At the tail end of August, the sun parted the thin morning mist, pierced through the azure sky, and scattered its light everywhere. Yet in the narrow alleys of Fuwei Hutong, the light remained dim, shrouded in a layer of gray haze. Not far away came the cries of a baby, mixed with the chaotic, ear-piercing shouts and curses.
Ji Huaixiang grabbed the clothes she had prepared nearby and quickly changed. When her gaze fell on the thin outer jacket, a trace of disgust flashed between her brows. Still, she picked it up and put it on.
She walked to the door of the small single-story house next door and knocked a few times. Soon, footsteps approached from inside, and the door slowly opened. Seeing Ji Huaixiang, the woman looked a little surprised.
“You’re here so early today?”
Ji Huaixiang handed over the breakfast she had cooked.
“Good morning, Aunt Ji. I have a few customers coming to pick up orders today, and I also need to let them know that for the next while, I won’t be taking any custom requests.”
Aunt Ji was wearing a short-sleeved top with rolled edges. She took the breakfast with one hand and fanned herself a few times with a fan in the other. Her eyes landed on the jacket Ji Huaixiang was wearing, showing no surprise at all.
“Did you memorize those fragrance materials I told you to learn the other day?”
“Basically no problem.”
Hearing this, Aunt Ji knew Ji Huaixiang had truly mastered them. She didn’t say anything more.
Ji Huaixiang was already used to Aunt Ji’s quiet, cool demeanor. She smiled.
“Aunt Ji, eat while it’s still hot. I’m heading to the shop first.”
Seeing the other woman nod, she turned and walked out along the bumpy, uneven alley path.
In the summer morning, daylight came especially fast. The road was already lined with endless queues of cars, their horns rising and falling in waves, turning the busy, chaotic, and stifling early hours even more irritating.
Ji Huaixiang followed the crowd across the zebra crossing and kept walking forward, passing several intersections until she reached the shop door.
She pulled a tissue from her pocket. Sweat kept beading on her forehead, soaking the tissue in an instant. In temperatures over thirty degrees Celsius, wearing two long-sleeved layers—even if she was used to it—was still unbearable.
Ji Huaixiang slightly rolled up her sleeves. Under the sunlight, the skin on her slender arms was so fair it was almost translucent. She pressed the tissue to her arm to absorb the tiny beads of sweat, then pulled the sleeve back down.
Once inside the shop, Ji Huaixiang flicked on the light switch. The lamps on the glass display cases lit up instantly.
Rows of glass bottles in various shapes refracted dazzling, enchanting light under the glow. Even the liquids inside them sparkled crystal clear. Ji Huaixiang’s gaze settled on the neatly arranged bottles. Her dark, bright eyes seemed to hold scattered stars—more brilliant than the light glinting off the glass.
“Huaixiang, good morning.”
A round-faced girl walked in from outside. The heat was intense; she pulled a handkerchief from her backpack and gently wiped the sweat from her forehead. A sweet fragrance drifted out from the cloth.
“Good morning. Your perfume is ready. One moment, I’ll get it for you.”
Ji Huaixiang took a small pink glass bottle from the prepared box. She handed the perfume and a white scent strip to the girl, then stepped back about half a meter.
“The perfume is blended according to your usual preferences. Would you like to smell it?”
The girl held one end of the scent strip, sprayed the perfume toward the other end, then held the strip a short distance from her nose and gently fanned it.
A fresh fragrance curled around her nose: sweet peach blossom and crisp lemon top notes, full of spring vitality, blended with berry and peach fruit accords—sweet enough to make you want to take a bite. The warm woody base notes at the dry-down felt like a gentle whisper from someone close and dear.
In the girl’s mind, memories resurfaced of childhood moments when her mother bought her sweet pastries.
“It’s exactly this scent—no mistake. This time it smells even better than before, way better.”
The girl looked excitedly at the pale pink, cherry-blossom-colored glass bottle, treasuring it.
“Thank you so much.”
She had been coming to this “Kiss Fragrance” shop for a whole year now.
The shop was tucked at the very end of an inner street, with low foot traffic and a small space—easy to miss. Once, by chance, she had bought a bottle here. To her surprise, she fell in love with it completely. Later, when she discovered they could create custom “Memory Fragrances” tailored to personal recollections, her obsession with this shop became unstoppable.
Ji Huaixiang’s lips curved into a gentle smile. The heat pressing on her body seemed to ease a little. Having her work loved and recognized by someone was truly joyful.
“Huaixiang, did you really blend this perfume yourself?”
She had asked before, but it still felt unbelievable. She had heard that perfumery was incredibly difficult—some people with decades of experience still couldn’t create a single signature scent.
“I did.”
Ji Huaixiang carefully placed the perfume back into its box for her.
“For the next while, I won’t be taking any custom orders.”
“Huh?”
“School is about to start. In a few days, I need to go register at the university.”
After handing the boxed perfume back, Ji Huaixiang stepped half a meter away again.
“The shop will stay open as usual, but I won’t be able to make any more Memory Fragrances.”
Once she went to register at school, Aunt Ji would watch over the shop. This place originally belonged to Aunt Ji. Later, Aunt Ji taught her perfumery and even gave her half the shop.
Aunt Ji was the second person in her life she felt most grateful toward.
