Chapter 32
That was the first time Zhou Yue left the small house on Shahe Street and moved into a big house, so she thought it was the former residence of a Shanghai celebrity and she was going to visit. She walked through the winding corridors and pavilions, the white walls, vermilion doors and windows, and the green tile roofs with flying eaves and upturned corners. Outside the corridors and pavilions were quiet green plants. After turning one corner after another, she saw the person sitting in the open carved wooden door.
It was the main house, central and spacious. The four pillars were carved with various flowers, birds and beasts. The carvings were so exquisite that every bamboo leaf and every feather looked lifelike.
There was more than one person in the room, but only one was sitting, with his back to the door, on a Qing Dynasty rosewood imperial couch. The couch had no carvings of dragons and phoenixes, only some intricate carvings of flowers and birds, so it looked less majestic and more like an object for appreciation. The person on the couch was also quite contented. He had changed the shirt and trousers he wore when he came to Shanghai into a white silk buttoned shirt with dark patterns, like a frail young master of a wealthy family in the Republic of China who loved to pursue pleasure. He held a celadon bowl and sipped tea, occasionally looking up at the person on the stage.
In addition to the Kunqu opera actors on the stage, there were also bodyguards standing there, also wearing black suits. They stood at the door with their hands behind their backs, one on the left and one on the right. When they saw Zhou Yue, they automatically made way without any extra expression.
"Sit down." Jiang Huai took a sip of tea without looking back. Zhou Yue almost tripped over the threshold when she stepped through the door. Why were the thresholds of large mansions so high? She subconsciously looked back. The winding corridor was empty, with only two bodyguards at the door, whom she had never seen before.
Turning to look at Jiang Huai again, he was looking at the person on the stage and had no intention of looking back, but he had already put down the tea bowl, so she quickly walked around to the front of the emperor's couch, took a look at his face, and sat down.
"Don't you like Kunqu Opera? Let's listen to the authentic one."
Jiang Huai looked ahead leisurely, and Zhou Yue followed his gaze. The stage was neither too far nor too close to them. If it was too close, there would be no artistic conception, and if it was too far, they couldn't see clearly. It was at this perfect distance that the singing became lingering, melodious, soft, slow and distant.
There was only one actor on the stage. The colors of her makeup and clothes were fresh and elegant, mainly pink and moon white. Her long skirt rippled like water as she danced. She did not have the bold colors and powerful voice of Peking Opera. She sang three times with sighs and was graceful and charming. She could not understand what the actor was singing, but she was like a ghost who had bewitched her. She listened with her mouth open, fascinated, so much so that she could not hear a word Jiang Huai said.
"Ah?" She looked at him in a daze, and he was looking at her with a smile. "What did you play?"
"Oh," she said, trying to gather her spirit, "We went to Sinan Road, had some crab meat dumplings, and strolled along Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street."
"Well," he leaned his arm on the armrest of the couch, chin in his hand, and looked at the actors on the stage, "and then?"
"Then..." Zhou Yue's face flushed, she placed her hands on her legs and smiled, "I met a female student and learned painting from her for a while."
"Oh?" Jiang Huai became interested and sat up, but his eyes were still on the stage. "What did you draw?"
"Nothing... just a random drawing." Zhou Yue felt guilty when she thought of the painting, but Jiang Huai was obviously not going to let her go. "Let me see."
When Zhou Yue heard him say that, she raised her head and was about to say that the painting was thrown away, when she saw the scarred man appear out of nowhere and stand in the shadow beside them. He took out a square piece of drawing paper from the inside pocket of his suit and handed it to Jiang Huai with both hands.
... Zhou Yue really wanted to scream at that moment. What a guy, it turned out that he had been working hard all the way, never fighting back or retaliating, and was waiting for her here!
She stuffed the painting into the trash can on the street. She was sure that the bad thing was that she didn't tear it into pieces before throwing it away. She didn't know when he picked it up. So at this moment, she could only watch Jiang Huai unfold the drawing paper and hold it in front of him. The picture remained still for a few seconds.
"Who is this painting of?"
"Follow..."
"Mr. Jiang."
…
"Hmm! This painting..." Jiang Huai held up the painting, his face obscured by the paper so his expression couldn't be seen. Finally, he said, "It's pretty good, but it doesn't look like Jiang Huai, it looks like Jiang Zemin."
"……Ha ha ha ha!"
Zhou Yue couldn't help but burst out laughing, and the people standing there also turned their heads away with their hands behind their backs.
Jiang Huai heard the two of them laughing, put down the painting and just watched her laugh, then he laughed too, with his eyebrows and eyes curved.
Zhou Yue finally stopped laughing, looked at the standing man and then at Jiang Huai, and complained loudly: "Okay! Just laugh at me!" After complaining, she looked down at her hands in annoyance, but still couldn't stop the corners of her mouth from rising.
