Chapter 132: Five-six Gathering and Parting Part 4

When I woke up, I realized that the dream was extremely wonderful. I took a shower with a happy smile, changed into breakfast clothes and went downstairs to have breakfast. Mrs. Ge had already changed into the cheongsam she used to receive guests at home, and there were three or five guests gathered around her.

"Aunt, why are you so busy?"

"You are truly the most carefree bride in the world. You don't care about anything at the wedding banquet, big or small, like who will be entertaining or what style of dress you want."

Chu Wang just smiled with shrimp dumplings in his mouth.

Mrs. Ge beckoned, "Come here and see if it would be better to fold the skirt wide for the evening trip after leaving the church."

Chu Wang didn't even know what the process of his wedding was, so he just casually replied, "Well, okay, okay."

During this time, a tailor said with a smile: "It is better to have thin folds."

Mrs. Ge said, "I think the thin folds were popular more than ten years ago?"

"It's because it wasn't popular eight or nine years ago that it's become popular again now."

She thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. "No. Fine pleats are a test of good manners. With slow, graceful steps, the skirt moves only slightly. My girl's steps will be like the rolling waves of the ocean, making everyone laugh."

Chu Wang felt wronged: "Isn't it that pleated skirts look good when they are lively and active?"

The whole room burst into laughter.

Mrs. Ge was very disappointed: "You have been much luckier these past few years. More than ten years ago, when we were young girls, we put on our wedding dresses and embroidered shoes and walked into the inner house. We would hold a bowl of water on our heads and not dare to spill a single drop. Especially in Guangdong families, dozens of sisters-in-law would squat and wait to see you laugh."

Chu Wang smiled and said, "I'm not afraid. Could it be that the Eight-Nation Alliance also understands the old rules of Chinese inner chambers?"

Mrs. Ge glared at her and recounted the past. "More than ten years ago, women were still forbidden from showing their faces in public. It wasn't like today on the streets, where girls' every move was far less graceful than it used to be. Twenty years ago, when your mother got married, I hid and watched her secretly. Her red skirt was like tufts of hair, and beneath the flowing ribbons of her gown were four or five tiny golden bells. Her lotus feet, several inches long, rang faintly as she walked. That was true elegance and grace, a graceful demeanor. Back then, the rules for women hadn't changed, but men, who had only a few years of education, revolutionized aesthetics first. What a shame."

This era is indeed progressing, but the rules about where to go are still decided by men, which is really unfair.

Of course, those who fall behind will be punished. It's no wonder the Republic of China was full of bad men and resentful women. Of course, there were also women who recognized reality, were strong and independent.

Soon, a man who had "educated himself for a few years" came to visit.

Mi Qiu came to inform Mrs. Ge, and she waved her hand, "Tell him to wait."

After the tailors left, she asked Mi Qiu to take Lin Yu to the main living room, and also asked Chu Wang to go with them.

Lin Yu walked in, wearing an old but well-ironed robe. He was forty-three years old and had a graceful demeanor. He must have been a handsome man when he was young.

Chu Wang and Mrs. Ge each sat on a velvet sofa.

Lin Yu stood in the middle of the reception room, his eyes fixed on Chu Wang with some admiration, as if he had made a great contribution to nurturing such a beautiful and successful daughter.

Mi Qiu also knew that she should keep quiet about this matter, so she didn't ask the visitor what kind of tea he wanted.

Lin Yu didn't care and suddenly said, "You are 50% similar to your mother back then."

Mrs. Ge didn't raise her head and said nothing.

Lin Yu took a deep breath and said, "Marrying me is the only foolish thing she has ever done in her life."

Mrs. Ge looked up and smiled. "Tell me, how much do you want?"

"Lin Jin, I'm not a beggar."

"No? Don't ask me to go back like that. My daughter is busy getting married and has no time to chat with you. Mi Qiu, please show me around."

"Wait!" Lin Yu sat down.

Mrs. Ge laughed.

"Someone has to hold her hand and walk her into the church..." Lin Yu remained calm.

Chu Wang thought, yes, how could I forget such an important thing?

