Chapter 140: Final Chapter 2
While I was taking a nap, the car drove all the way into Hong Kong Island, drove up the Pinghe Mountains, and stopped steadily at the top of Mount Nicholson.
Just as Xie Zeyi was about to quietly drive the car into the parking lot, a man in a suit took the car for him and slowly drove into the backyard.
A mountain breeze blew in, bringing with it a hint of refreshing sea breeze. As soon as I got out of the car, I could see Victoria Harbour.
Xie Zeyi turned his back, put his arm around her shoulders, and held her in his arms.
A female voice came from behind, saying sarcastically, "Nicholson Mountain is translated as Niegexin Mountain, which sounds terrible."
They both stared at the harbor at the foot of the mountain and smiled.
After a while, Xie Feiyi immediately said, "Why haven't I seen Shanghai translate Edan Road as Edan Road? Aitang Aitang, what a nice sound."
She turned around and smiled at Xie Feiyi, saying, "Rue Paulbeau is still called Rue Bérbeau, Rue Brénier de Montmorand is also the awkward Rue Bérnie de Montmorand, and Rue de Aitong and Rue Xiafei are just coincidental encounters with Chinese experts."
The French third wife immediately praised: "Young lady, you are such a pretty toulouse."
Xie Feiyi immediately turned around and looked at her with a little admiration.
She thought to herself: Although her accent had improved a lot during her time with Mr. Saumur in the past few years, it wasn't that exaggerated. The Third Wife was probably just looking for an excuse to praise her. This little skill wasn't something worth boasting about.
Think about it more closely: every trivial matter is a battle of one’s own, and nowhere else is there more of a gathering of women, with conflicts of interest so intensely concentrated, than in the inner chambers. This is true everywhere, both in China and abroad, ancient and modern; from palace intrigue to domestic strife, where women are present, there is struggle, and drama, capable of producing a series of heart-wrenching, physically abusive dramas over fifty episodes.
No wonder Xie Zeyi said, "They are good at being unhappy" and "never let him down." No wonder Miya, from a very young age, has been desperately looking for opportunities to seek promotion from Mrs. Ge and escape from this house.
She looked up and saw Xie Zeyi also looking down at her, with a knowing smile in his eyes and brows.
He put his arms around her, turned around as if to sweep her away, and walked in unison towards Xie's house.
As soon as the door opened, several dark-skinned Nanyang maids immediately rushed out from the garden, shouting, "Who's back? Is it the young master?! The young master is back——"
Xie Zeyi frowned and said "hush".
All the people, regardless of their age, nationality or skin color, had their black hair combed into a big shiny braid, wore black gauze Tang suits, a large and thick gold chain of no particular style around their necks, and a pair of exquisitely carved wooden clogs on their feet. Wherever they went, there was a crisp "Tito Tito" sound, making the place very lively.
Hot tropical style.
I wonder if a room full of women can cover more than 30 countries on five continents and eight oceans, but this is probably Mr. Xie’s favorite taste. He is really lucky.
She sighed in her heart.
Several maids stepped aside and called out to Lin Zhi as they passed by her, one after another, "Madam!" "Hello, Madam!"
She had a smile on her face. If Xie Zeyi hadn't held her in his arms, she would have almost bowed to them immediately.
Xie Zeyi stopped someone and asked, "Did that group leave?"
The little girl with dark skin nodded prettily.
Xie Zeyi asked again, "Where is the master?"
She opened her eyes wide and thought hard, uttering two half-baked Cantonese sentences: "To Lou Xiujie..." After thinking for a while, she pointed to the end of the corridor opposite her and, using both hands and feet, forced out a Southeast Asian-style, half-baked English: "...Massage."
The two of them turned and walked to the end of the corridor. When no one was around, she finally let out a small laugh.
"What are you laughing at?"
"I have a rough idea of who taught her Cantonese," she said.
"You know a lot." Xie Zeyi smiled slowly, "What else do you know?"
She thought for a moment and said, "If I had grown up in this peaceful place, I would never leave the house even if I died."
As they were talking, two maids at the end of the corridor opened the door hinge for them.
There was a shell screen inside the door, and through a translucent curtain, one could vaguely see six wide mahogany lounge chairs placed side by side behind it. Two people were lying on them, and there were two steaming wooden basins of medicinal soup at their feet. Three long-haired Nanyang people were sitting on footstools below, working hard. Miya and Sir Xie's Cantonese voices mixed with laughter floated out from inside.
