Chapter 135: Part 7
Before the moon had even set, she was forcibly dragged from her bed to bathe and change clothes. Sitting in front of the dressing mirror, half asleep and half awake, Mrs. Ge personally combed her hair into an extremely intricate, linked bun.
I sank bleary-eyed into the golden-brown sofa, head practically drooping as I dreamed three times. I opened my eyes and stared at the floor-to-ceiling window: the hazy moon had already set outside, and the tropical morning sun was trickling in.
Eh...it's just a hair, I comb it from night to dawn.
She was still wearing a loose nightgown, but her face was delicately made up. Mi Qiu carefully placed small pieces of warm steamed red date cake into her mouth. The eldest and second sons of the Su family had already arrived with their wives and children. The two uncles were having morning tea with the male guests downstairs, while several aunts came upstairs, holding hands with four children ranging in age from two to ten. The children had only ever been to Shanghai, so this was their first chance to see the tropical colonial scenery of Hong Kong, and it was a novel experience.
He was particularly interested in Mia and Mr. Henry, and chased them several times, forcing them to flee.
Chu Wang's formal attire, already ironed, was hung high up alongside her wedding gown, carefully guarded by Suixi and several maids, barely able to resist the curious children's eagerness to touch it. Between the jujube cakes, shrimp dumplings, and five-spice chicken feet, the wedding gown proved more tempting. Helplessly, Miya was betrayed by Zhenzhen and Suixi, and pushed out to appease the children.
Chu Wang heard the following dialogue more than once:
"Why does it look so much like the blonde doll in the window of a foreign trading company?"
Mia said patiently, "Because my name is Cinderella..."
"Who is Cinderella?"
Miya rolled her eyes.
"You are so beautiful, are you the bride?" The bride stayed at home all day and never saw guests. Only a few people were lucky enough to get a glimpse of her true appearance, and everyone was very curious.
Zhenzhen was overjoyed: "She is not the bride, she is the groom's sister..."
"Then shouldn't you be in the wedding procession? Why did you come out of the bride's room?"
"...She is also a friend of the bride." Zhenzhen's patience is obviously much better than Miya's.
The children suddenly realized what was going on and whispered to each other, "So the groom also has blond hair and blue eyes..."
After Chu Wang finished dressing up, Sui Xi opened the door outside the sitting room a crack and carried the youngest boy into the room to change clothes - he and the youngest daughter of the Xie family would share the responsibility of being the flower boy.
The high cylindrical collar pulled her neck up so high that she had to stretch it to breathe, forcing her to sit up straight - which was very tiring.
She had a chance, but still felt empty. She reached for the date cake and ate two bites when she suddenly heard the clatter of car engines and the slamming of brakes and closing doors. Almost immediately, the door in the distance downstairs opened, and someone shouted in a dialect from some unknown county in Zhejiang:
"The man's family is here to pick up the bride—"
Chu Wang started coughing before she could swallow a piece of date cake. Sui Xi didn't know that she was choking because of her collar, so she thought she was cold and took out her windbreaker to put it on her. She pushed it away with one hand, stood up, and ran to the bathroom.
Someone laughed and said, "You're really a young girl. It's your first wedding. You must be nervous, right?"
Mrs. Ge asked, "Why is she so nervous?"
Miya laughed: "You don't know that she just secretly drank a few glasses of water, orange juice and milk, and ate most of her lipstick. If she doesn't go to the bathroom, who will go to the bathroom?"
A group of people were laughing at her when suddenly Mrs. Ge cried out, "Miya, go downstairs and stop Lin Zitong—"
Miya asked, "What?"
"Her uncles, the country gentlemen, are very arrogant when it comes to writing. Who knows, they might come up with some abstruse and obscure writings to keep your brother out and make things difficult for him."
Mia yelled, "Oh no!" "Where did my brother learn these things?" Then she ran down the stairs in her wooden clogs.
Chu Wang was amused, thinking, "Thank goodness Mrs. Ge had the foresight to send the research institute's team to Shek O early this morning." If she had joined the wedding procession, she might have stopped Xie Zeyi at the door and asked him about Galileo, Michelson, and Einstein. Then she'd probably never get married in her next life.
The second aunt, who had just married a few years ago and had never seen the power of her sister-in-law, sat behind Mrs. Ge and said dissatisfiedly: "Yes, we country people don't have the ability to go to a foreign school——"
My aunt immediately covered her mouth tightly.