Mrs. Ge interrupted his sentimental speech midway and pointed to the ticking clock behind him: "I'll give you three more minutes at most. If you lose it, you won't get it back."

Seeing Lin Yu clenching his fists tightly with veins bulging out, Chu Wang stood up and turned around to leave.

After standing at the door for five seconds, Lin Yu turned around and said loudly, "Two."

Mrs. Ge smiled and said, "Two hundred yuan is no small sum. Third girl, how much is your monthly salary? Do you have any extra pocket money to help your father in an emergency?"

She was stunned: "Yes, yes." Her mind suddenly jumped and she was about to take money out of her pocket.

Then Lin Yu added, "Twenty thousand. My family is really struggling."

Mrs. Ge smiled cheerfully, her chin raised to her side. From time to time, she would bring a large linen purse to Mrs. Ge. Mrs. Ge took it, untied the knot, and threw the glittering Sun Datou on the black and red carpet.

Lin Yu stood motionless in the silver coin, staring at Lin Jin in disbelief.

Chu Wang sighed, probably feeling that it would be a hindrance for him to pick up the money here, so he got up and went out considerately.

She heard Mrs. Ge say behind her, "On her mother's sixteenth anniversary, take your wife and daughter to her grave and kowtow earnestly twenty times. I'll transfer the remaining money to your account."

When the door was closed, Lin Yu lay on the ground and awkwardly picked up the Sun Datou pills one by one and put them back into the sack.

Mrs. Ge stared at him and said casually, "That year, I turned the Qiao family upside down because of the marriage, and I got a beating when I got home. She begged for mercy for me, kneeling in your room all night, and you thought you had won. But the next morning, when she came to my room to feed me medicine, I apologized to her for getting her into trouble. She touched my forehead and said, 'Kneeling all night is no big deal. Men have gold under their knees, but women don't. Knowing how to show weakness and be shameless is the only good thing this world has for women. I'm not like you. The world has trapped me in this house for the rest of my life. You must get out. If someone offers you a way out, why not crawl under their crotch and pick up the life? In the future, let their so-called gold on their knees be shattered into pieces before you.'"

Ten minutes later, when Chu Wang was drinking Lipton tea in the garden, he saw Lin Yu struggling to carry a sack away.

Mrs. Ge walked over to her and sat down. She asked, "This man came in all dressed up and promised to take his daughter's hand into the church, but when he left, he fled in a hurry with his tail between his legs. Do you think he's worthy?"

Chu Wang stared at it for a while, "Why did my aunt give him money?"

"If I don't give it to him, will he ask your brother for it? How much does a government official earn? He hasn't even asked for a cent of the betrothal gift from his family. Life is so difficult for a newlywed couple. I'm paying for the 20,000 yuan on his behalf."

Chu Wang recalled that when she first came to Shanghai, Lin Zitong had told her something like "a son pays for his father's debts", and she felt deeply moved that with Mrs. Ge, the distinction between virtue and resentment was clear, and she took pleasure in rewarding and enmity.

She thought about it but still couldn't understand: "Why would he rather lose face in front of my aunt than ask Mrs. Qiao for it?"

"It's just that the two siblings share a secret about his even more miserable youth, a secret that he'll regret for the rest of his life. Recounting it in detail is far more serious than embarrassing himself in front of me."

What kind of thing?

It's probably just that noble people bow to money, and the dignity of modern people is trampled upon by old-fashioned women.

"But why does Mrs. Qiao insist on holding on to the money?" She still didn't understand.

Mrs. Ge looked at her and continued, "In old-fashioned families, men often had three wives and four concubines, and women wanted to hold on to power, and property was the greatest power."

Chu Wang tilted his head and nodded. Mrs. Qiao had been clinging to her treasure since her marriage, knowing full well that this husband had been robbed and couldn't truly provide her with a sense of lifelong security. Ultimately, security still had to be bought with money.

However, his methods were questionable. I don't know how many Queen's Avenues Mrs. Ge left behind, and it was not very glorious.

However, both the aunt and the niece began to worry: Who would take her hand and hand her over to Xie Zeyi?

