Chapter 26: The 26th Choir and the Reviewers Part 3

The next day, she received the contract in Yau Ma Tei. She signed the two characters, "Lin Zhi," with a flourish. After further consultation with Mr. Saumur, she left his bank address on the contract for payment. The salary was one silver dollar for every twenty pages—low for a contemporary overseas student, but quite high for the impoverished Lin Chuwang.

Chu Wang was now only a semi-inexperienced helper in the tailor shop, but Mr. Saumur insisted on paying her a salary, which she vehemently refused. However, after reviewing her first 60-page manuscript, Mr. Saumur gave her four silver dollars and told her: This is a bonus for your first salary!

Anyway, I finally sent the first letter, but I was a little worried whether I could receive it before he left Germany.

Chu Wang felt very embarrassed about the extra silver dollar from Mr. Somir.

I took Dier to a supposedly high-end ice cream shop down the street. Hong Kong ice cream back then was terrible. They didn't add milk, and the ice cream was too much, making it crunchy. But Dier enjoyed it immensely. When she left, she took two back for Mrs. Ruan and Mr. Saumur. Mrs. Ruan was delighted, but Mr. Saumur, like her, thought the ice cream shop was a bit stingy.

School reopened just as I received my second paycheck. At the start of this semester, the girls in my class all looked different: their sailor-style skirts were no longer uniform in length, but no one would admit to having altered them. Besides their skirts, a closer look revealed that many had also had their hair styled differently, with many sporting bangs permed to resemble Lin Chuchu's look in "Rouge." So, upon entering the classroom, many girls noticed they had the same hairstyle...

The biggest changes were definitely seen on Yunyan and Xue Zhenzhen. Although they'd experienced a sunburn and weeks of peeling, and had regained some of their graying in the past two months, they were now undeniably as beautiful as sweet and sour pork ribs. Xie Miya, on the other hand, was naturally beautiful and didn't follow the crowd. No matter what hairstyle she wore, she had her own unique charm. Even cutting her hair shorter made her look even more playful.

Anyway, starting from this semester, the thing that all the girls are most passionate about is the weekend choir.

Perhaps because she was so accommodating, Chu Wang's three days a week at the tailor shop were a relentless grind. Coupled with the fact that the University of Hong Kong sent her a manuscript every two weeks, each thirty to forty pages long, Chu Wang had virtually no free time throughout September and October. Even though she signed up for choir, she had to take sick leave on weekends for several weeks in a row. However, she often heard about a man named "Ye Wenyu" from her classmates and her two older sisters. He was a freshman at the University of Hong Kong and seemed quite handsome.

Because he felt that the excuse of "cold" could no longer be used to ask for leave, Lin Chuwang did not get the opportunity to go to the choir until November, but he never expected to meet an acquaintance.

But she was still late. By the time she changed and squeezed in through the back door, the girls and boys had already started singing. Trembling, she bent over and squeezed into the crowd, standing next to Xie Miya, half-heartedly joining in the chants of "Hallelujah." Xie Miya giggled, lowered her head, and asked in a low voice, "Wow, the busy man finally made it!"

Chu Wang narrowed his eyes and sang along with the tune: "Of course I have to see who Ye Wenyu, the one everyone is talking about so much, is!"

Xie Miya laughed so hard that her stomach hurt, and she nodded at Xue Zhenzhen. Lin Chu looked over at her: Xue Zhenzhen was singing, but her eyes were drifting to her right.

Following Xue Zhenzhen's gaze, she saw a handsome young man standing at the far right of the choir. His skin wasn't exactly fair, but he was surprisingly handsome. His choir robes were not too small, but they seemed to fit him perfectly—he must have a pretty good figure. Lin Chuwang thought that boys like him were barely a Ning Zetao knockoff.

Xie Miya then nudged her with her arm, motioning her to look around. Lin Chuwang was stunned by what she saw—half of the girls in the choir kept looking towards Ye Wenyu.

Chu Wang lowered his voice and said, "Just because he's handsome?!" Isn't that too exaggerated?!

Xie Miya smiled and said, "This boy is a Singaporean Chinese. He just enrolled in the Department of Physics at the University of Hong Kong. He is also the captain of the Hong Kong University tennis team and has represented the school in several competitions."

Chu Wang suddenly realized, "Oh!" He was blessed with multiple halos! No wonder even the always arrogant Miss Xue was won over.

After a while, "Hallelujah" was finished, and Brother Chaoduo Guanghuan seemed to see someone. Before the next song "Ave Maria" sounded, he got off the choir platform and trotted to the corner of the church. At the same time, many girls in the choir turned their heads 30 degrees.