Oh, it’s not a paradise, it’s heaven.
She paused and looked up at Xie Zeyi.
He asked softly, "What's wrong?"
She asked, "Should I bring in a cup of tea?"
As soon as she finished speaking, a maid approached them, carrying a glass teacup on a wooden tray. Xie Feiyi's voice reached them, neither too far nor too close. She tilted her chin toward the wooden tray and whispered, "Zoe must think Pu'er Longjing is too formal. A cup of fragrant tea, no more, no less, is enough for now."
Before Xie Zeyi could even open his mouth, Xie Feiyi barked at him, "Shut up! You can't stand seeing your daddy happy at all." Then she angrily complained to Chu Wang, "What a wicked son!"
She was unable to move as he pinched her arm. She turned around and pressed her forehead against his, lowering her voice and asking softly, "Do you still have the strength?"
She looked up at him, broke free from his arms, took two steps forward, and took the cup of warm jasmine tea that had been prepared early in the morning from the maid.
Xie Feiyi immediately looked at her with gratitude.
Xie Zeyi smiled and fell silent.
She nodded slightly, lifted her skirt, stepped in, and walked around the screen.
Miya screamed and wailed from inside: "It hurts! You hit me too hard!"
The masseur said in broken English: "betle? fort!"
She controlled the muscles in her legs, trying to keep her steps steady. After hearing this, her body stiffened.
Last night, Xie Zeyi's voice seemed to be right beside my ear. His voice was low and seductive, filled with suppressed desire, and his words were slow and harsh: "Gentle? How can being gentle be comfortable?"
Miya had a better view than Sir Xie, so she cheered from the sidelines: "Lin... Sister-in-law is here! Why is your face so red?"
Her face was burning. She offered the tea with both hands, kneeling low in front of Sir Xie's bench as if to hide her feelings. "Shouldn't Dad have some tea?"
Sir Xie uttered a cry, hurriedly got down from the bench, took the tea and put it aside, then helped her up with both hands.
Miya sent the Thai masseur away, sat up straight, and asked kindly, "Are you sick? A lot of people have caught colds lately."
Xie Feiyi couldn't bear to watch it any longer, "Miya, tell the chef to make a few more dishes."
She immediately put on her slippers and obeyed the order, "Make sure Ah Kai cooks Zoe's favorite shrimp paste water spinach and green and red radish pork rib soup..." and immediately added, "Ah Kai can also make my sister-in-law's favorite steamed sand sole."
Before Miya left, Sir Xie added with full energy, "Make your signature traditional Chinese soup."
After saying that, the young butler brought out a red envelope, and Sir Xie smiled and handed it to Chu Wang with both hands.
She had just thanked Sir Xie and had not yet stood up when Xie Zeyi immediately strode forward and helped her up.
At this time, a middle-aged man in a suit came in and said, "Colonel Bron came to visit Master Zoe again this morning."
Fei Yi came in immediately and said, "Zoe has an appointment, so I'll take my sister-in-law for a walk."
Xie Zeyi immediately said, "Take her to my room to rest for a while."
After listening to this, Sir Xie chuckled, glanced back at Xie Zeyi, and the walnuts in his hand made a crackling sound, with a satisfied smile on his face.
When Fei Yi took Chu Wang out, she turned around and asked loudly, "Zoe, did you forget to hide anything?"
Before Chu Wang could even laugh, a girl's laughter as loud as a silver bell came from outside.
Turning out from behind the screen, I saw groups of girls outside the door. They were around 20 years old, tall, and good-looking. They praised me in English: "You're so pretty!" "You have great skin!" "You look so hydrated!" "How lucky is Zoe!"
Only one person murmured quietly: "He only looks three points like Young Master Lin..."
She raised her head slightly and saw a mixed-race girl with amber eyes and a pretty face. She immediately thought of the sister Miya mentioned who "came back from Guangzhou on the same ship with Lin Zitong."
Fei Yi immediately glared at him and spoke in authoritative English, like a godmother: "Is this the rule your mother taught you?"
Everyone immediately fell silent and scattered like birds and beasts.
Turning around the corridor, Fei Yi apologized, "She wanted to be as bold and open as the foreigners and flirt with Chinese officers, but unfortunately, she only learned to speak French from her mother when she was twelve."
"She's beautiful, bold and lively. Who wouldn't like her? It's a pity that my eldest brother is already engaged, so we're not destined to be together."