The best solution would be to find a godfather who was both virtuous and talented. However, Mrs. Ge counted the most prominent men she knew and found that none of them could be described as "virtuous and talented", which really made her distressed.

Chu Wang already had a name in mind, but she wasn't sure if it would be suitable unless she went to ask for it herself.

A few days later, Shuyu and Pinfen, the time-honored shops favored by Shanghai's wealthy ladies, announced to the public that all the shop's tailoring hours for the next month would be occupied by Miss Lin San, and orders would not be delivered until a month later.

After sending out the wedding invitations, the Ge family will take a boat back to the sunny tropical area before winter sets in.

Many people who came to congratulate gathered at the Ge Mansion on the eve of her departure to see Mrs. Ge off and congratulate her.

They all came to make friends with Mrs. Ge under the guise of celebrating the bride, or they could not hide their curiosity and wanted to get an early glimpse of the true appearance of this new bride of the Xie family and Nobel Prize winner, who had taken the nature of a otaku to the extreme and was almost indistinguishable from a young lady in the early 20th century.

Mrs. Ge didn't seem interested in using this opportunity to make her debut in Shanghai society. Chu Wang himself was too lazy to attend such social events, so he simply put himself aside.

Chu Wang was lying on the bed, thinking hard in his small notebook about the written review he was going to submit to Xu Shaoqian, when Miya pushed the door open.

Blinking, he huffed, "You've stolen all the limelight, great scientist!"

Chu Wang picked up the small notebook and put it aside. He also blinked, "What? What's the limelight?"

"Every young lady from the wealthy families in Shanghai knows that the bride wears more than seven sets of clothes in one day."

Chu Wang exclaimed: "Ah, how can we change it?"

"Clothes and jewelry are a woman's style, the more the better. With Mrs. Ge taking care of you, you don't have to worry about not being able to change them." Miya laughed.

Chu Wang remembered that Miya would not come to the temple for no reason, so he immediately pressed her, "What are you doing here? Tell the truth."

"As expected, Yunyan is probably going to get married too."

"Huh? Who?"

"A junior sailor."

"Oh, that's great!" Chu Wang said.

"I don't know where he was recruited from. He worked his way up to become a lieutenant in Shanghai after three to five years. He is very dark-skinned and claims to be from Britain. Mr. Jiang can verify his ancestry. He is 70% Indian. He must have been recruited from the Indochina colony. Mr. Huang has asked someone to rescue Zheng Yimin. Mrs. Ge went to talk to Yunyan alone once, saying that if she was willing, she still had a way to get Zheng Yimin to marry her. But she refused, thinking that Mrs. Ge was jealous of her and was trying to harm her. She also said that Chelsea even liked Zhenzhen, so why couldn't she marry a foreigner? She even said proudly that the British man was willing to marry her and would send her to study in the UK after marriage." Miya sighed.

Chu Wang was shocked when he heard this.

What Mrs. Ge thought was simply that the next generation was always innocent, and the grudges of the previous generation would not fall on them, so she would take as much as she could.

However, despite her upbringing, a person's development is still largely determined by the mother's genes. Things like mental clarity and emotional control are 90 percent maternally provided—according to the many unconventional cytology journals she frequently read.

As for why Chu Wang in his previous life rejected Mrs. Ge and insisted on going to Europe with Yan Sang - it probably has something to do with genetics.

"When you can take advantage of a man, never rely on your own hands." Lin Yu's efforts were really in vain.

"How blind! There are so many girls in this world waiting in line for Mrs. Ge's help, but they can't even beg for the chance."

Chu Wang stared at her and smiled.

"Sometimes I wonder if Mrs. Ge sometimes wants a man to rely on."

"No. But she should have her own criteria for choosing a man, and it definitely has nothing to do with money or family background."

In the 19th century, women were obsessed with education, conversation, and money when marrying. But in the 21st century, women are already educated, well-spoken, and capable of supporting themselves. Why would they need these qualities from men? They should simply choose their partners as men have for thousands of years: handsome, well-built, and a flirtatious woman. Once their skin starts to sag and their hairline recedes, they can abandon them and find a new love, just as men throughout history have always been unkind and unfaithful.

