Chapter 36
Zhou Yue and Jiang Huai’s second trip was to Hong Kong, and everything was different from their trip to Shanghai.
The cars passing parallel to theirs on the road were so tall that they surrounded their car like a solid wall. Through the car windows, they could only see the iron curtain-like car doors. Apart from the faint sound of waves in the wind, they could hear and see nothing.
During those days, apart from sleeping, she was tossing and turning at dinner parties and wine tables. The magnificent restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui was covered with red carpets, with hundreds of people and dozens of tables on each floor. Jiang Huai led her to toast at each table. He was wearing a white silk shirt and white trousers, smiling, and leaning behind the chair to listen to the compliments of the big guys.
“So pretty!”
“I’ve never seen it before!”
"Where did you run into that beautiful lady?"
When people talked about this, most of them were just making a fuss. Only one bald man looked at her face and body with an ambiguous look, as if he wanted to strip her naked with his eyeballs. His bald head was full of wrinkles of flesh, as if his brain had grown outside.
Jiang Huai's temper had faded at this moment. A smile spread from the corners of his eyes to the corners of his lips, like the swaying willows by the lake. He leaned over and whispered in his ear, "She's so beautiful! I can't live without her every night!"
"Oh!" Dozens of people at the tables burst into laughter, their faces flushed and necks thickened, their large gold chains straining against them. They howled, cigars between their lips, "Mr. Jiang, you're in trouble! Take care of yourself! You're turning forty!"
"When will the wedding be held?"
Whenever this happened, Jiang Huai would keep things a little bit secretive, shaking his wine glass and looking back at Zhou Yue with a smile, "Just wait and see when you can give me a baby!"
The atmosphere was boiling again.
Zhou Yue held the wine glass in a daze, her smile changed from flustered to skilled and then to stiff. Her ankles in high heels also went from sore to stinging and then to numb. She smiled mechanically like a puppet, toasted, drank, and laughed again... Jiang Huai occasionally looked at her in between toasts, with a hint of haze in his eyes, which disappeared in the blink of an eye.
She thought she was not good at presenting things, which made him unhappy. However, when she returned to the Jiang family's secluded mansion in Big Wave Bay, which was surrounded by lush forests, he never said anything. He just lay by the swimming pool, watching the soft and warm light ripple in the pool from day to night, without saying a word.
"Mr. Jiang, do you want to eat? You haven't eaten all day." Zhou Yue hesitated and walked to his recliner. He didn't say a word. She stood there for a while without getting a response. She was about to leave when she heard him say behind her, "Do you want to study?"
She turned around, his eyes barely visible behind his brown sunglasses. She nodded, and he looked at her for a long time. The gentle evening breeze blew aside his open collar, brushing aside his hair that fell across his forehead, revealing its mottled gray color like weeds. He smiled, "Okay, when we get back to Shenzhen, we'll finish college."
They still slept separately at night, and their last conversation on the last day was not very pleasant.
In the morning, he came to tell her that he would be boarding the ship that night. Seeing her taking medicine in the kitchen, he didn't say anything. He leaned on the white island with a cigarette in his mouth and said, "Have you been to Victoria Harbour?"
"No."
"Let's go to the boat at night. The night view of Victoria Harbour is beautiful."
"Oh, okay." Zhou Yue felt that he had not finished speaking, and she glanced at him when she put the milk into the refrigerator. After putting the milk in the refrigerator and closing the door, she walked to his side and wanted to ask him if he had anything else to do during the day and whether she wanted to put on makeup. He grabbed the back of her neck without any warning.
"I vomited." He was holding a cigarette in his mouth, his eyes squinted by the smoke, and he was smiling. The cigar smoke was too close and choking, making her cough violently. The cough opened her esophagus, and he pinched her neck again, so she vomited with a "wow". The bread, cereal and milk were condensed into a cold pool on the milky white marble tiles.
She saw Xiao Yuan again in the evening. She hadn't seen him since coming to Hong Kong and thought Jiang Huai didn't bring him with him.
Jiang Huai took her on the boat to watch the sea and feel the sea breeze. He hugged her waist from behind. She was stiff all over, but he seemed to have no memory of what happened in the morning and was unaware of her stiffness. He rested his chin on the top of her head and hummed an unknown ballad in the soft Wu dialect. She could not hear it clearly, but could feel the vibration of his vocal cords connected to his chest when he sang.
Xiao Yuan stood on the deck behind them, from day to dusk. When night fell, Jiang Huai gently let her go amid the sound of a ship's whistle. When she turned around, he held her in his arms again, his dark eyes looking into hers, his eyelashes as dense as a porcelain doll trembling slightly. "I have something else to do. Let Xiao Yuan accompany you. Follow him closely and don't get lost."
After saying that, he turned and went into the cabin.
