Additional Inheritance - Chap 7
Chapter 7
While he was walking out the door, Wen Xiaohui asked, “How do I get to XX Road from here? Is there a subway or bus station nearby?”
Luo Yi said, “I’ll check it out for you when I get home. Let me take you there now.”
“Oh, are you going to take me there on your bicycle? But it’s too far away, you’ll be late for school.”
“It’s okay. It’ll take around 20 minutes, so I won’t be late.”
“Alright, let’s go.” Wen Xiaohui sat on the back. However, this time he was very well-behaved and didn’t grab onto Luo Yi’s waist.
Luo Yi plugged in his headphones and cycled out of the neighbourhood with him.
Wen Xiaohui removed one of Luo Yi’s earphones. “What are you listening to?”
“Have a listen.”
Wen Xiaohui stuffed it in his ear. He heard a light and melodious tune, with a slightly husky female voice singing in a language that he didn’t understand. He placed his forehead against Luo Yi’s back, closed his eyes and hummed along to the music. It felt like he’d returned to the previous year – at the time, he used to simultaneously ride his bicycle and listen to music. His only worries were his endless homework and his insufficient allowance. Like every working person, he had fond memories of his student days even though he hated studying.
Luo Yi delivered him to the ground floor of the studio. Wen Xiaohui hopped off the bicycle and stretched his waist. “Thanks, you should go to class quickly.”
“Should I come and get you tonight? Let’s go out for dinner together.”
“I can’t. I didn’t go home yesterday, so I must go back or my mum will go mental1. Maybe another time?
Luo Yi was a little disappointed. “Okay, then we’ll…”
Suddenly, a red Mini Cooper sped around the corner and braked violently. They were both in shock when it stopped within 20cm from where they were standing.
Wen Xiaohui raised his eyebrows and scowled. He shouted, “Are you blind?! Are you seeking death?”
When the car window was lowered, Luca revealed his face which was delicately covered in make-up and he cast a sideways glance at both of them. “Wow, Adrian. What a great example of low carbon footprint travel! You’re sooo environmentally friendly.” After he’d finished speaking, he clapped sarcastically.
Wen Xiaohui rolled his eyes. “I have a clear conscience supporting low carbon initiatives to protect the environment, unlike some people who sell…” He’d wanted to say ‘sell their asses’, but he reluctantly held back his unpleasant words in the presence of Luo Yi. “I don’t know how you managed to get this car, but at least I don’t have to worry about getting scalded2 when I sit here.”
Luca sneered, “You’re clearly jealous. Why don’t you sell yours if you have the ability?”
Wen Xiaohui squinted, and as quick as lightning, he covered both of Luo Yi’s ears with his hands. Like a possessed man, he bared his two rows of small white teeth to Luca. He whispered, “I would never sell mine as cheaply as you.”
Luca’s expression changed. “I don’t think you’re able to sell yours for a decent price. You’re so desperate, you’re even taking advantage of underage boys.”
Wen Xiaohui cursed, “Fuck you, this is my nephew! If you don’t piss off, you won’t be able to drive home today.”
Luca stuck his middle finger up at him, wound up the car window, and drove away.
Wen Xiaohui relaxed his hand and his chest was heaving.
Luo Yi asked, “Is he your colleague?”
Wen Xiaohui said irritably, “Yeah, he has a foul mouth.”
“Does he have a grudge against you?”
Wen Xiaohui snorted, “Grudge? He’s just jealous of me because I’m better looking, I have more loyal customers, and my company values me more than him. He likes to criticise me for everything, it’s so annoying.”
Luo Yi appeared pensive while staring at Luca’s car. He said, “He’s not local, right?”
Huh?” Wen Xiaohui was at a loss, as he didn’t understand why Luo Yi suddenly asked this. “No, why?”
“It’s nothing. Don’t lower yourself to his level.”
“Hmph! The heavens will punish those with a foul mouth. I definitely wouldn’t lower myself to his level.” Wen Xiaohui looked at his watch. “You should head to school quickly.”
“Okay, see you later.”
“See you later.”
Wen Xiaohui inhaled sharply and walked over to the studio. In reality, being at work every day was like a battle, as he had to deal with his bitchy colleagues, fussy bosses, and demanding customers. He didn’t have much experience when he first started, so he was rigid and didn’t know how to be flexible. He had suffered a lot of setbacks to be able to remain standing.
