Hongdou was secretly startled—so this was the woman rumored to have “an improper relationship” with He Yunqin. She looked at her again, this time with appraising eyes.
She appeared to be around twenty-three or twenty-four, with somewhat Western features, a high nose bridge, long and elegant brows.
Though autumn had already arrived, she still wore a short-sleeved qipao, the pearl-grey fabric apparently imported, extraordinarily smooth and lustrous, fitted to her figure with not an inch too tight nor too loose. Across the front, embroidered like clustered spring clouds, were some distinctive floral patterns, further accentuating her full bust. Looking closely, the embroidery depicted white plum blossoms.
Coming in alongside the young Mrs. He was Wang Meili, head of the Foreign Languages department, the two apparently on good personal terms. Professor Wang addressed the young Mrs. He directly as “Mingyi,” and suggested taking the fourth Miss He to the Swiss doctor’s Western clinic near the school for an examination.
The young Mrs. He seemed to accept this suggestion, comforting the fourth Miss He with a few words before moving to help her up.
But then Miss He, looking down and seeing the osmanthus candy in Hongdou’s hand, paused for a moment, then turned to look at Hongdou, saying softly, “Thank you.”
Hongdou smiled. “Are you feeling better?”
Only then did the young Mrs. He turn to look at Hongdou, appraising her for a moment before a faint smile appeared. “So it was this classmate who brought the candy—thank you so much just now. What’s your name? Are you in the Foreign Languages department too?”
“I’m Yu Hongdou, from the Education department.” As she spoke, Hongdou noticed that ever since regaining consciousness, the fourth Miss He had been leaning closely against the young Mrs. He the whole time—it seemed the sister- and sister-in-law shared good feelings.
The young Mrs. He nodded with a smile. “What a coincidence—in a few days we’ll be seeing each other again.” Having said this, seeming eager to take her sister-in-law for a checkup, she offered no further explanation, only smiling as she turned to greet Old Master Yan on the platform, then put her arm around the fourth Miss He and headed out.
Once they left, the other students grew restless, all eager to chat with one another—but a single loud cough from Old Master Yan silenced the room again at once.
Back at her seat, Hongdou found Gu Yun pushing up the round lenses on her nose, whispering, “Told you I was right—Duan Mingyi is our new music theory teacher this semester.”
So the young Mrs. He was named Duan Mingyi—no wonder she’d mentioned seeing each other again in a few days; after all, music theory was a required course for the Education department, one no one could avoid.
Old Master Yan began the lecture, and the two didn’t dare converse openly anymore. Gu Yun took the gold pen pinned to her lapel and quickly scrawled two characters on paper: “Formidable.”
Yu Hongdou didn’t understand, and wrote back with her pen: “What’s formidable?”
“Duan Mingyi.”
Hongdou tapped her chin lightly with her pen, eyes lowered on those three characters, unsure whether Gu Yun meant that Duan Mingyi could handle carrying a scandal with such ease, or that she’d managed to win over her husband’s half-sister so completely. Either way, it did seem the woman deserved the word “formidable.”
After class, Xiao Xichun and Mei Lizhen headed off to Agricultural Studies, while Hongdou and Gu Yun went to the classroom under the clock tower for French Literature History.
On the way, they ran into a few male classmates from the Political Science department. Seeing Hongdou, they jostled each other and came over—one of them, named Qin Xuekai, tall and thin, asked with a smile, “Classmate Yu, our fellowship has an event this weekend—will you come?”
Yu Hongdou seemed not particularly interested, thinking it over languidly. “I might be free this weekend. What’s the event? Can you tell me in advance?”
The school had quite a few fellowship groups, one of which was the so-called “Western Occultism” society, which she found interesting, and had dragged Gu Yun into joining as well. There were forty or fifty members, gathering every few days, sometimes discussing occult literature materials, sometimes simply reading translated novels together aloud.
The current president of this fellowship was Qin Xuekai.
Qin Xuekai’s eyes lit up as he looked at Hongdou; seeing her face flushed all the more prettily in the warm sunlight, his voice tightened involuntarily. “We’re planning a large-scale reading tea gathering across several departments, specifically to discuss strange events happening around Shanghai. A few students from Aurora University next door will be there, along with a newly arrived German associate professor and Detective Wang Bide, who’s been in the papers. It’s not just about discussing supernatural events—there will be plenty of interesting true stories shared too. If you come, you’re sure to get a great deal out of it.”
Gu Yun, ignored for a long while by Qin Xuekai, said with displeasure, “Senior Qin, I’m a fellowship member too—how come you didn’t invite me to come?”
Qin Xuekai smiled faintly. “Because I know Classmate Gu is Classmate Yu’s dearest friend—inviting Classmate Yu is as good as inviting Classmate Gu. You two, come together then.”
When he said this last sentence, his eyes were fixed on Hongdou.
He knew Hongdou had the most interest in this sort of subject, and was confident she’d be willing to attend.
Hongdou was indeed tempted. “All right. Where should we all meet up?”
Author’s Note: This story runs longer than Winter Solstice*, and will have plenty of scenes of Hongdou and He Yunqin’s married life, so everyone, don’t rush He Two—later on he’ll be front and center, showing up every single day, day after day after day.*