Chapter 105: Night 21
Although the Lin family had sent a car to take Yunyan away, Zhou was still worried before she left. She insisted on getting in the car and personally taking her to the Cathay Hotel. The ten-minute drive felt like it wasn't enough time for her to talk, so she launched into a long speech: "This is your first time socializing after returning to China. Don't forget the etiquette you learned in England and France. Remember this and don't make a fool of yourself." Zhou had been a beauty in Chinese circles while studying in Japan, but later, due to her status, she no longer had access to most formal occasions, so she devoted all her energy to her daughter.
"There are only a few girls' schools in Hong Kong, so it's inevitable that I'll see some old classmates in Shanghai. Your aunt's niece, Xue Qiqi..."
"Xue Zhenzhen!"
"In short, she hasn't learned any British manners. When you meet her, please control your temper, think about who you are and who they are, and be more respectful when speaking to her, my Miss Lin."
"I know." How could Yun Yan not know her mother's desire to find a rich husband? She got into the car with great joy and told her everything that was going on inside until she rolled her eyes. The car finally stopped. She was still sullen in the car, but when she pushed open the door, she immediately changed to a cheerful expression and walked out with her wicker handbag in hand: "Lanxi, Baoli, what a coincidence!"
She called out softly, and four girls of different skin colors outside the hotel door turned around, their smiles matching Yun Yan's: "Lingna, what a coincidence."
Six or seven of them, girls from a private high school, had come to China together during a year-long school trip. Some were returning to reunite with their families, while others had been sent by their fathers and uncles to serve as military officers or merchants in the British colonies of Southeast Asia. They were bound to be present at the banquet. They had agreed to meet outside the Chinachem Hotel at exactly this time in the morning. Their combined appearance would surely be far more eye-catching than if they had appeared separately. Isn't that a coincidence?
The four of them glanced at Yunyan's cheongsam, secretly thanking themselves that their colors didn't clash. Baoli breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, "Lingna, I saw your crepe pattern a few days ago. It's fine for young girls to wear on a regular basis, but when we go to a dance hall, the lychee red light will easily make us look darker. And hey, it's only been four or five days since we got off the ship, how can we make a decent dress? Luckily, before I got on the ship, I asked my aunt to ask a Shanghai craftsman to make a couple of emergency clothes for me."
Lan Xi and Bao Rong went to see Bao Li's rose red soft silk long dress. "The style is simple but beautiful, and it has a sense of design."
Baoli smiled silently.
Baorong added, "It has to be white; the color looks good. However, to match this style, it needs to be slim and narrow-shouldered. White people are naturally large-boned, so they need whalebone waists to look good. And the soft satin just makes you want to pour your body out of it, so nothing will work underneath. It can only be worn by Orientals, but unfortunately, it's not white enough."
Lan Xi, also white, wasn't too pleased with the first half of the sentence. But since Baoli was the prettiest of them all, she didn't want her to be the only one to steal the show tonight, so she chimed in, "It's hard to find East Asian women who are both fair-skinned and have great figures. This designer probably has a problem with women; there aren't many who can wear her clothes."
Yunyan had originally planned to be more "dignified and elegant" tonight, but she was met with a rebuke as soon as she made her debut. She retaliated: "Perhaps if I changed to purple, standing against your 'lychee red' light, it might be more beautiful."
Baoli snorted and walked forward.
The four of them followed, chatting and laughing. As expected, as soon as the five of them passed through the golden lobby on the first floor of Chinachem, the gentlemen in suits who had arrived earlier stopped to watch the beauties appear.
Pretending to ignore the burning gazes around them, the five sisters put aside their past grudges and began to smile sweetly in low voices.
"The ladies invited tonight are all VIPs. Do you know why? The guests of honor are all scholars in the fields of physics, mathematics, and chemistry from the Institute, as well as senior military officers and tycoons from the Shanghai, Hong Kong and other countries. Tell me, where can there be any ladies among this group of people?" Baoli's father is a viscount. Among her five brothers, one joined the Royal Society, and two became captains and lieutenants in the Royal Navy. She is also the most sought-after among these girls.
Shu Ya said, "That's why my mother insisted on asking me to come. She said this was a very rare and high-class dance party, and there would definitely be no one with bad intentions."