After a while, she saw that there was no sound. She looked up again and met Jiang Huai's eyes. It was dark at night. Big red lanterns were hung high on the roofs all around. The light was too dim. She could vaguely see a flash of loneliness in his eyes, but soon he smiled again, the same smile as usual. He reached out and stroked her cheek, his tone gentle: "You finally smiled. Go, wait for me for supper."
Where are we going? It was so late, and Zhou Yue was taken to another room in the private house by a young girl in a light green cheongsam.
It's not quite right to call it a room. It has a complete one-bedroom and two-living room, a kitchen, a separate bathroom, and a study. It also continues the antique Zen style of Su-style gardens. The living room is very spacious, furnished with an exquisitely carved ebony coffee table and an armchair. A new black shirt and white casual pants are placed on the armchair, and a black windbreaker is hung on the clothes hanger. There is an embossed floral screen between the living room and the bathroom.
She stood by the open wooden window, watching the red lanterns swaying in the wind under the eaves, then went to the study to look at the Song Dynasty poems on the antique shelf, and watched until Jiang Huai came back. He walked very lightly. She heard the sound from the bathroom, and when she went to look, there was already a mist behind the screen, lingering in the living room.
"I'm done." When he came out, she was still standing at the bathroom door waiting, holding the shirt and trousers, which were cold. "Is it too cold?" she asked softly, putting the clothes on him and buttoning them from bottom to top.
"It's not cold." He said lightly.
"Yeah." She nodded, breathing softly. When she buttoned his collar, she caught a glimpse of his neck and frowned slightly. "Mr. Jiang, this mosquito..." She stopped mid-sentence and continued to help him straighten his shirt and button his cuffs with a calm expression. She took a step back to examine him carefully, then looked up and smiled at him: "Alright."
"It's still more comfortable to take a shower here with you," Jiang Huai smiled at her. The water was too hot, and the corners of his eyes were stained red, and his lips were also red, which made his skin look even whiter. "Songzhu is not as good as you in this aspect."
That was the first time Zhou Yue heard Li Songzhu's name and also the first time she saw Li Songzhu. The Kunqu opera actor on the stage was her.
The heavy rain that had accumulated in Shanghai for a day finally poured down after a burst of fine rain and snow. The rain formed a bead curtain on the eaves of the corridor. Zhou Yue looked at the corridor pavilion under the rain and thought that the high threshold was because they were afraid that the continuous rain from the south would spread in.
Looking at the person outside the door, there was actually no one to be seen, just a shadow under the red lantern, motionless. It was like a dog relying on the power of its master. Zhou Yue lowered her head to look at the crab meat tofu in the bowl. It was like a dog, not daring to sit or eat a bite without orders.
The bone china bowl and spoon beside him made a crisp sound when they touched lightly. Jiang Huai buried his head in eating. He was a man of few words to begin with, and even more silent at the dinner table. The eight-immortal table was filled with dishes, but he only picked up a few dishes closest to him with his chopsticks. He didn't even bother to look at the dishes far away.
"Xiao Yuan, go ahead." He took a sip of the fish soup. Zhou Yue thought, his voice was so soft, who could hear it? But the shadow at the door disappeared in the blink of an eye. She lowered her head and took a bite of the crab meat tofu, which was already cold.
"Don't like crab?"
"I love it," Zhou Yue smiled at the people around her, holding a spoon, "but I ate two baskets of crab meat dumplings this afternoon, so I'm a little full."
"Hmm," Jiang Huai put down his chopsticks, and Zhou Yue did the same. He swiftly took the gold-rimmed glasses from the table and handed them over. This smooth and flowing action must have made Jiang Huai very satisfied. He smiled at her and said, "Don't want to eat anymore? Let's go."
"good."
The two of them walked in staggered steps, Jiang Huai in front and Zhou Yue behind, silently passing through the corridors and pavilions, as if they were walking through the Water Curtain Cave in Huaguo Mountain, and they would never finish the walk.
After finally walking out, she saw several people standing under the crabapple tree outside the moon cave gate, one man and three women. The man lit a piece of white paper with a cigarette butt, and the flames were more dazzling than the crabapple flowers. He suddenly held the paper with his hand, causing the three young girls in cheongsams to scream. When he let go of his hand, there was no ashes left, and a little white rabbit was squatting in his palm.
"Ahhh! How did it change?"
The girls were so excited that they laughed and shouted, jumping up and down with joy, their high heels clicking like little deer.
But the man didn't say anything, just smiled and shook his head. This time he was really smiling, with the left corner of his lips raised high.
