Chapter Twenty-Eight
The Ink-Wash Shadow of Rivers and Mountains (1)
On the third day of the Lunar New Year, Shen Ce took her to see the New Year horse races.
She wanted to join in the excitement, squeezing into the crowds to watch a young female feng shui master who had been invited to host a New Year event. Since she was spending the Spring Festival with Shen Ce this time, what interested her most were these matters of feng shui and fortune-telling, along with all the auspicious traditions meant to bring good luck. They were things she rarely got to hear about at home. She noticed that quite a few people were holding similar pinwheels. Small triangular flags made of red paper were attached to slender golden sticks, with little pinwheels in various colors or gold decorating either side. They looked as though they had all been bought from the same place.
“It's not customary to pay New Year visits on the third day. Everyone likes to go to the temples to burn incense and worship Buddha, then come here to bet on the horses,” he explained.
The pinwheels were from Che Kung Temple. People bought them to invite good fortune and turn their luck around in the new year.
“We should have gone too, if I'd known.” She had wanted to buy one for him, to turn his luck around.
Shen Ce smiled and whispered in her ear, “We'll have a chance every year from now on.”
That was true.
She was content to be just one among the countless people in the crowd. With nothing but strangers around them, she wrapped her arms around him from behind. “Ge.”
“Mm.” He was calculating the time, planning to take her upstairs to watch the first race of the New Year at noon.
“It's been more than a year since you proposed. I already said yes, and all you do is take me out to eat and drink, watch horses and admire flowers. You haven't done anything substantial.” She suddenly teased him. “There's a crowd here. Why don't you ask me again? Will you marry me or not?”
“...” Shen Ce had no way of dealing with her. “I will.”
There were eleven races scheduled that day.
They didn't have time to watch the whole event and still make it back to Macau, so they could only catch the opening race at noon. When she arrived at the VIP box, she eagerly asked for a newspaper, wanting to study the racing form. Shen Ce asked someone to get one for her.
“You really are something. You appear like a dragon, then vanish without a trace.” The people who arrived with the newspaper turned out to be the Liang brothers, Liang Jinhua and Liang Jinrong. Behind them came several friends who knew Shen Ce well, along with the girlfriends they'd brought. The Liang family had received word of his condition and knew he had been ill. Outsiders weren't aware of it, but the young heirs were astonished to see Shen Ce. They pressed him for answers, asking what great undertaking had kept him so busy that he hadn't shown his face in years.
In an unusually good mood, Shen Ce replied, “A lifelong commitment.”
He wasn't someone who liked discussing romantic matters. Naturally, the remark prompted even more questions, but they couldn't get another word out of him.
Before the others arrived, she had been hugging Shen Ce around the waist from behind. Once they showed up, the two had no choice but to separate. She picked up a newspaper beside the sofa and leafed through it, chatting casually with the few young men who had gathered around her.
“Your brother hides himself away, and now you do too. Do you still remember me?” Liang Jinrong had last seen her outside the Hong Kong airport. He had already been struck by her beauty then, but seeing her again today, he could hardly recognize her.
Zhaozhao had grown much taller since high school graduation. Among the group of young heirs, Shen Ce stood out the most. She was half a head shorter than him, and standing beside her brother, she didn't draw much attention to herself. But when she stood alone, face-to-face with Liang Jinrong, she turned out to be almost as tall as he was.
She nodded and smiled at Liang Jinrong. “I remember. You're the one who picked me up by car. Your older brother even went to Montreal and saw me twice. If you ever go...”
“Zhaozhao,” Shen Ce suddenly called.
At the sound of his voice, she abandoned the people gathered around her and returned to his side.
Their eyes met.
Liang Jinhua was standing beside Shen Ce.
Liang Jinhua had Portuguese ancestry. He was broad-framed, with thick eyebrows, deep-set eyes, and a slightly hooked nose that gave him a rugged air. Beside this old friend, Shen Ce's features seemed considerably softer. After years of avoiding the sun while recuperating, his complexion was so fair that he looked like a girl. If not for the force of his own presence, people might have mistaken him for a sickly beauty, delicately pampered and difficult to identify as either male or female.
“Horses all seem to like your brother,” Liang Jinhua said. “Even my horses act as though they know him when they see him. They're incredibly affectionate with him.”
Unlike his younger brother, Liang Jinhua had never merely entertained thoughts of pursuing Zhaozhao. He had actually gone to Montreal to see her twice, so he knew her better and could chat with her a little. “Maybe he raised horses in a past life.”
Shen Ce smiled without answering.
She wasn't entirely convinced. But since Liang Jinhua had once pursued her, she didn't want to invite any misunderstandings. She pressed her lips together and let the matter drop.