The others, who had always complained about Shuya's petty upbringing, loved hearing such petty talk to praise the dance. Lan Xi asked, "Your mother told you to hold on tight, didn't she?"
Everyone laughed, Shu Ya was so angry that she wanted to hit Lan Xi; Yun Yan was also laughing, but his face looked unhappy.
However, the playful banter of a group of beautiful young women dressed in their finery, in a place filled with male hormones, was not only harmless but even quite pleasing to the eye. The five girls knew their unintentional actions were attracting a lot of attention, so their quarrels became even more natural and adorable.
Baorong's grandparents went to England, and his father's uncles were all respectable British businessmen. The whole family became British citizens and rarely returned to China. This was his first time back, and he still had no idea about the Chinese social circle, so he invited a relative named Miss Wei who grew up in Shanghai to come with him. By the way, if he saw anyone important at the ball, he could ask her to introduce him to someone.
Baorong and his group of newly returned overseas Chinese would be incredibly awkward if they lacked introductions to a new situation. Baorong wouldn't allow that mistake to happen, so he asked Miss Wei to arrive no later than them. They took the elevator upstairs and saw Miss Wei standing alone outside the lobby, among a group of other wealthy individuals waiting. She looked gloomy, even more petty.
Miss Wei had never had the opportunity to attend such a high-class social gathering. But when someone invited her, she would never allow herself to refuse such a good opportunity. For this trip, she had already chosen the most expensive outfit she had, and she was smug about it all day, feeling that her value had doubled.
The elevator door opened, and when Miss Wei saw the five young ladies who had returned from abroad, she felt that her clothes were too shabby. Although she still smiled to greet them, she didn't know where to put her hands and feet, and she felt a little at a loss.
Baorong was embarrassed to see his relatives acting so unpresentable. As soon as he got off the elevator, without waiting for the other four to settle their gazes, he quickly approached and introduced them to Miss Wei: "Lancy von Karman, Baoli Fei Xinchun, Lingna Lin, Shuya; this is Qinya Wei."
After the four of them took turns introducing themselves, Miss Wei opened her mouth and even though she had received six years of British secondary school education at the Chinese and Western Girls' School, she couldn't get rid of the classic pidgin English accent, which immediately ruined Baorong's efforts.
The other four people said nothing and continued to chat with Miss Wei with friendly smiles. The alienation on their faces, which was extremely deliberate in pretending that they had just met her through her, made Baorong realize that this relative of hers had also made her lose some value today.
Miss Wei herself didn't realize it. The smiles and friendliness of the four ladies almost made her mistakenly believe that she was one of them.
She was also very observant. It was said that to determine whether someone had received a noble British education, people usually looked first at their legs: women from aristocratic British families often had the opportunity to wear long trousers and riding boots, and over time, this noble legacy became bow legs. She had noticed it when she got out of the elevator just now: only one person, a white girl named Baoli, was wearing a rose-red dress, and she looked like she was like that.
When Baorong seemed reluctant to pay attention to her, she tried to get closer to Miss Baoli.
The fourth-floor ballroom of the Cathay Hotel is famous for its spaciousness - the first floor is built higher than the third floor, with an additional floor in the middle, which jumps up along half of the windows and walls. Half of the lower floor is a dance floor that can accommodate people. The area in the shadows below the second floor is a place for people who are tired of dancing to socialize, stand or sit, chat and drink. The second floor is more elegant, with no seats against the fence. The seats that are provided are a more quiet place for communication without being disturbed.
It wasn't the hour yet, and not everyone had arrived yet, but the pianist thoughtfully played a soothing aria. The five of them sat down on a sofa near the dance floor, watching the men and women who had come in pairs pass by, sometimes casting predatory glances their way.
The five ladies started talking in English.
Lan Xixian chuckled and said, "Race and nationality are so easy to distinguish. The British, of course, don't talk about it. But among the yellow people, those with shallow and fierce eyes are Japanese, and those with feminine eyes are Chinese. Lingna, do you think I'm right?"
Yun Yan said, "That's right, but not entirely."
Baoli said, "I think the Chinese are more cruel, lazy, and difficult to get close to than any other race. Lingna, don't you agree?"
Yun Yan smiled and said, "Baoli is more accurate."
Lancy was defeated and turned to face the dance floor.