"Oh, you're so bad!" A tall girl, a little bolder and more enthusiastic, punched the man's arm gently. Her companion immediately pushed her away, covering her mouth with her hands and laughing coquettishly, "You want to say you're so handsome, right?"
"Go! Go! Go!"
The man looked down at them with a smile, as if he didn't see Jiang Huai and Zhou Yue. He handed the little rabbit to the tall girl, which caused another scream. "Goodbye." He said in a hoarse voice, turned around and walked to the car, opening the back door before Jiang Huai and Zhou Yue.
Jiang Huai said nothing, not even glancing at those people. He waited until they were in the car before looking out the window with a half-smile. He leaned over and slapped the man's head with his gloves a few times, cursing through gritted teeth as he slapped him: "It's not spring yet, it's not spring yet!"
Zhou Yue had never seen him like this before, and she stared at him with her eyes wide open. But after he finished fanning her, she smiled, leaned back on the leather seat, and looked at the back of the man's head. "Which one do you want? Speak!"
The man was not frightened by him, as if he was used to it. He put his hands on the steering wheel and shook his head with a smile, "Thank you, Mr. Jiang." After that, he started the car. The black Rolls-Royce slid silently in the hazy night like a fish.
"It's okay. It's normal for men to have women." Jiang Huai looked at the neon lights in the rainy night, which were as blurry as melted oil paint flowing on the car window. "But I still say that women are just for fun. Even if you want to play with them, find you a clean one. Those ones have been played with by others and are worthless."
Zhou Yue leaned on the car window to look at the roses on both sides of the road. The roses were more vivid after being soaked in rain, and they were as dazzling as flames in the dark night. But she had seen crabapples, whose layers of petals were translucent, like pink silk, and crabapples were still more beautiful.
"Yes, Mr. Jiang," said the man.
After getting off the plane, he was still driving. Jiang Huai said he would take Zhou Yue first. When they arrived, the night sky was already blue and the horizon was translucent.
The car stopped under a camphor tree, right next to the building where she lived. At three in the morning, there was no one around, only the shrill cries of partridges. "Xiao Yuan, go have a cigarette. Miss Zhou and I should rest for a while."
"Okay, Mr. Jiang." The man got out of the car and walked away, his back to them and his head lowered. When he looked up, misty smoke swirled around him. Jiang Huai closed his eyes. Zhou Yue bit her lip and tried to swallow the words back, but in the end she couldn't help it and whispered, "Mr. Jiang, you should go back and rest first. I'm going upstairs to sleep too."
"Come here," he said softly, eyes closed. Zhou Yue's folded hands were clenched until they turned pale, but she still sat over and subconsciously glanced out the window. The man was still smoking with his back to them. It was late at night, with heavy dew. He was surrounded by a hazy fog. She could vaguely see his back. He was tall, with an upright posture. At this height, standing in front of the bathroom mirror...
She couldn't think any further. Jiang Huai grabbed the back of her neck and pressed her against his lap. The tip of her nose banged heavily on the metal belt buckle, and a hint of blood spread. He inserted his fingers into her hair and gently rubbed it, "Why do you always make me say the same thing twice?"
"Be good, okay?" He pinched her jaw and turned her face up to look at him. He stuffed his slender fingers into her mouth and scraped her teeth back and forth, with the faint scent of an unknown shower gel, and murmured, "Untie it, help me."
"Boss Jiang has outsiders here." Zhou Yue tried to get up by holding onto the chair, but he held her down firmly. "It's just a dog, what are you afraid of?" He rubbed the back of her neck with his palm, not knowing whether he was talking about her or the people guarding outside. His smile was gentle, and he said, "Or do you also dislike it because others have used it? It's okay..." He coaxed, "I washed it clean, and you washed it clean too. We both washed it clean."
…
"Hiss," he closed his eyes and raised his head, humming with pleasure. The cinnabar mole between his eyebrows and his slender eyebrows knitted together, giving off a sinister and hostile aura. "Be careful," he opened his eyes and looked down to admire her, his voice trembling with pleasure. "Your teeth are so sharp, like a kitten's." His palms caressed her chin and throat, and the other hand kneaded into the roots of her hair, pressing down firmly on the back of her head. The car windows were closed, and the man's trembling moans could be heard faintly through the windows, echoing in the night. Zhou Yue vomited, tears streaming down her face. Through her tearful eyes, she saw smoke curling in the deep blue sky, stained with water vapor, and a layer of mist on the car window. He was incredibly strong, and with one hand he restrained her struggling head and hands...
The moment he let go of her hand, Zhou Yue pushed him away, opened the car door and rushed out. As soon as she went out, she fell to the ground. She felt cold and numb from the soles of her feet to the roots of her thighs. She staggered to her feet, fell again, got up again, and rushed into the dark corridor without looking back.
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