Zhou Yue lowered her head and waited for a long time after his figure disappeared before she walked to the corner of the wall. She put her hands behind her back and looked at the sea, then raised her head and glanced, "Boss Jiang said there's a nice night view. Where is it?"
"Here," he said calmly, lowering his hand and walking across the deck to the other side of the boat.
Zhou Yue followed him suspiciously, and suddenly her eyes lit up, "Ah!"
“Victoria Harbour.”
"Yeah!" Zhou Yue nodded frantically and threw herself onto the railing, staring with her eyes wide open.
All the skyscrapers in Central and Wan Chai were lit up with neon lights and huge advertising billboards. Luxurious golden outline lights outlined the shapes of one majestic building after another. The dazzling beams of light broke through the glass curtain walls from bottom to top like fireworks and soared into the sky.
As night fell completely, a beam of laser light streaked across the night sky, followed by two, three... colorful laser lights flashed and danced in the night sky to the rhythm of the music.
The entire port was ablaze with lights, the night sky was as bright as the Milky Way, some stars accidentally fell into the sea, swaying with the sparkling waves, a light boat passed by, romantic music lingered on the water, creating layers of ripples.
"Look, the stars." Zhou Yue leaned on the railing and pointed at the sea. A breeze blew by, and the colorful stars seemed to be crushed into thousands of fragments and scattered on the water, rippling with the waves.
There was no sound for a long time. Zhou Yue turned her head to look at the person next to her and found that he was staring at her intently. The red light of the lamp sprinkled on his face, making his cold black eyes look as sticky, warm and hooked as red rouge.
"Why are you looking at me? Are you looking at the stars?" Zhou Yue frowned and glared at him, then turned her head away and muttered softly, "How boring."
"It's windy here, Miss Zhou, let's go to the cabin." He retracted his gaze, looked at the colorful stars floating on the sea, and explained.
"Is the wind strong?" Zhou Yue turned her head to look around. From time to time, a breeze gently blew through her hair, which was very comfortable.
"I don't want it!" She refused decisively.
"Miss Zhou, don't you want to see what's upstairs?"
Zhou Yue looked back. She had been to the second floor when she first boarded the ship. It was the concert hall and restaurant, but what about the third floor? She stood on tiptoe to look. The third floor was the dimmest and looked furtive. It didn't seem like a good place.
"What did you want to do by tricking me into going up there?" She looked at him with a stern face, very alert.
"Then we won't go up." He laughed.
When Zhou Yue heard him say he couldn't go, she leaned on the railing and looked at the brightly lit Victoria Harbour for a while, then suddenly said:
"Hmph, if you don't want to go, then don't go! What's so fun about that? Drinking, singing, dancing, and cuddling! That's all people do, like everyone has seen it!"
"Miss Zhou doesn't look like someone who would allow herself to fall into depravity."
Zhou Yue stopped talking and turned her head to look at another cruise ship passing by. She could vaguely see men and women hugging and kissing on the deck. Most of the men were dressed formally, while the women were wearing either tube tops or backless dresses. A woman was picked up by a drunk man in a shirt and placed on the railing. She screamed in fright. The silver ribbons crossed on her back were euphemistically said to cover her modesty, but in fact, they had the same effect as the mandarin duck bellybands worn by ancient brothel girls. When it comes to matters between men and women, once the threshold is high, being naked actually loses some of the interest.
"You've been with Jiang Huai for so long but you're still so naive. Don't you know that you can't judge a book by its cover?" Zhou Yue stared at them in a daze and said coldly.
He was silent, and she lowered her eyes to look at the water surface that was cut by the bow of the boat. When the boat passed by, the water surface was noisy for a while and then returned to calm. But life is different. There is no turning back in life. Once it is cut, it is cut.
She looked at the broken neon shadows swaying on the water. Those were not stars. The stars were created by her imagination. She imagined many beautiful things to help her endure the pain and barely get through the rest of her life.
"It makes no difference whether you sell it once or many times," she laughed, while the people around her remained silent. "It also makes no difference why you sell it."
The dazzling neon lights of Victoria Harbour blurred before her eyes. She muttered to herself like a sleepwalker, "I didn't believe it at first. I told myself I had my reasons for doing it the first time. That's why they later offered me money, a Bentley, and a half-blooded old man even gave me a priceless jade bracelet. I refused to accept any of them. I said I wasn't selling it."
"I really like singing. I like seeing them enchanted and hearing their enthusiastic applause. The boss lady was unhappy and scolded me and squeezed me, but she still protected me and didn't let them touch me. I thought it would be great if it always stayed like that, but then I realized..."
She smiled, tears welling up and falling onto the back of her hand, then into the sea. "Bullshit, what's the point of not selling? I sold myself a long time ago, completely the first time. They just didn't hit the mark."
