With his beloved by his side, Colonel Lango temporarily suppressed his doubts.
When the elevator stopped on the 5th floor, he asked Chen Rou to get off.
Passing through a corridor leads to the rooftop, which is also a sky garden. You can also see the sea from one side. What's rare is that the sea is exceptionally blue because there is no industrial pollution or domestic waste in this area.
The bay is densely packed with warships, but unfortunately, even twenty years ago, when Colonel Rango's predecessors invited guests to afternoon tea here, one could still see the guests' trepidation on their faces, because at that time the British naval fleet was still quite formidable. But not now, just across the sea, the South China Sea has risen rapidly from scratch.
Various types of warships are densely packed on the South China Sea, visible to Hong Kong residents with just a turn of their head, successfully outshining Great Britain. This also makes it less impressive for Colonel Lange to try and woo a beautiful woman.
But don't be fooled by Colonel Rango's impeccable suit and elegant demeanor. After all, his ancestors were pirates and opium dealers. Pirates are known for their cunning, so when they had a strong army, they competed with others in terms of sheer numbers. But now that others have a stronger army, they can't compete. When they can't win, they resort to sentimentality and talk about humanism and ideals.
The two had just sat down when the clock struck four in the afternoon, the traditional English afternoon tea time.
Soldiers brought tea and a standard three-tiered English pastry tower.
Colonel Lango smiled and said, “I worked for the Queen in Ceylon for eight years and have many close friends there. Every tea season, they would travel a long way to personally send me the best-looking and most flavorful tea from their own tea gardens for me to appreciate. Today, we are going to drink high mountain tea from UVA. It is fragrant and mellow in taste. I am confident that even you are tasting such a delicious Ceylon black tea for the first time today.”
For Chen Rou, no matter how much tea she drinks, it can't compare to an iced cola or an iced beer.
But she pretended to be coy, picked up her teacup, took a sip, and said, "Being able to make such close friends proves that you have done a very good job in Ceylon, and the local indigenous people also love and respect you very much."
The landlord knew that the farmhands hated him to the core, but he still enjoyed hearing them praise him.
Colonel Lango was overjoyed by Chen Rou's praise, but he still had to be modest: "That was just my duty."
Chen Rou continued to flatter, "The people of Hong Kong are also very grateful for your protection."
Like a lady from the 18th century, she showered him with compliments, making Colonel Rango feel as if this beauty had already fallen for him and was captivated by his handsome and mature charm.
He tried his best to restrain himself, adding, "For us, we can lose the war, but we must have afternoon tea."
Today the weather was sunny and clear, with not a cloud in the sky and the sea was crystal clear. A gentle breeze was blowing. For Colonel Lango, who grew up in the rainy and gloomy Wales and rarely saw the sun, such good weather would surely put him in a good mood.
Chen Rou was a soldier in the truest sense. For her, food was optional, but the battle had to be won.
Therefore, her values and those of Colonel Rango are opposite.
But she's not here to fight or compete today; she's here to frame someone, so she has to restrain herself.
"I'll pretend I'm a British lady," she said with a smile. "You are the most traditional gentleman, you know how to be considerate of your subordinates."
After all, their ancestors were wealthy, and the word "tradition," though subtle, is still the highest form of praise.
Colonel Rango's smile grew even wider, the wrinkles around his eyes so deep they could trap a mosquito.
He added, “During the Battle of the Somme, we fought the Germans in close combat, and blood flowed like a river. But every day at four o’clock in the afternoon, we would take a break and enjoy a cup of black tea together. It was war, but a war between gentlemen.”
The Battle of the Somme was World War I, and it featured modern large-scale weaponry, with tanks being used in warfare for the first time.
From Colonel Rango's perspective, it was indeed a war between gentlemen, fought with great restraint.
The fighting would cease promptly at four o'clock in the afternoon, and then the two sides would face each other and brew tea.
From Chen Rou's perspective, since Yingde and the other side were related by marriage, they were essentially just landlords fighting each other, and the landlords were the ones drinking tea during the ceasefire.
Even when they were at war, they didn't forget to enjoy life, and they were indeed very gentlemanly.
Chen Rou had read the memoirs of ordinary soldiers from that time. They were originally farmers who were captured by landlords and sent to the battlefield. The battlefield at that time was a swampy area with continuous rain. Those poor farmers were driven to the battlefield, with their own side relentlessly firing bullets behind them and muddy craters blasted by enemy artillery fire in front of them. The fighting would often last for ten days or half a month. Their clothes were always wet, and their boots were filled with water. They lay rotting in the swamp, next to the corpses of their comrades, unable to distinguish friend from foe, with no distinction between day and night. By the time the landlords got tired of fighting and wanted to sit down and negotiate, the dead had already rotted, and the living returned to their hometowns in a daze, only to find that they had lost their land and were in debt. So they had no choice but to go out and continue fighting.
Chen Rou came from an ordinary background, and naturally, she only viewed things from the perspective of ordinary people.
Okay, she'll hold back for now, but she really wants to beat up Colonel Rango.
Seeing that she wasn't eating any snacks, Colonel Lango offered her a treat: "You can try our sandwiches. The chef has traveled with me to many countries, and even my ex-wife, a woman with an eccentric personality and anorexia, loved his cooking."
This statement contains a lot of information. First, he was divorced. Second, his ex-wife not only had a bad personality but also suffered from anorexia.
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