Just then, a group of tall horses thundered out onto the track. The men around her crowded toward the glass, cheering and shouting encouragement, while Shen Ce remained as quiet as ever. She turned her head to look at him, and it was as though she could see the sky and clouds in his eyes, along with thousands upon thousands of cavalry galloping across green grass.
In her ears, she seemed to hear the earth-shaking roar of countless horses trampling wild grass, muddy flats, and gravel beneath their hooves, along with the battle cries of a battlefield bordering on savagery...
A hand pressed gently against her left shoulder, and she came back to herself.
“Are you feeling unwell?” Shen Ce asked. He had noticed how labored and suppressed her breathing had become.
She shook her head. “I think horses look beautiful when they run.” Seeing that no one was paying attention, she leaned close to his ear and whispered, “But you look even better.”
Shen Ce's hand slid down and gave her back a light pat. “Let's go. We're heading back to Macau.”
...
“Leaving already?” Liang Jinrong asked in surprise.
Shen Ce couldn't be bothered to explain. If the two brothers hadn't been staring at Zhaozhao ever since they walked in, they wouldn't have had to leave so soon.
“Jinshan said the elders in your family have all gone back. Is something going on at home?” Liang Jinhua asked at last.
Shen Ce nodded and left with Zhaozhao.
This time, unlike their previous trip when they had to ferry guests back and forth, it was just the two siblings. They traveled aboard Shen Ce's small yacht.
In the cabin, he changed into the suit he would wear to meet the family elders. He studied his face in the mirror, then found a pair of black, half-rimmed glasses he had kept on hand. After wiping the lenses, he put them on. Remembering what the older auntie had said, Zhaozhao wrapped her arms around his waist. “You look even less like a good person with glasses on.”
“Is that so?” He smiled.
The next moment, the cool lenses pressed against her face, their chill touching her skin.
The coolness of the lenses made the kiss restrained and quiet. When Shen Ce tried to take off his glasses, she wouldn't let him. By the time the lenses had grown cloudy from their kisses, he finally removed them and set them beside the washbasin.
“You were jealous at the racecourse, weren't you? When Liang Jinrong was talking to me?” She wound her arms around his neck.
“If you say I was, then I was.”
“He's not even as tall as me. What is there to be jealous of?”
Shen Ce nodded. “That's reasonable.”
“Ge.” She seemed unable to call him enough times.
“Mm.” As always, he answered her, never growing tired of it.
“Tell me, is it normal for people to date the way we do?” She always wanted to hold him, to kiss him, never getting enough.
“Whether it's normal or not, what's the difference?” he replied. “No one can tell you what to do.”
“Will we get tired of each other?” Eating the same thing every day, no matter how delicious, would eventually become tiresome.
“No.”
“Maybe after a long time, it won't feel new anymore.”
“You can try,” he said with a smile. “Try spending twenty-four hours a day with me, doing nothing but this one thing, for ten years. Then see whether I'm lying to you.”
She was smitten, staring at him the way a foolish emperor might gaze at a beauty. In her mind, she ran through all the historical tales of beauties who had brought ruin to kingdoms and calamity to their people. She imagined that if Shen Ce liked the sound of silk being torn, she would gladly gather the finest and most expensive silks in the land and tear them for him to hear every day. She would build him palaces and raised terraces, and, just to win a smile from him, send lychees from the farthest reaches of the land, no matter how distant the mountains and rivers...
“Are you thinking about how to keep me?” Shen Ce suddenly asked.
She pressed her lips together and smiled.
He ran a hand over her hair, then wiped his glasses clean again and put them on.
In the mirror, Zhaozhao stood with her back against the sliding door, gazing at him. He gazed back at her through the mirror.
Everything was as it had been. The injuries she had sustained in the car accident before returning home, the scars on her face, and so many subtle details were things he could not ignore... His former self had died at twenty-six, and now he had reached that age once more. He suspected this year would not be an easy one. If he failed to escape this calamity, what worried him most was that she might not be able to bear it. Everything else was of little consequence.
At five o'clock, they arrived in Macau.
Uncle Shen had already sent someone to wait for them in the lobby on the first floor. When the siblings arrived, they were told they needn't go upstairs and should head straight to the study on the first floor.
“No wonder you went out of your way to change clothes,” she whispered.
“Speak as little as possible in a moment. Just listen,” Shen Ce reminded her.
Was this some New Year custom, where the younger generation had to be lectured in the elders' study? Shen Ce's instructions made Zhaozhao uneasy. She followed him into the reception room in the anteroom outside the study. It was empty. The voices were all coming from the adjoining room.
Shen Ce led her into the large reception hall next door. This had been their great-grandfather's room and was kept locked all year round, only opened for important occasions.
When she had attended her wedding banquet, she had only seen the study and the reception room in the anteroom. She hadn't had the chance to see this room.
