69

Kou Chen has never done any crafts. During the craft classes in elementary school, he was sleeping or playing with other things, otherwise he would have been kicked out of the classroom by the teacher. When he got older, there was no concept of crafts anymore. Kou Xiao would wear beads by himself.

When he picked up the bracelet, he seemed to have seen some kind of handicraft god.

I wanted to make a handmade gift for Huo Ran because I was inspired by the bracelet that I don’t know who gave it to me.

He wouldn't do this at all in the first place, just buy it as a birthday gift. When the relationship is better, he will spend more time choosing gifts.

He didn't know why he had to make one for Huo Ran, but once the idea formed, he felt as if he was possessed by something evil and had to make it.

The first thing he did when he returned to the classroom after breakfast was to sit next to Huo Ran, pick up Huo Ran's feet from under the desk, and press them on his legs.

Completely ignoring the laughter of the girls around him.

"Can I measure it myself?" Huo Ran struggled to get his legs back.

"Don't move!" He glared at Huo Ran, held his leg firmly, tore off a piece of paper from the notebook, and circled Huo Ran's ankle, "Isn't that enough?"

"I've convinced you." Huo Ran retracted his legs, leaned back on the table and sighed.

Kou Chen made a mark on the note, then laid it flat on the table, measured it with a ruler, and wrote down the length on his phone.

When he raised his head, Xu Chuan stood beside his table and stretched his hand in front of his eyes.

"Fuck." Kou Chen cursed, grabbed Xu Chuan's hand, picked up a pen and quickly drew a watch on his wrist.

Their plan for the weekend is to practice basketball for two days, and there will be a game next week. On the one hand, they want to practice together and cooperate, and on the other hand, they want to find an excuse to play together.

But Lao Yang had more time this weekend and could teach him how to make leather chains, so Kou Chen had to grit his teeth and give up the day's practice.

Before Lao Yang's car arrived at the door, Shuai Shuai, who was lying on Kou Chen's lap, suddenly raised his head and his ears stood up straight.

"Did you hear Lao Yang's car?" Kou Chen immediately jumped up from the sofa, "Let's go."

"Where are you going!" Mom shouted.

"Let's go play at Lao Yang's place." Kou Chen opened the door while changing his shoes, and rushed out like an arrow.

"Your sister has already made an appointment with someone to go shopping. I thought Ruidong was busy," my mother said. "They don't go on dates on weekends?"

"It's not like we don't see each other on weekdays, but we get tired of spending time together on weekends." Kou Chen ran out the door, "Let's go. I'll go back to school in the evening and have to practice football tomorrow -"

Lao Yang bought a penthouse on the edge of the city and turned it into a studio.

It is filled with various finished leather goods made by him, various wallet storage bags, wine bags, decorations... as well as various raw materials and tools.

"Every time I come back, I feel like this is a scene from a horror movie." Kou Chen grabbed Shuai Shuai's collar and pointed to a huge leather mat in the back room, with some balls made of scrap leather thrown on it, "

Did you see that? Go play, come to me when you are tired of playing, and no biting is allowed, did you hear that?"

Shuaishuai shouted over there.

"Answer me!" Kou Chen said.

Shuai Shuai shouted.

"Go." Kou Chen let go, and then stood in front of the operating table with Lao Yang, "Quickly, start, we will make it this afternoon at the latest. I have to go back to school in the afternoon."

"I can finish it in one hour," Lao Yang said, "If you say... it's probably about the same, if you get tired of it after five minutes, just throw the thing away, and I'll finish it for you in one hour."

Kou Chen did not refute what Lao Yang said. First, he wanted to save time, and second, Lao Yang was right.

He picked up a pencil next to him and wrote down the size of Huo Ran's ankle on the table, and then looked at Lao Yang: "Picking the skin first?"

"Well," Lao Yang turned around and took down a small piece of leather from the shelf and put it on the operating table, "Have you thought about what it will be like?"

"Didn't I mention it before, copper nails, copper buckles and the like?" Kou Chen looked at the leathers one by one.

"You..." Old Yang cleared his throat, "Have you watched too many movies?"

"What?" Kou Chen looked up at him, not understanding what he said, and continued to look down at the leather, "I don't like black, and I don't like too light brown..."

He suddenly came to his senses mid-sentence, raised his head suddenly, and stared at Lao Yang: "What the hell did you just say? What movie?"

"Isn't it? You are asking for leather, nails, buckles, etc.," Lao Yang said, "What kind of feeling do you want? You..."

"Leather, rivets, quite punk." Kou Chen said.

"...Really," Lao Yang looked at him, "I must have thought too much, you are a pure young man."

"What the hell did you think of!" Kou Chen shouted.