Lan Xi and Bao Li, the school beauties, had been feuding for years before Yun Yan arrived. Lan Xi was the prettier, but her family had fallen on hard times, preventing her from receiving the same education as Bao Li. The two competed openly and covertly for years, each with their own unique interests. Neither was willing to commit to a single suitor, fearing that someone better might emerge and they would lose forever to their rival.
The white girl originally looked down on people of color, but she didn't expect that less than a year after Yunyan entered the school, love letters from Chinese students studying in other universities began to pour in, which made both of them look at her with admiration. With the introduction of the wealthy Baorong, and her gentle temperament, seemingly indifferent to the world, and well-read, she became the hammer when the two sisters quarreled, and they had to say who was right and wrong in everything.
Baoli pressed on, "That wasn't what I said."
Lan Xi sneered, "Who said that, Baorong? Or Shuya?"
"Jack London." Baoli apologized, "Oh, I forgot, you definitely don't have any books about him at home."
Lan Xi's face trembled with anger, but then he continued to laugh: "At least I know not to wear a rose-red skirt under the lights of the Lychee Red Dance Hall, so that my face and my skirt will blend in perfectly."
"Alright, alright," Yun Yan tried to smooth things over. "Baoli, this dress is absolutely beautiful, a rare beauty—" When Baoli's expression improved a little, she still didn't forget the deep hatred she had stabbed her with, and said, "If you could change it to a darker color, it would be even more perfect."
Shuya and Baorong smoothed things over, shifting the focus from each other to the guests. "I heard there are many top students from Cavendish and Cambridge. Is that true, Baoli?"
Baoli said, "I'm not interested in nerds who read too many Latin dictionaries."
Yun Yan looked displeased, and Shu Ya chuckled, "You even cursed Ling Na's dream lover."
"Is that great Oxford geologist coming too?"
Yun Yan said, "If he doesn't come, I will never dance with others."
"You can dance with others?" Baoli looked her up and down. "I thought you Chinese people thought ballroom dancing was improper."
"Why do you say that?"
"Hasn't your tango teacher explained this? Ballroom dancing is inseparable from sex. Otherwise, why does it have to be performed by a man and a woman to be beautiful? In our dance classes, when two women dance, the charm is lost."
Yun Yan blushed when she told her, "That's art! How can it be pornography?"
Lancy became interested. "So, Miss Polly, whose 'sexual invitation' will you accept tonight?" She pointed her slender index finger at Oppenheimer and his group entering the hallway. "Is it that big-eyed Jewish scholar?"
Baoli narrowed her eyes and shook her head.
"Japanese military police officer?"
Baoli burst out laughing: "When he wears high heels, he can only dance with his arms around my thighs."
"Or some lucky British officer?"
Baoli's dark green eyes moved back and forth among a group of tall and straight men in black suits, smiling without saying a word.
Shuya asked, "Who is Baoli looking at?"
Yunyan had become a bit nearsighted over the past two years, and couldn't see faces clearly from a distance. He suddenly asked, "Those are British officers, right? Why does one of them look like an Asian?"
Lan Xi said, "Five or six years ago in London, who didn't know Zoetse? What's so strange about that?"
Yunyan wasn't "Old London," and the phrase "five or six years ago" inexplicably stifled her, causing her to remain silent. As she pondered, she felt that this name might correspond to someone's Chinese name, but she couldn't recall it.
Baoli said, "My brothers often talk about him. My family often reads Jack London and is very fond of Chinese people. 'Chinese people are insidious, lazy and difficult to get along with,' they have wolf-like nature in their bones. They say it's because of Zoetse, and they believe it firmly."
"No way, Baoli..."
Before the group of young ladies had time to tease her about this, they suddenly realized that a large part of the eyes in the hall were no longer on them, but like them, were looking towards the entrance hall: there were three oriental beauties walking in.
The one in the lead was wearing a light gray-blue floor-length dress, and compared with her golden hair and gray-blue eyes, it seemed that all other colors were lost in the camera lens. And because of her mixed blood, her sculptural facial features seemed to retain a bit of charm because of her every frown and smile, which was the reserved and static oriental charm on the precious oriental painting screen sent to Europe. She disappeared with a slight movement or smile, but it made people want to explore it. The gray-blue dress was dipped into the lychee red and suddenly turned into a bright, spicy and moist green. After taking two steps and looking away, she felt that the whole world was filled with that faint trace of green.
