Chapter One: Cheng Muyang of the Cheng Family (3)
She said, “Sorry.”
“She’s my cousin too.”
Nan Bei turned those two sentences over in her mind. It seemed that, perhaps, they didn’t count as close relatives marrying?
That day, because of the heavy rain in Taizhou, the car had not been traveling very fast during the first half of the journey. It was only after they had been driving for three or four hours that they gradually began to pick up speed. By the time they actually reached Qiandao Lake, it was already close to five o’clock, a full two hours later than he had estimated.
After such a long journey, both her legs were already somewhat swollen by the time she got out of the car.
The place where they stopped was a private residence. Only she and Cheng Muyang, along with the driver of their car and the boy who had remained seated in the front passenger seat the entire time, entered the courtyard, four people in all.
There were only two elderly women in the entire house. Apart from the black-and-white distinction of the qipao they wore, there was astonishingly nothing else different about them. They had identical features, and although their age was already unmistakable, even the way they wore their hair in a coiled bun was exactly the same.
Unlike those two people, they did not address Cheng Muyang as Young Boss. Instead, in the local dialect, they called him “Chengcheng.”
At first, she thought the name sounded very powdery and feminine. Later, while standing beneath the shower, she finally realized it. Chengcheng, Chengcheng. Wasn’t that Feng Chengcheng, the memorable young heiress from Shanghai Bund? She remembered that when she had been in school, she had specifically asked someone to bring her the Mandarin-dubbed version of the television series. It was that handsome, red-lipped, white-toothed young star at the height of his popularity who played the underworld boss.
Because it was all too dreamy, she had simply watched the show as though it were a Japanese or Korean idol drama.
The thing she remembered most clearly was that the gang boss always liked to have a cigarette between his teeth, using it to shape his character’s image. It inevitably made her think of her older brother Nan Huai, and Cheng Muyang as well. Neither of them seemed to be fond of tobacco.
When she came out after her shower, it was just before dawn. The distant sky had taken on a faint, damp flush of red, and Cheng Muyang was sitting in the living room of the suite, making a phone call. She looked at him in surprise. When she had first come in, she had noticed that there were two bedrooms here. She had assumed one of them must surely be vacant. Could it be that he was staying here?
When he saw her come out, he gestured for her not to mind him and to go back to her room to rest.
Seeing that it was already light, Nan Bei did not particularly want to sleep anymore either. She simply walked over and sat down in the single sofa beside him.
He was speaking Russian on the phone. She had once heard the Russian girl she lived with speaking Russian, but she had never thought it sounded particularly pleasant.
Cheng Muyang, on the other hand, spoke it very well. His rolled r’s were clear and crisp. Occasionally, he would pause without seeming to realize it, and only after a long while would he continue with a few more words. Because he spoke slowly, the cold softness of his intonation became even more pronounced.
She finally believed what Katyusha had said. Compared with Spanish, Russian was more suited to handsome men. It could be languid, it could be simple, yet it would absolutely never erase the masculinity and grace a man ought to have.
After listening for a while, she suddenly said in Chinese, out of the blue, “So back when Katyusha called, you could understand everything she said?”
Back then, her roommate had been certain that the two of them could not understand Russian and had never bothered to hide anything.
Now that she thought about it, he really had been good at pretending.
“More or less, but I never really listened to anything.” He answered her in Chinese as well. The call had not yet been hung up. Who knew who was on the other end of the line? Whoever it was, he had already calmly explained the situation in a couple of sentences before ending the call. “You’re not sleeping?”
Nan Bei frowned slightly, then quickly relaxed.
“What do you want to say?” he asked her.
“You’re going to stay in the same suite as me these next few days?”
“I’ve always stayed in this room. I’m used to it.”
“Then should I move to the guest room?”
He smiled. “If I tell you there will always be a third person in this room, would you feel that staying with me isn’t quite so difficult to bear?”
As soon as Cheng Muyang finished speaking, a hand suddenly reached out from the rattan rocking chair on the terrace.
It waved once, then withdrew again.
The boy had been curled up asleep in the chair. If Cheng Muyang had not said anything, she really would not have noticed him.
He stood up. “In Belgium, we once slept in a car. Just now on the road, you fell asleep beside me too. Thinking of it that way, does sleeping in the same suite seem a little more acceptable?”
“All right,” she said quietly, standing up and walking past him. “Your memory really is quite good.”
It was not a question, merely something she murmured to herself.
She had only taken two or three steps when Cheng Muyang caught her by the forearm. Nan Bei turned her head. He said, “Beibei, my memory has always been good. Here...” In the morning light, he raised his right hand and touched his temple with two fingers. “I’ve always remembered you.”
At such close distance, she could clearly smell the faint scent of mint on him.
She was too close to him. Looking into his eyes, she did not know how to react. After a moment of silence, she finally forced a smile. “Don’t you think that the me you once knew, and the you I remember, were both completely fake?”
Back then, Cheng Mu also liked wearing white shirts and black trousers made of soft, comfortable fabric. He always spoke in an unhurried manner, sometimes absentmindedly, sometimes so seriously it was almost excessive. He was the kind of boy who, even when walking around a university campus or falling asleep in the library, would have little girls secretly take pictures of him with their phones.
But the man called Cheng Muyang now was completely different.
The corner of his mouth moved, as though he were smiling. “Nan Bei?”
“Hmm?”
“Nan Bei?” He smiled, clear and limpid as water.
“…”
“Nan from dong-nan-xi-bei, Bei from dong-nan-xi-bei.” The surname was unusual, and the given name was unusual too. Hear it once, and you would remember it.
Cheng Muyang repeated their conversation from back then, word for word.
Once again, she was rendered speechless.
