Hongdou arrived at the front door, got off her bicycle to greet Tailor Peng and Mrs. Peng, and wheeled the bicycle toward the building. Before she could pull the door open, she suddenly felt the bike grow lighter. Looking back, she saw it was Mr. Xiang, who lived on the third floor, returning home—seeing her struggling a bit with the bicycle, he had lent a hand without a word.
She quickly smiled and said, “Thank you, Mr. Xiang.”
Xiang Qisheng nodded, brushed past Hongdou, and drifted toward the depths of the hallway. As he moved, a strand of his center-parted hair fell loose in front of his glasses; he seemed not to notice at all, not even lifting a hand to fix it.
Hongdou watched that thin, dark blue-clad back recede into the distance and shrugged indifferently. Mr. Xiang was always like this—every inch a poet, perpetually melancholy.
She’d heard he taught literature at Aurora University. He had studied abroad in England in his early years, and after returning to China had published quite a few poems and essays. Once, while borrowing books at the school library, Hongdou had had the fortune to read a few of his pieces in a magazine.
One of them was a scathing denunciation of opium and prostitution, its language extremely fierce—it said that opium addicts and prostitutes, though born human, behaved worse than dogs and pigs, that both were despised by society, and that they were a poisonous tumor urgently in need of a solution.
Because that essay’s viewpoint had been so extreme, it left a deep impression on Hongdou. By her original reasoning, once Miss Qiu moved in, Mr. Xiang would be so ashamed of Miss Qiu’s profession that he would immediately move out. Unexpectedly, the two had coexisted peacefully, living there to this day.
No wonder Sister-in-law Zhou kept muttering all day that Mr. Xiang was infatuated with Miss Qiu.
When she reached the door, it was Sister-in-law Zhou who came to answer it. Mother wasn’t in the living room; the house was quiet.
Sister-in-law Zhou pursed her lips at Hongdou. “Madam just got back from the mistress’s family’s house.”
After saying this, she blinked slowly a couple of times, then added in a low voice, “Looked like she was angry.”
Hongdou was startled. Hadn’t Mother told her and her brother just that morning to go deliver gifts to their uncle’s house tonight? Who would have thought the old lady would go herself during the day.
Reaching the inner room’s door, she turned the handle—it was locked. She knocked, and only after a good while did she hear footsteps approaching from a distance.
The door opened, and before she could even make out the state of the room, her mother grabbed her arm and yanked her inside, slamming the door shut in an instant.
Hongdou looked up in surprise and saw the two small chests on the bed—she understood at once. Mother was counting her gold bars again.
This was a habitual quirk of Mother’s when angry. By her own account, no matter how enormous her fury, so long as she faced these glittering golden objects and counted them over a few times, all her anger would dissipate.
These gold bars weren’t many, but they were the fruits of Father’s labor over half a lifetime. If they lived frugally, it would be enough for the three of them to live out the rest of their lives.
“What’s wrong with you this time?” she asked, looking calmly at her mother.
Mrs. Yu walked to the bed without a word, gathering the gold bars back into the chests one by one, and said irritably, “Don’t go to your uncle’s house anymore.”
Hongdou had already had an inkling. Mother had gone to Uncle’s house during the day, and coming back in such an abnormal state, it was most likely because she’d been slighted by Aunt.
Uncle worked at the Nanbao Trading Company, and a few years ago had been promoted to senior comprador. As his means had gradually widened, he had before long moved into a mansion; now the household employed two servants, everything done with an eye to appearances, and even the two cousins carried themselves like grand young ladies wherever they went.
In truth, when Father was alive, Uncle had been nothing but a minor clerk at the trading company.
Seeing that her brother had grown up so handsome, and that the Yu family’s business had once flourished, Aunt had once proposed a match between the eldest cousin and her brother. At the time, Father and Mother had both been very fond of the eldest cousin, and had happily accepted the proposal.
Who would have thought that not long after, Father passed away, the fur shop closed, and the Yu family declined day by day, while Uncle gradually prospered.
Later, seeing that her brother didn’t look like someone destined for great things, Aunt flatly refused to ever mention the old matter again.
Now the eldest cousin worked as a clerk at Aurora University, and being exceptionally good-looking, had no shortage of suitors. Aunt was set on marrying her daughter into a good family, and had deliberately begun to grow distant with the Yu family.
Though Uncle was somewhat aware of his wife’s intentions, he was, firstly, busy with business, and secondly, hoped to use his daughter’s advantageous marriage to solidify his own position at the trading company, so he tacitly went along with his wife’s behavior—only occasionally, behind her back, sending the Yu family some food and daily necessities.
Truth be told, this was hardly the first time Mother had been snubbed at Aunt’s place.