After she entered, smiling, another figure with electric blue watermarks quickly slid in. Her slender figure, clad in that cheongsam, neither looked overly plump nor empty, possessing just the right balance of fullness and emptiness. Beneath her knee-length cheongsam, her wooden, white calves resembled delicate displays in a window display. Her paleness and thinness were touching. As she entered with her eyes lowered, only her long, dense eyelashes could be seen. Her small hands rested delicately on her face, and in a flash, she vanished, both her form and her spirit—perhaps referring to her, or perhaps to the man in the room.
At the back, her temperament was between that of a girl and a woman, she should be in a transition stage, yet it seemed as if there was no transition stage; she had a bit of the delicate feeling of a child's face in the myth, her dark pupils were tinged with a bit of innocent blue, and that bit of blue was in danger of disappearing into the darkness at any time; perhaps the black in her eyes was too heavy, her extremely long eyes were slightly drooping at the tails, so she occasionally looked a bit innocent and charming; her lips were moist and red, and because of that bit of excessive crimson, a different kind of beauty was dotted on the whole face, the kind of beauty that was quiet and eerie and made people feel uneasy; her stature should be considered tall among Chinese women, so she could wear that soft silk long skirt that even Baoli was a little ruined when she wore it; and it was exactly what everyone had emphasized: an oriental beauty with fair skin, sharp shoulders, thin waist, and a thin and slender figure. The skirt was also the color of purple tangerine. The moment she walked into the door, the extremely low-key purple tangerine instantly bloomed into a bright red in the lychee red light.
Seeing this scene, the five ladies who had been blooming all afternoon seemed to wither in an instant.
Miss Wei knew them, more than just knowing them. Her English was not very good, and she had not had much chance to interrupt the British ladies' conversation just now. But now she saw her chance and introduced them one by one without hesitation:
"Miatse, recently engaged to be married to a top tycoon in Macau. She's been with him to countless high-ranking diplomatic venues and has seen quite a bit of the world. The second one's family is indeed very wealthy, but with so many wealthy people in Shanghai, they're not considered particularly outstanding. And the third Miss Lin is truly extraordinary; her father practically kicked her out..."
Before Miss Wei could finish her words, the worldly-wise Miss Miya, who had come in first, spotted Yunyan huddled between the towering Baoli and Lanxi. She couldn't help but let out a wide, almost uncontrollable "Ha!" It was a row of narrow, long benches where women were invited to dance. Five of them occupied the best seats, both for the invited guests and for a good view of the dance floor. Miya stepped forward and politely asked in English, "Can my friend and I sit here?"
Baoli glanced at her, then looked past her at the clothes on Chu Wang. Seeing that Chu Wang noticed her, she realized that she was being impolite, so she retracted her gaze and raised her eyebrows to look at Miya. Her eyes and eyebrows said: Miss, you are rude to come here uninvited.
Miya didn't care. She smiled, bowed, and asked in a friendly manner, "This Lingna...is it still Lingna? Miss Lingna, we knew each other before."
The five of them all went to look at Yunyan, who was hiding in the shadows. Yunyan initially wanted to pretend not to know the three of them, but he didn't expect Miya to show up uninvited, so he didn't have to say he didn't know them. He just raised his eyebrows slightly and raised his noble chin in a very proud manner.
"You still remember, that's great."
Miya pulled Chu Wang and Zhenzhen without hesitation, one on the left and one on the right, and sat down next to Baoli.
Afterwards, almost everyone's eyes on the dance floor were instantly drawn to her.
The five people next to the three who were used to big scenes suddenly felt a little uncomfortable and moved their bodies, feeling as if they were sitting on pins and needles.
After sitting down, Mia smiled and said, "I've never seen such an interesting social gathering. The nationalities and occupations of the men present are clearly distinguished."
Unconsciously, the newcomers had brought the conversation back to the old one, even going into greater detail. Although the five ladies had already labeled them their enemies the moment they entered the room, they couldn't help but listen closely the moment Miya spoke. Unfortunately, two of the ladies didn't understand Chinese.
"Look, those with upright stature and sharp eyes are those who wear military uniforms and are used to holding guns. Those with fawning, self-confident eyes are those businessmen who are accustomed to petty and dishonest practices. And our scholars, after reading so many Latin dictionaries, have become a little shortsighted, and their vision of people is blurry."
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