Chapter 23
There are five days of holiday during the Spring Festival, from the first to the fifth day. Starting from the second day, relatives came to visit the house one after another. Tong Yufei didn't want to be an exhibit for relatives to comment on, so he went into the kitchen to help, and together with the temporarily hired chef, he prepared tea and meals for the guests. He could have peace and quiet and be praised for his ability to both hostess and cook, killing two birds with one stone.
For many years, the kitchen was the place where she could relax the most.
A few years ago, Qiao Zhuocheng invited her to come to the restaurant on the morning of New Year's Eve to help promote new dishes. He had contributed money and effort to Tong Yi's matter, so she couldn't refuse and agreed immediately. But on the day, she was not feeling well and couldn't go out, so she broke the appointment. Unexpectedly, Qiao Zhuocheng was waiting for her and postponed the event to the Lantern Festival. She felt bad about it, so she exchanged three nights for the Lantern Festival day and went to the Western restaurant.
The restaurant's new product promotion is similar to the food commercials on TV, which are replicated offline. There are eight new dishes. Qiao Zhuocheng selected three good-looking waitresses from the waitresses according to Tong Yufei's height standard. The four of them wore the same style of knee-length suits and red skirts, and went on stage in unison. Each of them introduced two dishes. Tong Yufei was the last one. She was not a waitress in the restaurant, but Qiao Zhuocheng gave her a high-sounding job title, a special guest, a heavyweight.
Qiao Zhuocheng learned his marketing savvy from commercial idols. His live events and theatrical performances are comparable, with attractive girls at the core. People always say clothes make the man, but in reality, good clothes and good saddles need beautiful women and good horses to match. They all painted sunflowers, but only Van Gogh's works will last forever. Good wine needs no bush? Only fools believe that.
Tong Yufei didn't fully agree with Qiao Zhuocheng's approach, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that she was returning the favor. As long as it didn't violate any rules or laws, she'd do whatever he said. She'd been on stage before, and with an actor's conviction, she treated this as a food show. Having not been on stage for years, she initially spoke with a pinched tongue and swallowed her words. But a lean camel is bigger than a horse, and since she wasn't facing a professional audience, she relaxed and found her groove after a few lines. These days, studying journalism had broadened her vocabulary. Flattering phrases like "shanfu shuihuan" (mountain skin, water-cured glutinous rice) and "饫甘餍肥" (glutinous rice, fat) came readily to mind, and her eloquence had unknowingly improved. Shan Tianfang, who had listened to her colleagues, also benefited from this. She learned a line from the old Shan line, combining steamed goose liver with a Yue kiln celadon plate, implying that fine food deserves beautiful utensils. The conclusion was that diners at the restaurant would not only enjoy delicious food but also trace its roots and savor the traditional culture reflected in it.
Her impromptu introduction of the great value for money won a lot of applause. The new products were sold out that night, and some people even asked to make reservations. The turnover increased several times. Qiao Zhuocheng had expected the effect to be good, but it was still beyond his expectations to be this good. He was overjoyed and held a small celebration party. He gave bonuses to the girls who made great contributions. Tong Yufei did not receive their salary, so she got the biggest red envelope, 300 yuan.
This was considered odd jobs, and three hundred yuan was a huge sum. She took it and left without a word, but this wasn't a job. By accepting a salary exceeding market value, she had sold her right to refuse. There would be a next time, and a next time. This performance was enough, she wouldn't come again. She couldn't accept the money, but she wanted a bottle of Japanese Kiku Masamune sake. She was infected by the joyful atmosphere of the celebration and drank several glasses of sake. The sake had an initial spicy aroma, followed by a light rice fragrance. The wine flowed smoothly into her stomach, leaving a sweet taste in her mouth. The taste was distinct and layered. It was her first time to drink such a multi-flavored wine, and she wanted to bring it to the neighbors to try.
Qiao Zhuocheng gave her the five remaining bottles in stock. She didn't ask for any money, but she had plenty of wine.
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At 9:30 in the evening, Tong Yufei got home from work.
