Chapter 29 (1/2)
CHAPTER 29
It was December 28, 29, and 30th, which was exactly the end of the yearOther than CGP, the whole city had begun its holiday celebrationAll the streets were announcing “clearances” and “super sales”The store ere brightly lit with colorful decorationsThe people walked leisurely on the streets while wearing pretty clothes
I suddenly realized that it was Christht ere at the airport’s arrival terot about itYes, all the CGP eed, which meant that Christmas was not yet a celebrated holiday in China when they were still youngTheir only as to finish this fierce bidding battle before Chinese New Year so that they could get their fat bonuses and return to the embraces of their kids and wivesAs a result, everyone was crouched over their work in this lonely high-class hotel
I, of course, was no differentI had been translating sketches in ht and slept no eUp to this point, eighty-percent of the descriptions for the designs and sketches had been doneThey were all rolled and piled on top of , yet he was the quickestBut obviously, the last feere drawn by Ji Chuan based on the draftsThey were brothers after all, so their as flawlessEven their writing looked like it ritten by the sa was the theater at the foot of thedistrictIt was one of the landest investn had an open-design with tall glassFrom afar, it looked like the crown from the Statue of Liberty or like a blossomed sunflowerEven an aLi Chuan’s design on the other hand, was a closed-design built with steelIt was siiant pebble with natural waterlass shaded in light grey that looked like athe clouds in the skyThe other s the theater also had a “snIn the aerial view sketch, they looked like pebbles scattered on the beach, as well as planets in the galaxyThey were natural yet ant yet vastThey blended with theeach otherIt des and the environh it was not as attractive as Director Jiang’s design, it was intriguing in its oay due to its return to simplicity
However, sonThey nicknaners talking during dinner, co that Li Chuan was never a POMO, so why did he con this time?They also said that the investor and C City’swere stubborn and old fashi+oned, and were not easy to approachTherefore, they were skeptical about the design being acceptedFurtherest coner Tian Xiao Gang, as a well-known expert in classic garden designsHe was actually Jiang Hao Tian’s senior (in the field)He debuted early, popular, and knew Jiang Hao Tian’s style wellOn the bidding for Xiamen last time, he lost to CGP by one voteTherefore, he was detere amount of money to buy confidential information
The tender letter required all doculishI did not finish all ofof the 31stI then spent the wholeit to Director Jiang for revieho then handed it off for photocopying
I could finally rest after co my workI went to the restaurant and drank a bowl of fried fish soupThe thin slices of fish, ulp My face immediately started to sweatIt re fish and liked drinking soupHe liked the Cantonese style congee with fish a lot tooI wondered if he had tried fried fish soup beforeI went to the kitchen and asked the chef how to make it, but it turned out that it was very difficult toa lot of it at onceWhatever, I jotted down the recipe and planned to try it out when I got back to Beijing and would make it my best dish
Li Chuan was unfortunately still in the hospitalI heard that he was in a “VIP ward” because Ji Chuan was afraid that his wound would not stop bleeding and was afraid that he would get infected, so he forced Li Chuan to stay in the hospital for better “observation”The chamber had no cell phone reception, but as availableI knew that Li Chuan was very busy likeonly a few hours a day, so I only sent hi betterBut he never answered the questionInstead, he replied back with three attachments, which were three sketchesThis was hoe co was all business and nothing privateRegardless, e dump for me; I couldn’t help but feel blissful, what more could I co Qing Hui suddenly calleda cocktail party tonight, you need to attendCan you drink a little?”
“Yes”Besides being a sI had even tried Marijuana before, but I was afraid of going to jail so I didn’t try other drugsI could be considered as having tried all five poisons nonethelessLi Chuan had found out only one of the, whoring, gareat alcohol toleranceTherefore, as her replacement, how could I be worse than her?
“No problem”
“Mayor Xie will be there, he’s a very important manBut he has a heavy Wenzhou accent, so I can’t understand hi will definitely not be able to understand him, so you need to be careful when you translate for him”
My face immediately became paleI couldn’t understand the Wenzhou dialect either It wasn’t just me who didn’t understand the dialect, I heard that people from other cities who moved here still couldn’t understand it after three years
“He graduated fro Hua University, how heavy do you think it is?”Zhang Qing Hui said, “Plus, he is in the same fieldHe majored in architecture, so he has already heard of Mr wang”
“6 o’clockThe investors didn’t notify us until this o: Director Jiang, Chief wang, you andand I will pick up Mr wang from the hospitalWe’ll meet up at the entrance”
For the occasion, I tied my hair into a bun and secured it with a purple wooden hairpinI wore a white Cheongsam decorated with blue flowers; the shape of my body was okay besides my chest, but it was an easy fixAll I had to do ear a bra with paddingThe Cheongsahtly, which emphasized my small buildI wanted to dress myself like classic beauty Lin Dai Yu, so that those ould forcewith “Wenzhou dialect encyclopedia” while I was in Director Jiang’s car; “Liao Liao Zhi Zhi (了了滯滯)” was “clean and tidy”; “Yun Dan Feng Qing (light clouds and wind)” meant “frivolous”; “Wu Yan San Si (雲淡風輕 not this nor that)” was “not upright”…etcetera, etceteraWhen we arrived at the hotel entrance, I saw that CGP’s “Tou Li Zhu Er (head of pearl, Wenzhou dialect: Boss)” class for us there
Li Chuan had a habit of wearing an all black suit and holding a red cane at formal eventsHis black shi+rt, tie with black and white stripes, along with his sli chin made him extremely stylishActually, Li Chuan’s eyes were the h he looked, his gaze was always pure and focused His deep eyes showed sincerity and affection as if devoted to a religion
A in the bid this tiest andthe handsome but expressionless, non-talkative and reserved bachelorTherefore, when I met up with Li Chuan at the entrance, he was already in his “public mode”His eyebroitched when he saw inal state
“No”
“Much better”
At the reception, Li Chuan helped me take off my coat in front of everybodyHe handed my and his overcoat to the attendantIt made me a little uncomfortable as I felt that people had mistaken me for Li Chuan’s wifeAs a result, every time Li Chuan shook hands with someone, I would proactively introduce ’s translator”After all, people who attended the party were mostly from the same industry, so everyone knew each otherHence, ’s Chinese is so fluent, does he still need a translator?”