Mrs. Ge had no time to pay attention to her and asked hurriedly, "Where is Chu Wang?"
Zhenzhen covered her mouth and laughed, "It's still inside."
Chu Wang sat on the golden brown toilet seat, staring at the tropical sunlight filtering in through the small window on the top of the wall, listening to the noises of children and the laughter of women outside. She felt a sense of unreality, as if she were an old lady in her eighties or nineties, enjoying the happiness of having her children around her.
Mrs. Ge was also standing outside the bathroom door. "Getting married is like asking for her life." She knocked on the door and said, "Your husband is downstairs. Do you want everyone to welcome the bride into your boudoir or bathroom?"
She responded, stood up, straightened her skirt and walked out, but was immediately caught in front of the dressing mirror to reapply lipstick.
After a burst of footsteps, Miya took a deep breath and rushed in to close the door: "This is terrible——"
Everyone laughed and asked, "What's wrong?"
She stood sideways, looking at the door.
Miya reported the situation downstairs in detail: "As soon as I got downstairs, I heard the uncles discussing how to play a trick on him. Some of them had heard that he had been abroad since he was a child and later attended military school, so several of them said they would test him with something like the Gangjian or the Fangyu Ji. I was shocked. How could he understand such things? After much difficulty, we found Brother Lin and said to him, 'If they give the groom a hard time, please help him.' Then Brother Zoe came charging in from the door."
Everyone laughed: "Did they stop him?"
Miya said, "Before Brother Lin could say anything, Chelsea and his friends, tall and strong men, strode out from behind Zoe and handed out red envelopes to everyone one by one."
All the aunts asked, "What is Li Shi?"
Zhenzhen explained, "Red envelope."
The aunts exchanged glances and sent a young one to ask, "How many silver dollars are in the red envelope?"
Miya said, "What silver dollar? There's a check inside."
Mrs. Su San then asked, "How much is it?"
"Eight thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight..."
Before Mia finished speaking, six or seven of the principal and deputy aunts stretched their necks.
The eldest aunt was the most worldly-wise. She immediately and calmly whispered a few words to the two children and sent them downstairs to ask for red envelopes. The aunts with children immediately followed suit; the childless ones were on pins and needles. The cleverest one said, "The bride still needs to touch up her rouge. I'll go downstairs and help her block it."
As soon as she left, she was immediately met with many cold stares.
Several people lowered their heads and whispered to each other: "What does the man's family do? Even in the heyday of the Song family in Shanghai, they didn't seem to be so generous."
Miya is not the sound.
It is really hard to explain in a few words what Sir Xie does.
Mrs. Ge put it succinctly: "Sir Xie was a prominent figure in the Nanyang financial world in his early years."
Miya and Zhenzhen both giggled.
Chu Wang sat on the stool and sighed: "I want a red envelope too."
Mrs. Ge spat at her: "What kind of bride would give her own red envelopes at her own wedding?"
Chu Wang stuck out his tongue: "Just thinking about it."
"Lipstick!"
After that, the third aunt who had taken the opportunity to grab the red envelope slipped in through the crack of the door and said, "We've caught everyone downstairs."
Mrs. Ge was surprised: "There are at least thirty levels to go through, how can it be so fast?"
The red envelope shone brightly in the palm-sized rattan bag of Third Aunt. Third Aunt said, "Hey, isn't it so fast?"
"A bunch of profit-seeking people." Mrs. Ge said nothing and turned to Miya: "Where's Lin Zitong? Ask him to give your brother Zoe a difficult problem."
Miya responded and quickly slipped out the door.
Zhenzhen laughed out loud: "Brother Lin is such a difficult person."
In a second, Miya slipped back in, covering her forehead and saying, "I saw with my own eyes that Brother Zoe gave all the remaining profits to Brother Lin, and then Brother Lin came upstairs with a smile—no one could stop them anymore."
As soon as the words fell, there was a knock on the door. Lin Zitong said outside: "Aunt, Third Sister, get ready, the bride is coming."
Miya winked at Zhenzhen and sighed, "Moral corruption!"
Suixi and Miqiu hurriedly helped her up from the dressing mirror and together they draped the emerald green and red cloak, lined with white velvet and with a hood. Chu Wang reached out and touched the two rows of silk buttons on the collar, then looked up—her face in the mirror was rosy and rosy. A golden hairpin dangled from her head, along with two gold earrings that resembled buttons. Chu Wang touched the pleats of her wide, pleated skirt and wondered, what kind of outfit would Xie Zeyi need to wear to welcome this bride, the most Chinese-looking of all?