She, in the 21st century, once analyzed the marriage views of the older single women around her so seriously, and the same could be said of Mrs. Ge in the 20th century.

Miya was quick-witted and immediately asked with a smile, "For example?"

"Maybe when we're old, we can go to the beach with Mrs. Ge to see young bodies."

"Where can I go?"

"Repulse Bay?"

Miya laughed and pounced on her, playing with her for a while. Then, lying on the bed, she murmured, "Honestly, sometimes I'm really jealous of you. Ever since I was little, I've had two doubts: one, what kind of girl would be raised by Mrs. Ge as her own, and the other, what kind of girl would marry my brother. You're so lucky to have both."

Chu Wang pointed at himself and said with a smile: "Am I not worthy?"

"I can even trick my dad into giving you the house in Shek O as your new home. You don't even know, the sea view and garden there are the most beautiful of all his properties." Miya wiped away tears of laughter. "In the future, you can lie in your bedroom and watch handsome men in swimsuits playing on the beach."

Chu Wang laughed: "I'll invite you and Zhenzhen to watch it together in bed in the future."

"I'm not," Miya said angrily. "Why wait for the future? If you don't have anyone to take you to see your betrothal gifts when we get to Hong Kong in a few days, I'll volunteer and take you to Repulse Bay to see the beach and the men in swimsuits."

"Hey, why is it Repulse Bay again?"

"There's also one in Repulse Bay – the wedding will be in Shek O, and the house will be furnished soon." She sighed, "Dad is so partial. His own daughter begged and pleaded for a house in Shek O as a dowry."

Seeing her so depressed, Chu Wang comforted her: "Don't worry, in a few decades, Repulse Bay will not be as beautiful as Shek O."

Industrial pollution and offshore reclamation: Europe and the United States in the 1940s and 1950s, Hong Kong in the 1970s and 1980s, and mainland China in the 21st century.

"How is that possible? Repulse Bay is the eternal Repulse Bay." Miya was confused and didn't bother to pay attention. After a while, she came to her senses and said, "You didn't even know your wedding was held in Shek O?"

"Oh! Now I understand."

"There is no bride like you in the world, free and easy!"

What's the big deal? She and Xie Zeyi were just taking time out to hold a wedding. There was no need to make a big deal about it.

The two of them laughed together.

After a while, I suddenly heard the soft sound of the iron stairs spiraling up from the garden below. Usually, the narrow fence was locked, but now I couldn't tell whether it was the wind or some small animal sneaking into the yard.

Miya was facing the French window, and when she looked up, she saw it and immediately covered her mouth with her hands and laughed, "Oh, it's a cat."

She stood up, opened the door, and squatted down to look for the cat, but there was no cat.

When I turned around, I saw that Miya had slipped out of the room without me noticing.

Suixi asked loudly from outside, "Do you need me to help you?"

Miya smiled and said, "She likes cats the most. Let her play with it for a while."

Surprised, she turned back. A dark figure came up the stairs outside the house and stood outside the vines. A pair of distinct black and white eyes looked at her with a deep and radiant gaze that no one else would have.

She laughed and said, "Oh, it really is a cat." A large feline that was over 6.2 feet tall.

The sound of piano and laughter gradually rose from downstairs, and seemed to come from a tall tower in the distance.

Xie Zeyi walked over slowly.

She smiled and said, "Hi, sir."

He was also interested: "Hi, ma'am."

"It's Mrs. Xie, sir," she corrected, then asked, "Are you looking for someone?"

"Excuse me, what time is it now?"

She turned around and saw the clock in her room through the French window. She smiled and replied in a serious manner, "A quarter past nine..."

When she turned around, she found that Xie Zeyi had approached her quietly and had pushed her to the floor-to-ceiling window.

She lowered her head, resting her hands on his chest, and said with a smile: "Sir, my house is closed, and it is against the rules for you to do this."

Xie Zeyi showed no intention of retreating. He leaned down slightly, his nose almost touching hers. "So, Mrs. Xie, do you mind kissing a strange man on the rooftop at 9:15?"

