Reply to Keats - Chap 4
Chen Wan couldn’t eat. His phone vibrated in his pocket, but he ignored it. He lowered his eyes to glance at his watch, and was criticized by his wife Cao Zhi: “Is the food not to your liking? Why has Wan lost so much weight?”
Everyone looked over, Chen Wan wiped his hands with a napkin and said, “No, it’s hot and I can’t eat too much.”
Cao Zhi’s nephew Cao Zhi seemed to be joking unintentionally: “Ah Wan is used to eating at Zhong Ding Banquet, how can she care about these? The other day, a friend even praised Ah Wan for appearing in Central the day before yesterday. She looked so stylish.”
Everyone had a subtle look on their face. The welcoming banquet for Zhao Shengge was held the day before in Central.
Chen Bingxin interrogated Chen Wan: “What are you doing in Central?”
Chen Wan wiped his hands calmly and lied calmly: “Go help Zhuo Zhixuan park the car.”
Chen Bingxin’s turbid gaze rested on him. Chen Wan turned his head and looked back calmly.
Chen Bingxin had no choice but to believe it. Everyone knew that when Chen Wan was a child, he happened to save a classmate of noble status while swimming.
Second uncle Liao Quan said with a smile: “Ah Wan, you have to hold on to the rope tightly. You can’t just climb up by yourself. Only if Chen Jiahao is good can you stand more steadily. Isn’t that right?”
Chen Wan didn’t say anything, Chen Bingxin sneered first: “What can he expect? People just use him as an errand boy, how can they really give him face?”
This was said in front of everyone, and everyone laughed. Song Qingmiao was angry but dared not say anything, her face turned red with anger, but Chen Wan did not feel embarrassed.
Although the words sound harsh, theoretically, Chen Bingxin was not wrong. Chen Wan has always been very self-aware. He has never been too optimistic about whether that circle has truly accepted him. After all, his family background, class status and position are all there, and there is a huge gap between them.
But no matter what, Chen Wan felt that this was much better than here. Regardless of whether the young masters treated him as a friend or not, at least they treated him as a human being.
Chen Wan nodded and said calmly, “It’s like this. I’m just a clerk and I don’t have much say.”
Not to mention that he would not do anything for the Chen family, even his own business would never take advantage of the connections and conveniences of that circle.
This is a strict line of defense.
Chen Wan is an impure person from inside to outside, from head to toe, from eyes to smile, but only this little bit of his intention is still pure.
He must do his best to maintain this purity.
Everyone wanted to see Chen Wan make a fool of herself, but she looked indifferent and unconcerned, so the topic changed to the marriage of the eldest daughter of the third room.
The Chen family had strict rules and many red tapes. After dinner, Chen Bingxin clasped his hands together, recited a prayer, and led everyone to burn incense to the statues of Allah and Mazu.
Chen Wan has wondered more than once whether this kind of half-Chinese, half-Western, formalistic belief would really not anger both the Eastern and Western gods.
Chen Wan, who watched Chen Bingxin kneeling and kowtowing coldly, felt for a moment that he was living in a certain year at the end of the Qing Dynasty.
Like in previous years, Chen Bingxin invited several Feng Shui masters to exorcise ghosts and offer sacrifices to Buddha, and spent a large sum of money on talismans, in an attempt to revive Rongxin, a building that had been rotten from the root.
The master felt around the corners and door beams and after he got a good fortune, everyone put their minds at ease and started playing mahjong. Customers came one after another, and the cards fell down with a clatter. The sound of “Hu” disturbed the peace of Guanyin and Buddha.
The mahogany wall clock only pointed to eight o’clock, and there was still a long time before we could leave.
Chen Wan went to the side hall to get some fresh air. He never made work calls in the old house. He stood by the window watching the rain out of boredom.
The No. 8 typhoon signal was hoisted fiercely and rapidly, but the wind did not move away quickly and neatly, and it kept dragging its tail. The night rain hit the broad palm leaves, making a rustling sound, and the petals of the ice-leaved begonias fell all over the courtyard.