Fei Yi sighed and looked at her with immense envy. "Girls like us can't learn the elegance of a Chinese lady, nor the boldness of a Western woman. We're the most pitiful, neither Chinese nor Western. I wish my mother was a true inner court lady, and could give me a pair of eyes that could distinguish right from wrong."
She didn't know how to respond, so she could only comfort him, "Don't underestimate yourself. Perhaps many years from now, mixed-race children will be naturally superior and easily win everyone's favor."
Fei Yi laughed at herself: "Mixed blood? Just a bastard."
This is a product of the distinct class divisions of the colonial era, and even the United States is guilty of it.
She sighed.
After a while, Fei Yi seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. "Miya has rarely been so rude as she is today. But I'm relieved... I thought she'd been hanging out with her Mr. Jiang since last year, and she'd already... Fortunately, Mr. Jiang is a rare gentleman."
Fei Yi's words awakened her, and she suddenly woke up: Ah, it turns out that I have completely become a woman. It's really a new life experience.
Together, they entered a corner room, facing the harbor on both sides. Aside from a hammock tied with thick fishing rope by the mountain-facing window, there was no other indication of the owner's preferences. The windows were clean, the walls white, the bed white. The light filtering in was a blend of blue, sea and sky, as clean as if the owner had a cold personality.
She walked over to the rope bed and sat down, swinging out like a swing. Two framed photos were hanging on the wall next to her.
The first photo was taken at the Wilhelm II Cathedral. A tall woman in a sleeveless long cheongsam, her long curly hair tied back with a silk scarf, exudes elegance and a gentle, confident smile as she holds a waist-high boy in a stylish shirt and riding boots.
As soon as he saw the lady's gloomy eyes, Chu Wang immediately understood who Xie Zeyi's eyes resembled.
She couldn't help but smile: This photo is really precious, in every way.
Fei Yi said, "Isn't she beautiful? It's rare to see such a confident and generous Oriental beauty with such a smile. I heard that when my father was young and courting my wife, he sent people to all the cloth shops where she bought fabric. Whatever fabric my wife bought, my father would buy the same pattern and cut it into all kinds of fancy ties. Finally, one day, when he ran into my wife, his tie 'happened' to be the same pattern as her cheongsam, and he immediately took the initiative to approach her... Even to this day, he still has countless fancy ties and wears them all the time, never afraid of being laughed at... Of course, no one dared to do that."
The second photo, taken by someone unknown, shows a boy of around fifteen, wearing a short-sleeved shirt, buttons haphazardly undone, printed shorts, and slippers, walking along a beachfront promenade somewhere, a Coca-Cola in hand, his middle-parted black hair disheveled by the wind. Someone calls out, but he suddenly turns around, a straw in his mouth, facing the camera, his posture languid, his smile uninhibited.
The youthful arrogance in that smile was so contagious that it seemed to penetrate the photographic paper immediately.
Chu Wang couldn't help but smile.
Fei Yi explained, "Zoe had just returned from England at the time and was in a terrible mood. My father, a photographer, was asked to take a family photo, but he was the only one missing. Everyone drove to the beach with huge cameras just to take his picture. Only the one on the left was hung. Then my father thought this one was so beautiful that he insisted they hang it here alongside the two. That happened after he left for America, so he probably hasn't noticed yet."
Chu Wang tilted his head, recalling the first time he saw him outside the window of Qiao Mansion - by then he had probably learned how to conceal his edge and use his eyes to see through the world.
Turning around, she saw Fei Yi still standing in the middle of the room and let out a soft "eh".
Fei Yi immediately laughed and said, "Zoe doesn't like people entering his room or touching his things—this is also a rule set by his father. I wonder if it was also his idea, just like he doesn't like people calling him by his nickname."
She asked tentatively: "...A Zheng?"
Fei Yi nodded, then smiled and said, "When Zoe was six, his wife passed away. He wrote an English poem to protest his father and anyone calling him 'Ah Zheng.'"
Chu Wang immediately became interested: "What poem?"
Fei Yi thought hard, "I can't quite remember. There seem to be a few lines like: 'When I get married, I'll never let another woman show up to make her angry; I'll accompany her to all the interesting places, instead of saying, 'I'll come to London to pick you up next year'; when I'm tall enough, I'll let her sit on my shoulders and watch the neighbors quarrel, and I'll pick the roses from the top of the fence for her; I'll bow my head and bend down when I talk to her, and I'll be gentle and patient with everything... On our wedding night, I'll ask her if she likes to be kissed by me, and she'll be the only one allowed to call me 'Ah Zheng'...'"
