Reply to Keats - Chap 3
Chen Wan looks like her, beautiful, but her temperament is completely different, gentle and reserved.
Chen Wan walked over to help her put out the cigarette and said, “How about moving out? If you don’t want to live with me, I’ll find you another one. A duplex or a villa will do.”
“As for him… I’ll find a way.”
This was not the first time Chen Wan had proposed this to her. Song Qingmiao became emotional, with a reproachful and puzzled look in her eyes: “Why should I leave? If I don’t leave, I’ll just die here without getting our things.”
Chen Wan was silent for a moment, then calmly told her: “Even if you die, he won’t leave it to you.”
“Then we can get it ourselves,” Song Qingmiao pulled Chen Wan’s hand, “Baby, you are the only one I have, you have to do better.”
Chen Wan opened his mouth, looked at the “girl” who had never grown up, and said nothing.
Song Qingmiao couldn’t swallow that breath. She had been so glorious before. The millennium was her heyday. She was glamorous, popular and famous.
At that time, the entire city was filled with beautiful women with strong facial features. Song Qingmiao was a lotus petal in the center of a Jiangnan lake. Men in the world of fame and fortune flocked to her like wolves smelling honey.
But she is like a jewel mounted on a man’s cuff, a symbol of fame, fortune and power. She can be played with but not placed in the living room of the house.
You can pass it on, but you can’t take it over.
Men pursued her, but looked down on her.
The game of passing the flower while beating the drum stopped with Chen Bingxin, and no matter how beautiful a woman was, she became a joke.
Chen Wan was also an unrecognized joke. After three paternity tests, she was brought back to the Chen residence from the tenement building on the outer third ring road amid rumors all over the city.
Chen Wan has been keeping a low profile and working hard for so long just to one day be able to completely leave this prison purgatory and get a glimpse into that person’s world in broad daylight.
Freedom and tranquility are precious luxuries, and Chen Wan has always dreamed of them since he was a child.
But Song Qingmiao wanted more: money, fame, fortune, and the glory of returning to her era at the millennium.
Chen Wan knew he couldn’t do it, but he also couldn’t really bear to leave Song Qingmiao behind to demand his freedom.
In the winter when he was eleven years old, he was in a mental hospital with a high fever and was unconscious and on the verge of death. It was Song Qingmiao who rushed in with a pair of scissors and pulled him out.
Does Song Qingmiao love him?
Not very much love, but a little bit.
It’s not much, but it is the only love Chen Wan has in this world, so it is very precious and he still wants to cherish it.
Chen Wan was silent for a while, then asked, “How much money do you want? I can earn it.”
Song Qingmiao spoke softly but with contempt: “How much can you earn?” She suddenly approached Chen Wan mysteriously and said, “Baby, Xie Jiajian is asking me out recently.”
Chen Wan paused, his forehead throbbing, and said seriously: “Don’t go!”
Song Qingmiao was quite proud of herself for proving that she was still young. Chen Wan frowned and said, “Don’t go. He has a family and he is not really pursuing you.”
Seeing that she didn’t take it seriously, Chen Wan said earnestly: “The board of directors of Rongxin has been replaced recently. He just wants to trap you and increase his shareholding.” Xie Jiajian is a director of Rongxin and worked his way up from Chen Bingxin decades ago.
Song Qingmiao has been beautiful but stupid since she was young. Beauty without a brain to match is often a disaster. She scolded: “What do you mean by insincere? I am not sincere either.”
“I’m just going to have a meal with him and see if he has any way to help you get into Rongxin.”
“That’s even more unnecessary,” Chen Wan said firmly, “I’m not going to join Rong Xin. I have my own things to do.”
Song Qingmiao was a little angry: “What’s wrong with you? You’ve been doing nothing all day and just muddling through. Liao Zhihe held a party for the promotion of general manager two days ago, and you haven’t even entered the branch office after graduating for several years. Mom is so worried about you. She can’t sleep well at night because she misses you.”
Liao Zhihe is the nephew of Liao Liu from the second wife. Before Rong Xin, Chen Bingxin had the final say. Later, he underwent two heart bypass operations and his power fell into the hands of others. The power was mainly divided between Cao Zhi from the first wife and Sui Yu from the third wife.
Liao Liu from the second wife tried to curry favor with Cao Zhi from the first wife to get a share of the pie. Several other wives couldn’t stand the fact that Song Qingmiao was young and beautiful but had an illegitimate background, so they joined forces to suppress her.
The young masters and young ladies of the family and the nephews and nieces of illegitimate families fought fiercely for power in Rongxin, and Chen Wan always stayed out of it.
But he didn’t dare tell Song Qingmiao the details, otherwise those assets would soon be squandered by her in the casino or at the poker table.
Chen Wan helped her tidy up the messy jewelry box, cleaned out the cigarette butts in the ashtray, and opened the window to ventilate.
“You don’t have to worry about me. The most important thing is to live your own life well—”
Someone knocked on the door: “Fifth Madam, the master wants us to go downstairs for dinner.”
Song Qingmiao and Chen Wan looked at each other and fell silent. Chen Wan said in a low voice, “Okay.”
When the two of them went downstairs, everyone had already started their appetizers.
Chen Wan sat in the inconspicuous last seat. When she saw the servants handing ice rice noodles and lotus root and old duck soup to the table, she remembered that today was the Ghost Festival.
It is also called Ghost Festival. People in Hai City like to make soup the most. Making duck soup is a homonym of “压”, which means “suppress ghosts on Ghost Festival”.
Here, this traditional festival, which is not well-known nationwide, is taken more seriously than the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Those who are in business tend to believe in Feng Shui.