It was furnished entirely with old red sandalwood furniture, which seemed to weigh down the light and shadows in the room, making them feel heavier. Yellow wintersweet blossoms on several bonsai stands provided the only decoration. The room was full of people, men and women alike, talking and laughing softly. When they saw the two of them arrive, smiles appeared on their faces, and the room fell quiet. Following Shen Ce, Zhaozhao greeted them one by one before finally returning to her eldest uncle.
“This is an important occasion for the eldest branch, so your uncles and aunts have all come,” her elderly eldest uncle said. “Come here.”
Shen Ce walked up to him.
Her eldest uncle took hold of his uninjured arm, then slid his hand down and clasped Shen Ce's hand between both of his. With a soft sigh and a trace of affection and regret, he said, “I hope that with a different father, we can keep you in the Shen family.”
A brief silence followed.
Shen Ce inclined his head slightly. “Thank you, Uncle.”
Zhaozhao felt as though she had been plunged into a fog, while everyone else was already smiling and congratulating her eldest uncle.
She remembered Shen Ce's instructions not to ask too many questions. She sat down with him and accepted the hot tea someone handed her. It was as though, the moment he entered this room, he had become a stranger to her. Aside from drinking tea, he only responded to the elders' expressions of concern, and he rarely looked in her direction.
The elders chatted for more than ten minutes, and from their conversation, Zhaozhao learned something entirely unexpected.
Uncle Shen actually intended to have Shen Ce adopted into her eldest uncle's branch of the family. One reason was to carry on that branch's lineage. The other was to give Shen Ce a different set of parents and change his fate. Her eldest uncle had no grandchildren, so he naturally had no objections. His only concern was that Shen Ce was Uncle Shen's only son, and that this arrangement would be unfair to Uncle Shen.
Uncle Shen's answer was that Shen Baoying's daughter was as good as his own biological daughter, and he didn't mind such distinctions.
That was why all these elders, whom she rarely saw in everyday life, had returned. A formal adoption banquet would be held on the fifth day of the New Year. From that day onward, Shen Ce would be entered into the family genealogy as the second son of her eldest uncle, Shen Hansong, while Shen Hanzhong would be left with only one daughter, Shen Zhaozhao.
This was not merely a ceremony or a change to the family genealogy. It would also determine Shen Ce and Zhaozhao's inheritance rights in the future.
The eldest branch had always managed the family's businesses and family foundation, in other words, the means by which the Shen family accumulated and distributed its wealth.
Her eldest uncle, Shen Hansong, was in charge of the family foundation. His eldest son had spent more than a decade practicing cultivation with his hair unshorn. When her eldest uncle passed away, he would shave his head and formally enter the Buddhist monastic life. He was already halfway removed from the secular world. As a result, there was no one to carry on the work in her eldest uncle's branch. Now that Shen Ce was becoming the second son, it was only natural that he would take over this responsibility. Her eldest uncle was advanced in age, and as soon as Shen Ce was adopted into his branch, he would step back from public affairs and devote himself to managing the family foundation, becoming the Shen family's behind-the-scenes distributor of wealth. His main responsibilities would be overseeing the allocation of assets within the family and managing charitable investments that did not generate profits.
Until today, Zhaozhao had believed that the Shen family had no family foundation. When she had first arrived in Hong Kong, Liang Jinrong and the other young heirs had mentioned that the Shen family was not publicly listed, had no family foundation, and kept its wealth impossible to ascertain... Now she understood. The Shen family simply did not want the public passing judgment on them. They had always preferred to make their own money and conduct their own charitable work, which was why they denied the existence of a family foundation to outsiders.
Shen Hanzhong managed the Shen family's businesses, which would be handed over to his only daughter, Shen Zhaozhao. Of course, Zhaozhao was still young, and Shen Hanzhong was still at the height of his career. He could continue working for at least another twenty years. With his wife, Shen Baoying, by his side, the two of them would have ample time to raise Zhaozhao to take over.
“From now on, you'll be the one who accumulates the wealth, and I'll be the one who gives it away,” he added simply.
...
Shen Ce called for someone to bring him a plate of pine nuts.
He had initially wanted shelled pine nuts, but then thought that nuts tasted best when freshly cracked, so he specifically asked for them to be brought with their shells on.
He cracked them at his leisure while she watched him, her gaze burning into him amid the faint, rhythmic sounds. She had no proof, but her instincts told her that she was the reason all this had happened.
The Shen family had built its fortune through business, and Uncle Shen was in charge of its core operations. All of this had originally belonged to Shen Ce.
For her sake, he was stepping into the background. Even though the two of them had no need to distinguish between what belonged to one and what belonged to the other, he had been yielding and giving from the very beginning, never asking for anything in return. This was how Shen Ce treated Shen Zhaozhao.
She couldn't quite put her feelings into words at that moment. If they had lived in ancient times, there was one phrase that would have suited Shen Ce today perfectly: he was offering up the rivers and mountains with his own hands.
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