Chu Wang exclaimed "Oh my!", he couldn't help but giggle, he didn't expect Xie Zeyi to still have such a pure and innocent age.
There was a gentle knock on the door. Xie Zeyi leaned against the door frame with one hand and asked, "What makes you so happy?"
She asked softly, "Are we about to leave?"
He hummed, "Unless otherwise, early next Tuesday morning."
Fei Yi said, "I'll go to the kitchen to see when the food is ready."
Xie Feiyi slipped out, and Xie Zeyi walked into the room and closed the door.
She was swinging on the rope bed and suddenly called out softly, "Ah Zheng."
Xie Zeyi paused, "What's wrong?"
She couldn't help herself and said, "A Zheng."
Xie Zeyi looked at her and said, "Yeah."
"Come here and let me hug you."
Xie Zeyi smiled, walked over and held her in his arms.
She put her face against his chest, "Jung."
Feeling Xie Zeyi's sigh coming from his chest, "Mrs. Xie, you are like this..."
"Um?"
“…it makes me want to commit a crime.”
Xie Zeyi held her waist with one hand, lifted her off the rope bed, and kissed her on the lips.
Her toes left the ground, she lost her support, and he kissed her so hard that she let out a "wu——" sound.
Xie Zeyi grabbed her hair at the back of her head, lowered his head, and moved his lips to her neck.
She was a little flustered and shouted, "Thank you, thank you Zeyi!"
Xie Zeyi's voice was quite innocent: "Hmm?"
"I'll become weird if you do this..."
A muffled low voice came from her neck, "Don't you like it?"
She was immediately speechless.
The maid knocked on the door just in time: "Master and Madam, please come downstairs for dinner."
Xie Zeyi hummed, then turned around and promised, "I'll be there right away."
She took the opportunity to slip out of his arms.
Xie Zeyi followed with a smile from behind.
As soon as I got down the stairs, I heard Sir Xie scolding his two quarreling concubines from afar: "Ana and Felicia are butting heads again today?"
The two concubines muttered a lot.
Miya and one of her sisters immediately defended their mothers: "They are best friends, they were just bickering!"
"That's right, as a family, the most important thing is to be happy."
Chu Wang immediately put a smile on his face again.
Sir Xie snorted twice, "Where are Zoe and Linzy?"
Fei Yi smiled and said, "Isn't it coming?"
Xie Zeyi naturally took her hand from behind and pulled her to sit down.
Everyone at the table looked at her, their expressions varied. Miya immediately warmly expressed her affection, ordering the maid, "Serve the young lady two pieces of steamed sand sole."
Fei Yi stopped the maid with her eyes. Without changing her expression, she let the maid serve two large bowls of Du Rong pork kidney soup and placed them in front of the two of them. She said softly, "Drink the soup first."
She lowered her head and drank the soup pretending to be calm.
Sir Xie suddenly asked, "How many days did you leave?"
Xie Zeyi drank his soup and responded casually.
One of the concubines immediately came to offer her courtesy: "Then we have to make more of your favorite dishes. You won't be able to eat the food at home from now on!"
The people around them quickly agreed within a few days.
Chu Wang reluctantly switched his listening from Cantonese to German, suppressing his laughter, thinking that it would be difficult not to become a language genius proficient in ten languages after living in such a daily environment with a mixture of languages since childhood.
She tried Master Akai's water spinach and green and red radish soup, and suddenly an idea struck her. She looked up and asked, "Can I ask Master Akai for the recipe for shrimp paste water spinach and bone soup?"
Everyone at the table was stunned. Fei Yi immediately smiled and said, "Of course!" Then she called the maid over and said, "Go and invite Master Akai."
Chu Wang looked up at Xie Zeyi and found that he was holding a soup bowl and a spoon, staring at him quietly with a smile on his face.
Seeing this smile, she realized that she had never tried to understand anyone's taste preferences.
This was the first time, and it felt like I got it.
People are all made of flesh and blood, and no one does not desire that the tenderness they give be responded to with tenderness.
Sir Xie was very happy to see the young couple exchanging glances.
At first, she just thought that Xie Jiali owed her a life-saving favor and should treat her as a benefactor.
It was not until this moment that I realized that it was more than just a favor - the two people loved each other.
At this point, Sir Xie completely put his worries to rest, and with a smile on his face, he called the housekeeper and the maid with satisfaction and went to pack the luggage for his son and daughter-in-law.
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