"If my husband knew about this, he would probably shoot you in the head." Chu Wang moved carefully with her back against the glass, and accidentally bumped into the glass door behind her. When she took a step back, it immediately slammed shut with a "bang".

She was startled, screamed, and fell backwards due to her unstable center of balance.

Xie Zeyi immediately protected her head, then naturally put his arm around her waist and pressed her against his body, holding her completely in his arms and kissing her against the floor-to-ceiling window with the door closed.

There was a knock on the door, and Mi Qiu asked, "Miss San, what's going on? Are you okay?"

A strange male voice was also heard downstairs, calling out with concern: "Miss Lin San, I heard a cat escaped here. Do you need help?"

She opened her eyes wide, afraid that someone upstairs or downstairs might come up and witness this scene.

Noticing her distraction, Xie Zeyi pinched her waist, intentionally or not, and when she tried to open her mouth, he took the opportunity to kiss her deeper. All her cries of panic were shattered into intermittent, weak gasps in the passionate kiss. He was clearly addicted to the warmth and taste of her mouth, so much so that every kiss was entangled and inextricable.

Just watch it, she's in her own home! Marital intimacy! Legal!

There were still people outside the house and downstairs whispering their concerns to her. She thought about this while leaning against the cold glass.

She was having difficulty breathing and her consciousness was a little blurred. She immediately reached out to pinch his tight waist in protest.

Xie Zeyi couldn't help laughing, let go of her, and tapped her head lightly with his index finger.

He hugged her and leaned against the French window with his forehead touching, and asked in a low voice: "Do you like it?"

She nodded, feeling her face getting hot.

Therefore, she once again confirmed one thing: she didn't know how much she liked kissing Xie Zeyi.

Maybe what she really wanted was his body, this man from the genus Panthera, order Carnivora, class Eutheria.

Outside the door of the back room, Mi Qiu whispered, "Miss San, has the cat left? The door seems to be locked from the inside. Mrs. Ge asked me to get the key and open the door to take a look—"

Once the door was closed, it could only be opened from the inside. Mi Qiu probably guessed that the cat wasn't the one coming onto the balcony. After calling for a while and seeing no response, she worried that she and Xie Zeyi were doing something serious inside with the door closed, so she hurried to report it to Mrs. Ge.

God knows she locked herself out of the house.

The two smiled at each other.

Chu Wang asked, "When will you return to Hong Kong?"

"A little later than you, two or three weeks later."

She nodded.

Xie Zeyi immediately left through the iron ladder.

A good date turned out to be like a secret puppy love affair. She lay on the balcony and looked down, feeling very amused.

The kerosene lamp in the garden lit up, and the young man continued to ask with tireless concern, "Are you okay?"

Only then did Chu Wang see him clearly: he was handsome, with slicked-back hair, wearing a suit and a pair of glasses, looking upstairs.

Xie Zeyi's voice rang out from downstairs: "I think she's fine, please don't worry."

The man's eyesight was probably not very good. Seeing him in his military uniform, he thought he was the invited patrol officer of the concession, so he asked, "Did you catch the cat for Miss San?"

"That's not the case—"

"No way!" the man said angrily, "I'll catch it for her."

Xie Zeyi answered him very kindly, "It's not easy to catch four-legged animals."

The man continued, "What if I sneak into her room while she's asleep and scare her?"

Xie Zeyi smiled and said, "I don't think that will happen."

"How do you know?"

"I haven't asked for your name yet?"

"Just call me Mr. Mai." The man straightened his clothes.

"Oh. Your father is in the candy business?"

The candy king's son had probably never heard his father's vast business being referred to so casually as "the candy business." He looked him over with a touch of affront and asked, "What's your name?"

"Xie Zeyi." After introducing himself with his full name, he added, "The husband of Miss Lin San."

Young Master Mai's outstretched hand froze in place.

Xie Zeyi strode away.

Mi Qiu had pushed the door open and came in. Seeing that the room was empty, she pushed open the French window and saw her standing outside. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Chu Wang lay on the railing and laughed, he could almost imagine Xie Zeyi's nonchalant and annoying expression.