Of course, some had also mistakenmy handLi Chuan would immediately clarify, “This is Miss Xie, reeted others until we reached the wine tableThere was a square-faced ners fawning over hi Hao Tian suddenly appeared out of nowhere and whispered into Li Chuan’s ear, “That is C City’s Mayor Xie He Yang”
Xie He Yang’s nickname was “sobx” because his face was squared and his complexion was darkObviously no one would dare to call hilass of water and drank it slowlyOnce so, Li Chuan finally took !”Xie He Yang greeted war heard about you and now I’ve finally met you”He spoke in Mandarin, but his speech did indeed contain a thick accentLi Chuan smiled hesitantly and I ilish for hin architect who doesn’t know muchI admire the intricacies of the Chinese culture verya little surprisedI couldn’t believe that such refined words came from Li Chuan who knew only 950 Chinese characters
Xie He Yang s, the king of architecture, Doctor wang Yu Hang, was invited to speak at National Tsing Hua UniversityI was part of his entourage despite being poorly qualifiedI heard that he was also a Chinese from Switzerland, do you happen to know hi, also ca quite wellChu Ning was very fluent in ChineseHe was very quaint and was also a well-known designer”
“When did your farated to overseas?”
“Your fa loyalists, could they?”Asuddenly interrupted [Elderly Qing Loyalists: elderly during the Republic of China ere loyal to the Qing dynasty and wanted to preserve the old syste to our fa Clan, whom are pure blooded descendants of the central plains”
“Mr Tian, long time no see”
“How could that be?My co key tis”Li Chuan paused and then said, “Mayor Xie, Mr Tian is an experienced designer froeAlthough CGP is fro, Mayor Xie won’t show any favoritished and waved his hand, “Not at all, not at allCGP is a cothsC City’s redevelopment plan in Wenzhou will become the standard for othersWe very much welcoRest assured, the bidding is absolutely fair”
The three of theroup of people started to gather around Xie He Yang againMy throat was dry frorabbed a drink from the wine tableLi Chuan followedOf course I can’t be considered pure blooded,” Li Chuan raised his eyebrows, “For exarand relievedNo wonder Li Chuan looked Chinese, yet his facial features were very distinct at the sa does definitely not have good intentionsI’reeovernment here is quite corrupted”
He looked at me doubtfully, “What is ‘Ji Wei’ (Discipline Inspection)?What is ‘Da Ji Li Du’ (fight strongly), what is ‘Man Men Cao Zhan’ (execute the whole family) and…What is‘Tian Zai Ren Huo’ (natural andthe entourage, there was ‘Tian Zai Ren Huo’?I didn’t understand that”
“I didn’t understand your translation either”
“No, no…it’s because you’re wearing such a beautiful Cheongsa to you”
“OkayPlease write down these four words for hedNo wonder Li Chuan needed a translatorI thought it was unnecessary, but it looked like he really couldn’t be without one
We grabbed a glass of red wine each and stood beside the wine table
“Xiao Qiu, as your thesis?Was it on DH Lawrence?”
“I’ve always been interested in the British literature”
“I know James Joyce, but who is ‘Xi Su’?”
It was a French nameIt must have been my pronunciation because he had clearly heard of Cixous, “Cixous is FrenchAren’t you froram?”
He nodded and said, “So you wrote your thesis on French feminism?”
“I’m not surprisedLook, you’re a woinWe are coled as I found what he said was ah interest in literatureHe said he liked reading novels froh-modernI couldn’t help but asked, “Have you read Cixous’s works before?”
“My thesis was precisely based on that article”
“How aot provoked
“Tell me then, what do I need to do to be liberated?”
“No”
“I…I didn’t write a lot of them,” I murmured without confidence
“Three hundred and forty two emailsThat’s not considered a lot?The shortest one had thirty characters, and the longest one had twelve thousand charactersIf you co ro fe these emailsIf I were Cixous I would be embarrassed to hear what you did”He said each and every word seriously while looking intowas oddLi Chuan had always been gentle towards me and paid attention to what he said and where he said itI didn’t understand why he chose to huht…I used a dictionary”
“What is it?”
“A love saint”
I rendered hied the subject, “Let’s end our discussion for nowI think that that old lady (老太太 respectful way of saying old lady) needs my help”He turned and walked away as he spokeHe helped the old lady as trying to grab a glass of coke, “Hi Madalass is very heavyPlease put it down and I’ll pour the pop for you”
The old lady was about eighty years oldShe had thin hair and earing a hand suitShe looked very tidy and wealthyLi Chuan poured her a glass of coke and asked if she needed anything elseThe old lady said, “Young et that piece of cake?”
On the nearby tall table, there was a two-layer cakeNo one ate it because ht it was for dessertLi Chuan reached out his arm, held the knife in his hand, and cut the cake without hesitationHe placed the piece on a plate and handed it to the old ladyHe grinned and asked her, “Do you want any fruits?There are waterrapes”
“Give rapes”The old lady looked at him affectionately