Chapter Three: A Tempting Business (1)
“Really?” She always felt that something was amiss.
“Really.” Cheng Muyang smiled an entirely harmless smile.
Judging by the way he looked now, even if there really was something wrong, she would not be able to get anything out of him by asking. Nan Bei simply gave up and went back to playing with the cat. There were very distinctive tattoos on her middle and ring fingers. The kitten had no idea what they were, but stared at them curiously for quite a while before sticking out its little pink tongue and gently licking them a few times.
The licking tickled so badly that when she pulled her hand back, she could not help laughing.
The entire afternoon, the two idle people talked about all sorts of things. If the gunshot wound on her body were not still so conspicuous, she might even have wondered whether she had really once known this man, this mixed-race man who, whenever he spoke, habitually leaned back in a high-backed rattan chair, his eyes sometimes clear and cool, sometimes deep and unfathomable.
The people of the Nan family did not live long.
In her memory, even the faces of her parents were blurred, so when Cheng Muyang spoke of the stories from his childhood with his maternal grandfather, she listened with unusual attentiveness.
“It was probably when I had just returned from Belgium. Grandfather had not yet passed away, but he was already ninety-four,” he said with a smile, finding it amusing himself. “And one night, he secretly took my hand and asked me to choose a gift to give to his ‘little girlfriend.’”
Nan Bei snorted with laughter. “And then?”
“And then? I went to pay a special visit to the woman he called his ‘little girlfriend’ and gave her the gift. As it turned out, she was also a seventy-year-old woman.”
“Seventy?” She thought for a moment. “For your grandfather, that does count as very young. But at that age, they still wanted to date? What could they do?”
Cheng Muyang caught the meaning behind her words and glanced at her with a smile that was not quite a smile. “Probably nothing at all. Maybe he had simply found someone to talk to, someone to listen to music with and chat about the old days in Shanghai when they had nothing else to do.”
She gave a sound of agreement. “It would have been nice if your grandfather were still around. Then I might have had a chance to meet the old gentleman from Shanghai Bund.” Over the past two days, she had heard the two older aunties tell her quite a few stories about Cheng Muyang’s grandfather. He had been a banker in old Shanghai, and, because of his interests, had once opened Shanghai’s first truly authentic Western restaurant. And then? Even in his twilight years, he still remembered to give an unexpected gift to his little girlfriend, giving her a romantic surprise.
It really was too interesting.
“There are even more interesting people in Harbin,” Cheng Muyang seemed intent on piquing her interest. “During the Guangxu era, the Russians built a railway station in a certain place, and only afterward did that place come to be called Harbin. So, like old Shanghai, there is a group of very Russianized Chinese people there.”
She had never had much of a concept of the icebound northern country.
But hearing Cheng Muyang say this, she instead thought of his family, the Cheng family that had existed for more than a century. “So, has your family existed since then?”
“My father’s family,” he corrected her.
“Too bad I can’t stand places that are too cold. Otherwise, I would definitely go meet those people you mentioned.”
Her legs had grown sore from squatting, so she stood and stretched out her body, going to look at the curtain of rain before the hall.
Then she heard Cheng Muyang’s voice say, “You’ll have to go there sooner or later.”
Honestly…
She watched the uninterrupted rainwater falling from the old-fashioned eaves, too lazy to respond to him.
The rain stopped in the evening without warning, and the water-collecting basin before the hall was filled to the brim.
At dinner, the two of them ate some small dishes in the courtyard. Cheng Muyang insisted that she try the local aged wine. At first she refused, but after tasting it, she happily filled herself a cup. Sure enough, the quality of the water made a difference. It was worth savoring carefully.
Only after they had put down their chopsticks did Cheng Muyang suddenly say that they would set out that very night to board the ship.
According to his arrangements, he had left her only half an hour to pack up. Nan Bei returned to the bedroom and saw an ivory-colored box lying on the bed.
Inside the box, an invitation lay quietly.
She picked it up, only then discovering what was special about it.
Judging from the handwriting and the patterns, it appeared to be a color woodblock print made with water-based inks. What thoughtfulness. They had even gone specially to have a woodblock carved just to make the invitations.
She had a vague premonition that this must have something to do with the “Shen family trip” her brother had mentioned.
When she opened it, the title page was filled entirely with surnames.
Reading down the rows, some sounded familiar, while others she had never heard before. But clearly, judging from the four most prominent surnames, all the powerful families were represented here. Perhaps those she had never heard of were rising newcomers from the inland provinces.
Zhousheng, Shen, Cheng, Nan.
Most important of all was the last one: Nan.
From her brother’s tone, he had no intention of taking part in this affair. Then why was the Nan family on the invitation? Holding the invitation, she lightly fanned herself with it, unable to fathom just how deep the waters ran this time. But since Master Shen had asked her to board the ship with Cheng Muyang, there should not be any major problems.
When they left Qiandao Lake, it was still dusk, and a thick layer of heavy mist floated over hundreds of li of emerald-green water.