There weren’t many people on duty for the morning shift. Besides Wen Xiaohui who had just arrived, there were only Luca and two other female colleagues – Xiao Ai and Lu-jie.
Xiao Ai was of a similar age to him and she was a distant relative of one of Juxing’s partners. She was a bit clumsy, but luckily, her appearance and personality were both simple and cute. She was like the mascot of the studio. Lu-jie had worked as an assistant to one of the partners for many years and was the most senior employee.
Xiao Ai bounced over. “Adrian, you’re still in yesterday’s clothes! Tell me, where did you go to fool around last night?”
Wen Xiaohui hooked his arm around her shoulder and said secretively, “Why do you sound like my mum? Come, come, come, let me tell you in secret.”
Xiao Ai blinked her big bright and shiny eyes, ready for gossip.
All of a sudden, Wen Xiaohui shouted in her ear, “My relative’s house!”
Xiao Ai screamed in fright and hopped away like a scared rabbit.
Wen Xiaohui ran away laughing and Xiao Ai chased after him, shaking her fists.
Lu-jie urged, “Stop causing trouble, Xiao Ai and Xiaohui. Bring back the towels that dried overnight.”
“Okay.”
Both of them dashed to the roof-terrace where four clothes lines were propped up and hundreds of towels were hanging on them. They collected the dry towels while chatting.
“Adi, actually I saw you and Luca from upstairs. Who was the boy on the bicycle? He was so handsome and cute.”
“He’s my nephew.”
“Wow. Are all your family members so good looking? Your nephew is simply the perfect example of a first crush. How old is he?”
Wen Xiaohui heckled, “Only 15. What do you want?
“He’s three years younger than me.” Xiao Ai laughed, “Forget it, I’ll wait for him to grow up first.”
“What’s the matter? Did you have a row with your boyfriend again?”
Xiao Ai paused and sighed softly. “I think he might be two-timing me.”
“Do you have proof?”
“No, it’s just intuition.” Xiao Ai shook her head, “Let’s not talk about him, it’s annoying. Oh right, how come you never mentioned that you have a nephew? Aren’t you an only child?”
“Oh, he’s the son of one of my distant relatives that I haven’t kept in touch with. I only found out recently that he’s in Beijing.”
Xiao Ai winked suggestively. “So, you say that you’re only distantly related to him and you’ve never met him before, but you slept at his house last night?”
Wen Xiaohui ruffled his hair. “What are you thinking about?”
“You’re the one who keeps shouting about an 18cm macho man? I thought you couldn’t wait…”
“Hey, this young master has integrity. I’m serious about wanting an 18cm macho man. How could I prey on a child?”
Xiao Ai cupped her hands together and gave him a fist and palm salute. “I’m in awe.”
It was normally quiet in the mornings. After Wen Xiaohui cleared away the towels, he went to practice makeup on the mannequins with Lu-jie.
Before lunch, Raven arrived and called him into the office.
Wen Xiaohui was a bit nervous, since he’d been scolded by Raven yesterday.
Raven glanced at his dejected ‘scapegoat’3 appearance and wanted to laugh. “Did you go home to repent last night?”
“Yes.” Wen Xiaohui secretly disagreed, it was clearly Luca who provoked him first, but he was afraid to say it.
“You don’t think you’re in the wrong, do you?” Raven scrutinised his shiny and smooth fingernail that had just been manicured.
“No.”
“Stop pretending, I can tell what you’re thinking.”
Wen Xiaohui didn’t understand what Raven was up to.
“There are tons of people like Luca in this line of work. Although he’s the first of his kind that you’ve encountered, he won’t be the last, nor the most troublesome. Since you want to continue on this path, then you need to prepare yourself mentally.”
Wen Xiaohui was confused so he said, “Oh.”
“Do you know who recommended Luca?”
“Xiao Yan-jie.”
“Yeah, and I was the one who hired you.” Raven was still looking at his nails indifferently.
It suddenly dawned on Wen Xiaohui, he’d heard rumours before that all three partners of Juxing wanted to force out the other two. Perhaps they had never expected to create the country’s best known styling studio when it was first set up. Nobody was willing to continue sharing this slice of pie4.
Raven smiled and said, “Why are you still standing? Sit down.”
Although Wen Xiaohui was a little ditzy, he was aware that Raven was trying to win him over. He sat down quickly. Perhaps, it would be his time to shine.
