should be clear by now, so they shouldn't compare me to my sister anymore!

  But why are people still saying things like "sisters and younger sisters are much smarter"? It's really hateful!

  "I hate... I hate my sister the most! It would be great if I didn't have a sister!"

  Uttering such cruel words, her lips trembling as she rushed out of the house, the girl was like a wounded and lost kitten wandering in the cold early spring night, letting the icy raindrops hit her face and body.

  "Maybe it's better if I'm dead!" The girl thought in despair.

  And so, someone really died. However, the one who died wasn't that person! Just as the girl had said, on that night, the older sister who was chasing after her younger sister out of the house was hit and killed by a car on a quiet little road. It seemed to be heard, the crisp sound of shattering, one of a pair of glass lanterns shattered.

  It was from that time on, the girl feared seeing Ruri, unknowingly already two years had passed, until today, unable to resist the temptation of "Lù Lí Gōng Fáng" cursive script banner, finally stepped inside.

  Ding~ The golden bell rang out again with a pleasant sound, coming from the doorway leading to the inner room. The shop owner, a woman in her thirties with a warm smile, was wearing workman's clothes and had thick gloves on her hands. Although she wasn't a stunning beauty at first glance, her curved, charming phoenix eyes sparkled when she smiled, making one unable to help but take a few more glances.

  "Do you like that glass bead?" She pointed to the plump glass bead in front of the girl. The small bead seemed to be colorless at first glance, but upon closer inspection, various colors could be seen reflecting out layer by layer, just like when she was a child using a prism to reflect sunlight, only much more beautiful!

  The girl nodded unconsciously.

  "Here you go." The small dimples on the female shop owner's face looked very cute, subtly making her look younger and giving people an inexplicable good impression of her.

  "But..." The girl was still hesitant about whether to accept this sudden gift.

  "Take it back and hang it around your neck," the female shop owner took out a blue silk cord, threaded the glass bead, and personally put it on the girl's neck. "Come back here to find me after 100 days."

  The female shop owner waved her hand lightly, and the golden bell inside rang once, then again.

  "Remember, never take it down!" The female shop owner said again as she slipped back. The golden bell rang once more, and then her figure was gone.

  The girl accepted the gift with suspicion and pushed open the door to leave.

  The golden bell rang once, and the pine wood door opened and closed again.

  "A customer like this is quite rare!" The female shop owner thought, watching the light and shadow change in the kiln.

  The girl fell into the memories of the past every night from that day on. At the age of three, she played with mud with her sister; at five years old, she was bullied and her sister rushed up to fight a boy who was one head taller than herself; at seven years old, they went to elementary school together, and their grandparents bought them new clothes of the same style; at nine years old, she ranked first in the class, while her sister ranked last; at fourteen years old, she fell in love with Ruri, and her sister said she would be the first customer of Ruri's workshop; at sixteen years old, they went to high school together, her sister was in a key high school, while she was in an ordinary middle school; at seventeen years old, she won the first prize in the city's piano competition, while her sister was just average in an ordinary middle school; at eighteen years old, she had a boyfriend in an ordinary middle school, while her sister took the entrance exam for a prestigious university; on an early spring morning when she was eighteen, she quarreled with her sister over the college entrance examination and ran away from home...

  Every time the girl wakes up from her dream, she always feels a moment of dizziness and can't tell which one is the dream and which one is reality. In her dreams, she sometimes seems to be her sister, and sometimes herself; those slow-paced movie-like memories often have such and such dislocations, sometimes her sister is an excellent student at a key high school, and sometimes she dreams of receiving a scholarship there. Is it that the positions of her sister and herself are misplaced, or is it that the memories of her sister and herself are confused? In reality, is she Liu Yan or Li Yin?

  The small crystal bead gradually underwent a change, hanging on the girl's warm chest, its interior slowly formed condensed particles. At first, it was just a small one like an embryo, but as time passed, the milky white particles began to grow and lengthen, taking on a curved shape. By the 49th day, the particle had transformed into something resembling a fetus curled up in the womb. The girl's dreams also started to become longer and clearer, with fewer images of her sister appearing, but more often, she seemed to be seeing those past events through her sister's eyes.

  My little sister is so cute! My little sister's physical education is great! Although my little sister's grades are not good, everyone likes her, unlike me. Even though everyone is very kind to me, they also keep a distance from me. It seems like I'm the only one on stage, while my little sister and others are all sitting below. My little sister is really brave, why did she push me away?! No! I don't want to be Rukia anymore!!

  It was on the hundredth day that the girl arrived at the bustling market in front of the Lu Li workshop, which had a elm tree as its sign.

  "Welcome." The female shop owner said with a smile.

  The golden bell rang out a pleasant sound, and the girl walked in, took off the pendant from her neck, and gently placed it in his hand.

  "Goodbye, and thank you." The girl flashed a cute smile and walked out of the store with quick steps.

  Ding! The door opened and then closed again.

  "Lü lí, the one who just walked out...". The beautiful person who came in leaned against the case table on one side with elegant movements. Such a delicate face, but the voice was that of a man.

  "A rare guest, I suppose." Lu Li smiled as he examined the crystal jade bead in his hand.

  "You're always going to lose money like this!" The male "beauty" lazily dug into his ear, muttered to himself and stuffed a piece of crystal sugar into his mouth, stuck out his tongue, "Ugh, it doesn't taste good! Spit spit!"

  "The soul of a black way elder was used to refine that piece of glass!" Lu Li smiled and looked at the "beauty", who immediately turned green and frantically gulped down cold water.

  Who says this is a losing business? She carefully placed the pendant in her hand on the highest shelf of the display case. The crystal glass was sleeping in the box, inside which was a fully bloomed white flower, its petals wrapped around the girl who slept together with the crystal glass, and the girl's face had a peaceful sleeping expression. It was exactly the same girl!

  Lüli is a term used in the Warring States period to refer to glass.