Mo Daoyan always gets off work after dinner recently, no earlier than seven o'clock, and sometimes as late as nine or ten, sometimes in the early morning. Even if he gets home early, he doesn't stay in the bedroom. He either watches the game downstairs, plays Go in the study, or goes to the third floor. Mo Daoxing had a three-week winter vacation, and he returned to school early before the end of the vacation. He made an appointment with his classmates to go to Tibet. The empty gym was used by Mo Daoyan to practice table tennis against the wall.
Table tennis was included in the Olympics in 1988. In the past two years, Chinese table tennis has encountered setbacks and has been defeated frequently in international competitions. However, the slogan of "Ping Pong Diplomacy" is still loud, and the number of enthusiastic players is increasing. There are many people who firmly believe that my country will dominate the world in this event in the future. Mo Daoxing is one of them. Mo Daoyan was introduced to table tennis by his younger brother.
He usually played ball for more than an hour and then went back to the study to play chess. Tong Yufei didn't know exactly what time he finished playing. He was not there when she went to bed, and he was still not there when she got up, but judging from the shape of the quilt, he spent the night in the bedroom.
Tong Yufei brushed his teeth for five minutes, chewed a piece of Wrigley gum, and went to the bathroom to scrub himself. He didn't like pastel colors, so she wore a beige shirt, linen wide-leg pants, and a white Chanel-style jacket with black trim, then knocked on the study door with a cup of tea.
She was foolish before, thinking that she could rest easy if she didn't interfere with his feelings. But at that time, he was devoted to studying abroad, and all other things were put aside. She could be indifferent to him, but she still had a place to stand. If he had someone else in his heart now, she would be the biggest obstacle to his feelings, a grain of sand in his eyes. How could this family accommodate her? You can't escape the first day, but you can't escape the fifteenth. He said that if the talks couldn't be concluded, he would go to court. It must be a well-thought-out decision. She couldn't let herself be killed and had to hand over the initiative every time. He had not mentioned the girl for a long time, and he still used the word "get along" at the primary stage. It was not too late to make amends. She had worked hard all these years and finally won the favor of the Mo family. She must not let it go to waste.
Since he can win other people's hearts, he is also kind-hearted. She will make him change his mind, definitely!
When Tong Yufei entered, Mo Daoyan was playing Go with his left and right hands. His black sweater was slim and neat, with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing his well-proportioned wheat-colored forearms, broad shoulders and narrow waist. Above the books on the desk next to him was a draft document titled "Divorce Complaint", which showed signs of deletions and revisions. Things had come to this point, so he no longer avoided her and let her watch. Within a few minutes after she entered the room, he kept moving his fingers and turned the game into a dead end, with the six black pieces surrounded by the white pieces to form a plum blossom.
Lu You's Weinan Collection records: "Zheng Jiefu, a renowned knight-errant, was known for his uprightness. In his later years, he lived in Fuqing and called himself Yifu Jushi... He loved to play chess with guests. If they could not refuse, he would ask them to watch while he played with his left and right hands, white on the left and black on the right, concentrating as if he were a real opponent. If white won, he would pour wine with his left hand and fill it with his right hand; if black won, he would do the reverse. He did this for twenty years, as if it were a single day."
"Mr. Mo is the modern-day Zheng Xia, but there's a capable person here. Would you like to play a round, Mr. Mo?"
She compared Mo Daoyan to Zheng Jiefu, who "receives a bottle of wine when guests come and a game of chess when guests are in the mood." She recommended herself and handed over a white ceramic teacup filled with tea. The cup had an ink-colored bamboo leaf pattern on it, which perfectly matched the black and white pieces on the bamboo chessboard.
Mo Daoyan took the white pieces and explained the chess game: "Do you know how to play chess?"
"I studied in elementary school for a few years, and in my second year of middle school, I won the first Go West City Cup Championship, in the junior division."
"Oh, Tongzigong."
She was much more professional, while he was a latecomer, having learned it abroad. His original motivation was something he couldn't share with others. At that age when hormones were surging, relying solely on willpower to maintain self-control wasn't reliable; he needed to find other ways to curb it. He'd tried cycling, playing ball, doing pull-ups, even fighting... but all proved counterproductive. The more exercise, the more intense the urge grew. After several attempts to rectify the situation, playing Go with himself proved to be a good way to quench his thirst. Perhaps because of his impure motives, whenever someone suggested he played Go to cultivate his emotions, he'd inevitably think of something unspeakable.
