Chapter 36
That night, Chen Huan didn't return to Beverly and stayed at Meng Zixian's place. The master bedroom was on the second floor. The floor-to-ceiling windows should have a view of the backyard lawn, but the curtains were drawn neatly, leaving no gaps on the four sides. The bed was covered with only a dark gray sheet, the corners tightly pressed under the mattress.
She stood at the bedroom door and thought, oh, he is still not used to covering himself with a blanket.
He went into the closet and took out pillows and duvet covers. They washed the sheets, dried the pillowcases, and made the bed together, not saying much to each other. She wanted to ask if Sylvia would mind if she lived here, but she felt that the question was a little late, so she didn't ask it.
Before going to bed, Shen Huan raised the room temperature to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. But the bedding was too thin, and she slept very lightly.
When she woke up, the room was pitch black, and she could hear the chirping of insects in the backyard. The silence was broken by a muffled cough, the sound muffled in her throat. Chen Huan turned over and saw that the bed beside her was tidy and no one had slept in it. Meng Zixian had said earlier that he had work to do.
Chen Huan went to the bedside to get her phone. It was one in the morning. Jet-lagged, she'd gone to bed before eight, which meant it was noon in Hancheng. The suppressed coughing started again. Unable to sleep, she got up, wrapped herself in a blanket, and stepped barefoot across the carpet before silently opening the bedroom door. The hallway was dark. The door to the study in front was open, and the lights were off. The garden light from downstairs shone through the study window, casting a square of light on the white wall.
The light and shadow began as a complete rectangular window pane, and soon a shadow of a shoulder and neck passed by. There was no movement around. Shen Huan checked the mobile phone signal, and when she looked up again, Meng Zixuan's tall body was pressing in front of her, and she was frightened.
She asked him softly, "Why are you scaring me?" Meng Zixuan was stunned for a moment, and asked softly, "Why are you talking so quietly?" The two of them were almost close together, he lowered his head, and she raised her chin. Chen Huan whispered, "Why are you walking without making any sound? I thought someone was attacking me." Meng Zixuan's lips curled up, his arms around her shoulders, he lowered his head and kissed the tip of her nose, then let her go. He said, "I heard some noise on the second floor, so I came up to take a look."
Chen Huan breathed a sigh of relief. I was so scared, she walked past him and went to the stairs, I thought there was a robber. Her voice returned to normal, and her palms were still wet. Meng Zixuan followed her downstairs. He said that this area was quite safe, and besides, the doors and windows were equipped with security guards, which would sound the alarm. Chen Huan asked, then why were you so nervous just now. Meng Zixuan did not respond. Chen Huan went to the kitchen to get a glass of water, and he waited behind her. After a while, he said that you were sleeping upstairs alone, and I was worried that something might happen.
Walking into the living room, she saw the computer on the coffee table was still on. Chen Huan paused. She asked, "Are you still working?" He walked over and sat on the sofa, closing the screen and saying, "Nothing to do." Chen Huan wrapped herself in a blanket and sat down beside him. He smelled fresh of Marseille soap and juniper, probably fresh from the shower.
Chen Huan glanced at him. The short-sleeved linen polo shirt he had just changed into had very fine stitching. She said it looked very expensive. Meng Zixuan looked down. "Is it expensive?" he asked. "Lyle gave it to me." "Oh," Chen Huan said. "Your very rich brother." He was silent for a moment, nodded, and repeated, "My very rich brother."
Shen Huan had only met Lyle once, at her and Meng Zixian's church wedding in Fayette. Henry and Lyle were both best men, one driving a used Ford and the other a Lamborghini.
To this day, Shen Huan still feels that Henry is more like Meng Zixian's brother. They went to the battlefield together and went to church together.
Henry said Meng Zixian had saved his life. After a homemade bomb exploded, they jumped out of the mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle and maneuvered around its rear end in a thick cloud of white smoke. Meng Zixian suddenly pulled him aside. A bullet grazed the left side of his neck, and the two men tumbled to the ground while two other sergeants killed the Taliban a hundred meters away. The medic turned them over, and Henry's neck was torn open, bleeding halfway down his shoulder.
All the military families in North Carolina received calls from the Family Affairs Committee, and Emma dropped the baking tray in her hand.
"An inch to the right and I would have died on that street." At the party after returning home, Henry, clutching a bottle of cold beer, proudly boasted about his victory over death. "That guy was holding a found British SA80. It was only a hundred meters away. If he wasn't blind, he definitely wouldn't have missed."
Meng Zixian rarely spoke to Shen Huan about what happened there, but on the way home that day, Meng Zixian suddenly spoke up, saying that after the car was bombed, his head hit the wall. Even with his helmet, he couldn't hear for a while, and the vibrations from the floor and seat made his legs numb. It was Henry who stuffed Meng Zixian's rifle into his arms and dragged him out of the car.
After getting out of the car, he paused for a few seconds. His training made Meng Zixian act subconsciously, checking every five meters, every twenty-five meters, and then he saw the person aiming at them from the street corner a hundred meters away. The anti-ambush vehicle's fuel tank caught fire soon after, burning to scrap metal.
Meng Zixian believed that it was Henry who saved his life.
In comparison, Lyle's relationship with Meng Zixian is far less pure than Henry's.
The McCormick family were Irish immigrants who arrived in Pennsylvania in the late 19th century. They initially engaged in the coal and railroad businesses, but switched to real estate development after World War II. By the 1940s, when Meng Zixian's adoptive father, Jack McCormick, was born, the family had risen to Pennsylvania's upper class by developing upscale residential communities outside Philadelphia, and their names appeared on newspaper lists of charitable donations.