The eight-faced gods and Mazu goddess are enshrined on the wall, and incense is burned continuously. The willow wood cabinets, the deep and heavy flower carpets, and the green vines climbing to the windows make the restaurant seem gloomy and depressing, which makes people lose their appetite.
People from several rooms gathered around a round table to watch “The Last Supper”. The tone of the painting was gloomy, and the lightning and thunder at the end of the typhoon illuminated the details of the expressions on everyone’s faces.
Everyone had their own thoughts, but they were all chatting and laughing. All they talked about was the recent politics, economy, stocks and horse racing in Hai City. They complimented each other and secretly compared themselves with each other.
Almost all the young people came back from studying abroad and directly entered Rongxin. At that time, Chen Wan got a better offer than many others, but he was unable to go abroad, so he stayed in Haishi to study at the University of Science and Technology.
Later, he did not go to graduate school. Chen Wan did not have that much time. He needed to get out of the ivory tower and into the world of fame and fortune as quickly as possible.
Peers talked about several projects under Rongxin in front of Chen Bingxin, and each of them was showing off their talents. The second and third wives were proud of them. Song Qingmiao looked unhappy, turned her bracelet and drank bird’s nest.
Chen Wan ate the salad in front of her calmly and peacefully.
He was not interested in Chen’s cakes and was even afraid of the fishy smell.
The current economy is sluggish, Haishi’s urban construction territory is shrinking, and the land allocation policy is not as relaxed as before. The real estate industry, which was in full swing in the past few years, is on the verge of saturation. Rongxin has always relied on traditional industries as its profit pillar, using land expansion to quench thirst with poison. Its family-style management is outdated, and it has never thought about the transformation of its industrial structure. It is fortunate that those projects did not fail.
After graduating from HKUST, Chen Wan set his sights on energy technology, a field that few people had yet ventured into. The economic situation was changing rapidly, and the future would definitely be a resource war.
As it turned out, his bet was right.
International students who once held diplomas from top universities are now being laid off by investment banks and real estate companies, while Chen Wan, who stayed at HKUST, founded Kexiang Technology, which now has a considerable market value.
Although Kexiang Temple is small, it is very profitable. Chen Wan is a silent partner. His senior partner said that he was pretending to be a pig and eating the tiger, making a fortune in silence.
Chen Wan smiled and said, “Isn’t it good to give you money?”
Money is not the most important thing. What is important is that he really opened a crack in that person’s world.
Even though it is not big, it is the ladder to heaven that he built brick by brick from scratch.
Chen Wan buried his head in drinking the soup. Song Qingmiao was dissatisfied with his lack of presence and winked at him, but Chen Wan continued to eat.
“…” Song Qingmiao felt that even the bird’s nest made her throat clogged.
Someone mentioned Zhao Shengge. His return to the country was a big event that caused a sensation in the city, so Chen Wan slowed down his action of drinking the soup.
Chen Yu, the eldest son of the first wife, said that Rong Xin had never received any invitation to the welcoming banquets held for him by the Zhao family or by Zhao Shengge’s friends and partners, and asked his father Chen Bingxin whether he should ask someone to act as a go-between.
Chen Bingxin didn’t look very happy. He was at least a well-known veteran in Hai City.
He was several generations older than the other party, but he didn’t dare to say that it was Zhao Shengge’s fault. He could only vent his anger on his eldest son: “Do I need to teach you these things?”
Chen Yu quickly agreed, feeling aggrieved. Does Zhao Shengge allow them to move around whenever they want?
There were more than ten events in total, big and small, and Zhao Shengge showed up less than one-tenth of the time.
Chen Jin from the second house was used to guessing the old man’s thoughts. He laughed strangely and said, “The prince has been dealing with US dollars for several years. I don’t think he cares about this small piece of land in Shanghai anymore.” Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been more arrogant than before.
Chen Bingxin pretended to knock his cane and warned: “What nonsense!”
Chen Jin was not afraid and kept quiet. The second wife smiled and gave her son half a bowl of soup.
The second wife’s brother and Chen Jin’s uncle, Liao Quan, has always been the best at smoothing things over. He said with a smile, “No matter who he deals with, no matter how powerful he is, he will have to settle down in Hai City. I heard some rumors from Minglong. I think not only Rong Xin should seize the opportunity, but the ladies should also pay attention. If they really win the prize, it will be more than just a matter of going out for a walk.”
Chen Bingxin’s expression relaxed a little, probably because he felt that with so many daughters in his family, all of them beautiful, there must be at least one daughter without hope.
The eldest uncle couldn’t bear to see Liao Quan get such a good deal, and said, “Mr. Liao, it’s too early for you to say this. There’s still the Xu family ahead.”
Miss Xu who is rumored to be engaged to Zhao Shengge.
Chen Bingxin didn’t want to listen to the two of them, but he also wanted to protect the little hope he had given himself, so he said to his uncle, “Xingyong, there is no such thing as only one man.”
No one at the table thought this statement was unusual.
Chen Wan put down the spoon, and the long handle hit the porcelain bowl with a “ding” sound. He wiped his lips with a napkin.
The half bowl of old duck soup I just drank gave me some sour regurgitation, and even taking several sips of tea was difficult for me to endure. But I couldn’t leave the table, otherwise the verbal sparring of this group of bored people would turn to Song Qingmiao.
Everyone in this house knows that using Song Qingmiao to control Chen Wan is something that everyone enjoys doing.
After hearing what Chen Bingxin said, everyone at the table, male and female, old and young, felt very motivated, and they laughed together again and started eating and drinking happily.
