Chapter 47: The International Settlement Part 2

Si Ying and Lin Yu went to the study to chat, while Mrs. Qiao sat in the corner of the dining room, making a list. Chu Wang, still thinking about the bowl of bone soup, sat down and drank it with big gulps. Si Yansang, sitting next to her, watched with amusement: "Why are you drinking so quickly?"

Yun Yan said before her, "My third sister is going to the Great World with her friends soon. She's almost here, so of course she's in a hurry to finish her meal."

"Are you going out soon?"

Chu Wang hummed, "Someone just called to invite me—before you guys came."

"So I'm late?" Si laughed. "Then eat slowly - I have a big bear I want to give away, but it got wet in the rain. I'll take it to the toy store to fix it up. Maybe I'll be on my way."

They both knew which one the big bear was referring to, and they smiled knowingly at each other. Yun Yan saw it all, but didn't know how to interrupt.

As they were talking, the doorbell rang. The maid opened the door and said that Miss Xue had sent the family driver to pick up the third daughter. Unable to keep anyone waiting, Chu Wang hurried upstairs to change his clothes and came down. Yun Yan and Si Yansang followed him as he left. After getting in the Xue family car, Xue Zhenzhen, wearing a sky-blue dress and small leather shoes, sat inside. Seeing Yun Yan, she asked, "Didn't you say you weren't going? Why are you here again?"

Yun Yan looked out of the car and asked, "Brother Yan Sang, aren't you going with us? Why don't you get in the car?"

Si Yansang smiled and said, "No one invited me."

Xue Zhenzhen probably knew who he was, so she stuck her head out and said, "Well, I'm inviting you now, are you coming?"

Si Yansang smiled and said, "Please make an appointment in advance next time."

Xue Zhenzhen chuckled, "Master Si, you're so generous! Then we'll be leaving. Goodbye!"

"Sorry, sorry, let's play next time." He watched the three of them leave in the car.

The three people in the car all looked back for a while, until the car turned the corner and no one was visible anymore. Then Xue Zhenzhen said to Chu Wang, "Your fiancé is not bad. He has some gentlemanly manners."

Chu Wang smiled and said, "Should I thank you for the compliment?"

Yunyan, who had thought Si Yansang would go with her, sat awkwardly in the Xue family's car, not saying a word. Chu Wang looked out the window at the lush plane trees, while Xue Zhenzhen enthusiastically explained to her, "That alley over there is full of Shanghai's better houses," "That Russian lady pushing a stroller looks like she's pregnant," and "That rough yellow building is where my family lived when we first came to Shanghai, and we moved away later."

Arriving at the entrance to the Great World, the streets were bustling with buses, rickshaws, and people, creating a strangely congested scene, yet a different kind of bustle. Xue Zhenzhen stopped talking at this point, simply telling her driver to pick her up later. The lights were just coming on, and the Great World was ablaze, a stark contrast to the green mailboxes and water bottles lining the street. Chu Wang stood outside, staring at the rows of billboards, exclaiming how exaggerated they were. There were advertisements for shopping malls—Red Gaole cigarettes, Hero brand yarn, Tianlong sheets and 313 towels, Tiger Balm, soap... and interspersed among them, the bold, 1927-inspired slogans: "Suppress Bandits, Save the Country, and Save the People."

Xue Zhenzhen asked, "We can go to the second floor later to listen to Suzhou Pingtan. Tonight they have 'Du Shiniang' and 'Painting the Golden Phoenix.' Later on, there will be a movie on the rooftop terrace. Today they're showing 'Song Girl of the End of the World.'"

The three of them followed the crowd through the Great World from beneath the billboard. A group of Shanghainese-speaking gentlemen and ladies, betting on their bets, smiled as they made their way to the iron fence on the first floor. Xue Zhenzhen said, "Or maybe we could go to the racecourse. I haven't been there yet."

After a while, she looked at her watch and said hurriedly, "Oh, look at me, I forgot the time. "Painting the Golden Phoenix" is about to begin!" Then she hurriedly took the two of them to the elevator with the crowd.

Chu Wang had little appreciation for the traditional performing arts of Pingtan. After attending the execution ground sacrifice, he went to see a Tanhuang opera. He then went to the rooftop garden to watch The Songstress of the End of the World. The film played frame by frame, and as Zhou Xuan's familiar "End of the World, End of the World..." played, Chu Wang was already drowsy. It wasn't early, and Xue Zhenzhen said wistfully, "One night is too short. Let's go to the skating rink another day, or take a spaceship tour."

"The big world is just like this, not that much fun," Yun Yan said, "If I had known, I wouldn't have come today."

Chu Wangpo said speechlessly, "Didn't you say you weren't coming this morning?"

Yun Yan said, "Aren't these imported from abroad? There are many more fun things abroad than this."

"Second Miss Lin," Xue Zhenzhen glanced at Yunyan for a few times, and probably out of patience, she simply switched to Shanghainese and sneered, "Ah, Shanghainese people, your standards are so high, what Tianjin style or Shanghai style, it's just a drizzle."

Yunyan naturally understood what Xue Zhenzhen was saying, but knowing he had no energy to retort, he simply followed the two of them into the Xue family's car. He had originally been happily treating his friends, who had just arrived in Shanghai, to a night out at the Great World, but Yunyan had ruined his mood, so Xue Zhenzhen refused to engage in a heartfelt conversation on the way back.

The drizzle began to fall again. Chu Wang stared at the rickshaws parked along the road. "I must come and ride it someday."

Xue Zhenzhen followed her gaze and finally burst out laughing. "What's so difficult about this?" She immediately said to the driver, "Stop the car."

After the car drove off, they each ate a bowl of sweet bean curd pudding in a porcelain bowl on the street before boarding the lone rickshaw. As they climbed aboard, bean-sized raindrops pattered down, clattering against the rickshaw's oilcloth. In the cramped space, neither could hear the other's words, and they could only laugh uncontrollably, hoping to hail another rickshaw if they came across one. Unfortunately, they didn't see another until they reached the Lin Mansion.

After paying double the rickshaw driver's fare, the two stood at the Lin Mansion and talked. Xue Zhenzhen said, "Your fiancée is quite nice. No wonder your sister is always thinking about her. But are you really not planning on going to Europe? Are you just going to let your sister mess around with him all the way?"

"Since you and I both know that something is wrong, how could he not see it?"

"That's right," Xue Zhenzhen nodded. "If he doesn't understand this, I'll be the first one to not let him off easily."

The Xue family's driver had been waiting at the door for a long time. Chu Wang knew she hadn't had a good time today, so she didn't want to go home easily. After finally getting her into the car, he said with a smile, "Okay, let's go to the Great World alone again some other time. There are plenty of opportunities. Don't be unhappy."