After returning to China, he started playing chess more frequently, which was probably related to sleeping in the same room with her.
He had read some social news and also heard Aunt Lin talk about some personal experiences. She said that there was a widespread preference for boys over girls in rural areas. In lower-middle-class families, it was difficult for girls to have enough food and clothing. It was a good fortune for them to be able to study and be reborn. From this perspective, Tong Jianzhong was an open-minded and good father. He was short-sighted because he got angry and fired at random on New Year's Eve, causing a misunderstanding.
"Your father raised three children on his own and was willing to devote so much effort to training them in chess. That's rare."
"I'm not talking about my father from Tongjia Village, but my adoptive father. He was the first person to teach me how to play chess, and my adoptive mother hired a teacher to teach me."
"Adoptive parents?"
"I grew up outside and later returned to Tongjia Village."
"Are you still in contact? They are now..."
"They're peaceful and undisturbed... Wanna play a game?"
The two of them played chess either as a competition or to make friends. Mo Daoyan put away the chessboard and said, "I'm tired."
"It's always overloaded, even an iron man can't handle it. Let me give you a massage."
"Don't bother yourself."
"Massage is very effective for shoulder and back pain."
With her usual smile, she walked behind him, put her hands on his shoulders, pinched the muscles of his neck with her thumb and index finger, pulled them up, then let go, then pulled and let go again, repeating the cycle, pinching from his shoulders and neck all the way to his back. When pinching his shoulders, she encountered a little difficulty, as his shoulder muscles were a little stiff, and it took several pinches before she succeeded. After pressing his shoulders and back, she moved her slender fingers to his head, pressing the Baihui acupoint on the top of his head and the Taiyang acupoints on both sides, then used her fingers as a comb and inserted them into his hair, repeatedly combing from his hairline to the back of his head.
The fatigue in Mo Daoyan's body was like sand in an hourglass, being combed away bit by bit, and the fragrance of grapefruit filled his nostrils. They used separate shower gels. He used the cucumber-scented one, which smelled like fresh cucumbers on the vine, a very light fragrance. The other bottle of grapefruit-scented one was hers.
He straightened his back, raised his eyes and asked, "Did you learn this in elementary school?"
"No, I learned it in my spare time at a Chinese medicine clinic three years ago."
"I owe it to my grandma."
"It's all thanks to you, grandma."
She used her fingertips to massage his tragus and then stretched the high bone behind his earlobe.
"If you want this blessing, you will always have it."
Mo Daoyan blamed himself for being bewildered, believing her to come in just to relieve his fatigue, as simple as making a cup of tea. He squeezed her fair wrist and said, "There's a massage stall on Wuling Street, it's only a few dollars."
She pushed his arm back, leaned forward, cupped his face and turned it sideways, found his mouth, and kissed him neither lightly nor heavily, pushing open his teeth and sweeping his mouth twice. Then she looked at him and smiled: "You can buy this even if you have money, but you won't buy it, and you won't be able to buy something this good."
A few days ago, he smiled, but it was because his hands were almost not enough. She took it as an insult and felt wronged. Tonight, she put aside her pride and threw herself into his arms. Mo Daoyan was amazed: "How did you convince yourself?"
"I want to be a good wife."
"You think I'm playing house?"
"Mr. Mo is a man of integrity. How could he easily joke about this? But you still have to face reality. If you divorce me upon returning to China and file a lawsuit, it will become known to your leaders, colleagues, and neighbors. Have you ever thought about what others will think? They will think you are a heartless man who abandoned his wife. What will happen if your career has just started and your reputation is ruined? Of course, the innocent will be innocent. Your ability cannot be erased by some false reputation, but I didn't marry into this family to be kicked out. Arguing and bickering will take a lot of time and trouble. It will be tiresome for both of us. Mr. Mo's time is precious, and it is not worth it to be plagued by annoying gossip. So I thought of a way to have the best of both worlds..."
With a smile on her face, she put her arms around his neck and said something in German. Her pronunciation was very poor and there were obvious grammatical errors in the sentence. She must have learned it by flipping through the German dictionary countless times in secret. But the merits outweighed the flaws and Mo Daoyan heard it clearly.
She said, "Why don't you try loving me? Then we can both get what we want."
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