Mrs. Ge repeatedly emphasized in her ear: "Be more dignified in your gait and expression!"
She agreed guiltily, and with the help of everyone, she walked out of the open door carefully.
A group of people walked through the corridor and went down the escalator.
The men downstairs each occupied a corner of the living room. Regardless of age, Chinese or Western, or skin color, they all chatted happily in Mandarin. Even Chelsea could speak a few words of Mandarin with a Shanghainese accent, looking very happy.
Zhenzhen and Miya muttered together in the back: "Profit-seeking, profit-seeking."
Lin Zitonghou was at the corner of the stairs. Seeing everyone passing by, he stood up from the wall, waited respectfully for them to come over together, and quietly handed two bright red red envelopes to Miya and Zhenzhen.
The two were surprised when Chu Wang immediately retorted: "The world is going downhill. The world is going downhill."
Mrs. Ge glared at her.
Lin Zitong stuffed the remaining stack of red envelopes into Chu Wang's hands, followed a few steps, and whispered, "Thank you, Master, for leaving this for you."
Chu Wang pointed at himself in surprise, turned around to look at Lin Zitong, and mouthed, "Mine?"
Lin Zitong nodded seriously.
Chu Wang followed everyone downstairs.
The laughter and chatter downstairs gradually died down, and everyone slowly stood up.
When the blond servants saw the pleated skirt and hood on Chu Wang, they all exclaimed "Oh" in admiration, and the whole audience cheered loudly.
Chu Wang sighed in his heart: This wedding is indeed not her own, it is held for people to see.
Xie Zeyi was among them. He wore a charcoal-gray suit, a black silk tie, and a black vest. He'd probably had his hair trimmed, changing from his usual somewhat rambling middle part to a meticulously styled side part, slightly combed back and to the side. He stood out among the other male guests.
He said "Oh" in a very sociable way, looked up at her with a smile, surprise hidden in his eyes.
Chu Wang also laughed, thinking, what? Didn't the two families discuss this beforehand? The two sets of clothes don't match at all.
But she also breathed a sigh of relief. She had never imagined what a man with a classic English temperament would look like in a very Chinese-style long gown and jacket. Perhaps he himself felt it was out of place and took the initiative to change into a Western-style suit before going out.
The two of them stopped and stared at each other from a distance, until one of Chu Wang's aunts behind him started crying loudly.
The servants in the living room had never seen such a scene before. They were all stunned by her wailing and asked each other, "Why are you crying so sadly? I hope you don't faint from sadness."
However, the male guests from the mainland all looked calm. Chu Wang heard the wailing behind her, unsure whether to cry or not. She raised an eyebrow, feeling distressed, but was immediately pinched by Miya and Zhenzhen, one on each side and the other on the back. She gasped in pain, but managed to get through it.
Seeing how hard she was trying to hold back her tears, Xie Zeyi laughed for a moment, then strode forward and pulled her down the stairs, freeing her from her suffering.
The women and children on the steps were still crying in unison, completely unaware that the groom had already taken the bride's hand and walked towards the door.
Everyone behind them stared at the newlyweds in amazement: the man was tall and straight, and walked with a breeze; the woman was wearing short-heeled embroidered shoes, and was a full head shorter than him. Four white and slender knuckles stretched out from her windbreaker, and he led her, and she took small steps like two spindles.
Even though the two dresses have nothing to do with each other, they match each other in a strange and tacit way.
The two children from my aunt's family were surprised: "Hey, why doesn't the groom have blond hair?"
He immediately ate two punches from his mother and burst into tears.
The group of people were amazed and followed from behind.
The two of them left the crowd and ran to the gate of Ge Mansion, and immediately someone holding a large black umbrella followed them.
Chu Wang lowered his head and saw a sun shower as big as beans falling under the sun. It was truly a wonder of the marine monsoon climate.
Xie Zeyi stretched out his hand to block the umbrella-bearing man half a step away. He bent down and lifted his bride, dressed in a bright red brocade dress, into his arms. He strode through the garden, turned around from the open door of the Plymouth, and first placed her in the back seat. Then he walked around to the left and bent down to get into the car.
The people behind him also got on the car one after another.