“They say the eldest cousin has plenty of suitors now, young masters and professors and the like—not one but plenty—and every word out of their mouths looked down on your brother. Pah! I look down on her too—with conduct like that, even the best child could be led astray by her. Your Yuqi cousin was so lovable as a child, and now hasn’t she too learned to be so snobbish? I’d like to see just what kind of good families your aunt’s two fine daughters end up marrying into! Have they all forgotten how our third sister died back then!”
Mentioning her late younger sister always grieved Mother, and before she’d even finished speaking, her voice had already begun to choke. Yu Hongdou grew a bit flustered inwardly, secretly sticking out her tongue—fortunately Mother didn’t yet know that her brother was planning to change jobs. If she found out, there would surely be another scene.
Speaking of which, her brother hadn’t shown the slightest sign of being fed up with his line of work in recent days—why the sudden urge to change jobs? Had he run into some difficult matter at the police station?
Pretending not to see the tears glinting at the corners of her mother’s eyes, she embraced her and said lightly, deliberately making light of it, “Mother, Brother doesn’t even like Yuqi cousin—even if you forced him to marry her, he wouldn’t. And do you remember, last time our school’s American professor said that marriage between cousins seems to carry risks. Let Yuqi cousin marry whoever she wants to marry. Maybe the sister-in-law Brother eventually finds will be even prettier than Yuqi cousin.”
Mrs. Yu said indignantly, “Who said she absolutely had to marry your brother—I gave up on that idea long ago. I’m just angry at your aunt—”
Hongdou simply kicked off her shoes and lay down with her head in her mother’s lap, looking up at her and saying, “Mom, when we were little everyone said Yuqi cousin was pretty, but last time Brother said with his own mouth that I’m much prettier than Yuqi cousin now. The other day when we went to Uncle’s house, I compared carefully, and I think so too.”
Seeing her daughter’s earnestly serious face, Mrs. Yu burst out laughing, wiping fiercely at her tears with a handkerchief, and pointed at her daughter’s snow-smooth cheek. “Shameless.” Over the years her daughter’s features had grown more and more refined, already a great beauty—in her view, not the least bit inferior to Yuqi. She only feared spoiling her daughter’s ambitions and distracting her from her studies, so she never dared mention it to her face.
Seeing her mother finally break into laughter through her tears, Hongdou secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and said with a giggle, “Mom, I’m hungry. When are we eating? Should we wait for Brother?”
Hearing her daughter was hungry, Mrs. Yu had no more time to be sad, and pulled Hongdou up, smoothing the wrinkles from her qipao in passing. “Your brother’s been busy scouring all of Shanghai for someone lately, day and night all turned upside down—how could he possibly make it home for meals? He said this morning that we two should go to bed early tonight and not wait for him.”
For several days running, Brother truly did leave early and come home late. Hongdou hadn’t had a chance to speak with him, and so had no way to find out the reason behind his wanting to change jobs.
When Saturday came, Gu Yun, Xiao Xichun and a few others, as previously arranged, waited downstairs at Hongdou’s house for her. Seeing they were all female students, Mrs. Yu felt at ease letting her daughter go.
Xinya Teahouse wasn’t far from Aurora University—a two-story Western-style building, with a park beside it, secluded and elegant. In the parlor, a French musician was stationed year-round, performing authentic classical piano pieces.
The light, ethereal music paired with coffee and black tea gave one, upon entering, the sense of having one’s worldly cares washed clean. Added to this, the teahouse’s Western pastries were exceptionally delicious, and it had quite a reputation in Shanghai—so much so that men of letters and celebrities gathered there from time to time.
Hongdou, Gu Yun and the others showed their invitations to the waiter at the door, and upon entering saw that today’s gathering was large—the spacious parlor was packed with people.
As soon as they appeared, another waiter came to seat them; several ardent gazes fell upon Hongdou, seeming to hold intentions of making her acquaintance. Hongdou pretended not to notice.
She glanced casually around the hall and at once spotted several familiar faces. One man, wearing a Western-style shirt, stood tall with his back to the window; lit by the enormous tree-branch crystal chandelier in the parlor, he looked even more dashing and outstanding than when she’d first seen him a few days before—only his gaze seemed to rest nowhere in particular, giving him a somewhat absent-minded air.
“So the German associate professor Qin Xuekai mentioned was actually He Yunqin?” Gu Yun said, slightly surprised. As the daughter of a newspaper family, she knew He Yunqin’s news thoroughly, and had recognized him at a glance.
Standing beside He Yunqin was He Zhuyun, the one who had fainted that day. She seemed to have been watching the door the whole time, and upon seeing Hongdou and the others, paused a moment, then quickly set down the plate in her hand and came gliding over.
But Hongdou was staring fixedly at another woman in Western dress across the hall—a woman holding a gold-rimmed coffee cup, chatting animatedly with a middle-aged man, her curled hair piled high, revealing a full, lovely face.
“Yuqi cousin?”