Fortunately, he only said that much. In the end, he still let go of her and allowed her to go to sleep.
Just as Nan Bei closed the bedroom door, the big boy sleeping on the terrace quietly poked his head out. He glanced at Cheng Muyang and could barely contain his amusement.
According to Cheng Muyang’s arrangements, she and he would stay here for two or three days. Once everything concerning the Shen family was settled, they would go out to sea together. When she woke up, it was already after two in the afternoon. When she went downstairs, she saw the two elderly women sitting in the courtyard, chatting quietly. She politely nodded to them through the glass. One of the women opened the glass door and led her into the courtyard.
The other brought over a bowl of rice.
It looked like rice stir-fried with greens and cured meat, and it smelled rather strange. Holding her chopsticks, she wondered what it would taste like and hesitated to eat. The woman in the black qipao smiled. “Nannan, eat up. It’s very good. Chengcheng loved this when he was little. It’s called ‘cai fan.’”
She nodded and took a bite. It tasted quite good.
The fragrance of the greens and cured meat mingled with the rice. It was very rustic, very much like something from a farmhouse.
“It’s nothing special. In the old days, it was something only country people ate. But Chengcheng is very strange. He especially loves these most ordinary home-cooked things. Whatever he likes, he always wants you to try too.” The woman in the white qipao spoke in a softer voice, and her Mandarin was not particularly good either. “This time everything was too rushed. Next time you come, I’ll teach you how to make it. Then when Chengcheng goes somewhere like Russia, he’ll be able to have it whenever he wants.”
Those words really did make it sound as though she already regarded Nan Bei as one of their own.
Nan Bei wanted to explain, but then she thought about it. After all, there probably would not be many opportunities for them to meet again. If there was a misunderstanding, then so be it.
The two elderly women watched her eat with beaming smiles, chatting with her about the past in Mandarin interspersed with the local dialect.
“Chengcheng’s maternal great-grandfather was a famous banker in Shanghai back then. He married a foreign woman, so you see, that’s why his eyes are so beautiful. When he was little, his skin was as white as porcelain, and his black hair was soft and curled down around his ears. He really looked like a Western doll.”
A Western doll?
Nan Bei could not help laughing.
“Look, look, a young girl is still prettier when she smiles.” The woman in black patted the back of her hand. “You’re pretty when you don’t smile too, but unfortunately, the corners of your eyes turn upward, which makes you look a little frightening. This is better. Curved like this, like a…”
“A Chinese doll, right?” Nan Bei followed their phrasing and made a joke.
Both elderly women nodded at the same time. “Come to think of it, you really do look like one.”
She could not contain her laughter.
The Nans, rumored by outsiders to eat raw human flesh along the China-Vietnam border, and the Chengs, who held their own against Russian gangs along the China-Russia border, had, in the eyes of these two elderly women, both somehow become delicate porcelain dolls sitting behind a shop counter.
Nan Bei was chatting happily with the two elderly women when the boy who was inseparable from Cheng Muyang walked into the courtyard and made a gesture. The woman in the white qipao smiled and stood up. “Chengcheng sent someone to pick you up.”
Nan Bei stood up. The boy made another gesture, and the elderly woman immediately understood. She told Nan Bei to go inside and change into something lighter, a short-sleeved top and shorts.
Nan Bei did as she was told and changed before going back outside. The boy stood by the roadside and opened the car door for her. She wanted to ask him something, but the boy simply grinned, shook his head, pointed at his own mouth, then shook his head again.
She understood what he meant.
This private residence was right beside the lake to begin with. Once the car drove out, it continued along the lakeshore the entire way, with scenery unfolding at every turn. In the end, they stopped somewhere that was surprisingly deserted. There was only a speedboat, with several people sitting on it, laughing and chatting.
Cheng Muyang was among them. He was wearing sunglasses and a black bucket hat, and in his right hand he held a small silver flask that looked very familiar, taking one small sip of liquor after another. The merciless midday sun shone directly down on them, making the whiteness of his skin stand out even more. When he heard the sound of the car, he took off his sunglasses and looked over.
When Nan Bei approached, everyone suddenly stood up.
Only he remained seated, his back against the metal railing, continuing to look at her. “I remember you said you could dive?”
“I learned for a while.” Nan Bei glanced at the calm, unruffled surface of the lake, somewhat surprised. “You’re going to dive here?”
Anyone who could dive knew that the reason those islands were so popular was because the refraction of light through the seawater was excellent. Whether coral or sea fish, everything could be seen clearly, and you could even see transparent marine creatures drifting through the water. But apart from people doing archaeology, who would dive to the bottom of a lake?
She looked at the distant surface of the lake. The visibility was terrible.
At most, you could go five meters underwater, and it would certainly be pitch-black.
Never mind that the sun was blazing overhead now. Once you went down, the water might be freezing cold.
“I’m taking you to see some beautiful scenery.” He did not deny it. “It might be scenery you’ve never seen before.”
After saying this, he stood up and began putting on his diving suit and professional equipment.
Everyone smiled as they watched Nan Bei.
She had just said that she could dive. There was no way she could reject Cheng Muyang’s kindness to his face, so she could only walk over and put on the diving suit with his help. As she dressed, she did not forget to keep asking, “How deep is the water? Is this a pressure-resistant diving suit? Does it keep you warm?”
As she kept asking, she suddenly felt something cool against her forehead.
Cheng Muyang lightly tapped her forehead with the small flask. “Little Miss Questions, how come I never noticed before that you were such an eager learner?” After saying this, he twisted open the cap and brought the mouth of the flask to her lips. “You can have a sip of liquor to work up your courage.”
She knew all too well how much alcohol was in that flask. She did not even bother to smell it. “Forget it.”
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