It was not a weekend, but it was a typhoon holiday, so there were many children around, some from the Chen family’s side branches, and some brought by guests, playing and playing in the front hall.
Chen Wan looked around boredly for a while, then walked keenly to a girl with pigtails who was leaning against the wall in a strange and stiff posture.
Chen Wan scared away the boys who were circling around her like flies, squatted down and asked, “What are you doing?”
The girl should be mixed-race, with slightly curly hair and light-colored pupils. She looked at Chen Wan warily, and Chen Wan gave her a very faint smile.
Almost no one can resist Chen Wan’s smile, no matter if she is seventeen or seventeen years old. The girl said in English: “I’m fine.”
Chen Wan saw that there were no obvious injuries on her body, so he stood next to her and stood against the wall like her.
Perhaps this act of killing time won her trust inexplicably. After a while, the girl turned her head and stretched out her hand seriously: “Hello, Judy.”
Chen Wan also extended her hand and shook it solemnly: “Hello, Chen Wan.” Afraid that she didn’t understand Chinese, Chen Wan added: “Or, Keats.”
The girl was quite interested in his Chinese name, but couldn’t pronounce it fluently: “Chen, Wan? Which Wan?”
“The meaning of retaining.”
Judy blinked; her Chinese wasn’t good enough to understand the word.
Chen Wan felt in his pocket, took out a very simple business card, pointed to the words on it, and Judy looked at it carefully for a while and accepted it.
The two stood side by side and watched the night rain in silence for a while. Chen Wan felt thirsty, so he took a mangosteen from the altar and asked, “Judy, do you want to eat it?”
Judy hesitated for a moment and said, “I’m sorry, Chen Wan, I’m not in a good mood to eat.”
Chen Wan found her seriousness amusing.
“why？”
Judy said awkwardly: “My skirt is broken, it’s not convenient for me to leave this wall.”
Chen Wan then noticed that the hem of her skirt had been damaged by scissors. He stopped laughing and asked in a low voice, “Did they do it?”
The boy was seven or eight years old, an age that even dogs disliked.
Judy agreed.
Chen Wan took off the shirt he was wearing and handed it to her, asking her to tie it around her waist: “Block it first.”
Judy said thank you, and Chen Wan asked, “Do you need to tell your mother?”
Judy’s mother is Madame Du Rui, who is playing cards in the living room.
This widow of the former richest man in Hai City, a socialite who owned half of Shallow Bay, had many lovers. The identity of Judy’s father was also one of the mysteries that everyone in Hai City talked about.
Madame Du Rui was obsessed with a life of luxury and didn’t care much about Judy, so Judy said no, and Madame Du Rui would only scold her for losing her ladylike manners.
Chen Wan respected her opinion. His shirt was very long and Judy could wear it as a skirt and look very fashionable.
Chen Wan broke the mangosteen and gave half to her. Judy ate it very reservedly.
It is the peak season for mangosteen now, and Vietnam is airlifting them in that day. Each one is round and plump, with sweet white flesh, like a few petals filled with snow, and the sweet juice overflows between the teeth.
After eating, Chen Wan looked at the fruit basket and asked, “How about another one, pineapple or cantaloupe?”
Judy put on his coat and moved more freely. She leaned forward and said, “Cantaloupes.”
Chen Wan took the knife to cut, but suddenly a hand patted his shoulder from behind. Chen Wan reacted very quickly and dodged, pointing the knife at the person. The person quickly moved his hand away and raised it in a surrender gesture, smiling with his gums showing: “Ah Wan, it’s me.”
Chen Wan took a half step forward to block Judy. Without putting down the knife, he waved it in the air a few times and said, “So what if it’s you? Back off.” He didn’t even have to look back. He only needed to smell the rotten smell to know which stinky fly it was.
Liao Quan was still smiling, pointing at the knife in his hand: “Put it down first, I just haven’t seen you for a long time, I want to chat with you.”
Chen Wan ignored him, so Liao Quan said, “A harmonious family brings prosperity. If your brother-in-law sees you, he will scold you again.”