Raven said, “In two days time, XX Corporation will be hosting a charity dinner at the Shangri-La5. Many celebrities have been invited, and I’ve also received an invite. I’ll be in charge of makeup for Li Hua that day. Would you like to come and assist me?”
Wen Xiaohui was immediately overjoyed, as Li Hua was an A-list actress in China who had a good relationship with Raven. Normally Raven would bring his own assistant there, but Raven’s words confused him, as he never expected to be chosen.
Raven tapped on the table. “Hey, speak up! Don’t let me do all the talking.”
Wen Xiaohui said estatically, “Thank you, thank you Raven! I’m too excited!”
Raven glanced at him . He said, “If A-Kai wasn’t busy, I wouldn’t take you. You’ll have to live up to your expectations and don’t embarrass6 me.”
“Absolutely not!”
“Go buy yourself some decent clothes.”
“Yes!”
Raven said softly, “Don’t tell Luca about this yet, so he doesn’t provoke you again.”
“Don’t worry. I definitely won’t tell him.”
Raven laughed.
When he got home that evening, Wen Xiaohui cowardly shrunk his neck into his body and crept inside. Feng Yuehua sat on the sofa with her arms crossed, her eyes shooting daggers at him.
Wen Xiaohui said coquettishly, “Mum, you look so beautiful and youthful. It seems that the sheep placenta extract works really well. I’ll ask my friend to bring another two bottles from Hong Kong for you.”
Feng Yuehua pointed to the floor. “Get down on your knees.”
Wen Xiaohui smiled, crawled over on his knees and hugged Feng Yuehua. “Please don’t be angry. Xiao Ai and her boyfriend had a fight. She was so pitiful that I stayed last night to comfort her.”
Feng Yuehua pinched his thigh viciously. “You grow more disobedient, the older you get. If I’d known, I would have thrown you in the bin.”
“I was such a beautiful baby, you wouldn’t be willing to throw me out.”
“Heck, you were so ugly when you were born. You only look like this, because of my superior genes and because I raised you well.”
“Everything that my beautiful mum says is correct.”
Feng Yuehua rolled her eyes at him. “Have you eaten yet?”
“Not yet, let’s go eat.”
At the dinner, Wen Xiaohui chatted for ages about trivial matters and then blurted, “Mum, I have a colleague who lives on XX Road and it’s very close to the studio. Her relative has gone back home, so there’s an empty room…”
Feng Yuehua frowned and said, “Do you want to move out?”
“No. How would I have enough money to move out? My colleague is very timid because she’s a girl. She’s scared of living alone and wants me to stay over every so often. I’ve been so tired. The studio is too far from home and every day I spend three hours commuting. I don’t get home until midnight when I’m on the night shift. I’d like…in future, if I’m on the night shift, I want to stay over at hers.”
Feng Yuhua thought for a while. “Is it a safe area?”
“It’s a nice neighbourhood, it’s very safe.”
“What will you do for food?”
“How can two grown-ups starve?!”
“Alright, I agree that you get back too late. Every time you’re on night shift, I wait until you come home before I can fall asleep.”
Wen Xiaohui felt a little guilty; although he didn’t do anything bad, he still lied to his mum. However, he really wanted to go to Luo Yi’s so he could honour Yaya’s wishes. Most importantly, he could be free from the long commute, which was a priority for him.
Footnotes:
吃人, literally “eat people” as per the raws which refers to extreme anger in this context.
烫, literally to scald i.e. being in contact with a “hot” object. I’ll leave it up to your imagination 😉
小媳妇, literal translation is little daughter-in-law but in this context, it means the person who is always blamed for something.
The original text says that no one wants to share the cake but I’ve localised it to pie.
A chain of luxury hotels – in particular, the one in Beijing is famous for its 3,000 square metres hotel garden known as the “Mini Summer Palace” aka replica of the Qing dynasty Imperial Gardens.
丢脸, not to cause someone to lose face.
Translator note:
After spending the past few weeks typing 18cm repeatedly… I’ve only just realised that 188 doesn’t just refer to the heights of the MLs in the series. It also corresponds to the size of their crown jewels and their “8-pack” (Chinese refer to a six-pack as an eight-pack). On a more serious note, the number 8 in Chinese is lucky because it is a homophone for the word “rich
