Chapter 25: The Choir and the Reviewers Part 2
After thirteen years of making steamed pork with rice flour, the tender skin and meat were always going to take a while to turn into sweet and sour spare ribs. That day, after returning from the beach, the skin exposed outside their skirts began to turn red. Mrs. Qiao called a doctor to apply salve. They tossed and turned on the sofa, crying in pain, sobbing, "I'm never going out in the sun again!"
Chu Wangze sat silently on the sofa beside him, reading a journal, and said comfortingly: "It's okay, just eat less seafood in the next two months, peel off the skin, and everything will be fine."
The two of them cried even harder.
Chu Wang was nearly driven to nervous breakdown by the two men's earth-shattering cries, so Die'er came to take her to bathe and sleep. When they were alone, Die'er couldn't help but sigh and say, "Luckily, the girl on the beach that day was smart and didn't do the same crazy thing as them."
Chu Wang's heart skipped a beat. He looked up at Die'er, but Die'er, with her usual expression, handed her the milk and said, "Actually, although the Qiao Mansion looks bustling, you are the only one who is alone. Although my reminder is unnecessary, it always helps if you are smarter in everything."
Chu Wang drank his milk and thought for a while, then smiled and said, "If it gets warmer next month, I can take you out for ice cream on the street."
Dier nodded, and without asking any more questions, she helped her close the door.
The book she was reading was an English journal published by the University of Hong Kong before the May 30th Incident. When Qiao Maling returned home after her wedding, she asked her sisters what gifts they wanted. Lin Chuwang thought for a moment and told her that he wanted the journal.
There were more than ten papers published in the journal. She read it from beginning to end three times, circled all the academic sentences and Latin words used incorrectly, took out another piece of paper, and annotated four full pages on it, even stating the source.
After finishing all this, she let out a long sigh, took another piece of letter paper, and spread it out on the desk. After thinking for a moment, she wrote in German without hesitation:
Dear Mr. Yan Sang,
I received your letter, but it took a while to get to you. I'm so sorry it took so long to reply. Berlin is so expensive, so forget about the ice cream. We'll go back to Hong Kong when you get back. You might be reluctant to give up Bavarian milk, but it's good to leave Germany early. I heard Sherburne College is a pretty good school. You should seize the opportunity there and make more friends. It's not a bad thing.
As for your future career, just choose what you enjoy. If others have objections, let them pursue their own studies! Whether you choose to become a diplomat or study literature, remember that you are the best.
Your Chinese is getting better and better, but I haven't made much progress. I've picked up some German here and there in recent years, so I can't write anything particularly insightful, so please don't be offended.
You wrote to me about going out more in the spring, but by the time your letter arrived, it was already midsummer. In the middle of summer, I went to the beach with my two sisters, but they both got sunburned. It should have been autumn by the time your letter reached you. Remember to leave Germany quickly before the Siberian winds arrive.
05.07.1925
Chu Wang
PS: Sorry for the inconvenience at home, please send your reply to Luca Sewing, B-21, Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
She actually wanted to ask, when she got to Sherburne College, could she find a classmate named "Turing" and ask for his autograph for her?
Maybe Turing is a good match for Mr. Si?
After talking about the gay relationship between a top student idol and another national idol, she thought about it and still felt that it was too weird, so she just left a sentence "make more friends" and hurriedly put away both letters.
She signed the letter with her paper revision suggestions "Lin Zhi" and posted it to the mailbox of the Natural Science Press of the University of Hong Kong. The return address was also Mr. Saumur's tailor shop. The next afternoon, after receiving the interview letter, she asked Mr. Saumur for leave in Yau Ma Tei and took the tram to the University of Hong Kong.
Many armed British officers were conducting inspections inside and outside the campus. Chu Wang carefully handed over the "access certificate" provided in the letter from the publisher. After she walked a long way, the officers continued to look at her with troubled expressions.
The publishing house was on the second floor of a new building funded by the British. Because the strike had been going on for over a month, the office was deserted, with only a large fan rustling overhead, causing the rustling of paper to echo through every open door.
Ten minutes remained until the scheduled interview. Chu Wang sat on a bench outside the office where they had agreed to meet and waited. The long corridor, its pristine white walls framed by rows of yellow doors, was overly quiet, like a Japanese Putian-themed hospital. Inside, a meeting seemed to be ongoing. Two men were chatting and joking in a familiar manner. Their voices drifted through the open door, echoing through the corridor without being obtrusive. Occasionally, groups of three or four passed by, each glancing briefly at her, perhaps assuming she was someone's child.