Cheng Muyang noticed that she was reluctant to leave the scenery and rolled down the car window. “We’re in a bit of a hurry this time. Next time, let Auntie take you around properly. There are lots of ancient tombs here, as well as many ruins dating from the Spring and Autumn period through the Jin dynasty.”
Nan Bei gave a faint “Mm.” “You had that invitation prepared for me a long time ago?”
“It was delivered this morning,” he said calmly. “I figure it was word that Master Shen let slip. Someone had another set made at the last minute these past few days, deliberately adding the Nan family.”
“Just what kind of enticing business is it that people have to take it so seriously?”
“People will die for wealth, birds will die for food.” He deliberately left her hanging. “It really is very enticing.”
Her curiosity only grew. She lightly tapped his leg with the slender heel of her high heel. “I’m warning you, don’t drag me into your mess again. Before, I didn’t know who you were, so I didn’t think anything of it. Now that I think back to that shootout in Belgium, maybe I was dragged into that because of you.”
Cheng Muyang smiled and glanced at the back she had left half exposed, the sunburn still conspicuous.
Once they entered the private marina grounds, Cheng Muyang finally told her that they were still within Zhejiang. From the marina, they would take a yacht, and after reaching the sea, board a cruise ship.
She thought Cheng Muyang would get out at the entrance to the long embankment, but she never expected the forty Mercedes S600s to drive straight in like this, heading from the riverbank onto the embankment. Through the car window, she could see more than forty berths in the distance, each with a yacht.
When the car came to a stop, someone opened the door for Cheng Muyang.
After getting out, Cheng Muyang deliberately walked around to her side and opened her door for her as well. She lifted her head from inside the car and saw the smile in his eyes, suddenly feeling as though she had returned to those youthful years in Belgium. Every time they took a taxi, he had always had the good habit of taking care of every girl.
When she took his hand, she deliberately tightened her grip and smiled. “Thank you.”
The floating dock, laid with wooden planks, was not particularly suitable for walking in high heels, so Cheng Muyang’s gesture was a considerable help to her. Once she had steadied herself, her field of vision suddenly opened up, but at the same time, she noticed a strange scene.
At the end of the main passageway, more than twenty people had actually been blindfolded and made to kneel on either side of the passage, all facing the water. A person holding a gun stood beside each of them. It was not that she had never seen a scene like this before. She simply did not know who could do such a thing, or why they had to do it today of all days.
The lights of the night cast a layer of floating radiance over the yachts resting quietly in the water.
They also gave the more than twenty people kneeling on the ground an unreal halo of light.
On the yachts nearby and in the lanes both near and far, there were plenty of people watching. They all seemed to be nothing more than spectators. She noticed a middle-aged man on the yacht to her right, dressed in an old-fashioned long robe, also watching with great interest. The hair at his temples was snow-white, while the rest of his hair was so black that it seemed completely without a trace of gray, making him particularly striking.
Behind the middle-aged man were all female members of his family.
There were two or three women who were past their prime, as well as young girls with bright, expressive eyes, and two small children.
Nan Bei pressed her lips together. From the corner of her eye, she saw that on the yacht farthest away was clearly Shen Jiaming. He seemed to smile at her and wave. Before she had time to respond, the sound of a yacht starting up came from somewhere, and Shen Jiaming’s yacht actually left the shore just like that.
“You and Xiao Feng go over first. Get on my yacht,” Cheng Muyang said, lowering his head to speak beside her ear. His warm breath brushed softly past her. “I’ll be there shortly.” For some reason, he seemed to deliberately press very close to her.
She frowned and said nothing.
Just as she followed Xiao Feng away, the middle-aged man was also speaking to the women behind him. Soon, two of the women picked up the children, and everyone else turned and went into the cabin.
On a floating main passage like this, she could not walk quickly. Xiao Feng first walked quickly for a dozen or so steps, then stopped to wait for her. After doing this twice, he finally turned around helplessly and held out his hand.
The meaning was obvious: Miss, you are really too slow.
Suddenly, there was the sound of someone falling into the water. Then came the continued sounds of heavy objects hitting the water.
Nan Bei had only just boarded the yacht and had not yet entered the cabin. She still could not help looking back.
Of the people kneeling on either side of the main passage, only three or four remained. The rest had probably been thrown directly into the river.
The lights on either side were brilliant as stars.
They shone mercilessly upon the few people who remained, making her think of a single phrase: Judgment Day.
She was not the only one watching. The distinguished guests on the surrounding yachts seemed unwilling to miss such a spectacle. Some were speaking softly, while some were even laughing. Cheng Muyang was still standing beside the car. Beneath the lights of the night, his fair skin stood out even more. He seemed to sense Nan Bei lingering there and looked toward her, then gestured for her to go inside.
Only now did she finally understand that the main event at this marina had been arranged by Cheng Muyang.
He shifted his gaze away from Nan Bei and finally left the side of the car. He walked behind the person nearest to him and crouched down slightly.
“Where is Cheng Muyun? Hmm?”
The person remained silent, motionless in his silence.
Cheng Muyang merely smiled. He placed a hand on the person’s shoulder and gently patted it.
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