“Congratulations! I still have one more year until the college entrance exam. I really hope I can get into the school I want, just like you.”
The girl looked at Ji Huaixiang with open envy. Even though the other girl was actually a year younger than her, she had already gotten into university, while she was only about to enter her senior year of high school.
However, that gap wasn’t the biggest one. The most striking difference was… her gaze landed on Ji Huaixiang’s face, and she froze for a moment. Every time she saw this face—so vividly beautiful it was almost blinding—she still couldn’t help but be stunned. Too gorgeous. The boys in her class were always debating which school flower was the prettiest, but in her eyes, the school’s campus belle didn’t even measure up to half of Ji Huaixiang.
“Keep going—one year passes quickly. I wish you the same, getting into the university you want.”
The girl hugged her perfume bottle, nodding with a bright, beaming smile.
In the afternoon, Ji Huaixiang began taking inventory of the remaining perfumes. The customers who had placed orders earlier had already come by one after another to collect their custom blends. What was left would be more than enough for Aunt Ji to sell for a while.
The shop door was pushed open once again. This time, a middle-aged man walked in. He wore a loose, rumpled black suit that looked half-new, half-old. His hair was messy, his complexion dull and ashen, and his eyes were sunken deep into their sockets.
“Welcome. May I ask what type of perfume you’re looking for, sir?”
Ji Huaixiang stepped forward to greet him, stopping at a polite distance. Her gaze unintentionally drifted downward and noticed a worn hole at the hem of his suit jacket.
The middle-aged man hadn’t expected the shop owner to be such a beautiful young girl. He reached up to tug at his collar, then—thinking better of it—let his hand drop powerlessly. He tore his eyes away from Ji Huaixiang’s face, glanced around the shop, and studied the rows of perfume bottles displayed in the glass cases.
“I heard you sell a kind of perfume here that can awaken memories?”
The man’s bloodshot eyes turned toward Ji Huaixiang, lighting up with a flicker of hope. “Can it make me remember my wife? Can it bring back memories of her… Can you blend a perfume that smells exactly like my wife?”
His voice rose, words tumbling out in a rush, almost incoherent.
“I’m sorry, but we’re currently not accepting any Memory Fragrance orders.”
Ji Huaixiang calmly interrupted his agitation. “Perhaps you’d like to browse some of the other scents we have in stock.”
“Why not? Is it because it costs a lot? I can pay you—here, take all of this. Just help me recreate the scent of my wife.”
The man was like a dying traveler in the desert who had finally stumbled upon water. Desperate, he clawed at his pocket with trembling, slightly blackened fingers and pulled out several crumpled bills. He thrust them toward Ji Huaixiang.
“Is this enough? If not, I’ll find a way to get more.”
“I’m truly sorry, but the shop really isn’t taking any more Memory Fragrance orders.”
Ji Huaixiang didn’t accept the money. Perfumery was never an easy task.
Memory Fragrances worked by using scent to awaken certain memories in the customer. The moment a person smelled something familiar, their subconscious would automatically summon the scenes and moments when they had encountered that scent before.
By combining those recollections with an understanding of the customer’s life background or specific objects, a perfumer could craft a scent that felt deeply familiar—helping the person retrieve and reawaken memories buried deep in their mind, long forgotten people and events. Compared to creating other fragrances, blending a Memory Fragrance took far more time and effort.
“I’m very sorry, but we truly cannot accept custom orders right now.”
Ji Huaixiang refused gently but firmly.
The middle-aged man seemed to lose the last spark of life in an instant. His shoulders slumped, head bowed, as though he had been holding everything in for too long and could no longer contain it.
“It’s all my own doing… my own sins…”
He began muttering to himself:
“My wife passed away two years ago. Heart attack. Nineteen years ago, when I was at my poorest, she defied her entire family and insisted on marrying me anyway. Back then, I swore to myself that I would make a lot of money for her. Later, I succeeded—after ten years of struggle, I finally started my own company.”
The man’s grip tightened on the bills, veins bulging on the back of his hand. His shoulders lost all strength and sagged even lower.
“A rich man is easily corrupted—that saying is absolutely true. With more business socializing, my thoughts started to wander. When I came home and saw my wife, whose youth was gone, who spent every day only washing clothes and cooking, I began to feel she was no longer worthy of me… And later, it was all that damned woman’s fault. She provoked my wife until her heart gave out, then ran off with every last cent I had…”
The middle-aged man started cursing the mistress who had swindled him into bankruptcy. But as he cursed, he switched to praising his wife, expressing how much he missed her, begging the shop to help him recover those memories of her. Now, the only thing he could think about day and night was the wife who had loved him so deeply.
There were always people like this—people who cheated, made mistakes, and then blamed everyone else instead of looking at their own faults.
“I’m sorry, but our little shop can’t help you.”
Ji Huaixiang’s voice cooled. She cut off his pleading. “Memory Fragrances cannot atone for your sins or lessen your guilt.”
Her words were blunt and piercing. The middle-aged man jerked his head up to look at her. The last traces of color drained from his already cracked, dry lips. He moved his mouth, but no sound came out. Everything in the house that had belonged to his wife had long been thrown away by that other woman. He didn’t even have the right to keep an object to remember her by…
Watching the middle-aged man stagger out, his back even more hunched and defeated, Ji Huaixiang’s eyes remained calm and undisturbed.