Zhou Yue tried hard to blink away her tears and looked down at her hands. Her piano teacher said that her delicate hands were just like the saying "fingers as thin as scallion roots", and that she was born to play the piano.
"Jiang Huai gave me a piano, and I was moved. It wasn't because the piano was valuable, but because he stood there, standing next to the piano shining with stars, smiling and asking me if I liked it..."
She looked up at the person next to her, but he didn't react at all, like a wooden man.
"A piano can be my father. Don't you think too highly of me, hahaha!"
She finished laughing and looked at the night sky. The salty, bitter wind blew her hair, sticking to her face. "Cure my mother's illness? I deceived myself. I did it willingly."
"You can also tell Jiang Huai this. He will probably like to hear it, because love or not is not important to him. What he wants is submission."
Her head drooped limply, and she turned her back to the glamorous Victoria Harbour. "I'm thirsty. Is there anything to drink on the third floor?"
"Yes," he said, his voice as hard as if he had swallowed a handful of gravel, "there is blue wine."
"Blue? Cocktail?"
"Yes."
Zhou Yue looked across and felt that the blue neon light was the most gentle.
"OK!"
…
"Huh!" Zhou Yue took a big sip of the cocktail, and her face wrinkled like a bun. The ice-blue cocktail was served in an elegant high-heeled glass, with aqua blue, lake blue and dark blue overlapping each other, and a slice of bright yellow lemon was placed on the rim of the glass as a garnish. She thought it had a refreshing mint flavor, but it turned out to be just the alcohol from a chemistry lab!
"It's so hard to drink..." She pinched her neck, her expression painful. After enduring that moment, she suddenly remembered and glared at the people around her, asking, "Why don't you drink it?"
"We still have to drive later." He placed his hands on the wooden table, still wearing black leather gloves, and looked at a small round window in the cabin.
Lifebuoys and marine fish specimens were hung on the wall above their heads. A few meters behind them was a bar, where several men in black suits stood. Zhou Yue and Xiao Yuan sat by the window drinking and looking at the night view of Victoria Harbour through the window as small as a submarine.
"We still have to go find President Jiang." Zhou Yue asked, staring at the blank desk, her throat still aching.
"Yes." He smiled suddenly and looked at her sideways. He was much thinner than when Zhou Yue first met him. His eye sockets were sunken, as if he had endured too much torture, sad and tired. In the moonlight, his thick eyelashes cast heavy shadows on his eye sockets. "Boss Jiang won't let you stay outside forever." He lowered his head to look at his black-gloved hands. "Stay with us, our subordinates."
Zhou Yue looked up at his face, then stood up and went to the bar to order a glass of orange juice, placing it in front of him. "It's good for your wound and replenishes your vitamins."
"Thank you, Miss Zhou."
"You're welcome."
Silence.
"Is Miss Zhou's mother okay?" He took a sip of orange juice.
Zhou Yue stroked the ice water in the goblet. "Well, her eyes are open now. When I talked to her the other day, she actually shed tears. The doctor said she must be conscious now."
"I originally wanted to say that I could earn money from singing to pay for her medical treatment. Anyway, I don't go to school, and if one person eats, the whole family will not be hungry. But I really can't hold on any longer..." She pushed the high-heeled glass open little by little, and ice water droplets flowed along the curved outline, "So I will tell President Jiang, no matter what..." As she spoke, she lowered her head and smoothed the folds of her skirt with her palms on her knees.
There was silence again.
"Ms. Zhou, it's almost time." Xiao Yuan looked out from the small window, his voice calm and peaceful.
Zhou Yue followed his gaze and looked outside. There was nothing there. Blinking, she asked in surprise, "What time is it?"
"It's time to go." Xiao Yuan led Zhou Yue off the boat. Under the street lights at the port, the convoy brought by Jianghuai was waiting in full swing. Zhou Yue counted them and found that every car was intact, and the people were the same, wearing black clothes and black pants, standing with their hands behind their backs beside the cars.
"Where's President Jiang?" Zhou Yue wanted to ask again, but Xiao Yuanli opened the passenger door behind her and gently pressed the back of her head. "President Jiang is waiting for us."
She got in, and the moment the passenger door closed, the people who were standing with their hands behind their backs turned around and jumped into the car as if they had received an order. The sound of car doors slamming was dull and rapid, and the roar of engines whirred one after another.
"His people and car are here, so where is he?" Zhou Yue fastened her seat belt while looking out the front windshield. She could not see anything. The car was surrounded from all sides, just as guarded as when she came.
Xiao Yuan held the steering wheel, always looking straight ahead, and suddenly turned around and smiled at her under the street light, with both corners of his mouth smiling. The desolate white light was misty, like a water moon, reflecting bright stars in his eyes.
"Don't be afraid." He smiled, lifted the hat behind her clothes with both hands and put it on her head. The warm smell of leather lingered on her ears, as if he was holding her face, but in the end he just lightly lifted her hair and stuffed it into the hat.