“It doesn’t matter if you see it.” The light from the stairs shone on Chen Wan’s face. When he wasn’t smiling, his temperament was actually a bit cold. Chen Wan tilted his head and said slowly but clearly, “Do you think you can send me to Xiaolan Mountain again?”
Liao Quan’s smile faded a little and he licked his teeth.
Xiaolan Mountain is the insane asylum of Hai City, where all the patients with special identities are imprisoned, such as officials’ mistresses and illegitimate children, special political prisoners, and mentally ill stars.
Chen Wan spent three years there from the age of nine.
He extended the tip of the knife an inch forward, pointed it directly at the other person’s forehead, nodded, and said calmly: “You can’t do it, but I can cut your finger again.”
The tip of the knife was too close, and Liao Quan’s greedy and turbid eyes finally shrank a little.
The year Chen Wan was brought back from the outer ring tenement building, he was nine years old and was locked in the room by Liao Quan during his nap.
Liao Quan touched the child’s feet with his hands and took off his white socks, but Chen Wan was extremely alert and stepped on his wrist almost immediately.
Liao Quan screamed in pain, slapped Chen Wan and grabbed his hair. Chen Wan was young, ruthless and taciturn, so without saying a word he took the scissors on the desk and cut his fingers.
He was never a powerless young master. He was a wild child who hung out in the outer ring tenement buildings without any discipline. He was a vicious dog who grew up in a place where the strong preyed on the weak. He had never been domesticated and his body was covered with sharp thorns. Liao Quan’s hands were covered with blood.
When the Filipino maid heard the heart-wrenching screams in the corridor, Chen Wan almost poked through the man’s palm and wanted to stab his eyes and face.
This incident caused a huge uproar. The doctor came to the house to examine the injury and said that Liao Quan’s right hand might be disabled. The second wife Liao Liu kicked Chen Wan in public and slapped Song Qingmiao loudly, but she was still not satisfied. She cried, made a fuss, and even threatened to hang herself, demanding that Chen Bingxin give her brother justice. Liao Quan was the only child in the Liao family.
Everyone in the room looked at Chen Wan as if he was a crazy and evil lunatic. How could an ordinary child be so cruel and brutal as to cause death?
Chen Bingxin was furious. He thought Chen Wan was like Nezha, who killed his father to protect his mother, was lawless and undisciplined, an ungrateful person who could never be tamed. He ordered his family doctor to force him to take a shot of Valium, issued a medical certificate diagnosing him with a mental illness, and took him to Xiaolan Mountain.
Chen Wan put away the knife, without even looking at Liao Quan, and continued to cut the melon for Judy: “You know me, a barefoot person is not afraid of a person wearing shoes, I can do what I say.”
Liao Quan couldn’t get the upper hand over him before, and he couldn’t do it now. Liao Quan looked at his handsome and elegant profile unwillingly. Chen Wan’s bewitching softness and strength were very attractive, but he was also afraid that Chen Wan would go crazy. After all, it seemed that the other party was really planning to stick the knife into his eyes just now.
It’s not the time yet. Liao Quan looked at Judy, took two steps back and left.
Chen Wan handed Judy a piece of cantaloupe: “Are you scared?”
Judy’s mouth was glistening with food and she asked, “What?”
“Are you scared?” The way he gestured with the knife just now looked like he was going to kill someone, and he didn’t know if it would leave a psychological trauma on the child, so he smiled at her as he handed her the fruit and used a tissue to wipe the juice off her hands.
“No,” Judy looked up at him. It should be because Madame Du Rui did not avoid her when she was flirting with her lover. The little girl was a little precocious and said in English, “Chen Wan, you are a gentle gentleman.”
“…” Pointing a knife at someone, a gentle gentleman?
Judy looked around the fruit basket and said sincerely, “Like the mangosteen, Keats.”
Mangosteen is firm and solid on the outside, yet white and soft on the inside.
“…” Chen Wan didn’t quite understand the wonderful imagination and innocence of children. She choked for a moment and didn’t dare to give her a knife. She stuffed a few fruit forks into her pocket for self-defense and reminded her: “Next time you see this person, go to a place where there are more adults.”
Judy trusted him and nodded obediently.