A few minutes had passed since the appointed time, but the two of them were still chatting and laughing. Just as Chu Wang was about to lose her patience, one of them suddenly poked his head out to look into the corridor, as if he couldn't see her. He then retracted his head and said, "What's going on? It's been five minutes, and you haven't come yet?"
Another pleasant voice jokingly said, "Wait a little longer, ladies. It always takes some time to go out."
The man flipped through a few pages of the book and asked, "Have you heard of this lady?"
"How long have I been in Hong Kong? I want to ask you."
"Haven't you heard of him when you were studying abroad? His word choice and sentence structure are so sophisticated, and his Latin is so powerful. He must have spent many years abroad and written many books. He must be from your circle of European and American students."
"What's your last name? Lin..."
"Lin Zhi."
Chu Wang jumped up from his chair and knocked on the open door. The man with the pleasant voice turned around and continued, "Perhaps I haven't socialized much before, so I haven't heard of such a lady... Who are you looking for?"
At a desk in the room sat a dark-skinned man with a shaved head and glasses, looking to be in his early thirties. Another man, leaning casually against the desk, was also meticulously dressed in a white shirt and gray trousers, even in the scorching heat. His shirt sleeves were unbuttoned and pulled up to his elbows, revealing a pair of slender, powerful arms and bony fingers.
Chu Wang looked up at the man in the white shirt, took a deep breath, and said, "I've been waiting outside for a long time... I just heard you guys talking about Lin Zhi, she's my sister."
The man with glasses adjusted his glasses, looked at the little girl's expensive silk dress, then looked at the man in the shirt, seemingly undecided. The man in the shirt asked, "Then why didn't your sister come?"
Chu Wang prepared his explanation in advance: "Our family... is quite traditional and conservative. My sister is still unmarried, so it's not convenient for her to go out and meet people casually."
The two of them laughed for a while, and Lin Chuwang felt uneasy. After a while, the man with glasses asked, "Has your sister studied abroad?"
Chu Wang nodded hurriedly and said, "Yes."
"where?"
“Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.”
"What are you studying?"
“Biophysics.”
“Why is there no degree certificate?”
"She...hadn't finished her studies yet. Due to an irregular work and rest schedule, she suddenly fell ill and returned home." She swore that every word she said was the truth.
The man with glasses looked at her with some suspicion. At this moment, the man in the shirt suddenly asked gently, "Is she okay now?"
"I've been ill for a while and can't see anyone much, so I came here."
At this point, neither of them spoke. The man with glasses looked very upset about not having a degree, and he lowered his head to flip through her comments, trying to find some flaw in them.
Chu Wang said hurriedly, "She just doesn't have a degree. There's really no need to doubt her academic level. You can't find a reviewer now anyway, right? Do you have any better options besides her?"
The man with glasses flipped through the manuscript, as if he wanted to say something, while the man in the shirt pressed his hand against the manuscript and closed it. He turned around and asked with a smile, "How did you get to this school?"
Chu Wang exclaimed, "I came here by tram."
"one person?"
"Yes, my sister was afraid that the family would find out, so I took the tram here by myself."
"Where do you live?"
"Con..." She paused and said, "No. 21 Yau Ma Tei."
The man in the shirt smiled at the man in glasses and said to Lin Chuwang, "Okay."
"ah?"
"You can go back now."
Chu Wang nodded in bewilderment, unsure whether he had passed or failed this strange interview. Because both the interviewer and the interviewee seemed to be too careless.
When she reached the corridor, the two men followed her out and locked the office door behind them. She turned back and said, "Hey!" The man in the shirt smiled and said, "You're so reckless running over here, those British soldiers will probably get suspicious. We'll take you out to the tram station."
Chu Wang felt a little uncomfortable with the sudden appearance of two tall bodyguards. They walked beside her without saying much, and the silence was awkward. She took the opportunity to ask, "So, did my...sister pass?"
The man in the glasses went to see what the man in the white shirt meant. The man in the white shirt said, "In the past, your sister wouldn't have met the requirements. But now the situation is more complicated, so we can only hire her as a temporary reviewer for a period of time, and the salary will be lower than that of a regular reviewer. The contract will be sent to No. 21 Yau Ma Tei. She reviewed it and approved it if she thought it was okay."
Chu Wang heaved a sigh of relief. Money is good; money makes the world go round.
I stood there listening to their conversation for a while until the train arrived. I watched her get on the train, then turned back to look at the two people, who seemed to be staring at her and laughing. It wasn't a good feeling to not be able to hear people talking about me behind my back. It made me feel uneasy.
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