Chu Wang also looked over there with amusement, and saw Ye Wenyu talking to a tall man in a light gray woolen shirt. Chu Wang felt that he looked familiar, and after a moment's thought, he identified this face with the gentle man in a white shirt at the Hong Kong University Press a few months ago.

Xie Miya explained at the right moment, "I heard he holds a PhD in both astrophysics and nuclear physics from Cambridge University. The Faculty of Science at the University of Hong Kong was just established. They hired him last year, and he became a professor this year."

"A top student."

"I often hear people call him Professor Xu Lai Xu. It seems he's related to Ye Wenyu's family. Ye Wenyu privately calls him uncle. It's probably because of this that Ye Wenyu came to the University of Hong Kong to be his student."

Chu Wang compared the portraits and nodded: "They look quite similar."

Xie Miya smiled and said, "I actually think my uncle is more handsome than his nephew. Professor Xu is the type that the girls in the upper grades are crazy about, but it's no use to anyone else. Before he went abroad to study, his family arranged a wife for him when he was fifteen. It's strange, why do you wealthy people in mainland China always get married so early?"

"Maybe I'm superstitious about the saying 'governing the family and bringing peace to the country,'" Chu Wang asked, noticing she was trying to steer the conversation towards him. "Miya, which one do you have?"

Xie Miya smiled bitterly and said, "Someone like Professor Xu should be considered the perfect destination for us hybrid girls."

"How can it be perfect?"

"Perhaps you don't understand. Rich and prestigious Chinese would never marry a white woman as their principal wife, because society wouldn't allow it. And prestigious British men wouldn't marry a mixed-race woman with Chinese blood. A young talent like Professor Xu, who has social standing, comes from a wealthy and well-connected family, is independent and has received a Western education, and even has an elderly, ailing wife back home who hasn't been brought out." Xie Miya said with a wry smile, "Which international student in England doesn't indulge in the social world? I've heard Professor Xu is a clean man. He's been in England for eight years without any romantic scandals. He hasn't had a woman by his side all these years, and he's been married for almost ten years, with only one wife. Marrying him as a concubine is definitely better than marrying one of those rich old men, right?"

Chu Wang was astonished. A girl like Xie Miya, with her talent, beauty, elegance, and family background, could easily marry a wealthy man in the 21st century. Even without marrying a wealthy man, she could easily become an internet celebrity, a star, or a model—the epitome of a lifelong winner. But he hadn't expected that in this day and age, mixed-race girls would face such a difficult situation.

"You are too pessimistic." Chu Wang comforted him.

"It's not pessimism. I saw it very clearly when I was very young," Xie Miya said with a somewhat helpless smile. "My father had eight concubines and six or seven mixed-race sisters at home. If I hadn't looked most like my brother and been the one he liked the most, I would never have had many good opportunities. I didn't have the capital to be spoiled and willful, so I learned the skill of putting on a smile from a young age."

Chu Wang also smiled bitterly in silence.

Perhaps Father Wilson had noticed the two of them sneaking around in the crowd all morning, and when the service ended, he came over to Chu Wang and Xie Miya in a rage. Xie Miya, aghast, excused herself to the bathroom and fled, leaving Chu Wang alone on the platform, caught between a rock and a hard place. Father Wilson gave her a good scolding. While being scolded, she felt like someone was watching her, so after receiving a general absolution, she hurriedly left the chapel to change out of her church clothes.

Yunyan and Zhenzhen had come in their family car, but she had gotten up late and taken the tram. She had left late, so naturally, no one was waiting for her. By the time she had changed into her sweater and emerged, everyone in the church had almost left. When she reached the tram stop, Xu Shaoqian stood tall and graceful in the breeze, smiling and waving at her.

Chu Wang exclaimed, "Where are Professor Xu and the others?"

"Yeah, I'm waiting for you."

"Huh? What are you waiting for me for?" Just then the tram arrived, and her first reaction was to leave.

Professor Xu, however, smiled brightly and slowly followed me onto the tram. He asked, "Why are you alone? Where's your sister?"

Chu Wang was full of nonsense: "My sister's illness is contagious, so she can't go to crowded places. She is very pious and insisted that I perform the prayer for her. I'm sorry to have kept Professor Xu waiting for so long."

"It's the weekend anyway, so I don't have anything to do. There's road construction up ahead, so this tram won't run from 11 o'clock. I'm going to Yau Ma Tei, so would you be so kind as to let me give you a ride?"

Chu Wang looked towards the tram stop and saw that it was indeed cordoned off, so he nodded in agreement.

Xu Shaoqian walked slowly beside her and said, "I just happened to want to talk to you about your sister."

The author has something to say: Because this is a manuscript box, I don’t know what to say

Xu Lai, whose courtesy name is Shaoqian.