Jack grew up on an estate with tennis courts, a small stable, and private woodland, but his father, Felix, was the kind of playboy who wore gleaming white three-piece suits, drank single malt whiskey, and combed hair wax into every strand of his hair at charity dinners.
By the time Jack joined the army at eighteen, Felix had already squandered the family fortune on three high-profile divorces and a string of disastrous film ventures. The McCormick name still held some weight in Philadelphia's country clubs and churches, but his father's debts and romantic obligations forced his mother to sell off the estate and horses and take his sister with her to the United States.
Jack witnessed from a young age how money and pleasure corrupted his father's character, which intensified his belief that only through willpower and hardship could the family's honor be restored. He married Bessie, a daughter of a small landowner, admiring her simple, down-to-earth nature. A devout Christian, Bessie embraced life's tribulations and triumphs with equanimity. This kind and tender woman brought Jack back to the comfort of family.
They had two sons, Lyle and Miles.
After his military service, Jack resumed his grandfather's business, carefully considering the purchase of a large plot of land outside Philadelphia for residential development. He lacked his father Felix's lavish and extensive social circles—at the time, locals often avoided the McCormick name—but Jack, relying on his veteran's credit and a small mortgage from Bessie's family, began construction on his first multi-family residential building. During the day, he squatted in the dirt, watching workers measure foundations. At night, he kept a ledger, meticulously calculating the interest rates for each loan. On weekends, he drove his old pickup truck, hauling building materials or taking potential buyers to view model homes.
Philadelphia soon experienced a wave of exodus, and Jack capitalized on this momentum by transforming plots of wasteland into residential communities with neat lawns and planting rows of maple and oak trees. Bessie remained a fervent and sincere Christian, volunteering at church and school when not raising her children, and donating to local churches and school boards. Over a decade later, the McCormick family's reputation was rehabilitated, with people describing Jack and Bessie as "old-fashioned, trustworthy developers."
They moved back into the villa with high ceilings and crystal chandeliers. Although the silverware that was common in Jack's home when he was a child was no longer placed in the cabinets and the expensive paintings were no longer hung on the walls of the hall, this was only due to his simple and low-key style.
But the good times didn't last. This wealthy, gentlemanly couple lost their ten-year-old son, Miles, during an outdoor trip. In their grief, the couple prayed to God, and Bessie finally received a sign, believing that "when God takes one child, he gives another."
But they were already past the childbearing age and were unable to accept in vitro fertilization or other medical assistance methods. Finally, they found a mixed-race Asian child in the slums of Philadelphia through the church.
Shen Huan didn't know why Meng Zixian's biological parents gave up on him. She asked, but Meng Zixian didn't answer.
Ten-year-old Meng Zixian was brought back to the elegant Federal-style villa by the wealthy McCormick as a replacement, baptized with the same name in the church, and lived in the spotless room of the dead child.
He was used to hearing Jack loudly emphasize "inheritance" and "honor" in the study filled with the smell of cigars and leather. He was used to having the small silver photo frame of the deceased Miles placed on his left hand when he prayed at the dining table. He was also used to his mother holding up Miles's little belongings and gently reminding him, "You are the child God gave us to heal our wounds."
Meng Zixian rarely mentioned Jack or Bessie, and Chen Huan only knew that he had very complicated feelings towards his adoptive parents. This was due to his dignity and resistance to the McCormick couple's pity and charity, as well as his admiration for Jack and Bessie's strong and pragmatic character.
Meng Zixian obeyed his adoptive parents' wish for him to join the army. For Jack, nothing can better hone a person's perseverance and courage than the military and public service, while Bessie believed that service was a calling from God and country.
Meng Zixuan had never believed their clichéd and hypocritical rhetoric—these nice words couldn't explain why Lyle went to an Ivy League private school and inherited a real estate business—but he hadn't expected that he would actually find something he wanted in the military academy.
Lyle was more open with his brother.
Lyle liked to wear Meng Zixian's experience on his shoulder like a shining family badge. The immigrant child picked up from the slums, who was originally destined to become a frequent visitor to the state prison, gained the honor of defending his country because of the tolerance and kindness of the McCormick family.
Lyle told his brother that the donations he and his father made to the country club, the state government and legislators were made especially significant by the honors Meng Zixian had received during his military service.
Upon arriving at West Point, Meng Zixian changed his last name from "McCormick" back to "Meng" when filling out his personal information. He refused to join the McCormick family trust and never participated in Jack and Lyle's business. However, Meng Zixian exchanged Christmas gifts with them, invited them to his wedding, and retained the name Miles.
The two of them sat on the sofa. Meng Zixian asked Chen Huan if she would fly to Hancheng tomorrow. Chen Huan nodded. She said that Yixiang still had some work to hand over. Meng Zixian didn't ask any more questions. He said, "Then I will go back on Friday."
A window was open in the living room. This place wasn't far from Oyster Harbor, and the sea breeze blew in, carrying the dark green cypress trees outside with a gentle sway, a salty smell. He finished his words and coughed softly. Chen Huan leaned on his shoulder. This time, he was thinner than she remembered. His shoulders were still nice, but leaning against them wasn't very comfortable.
After a while, Shen Huan asked, "You don't fly with me, is it because you have something to do here?" He nodded. She hesitated for a long time, and then asked, "Does this matter include Sylvia?"
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