The sun shower hit the car with a crackling sound, and water marks left countless traces along the windows of the slowly accelerating sedan-style private car.
Xie Zeyi, his hair and eyelashes stained with glistening water droplets, sat on her left side, leaned over and asked, "When did you get up?"
"I don't know, about five?"
"Are you sleepy?"
She was about to shake her head when she yawned very honestly.
Xie Zeyi smiled, "Thank you for your hard work." Then he gently gathered up the wind hood to cover her.
Under a circle of white velvet, a white and tender little face looked at him with tears in its eyes while yawning.
Xie Zeyi felt itchy in his heart, so he lowered his head, reached into her hood and kissed her.
The dark-skinned Nanyang driver jokingly said, "Mr. Xie, the wedding night will be tonight."
Xie Zeyi laughed and said, "It's really hard to wait, isn't it?"
Chu Wang was feeling tired and his brain was slow to react.
It was not until he gently rested her head on him and Chu Wang leaned against him through the wind hood that she felt how hot it was.
"Let's sleep together for a while?" Xie Zeyi laughed softly above her head. The laughter came through the wind hood and tickled the velvet.
She didn't dare to look up, so she simply covered her head with the blanket and leaned against him, pretending to sleep. After a while, she really fell asleep quickly.
The two of them snuggled together and slept all the way to Shek O. It was almost two o'clock in the afternoon.
The car was parked at the Longji Mountain Villa, which was used as a new house.
Xie Zeyi woke up early in the morning and slept for a while longer with her holding his arm. When the car behind them stopped, Mrs. Ge sent Miqiu and Suixi to knock on the car window. Seeing the two of them sleeping together, she couldn't help but laugh, "How can you sleep so soundly?"
Xie Zeyi walked past her, reached out to open the car door, then took her out.
Walking down the stone steps through the rose garden, a group of women stopped him outside the door: "The bride is about to change into her wedding dress, and the groom should go to the hall first."
Xie Zeyi could only smile and say, "Okay, okay."
He slowly put her down, still reluctant to leave, and watched his bride being led by the crowd through the flower garden and into the white villa.
Chu Wang finally came to his senses when he entered the house from under the marble pillars. He looked back and saw Xie Zeyi still standing there looking at him.
As soon as you enter the house, you can hear the sound of the waves echoing in the halls and corridors. Before you even reach the sea-facing window, you can see the blue sea and sky through the corners of the four windows.
The women had already run off to the other side to marvel at the sea view, but Chu Wang was staring out the French windows on the garden side. Through each window, through the rose bushes, he could still make out Xie Zeyi's dark shadow. It felt as if he were looking at him from a postcard with a different pattern in each frame.
A brief feeling of strangeness arose in her heart, until Mrs. Ge pulled an old woman and called her together with Suixi. Then she came to her senses and went upstairs with everyone else, and then she put the strange feeling out of her mind.
A 300-square-foot bedroom on the second floor was decorated as a new home. In the bedroom, she loosened her bun and combed it back into a simple yet formal bun, adorned with platinum jewelry.
The wedding dress was put on from front to back, and Miya, Zhenzhen and Mrs. Ge fastened the delicate flat buttons at the back together.
Then she put on silk white gloves and hid a pair of high heels in her skirt. Chu Wang didn't even have time to see what color they were. It didn't matter anyway.
After putting on a pair of dandelion earrings, Chu Wang turned around and everyone applauded.
Mrs. Ge smiled for the first time in days.
Miya sighed, "No one would have thought that among the three of us, Chu Wang would be the first to marry herself off."
Someone who was not good at reading people's expressions whispered, "I heard they got married because of pregnancy?"
Miya laughed and said, "With her waist, she feels the space is too narrow for her to eat."
Before they could chat for a while, the old woman immediately drove out the outsiders, spread a big red wedding quilt, and sprinkled peanuts, red dates, beans and coins on it.
After everyone had left and the old woman had also left, Mrs. Ge locked the door.
Chu Wang stood at the second-floor window and looked down. The Xie family's car had already left, and another row of cars was waiting in a row on the street outside the flower garden.
The church bells rang fourteen times, the sound so close, as if it were right overhead, carried in by the tide. Chu Wang leaned out the window and looked out. The church was only a street away, a few minutes' walk. She turned around and asked, "Why are you taking a car?"
Mrs. Ge looked down at her long skirt and the fishtail that dragged on the ground. "Why do you say that?"