"Don't force me." Lao Yang pointed at the leather, "Let's pick the leather."

"You've watched too many movies, haven't you?" Kou Chen clicked his tongue, "Old gangster."

"Who's old?" Lao Yang took out a piece of leather and threw it in front of him, "Let's take this one, which is made of old material. It's more suitable for the feeling you want."

"Okay." Kou Chen looked at the piece of leather, which was dark brown and had a retro look after being worn.

"The skin has been processed, you don't have to do it yourself." Lao Yang put away the other skins and laid this piece in front of him, then put the ruler and paring knife in front of him, "Measure the dimensions and draw the lines.

Then cut it out.”

"Yeah." Kou Chen took the ruler and pressed it on the leather, then took a breath and started drawing lines with a pencil.

Drawing a line should be the simplest step, but his finger on the ruler was too disobedient and went beyond the edge of the ruler. A semicircle was drawn on the straight line drawn by the pencil.

He heard Lao Yang sigh and looked up at Lao Yang.

"Just make it up." Lao Yang said.

He drew it again. The ruler moved for some reason, and the pencil drew a new line on the side. It was OK. Although the leather was not big, at least fifty leather rings could be drawn.

"How wide should it be?" he asked Lao Yang.

"It's up to you," Lao Yang said, "but I suggest it be no more than two centimeters, otherwise it won't be too conspicuous. The attached high school is a key high school after all."

"Okay, one-five." Kou Chen lowered his head and continued. He was afraid that it was too exaggerated and Huo Ran refused to wear it.

He always thought that to make a leather ring, just cut the leather, cut it with a knife, and then hammer in the rivets.

The process is almost the same, but just like cooking, it sounds easy to say, but when you do it, every movement is as if the joints are in reverse, making you clumsy.

When cutting the skin, he cut off a small piece of his fingernail with one stroke of the knife.

His nails were cut very short, so a small piece of skin on his fingertips was also shaved off.

When the blood gushed out, Lao Yang almost knelt down at him: "Stop it, I'll do it. This piece of skin not only has your heart and hard work, but also your blood, leave it to me later."

"

"No need." Kou Chen put his fingers in his mouth, tore off a band-aid and wrapped it around it.

"Your sister beat me to death." Lao Yang said.

"She beat me before and I was hurt more seriously than this, okay?" Kou Chen looked disdainful.

"That was her beating, why don't you try someone else?" Lao Yang said.

Kou Chen decided to persist. This was the first time in his life that he gave a gift to someone, and it was the first person in his life who blocked a knife for him. He also liked this person very much.

However, he obviously underestimated the difficulty of making this thing, or in other words, he overestimated his talent for craftsmanship.

Maybe he overestimated how much he liked Huo Ran, the cutie.

Lao Yang took a piece of scrap material and asked him to learn how to drive rivets first. After he hit his finger with the third hammer, which had already lost a piece of skin, he threw the hammer aside and fell down on the sofa.

"Fuck you, just practice your ass, don't do it anymore." He looked at the blood gushing out from his fingertips again.

Heartbreaking pain.

For a person like him, who would feel great pain when he picked out a mosquito bag, this was simply torture, painful and angry, and he had no time to get angry.

Lao Yang supported the operating table and looked at him.

"I'm not scolding you." Kou Chen said in a muffled voice.

"Let's make it simpler," Lao Yang said. "Do you know what the first finished product I made was?"

Kou Chen said nothing.

"A tape measure," Lao Yang said with a smile, "just cut out a long strip of leather. The bed surface is not processed. I just use the copper mold to mark the scale and it is done."

"Measure tape?" Kou Chen looked at him, somewhat lost in thought.

tape?

"Yes, novices all start from the simplest things. For a novice like you who can't even fold the paper," Lao Yang said, "it would be great if you can cut out the leather."

"What is the procedure for making a measuring tape?" Kou Chen asked.

"...cut it, apply bed surface treatment agent, trim the edges, type on it, and put rivets on both sides." Lao Yang said.

"You can do the trimming and nailing," Kou Chen stood up, "What does your copper mold look like? Does it have letters?"

"Yes, what?" Lao Yang took a wooden box and opened it. It was full of various metal bars in the shape of large iron nails, with letters or patterns on the larger flat surface at one end.

"I think I really asked you to make something complicated for me. Huo Ran can't believe that I did it," Kou Chen said, "Then let's make a simple one. Just make a thin tape measure and wrap it around your ankle twice.

The length of the child, and then there should be a scale on it. Instead of numbers, the scale should be marked with the date of his birthday and the letters of his name. What do you think? Can I do this? "

"Yes." Lao Yang nodded.
To be continued...