"With me here, Miss Zhou will be fine."
I see.
Zhou Yue looked at him, the turmoil in her eyes gradually subsided, and she leaned back in her chair and smiled, "Should I be afraid of anything?"
The cars have started, and the convoy is moving silently in Tsim Sha Tsui late at night, like a group of sea fish with black scales as sharp as blades diving quickly under the dark water.
She could see the sea and the bright lights of the distant skyscrapers, but she could only hear the sharp and piercing friction of tires, which came from far away and then came closer. Then there was a loud bang, accompanied by exploding broken glass, and a tire came straight towards them. Xiao Yuan gripped the steering wheel and made a sharp turn. The tire hit the front of the car behind, and the steel and iron bones were instantly smashed into a pile of mud. As the car body shook violently, Zhou Yue caught a glimpse of the raging fire behind her.
Five or six cars suddenly rushed out from behind the fire. Looking again, there were seven or eight cars. They were crazy as if they had taken drugs, and they crashed into each other without distinguishing friend or foe as if in a killing competition. They wanted to knock the other party away and get the first place. They whizzed past the pile of ruins and rushed over.
Zhou Yue thought it was Jianghuai's car, but soon realized in despair that it was not. She remembered every one of Jianghuai's cars, and none of them had a license plate.
Sirens blared in the distance, but nearby all that could be heard was the roar of approaching engines, loud bangs, and the screeching of tires.
The car twisted and turned on the road, its tires and frames tumbling and whistling in the air as it flew towards him, but he dodged it with a sharp turn, one sharp turn after another, the steering wheel spinning rapidly in his hands.
When the driver's side glass shattered, she only heard a long buzzing sound in her ears, and then she could hear nothing. The pile of broken glass pierced his neck like shrapnel. He roared something at her with his bloody face, and then he pressed her head against his legs.
She hugged his waist, the smell of blood spreading in her nose. She looked up at his face, the sticky, sweet blood dripping from his chin, dripping onto her face. In the blankness, she could only vaguely hear two muffled sounds, and then the broken glass of the co-pilot seat fell down, tearing his leather jacket, and the grains of blood pierced into his flesh, turning him into a hedgehog.
The car was driving past them, sparks flying from the metal collision, and the roar of the engine was like a madman with bloodshot eyes biting her ear and laughing wildly.
He covered her back, raised his gun, and there was silence after a muffled sound. His sweaty nose and lips brushed against her neck.
In the darkness, her breathing was hot and rapid, burning her skin. Every pore was clamoring for something, like fallen leaves returning to their roots, like gurgling springs pouring into a dry canal, like a demon finally falling into a fiery hell. That moment was her paradise.
But she had no time to think about anything. The car was knocked away by a crazy and relentless force, turning upside down and circling in the air, as if traveling in space. Everything became very slow. Then there was a violent impact, and the aftermath broke her eardrum. Blood gushed out of her ear canal, and she could not even hear the faintest sound.
She could only see his blurry face, blood red, his mouth opening and closing like a black hole, and then it suddenly became clear. She could see every shattered ice in his dark pupils, and the shattered ice melted and flowed out of his eye sockets with the blood.
A fishy and sweet smell came over her. His lips were so hot that they made her tremble. They were as dry as sand in the desert, but his soft tongue flowed into her mouth as if it had been melted by the heat, entwining and licking the boiling blood in her mouth.
She felt very thirsty. One only knows how thirsty one is when one drinks the first sip of a clear spring. She opened her mouth and greedily swallowed the sweet liquid...
He held her hands tightly to prevent her from moving, and his tall body wrapped her whole body and pressed her under him.
She pressed against his chest and could feel his body trembling. Something was hitting his back, once, twice.
She heard herself crying and saying "let go". She didn't know what he said, only his hot breath sprayed on her ear.
But she could see, she saw several figures running from a distance, in black pants and black suits, familiar faces, five or six pairs of black leather shoes scraping on the ground, turning over the overturned car.
She was being dragged out of the car window. The man tugged once, but couldn't move her, so he tugged again. She looked up through the window at his mouth. He was anxious, with beads of sweat and blood on his forehead. He was mouthing, "Miss Zhou, let go, let go, it's okay."
...In her last glance before being carried away, she couldn't see him. She only saw a person lying on the ground, with his eyes open. He was very young, younger than all of them. It was hard to imagine that the crazy engine noise came from him. A large part of his body, which had not yet fully developed, was torn off by bullets. He should have died long ago, but people can really be so loyal to another person that they never think about whether it is worth it before dying.
But even such a sincere heart, when dead, is still like a dead silkworm, deflated and limp, with a cold and shining knife in the hand, and bloodstains on the knife.
She didn't know where she was being carried. She looked up at the clear night sky and said, "There are so many stars today."
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