Miya and Zhenzhen picked up her skirt one after another, and followed her downstairs to get into the car.
The streetscape outside the window shifts, the colors of the houses changing from blue, white, red, and green like in a cartoon. Atop the slope, on the seaside street, stands a church.
The car stopped outside the lawn behind the church.
Most people have entered the church and taken their seats, but a few dozen people are still chatting in groups under the sun.
Zhenzhen and Miya got out of the car, holding her skirt. Mrs. Ge immediately came over and said, "Come, come and discuss this with Mr. Huang in person."
Mr. Huang was standing at the edge of the lawn, chatting with a well-dressed middle-aged lady. When they saw her approaching, they both stopped talking and turned around to give her a friendly smile.
She walked over in her high heels on the grass. Before she got close, Mr. Huang smiled and said, "Mrs. Ge has already told me." Then he tilted his head towards a few palm trees in the distance and said, "The person you are looking for is there."
Chu Wang paused and looked in the direction he pointed—there were four or five tall white men gathered there. Next to them, a man sat hunched over in a wheelchair, enjoying the coolness under the shade of a tree.
She was stunned.
Mr. Huang continued, "The ceremony is about to begin. Don't keep us waiting."
She immediately lifted her skirt and ran towards the palm tree.
The first few people from the research institute shouted in English from a distance: "Be careful not to fall--"
Xu Shaoqian also came to his senses, slowly stood up, supported himself on the tree with one hand and waved at her, signaling her to run slower.
She smiled, took a breath a few steps away from Xu Shaoqian, and slowly walked towards him, "Professor Xu, you're here."
He was also wearing a formal suit, and when he stood up he was still much taller than her even with high heels.
She grabbed the hem of her skirt, feeling a bit helpless and not knowing what to say.
Xu Shaoqian wore his usual gentle smile and said, "You didn't invite me to the ceremony."
She was delighted, "Sorry, sorry, I was worried..."
"It's okay. Your husband has made amends for you."
She was stunned: "He...he came to see you?"
Xu Shaoqian looked at her with a meaningful smile on his face. After a long pause, he slowly said, "Well, we talked for a long time. I haven't had such a pleasant conversation in a long time, many, many years."
Seeing the smile on his face, the strange emotions in the seaside house rose again——
She always felt that Xie Zeyi knew her.
Recently, a group of people were discussing quantum theory dozens of meters away, while the rest of the people had slowly walked into the church from a distance.
The sun shone on the slightly damp grass, and her ankles in her high heels were also a little damp. All of this brought her a subtle sense of strangeness, but also made her feel strangely peaceful.
She made up her mind: "Although I don't know what you talked about..."
Xu Shaoqian listened attentively.
"But I've always had a doubt about a letter," she clenched her fist, took a step closer, and asked in a low voice, "He once had a letter that he never handed to me personally, and it contained something very strange."
"What is it?"
"Iespectemsupremamihicumvenerilhari, ieteneammoriensdezicientemanu." She read it again with not very standard pronunciation.
After hearing this, Xu Shaoqian's face still maintained the same expression as before he heard this sentence.
Chu Wang tried to detect even the slightest change in his facial expression, surprise, hesitation, or contemplation...
Unfortunately, none of them.
This means... he is not at all curious about the purpose of Xie Zeyi writing this letter.
Then, to some extent, it also confirmed all her speculations during this period.
Xu Shaoqian then said, "Yesterday, he asked me a question."
Chu Wang listened quietly.
"He asked me what I meant by the statement: World War I was a war between chemists, and World War II was a war between biologists and physicists."
really.
Chu Wang buried his face in his hands.
But that wasn't his opening statement.
Xu Shaoqian looked up at her hands covering her face in panic, shame and helplessness, and slowly recalled the uninvited guest from yesterday.
The location and timing were both perfectly chosen—at the Victoria Peak Observatory, which is one of the best in the world for its anti-eavesdropping measures.
He used his military officer status to gain the right to visit.
Xu Shaoqian stared at him for a long time through the one-way glass of the long-wave transceiver room, then slowly opened the door and pushed the wheelchair to invite him in. He also stood up without hesitation and followed him in.
When he was still, he leaned there like a black gun; but when he moved, you realized that he was just lying in wait.
The door closed without introducing himself.
The first sentence was: "Mr. Xu, she may understand physics, but she doesn't know much about war. Please allow me to answer you on her behalf."
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