Chapter 351 - That Was His Father (2/2)

There were four cars stopped in the front yard of the siheyuan. Apart from the Mercedes, which Qin Sheng rode in, there were a Toyota Alphard, an Audi A8L, and a Bentley Mulsanne. The Audi A8L belonged to the guest in the study.

Qin Ran was dissatisfied with Qin Changan. His son had been separated from him for all those years, and they had suffered so much to gather together. Though he had met Qin Sheng before, it was not a formal meeting. She thought that Qin Changan should have shown enough respect and love to Qin Sheng by refusing all those works and invitations. Qin Ran almost wanted to take Qin Sheng away, rather than stay here and bear this ignorance.

Qin Ran herself didn’t care about this. She just looked at this siheyuan. It was quite large. Even the front yard was big enough to park five or six cars in. The gate at the front yard was also luxurious with antique, finely carved wooden decoration. The ground of the front yard was covered with blue flagstones, with flowers and plants around, as well as a pair of Chinese scholar trees. On the wall opposite the front gate, a Chinese calligraphy work was made, written “大道无为”, which meant doing things according to the principle of nature, rather than someone’s personal view. This was written in the cursive script style, obviously by a master, with great energy contained in the strokes.

Qin Sheng followed Qin Ran and Gongsun, going through an arched door and entering a new world. The space inside was extremely large, unlike common siheyuans. The other three sides of the building were surrounded by three two-floored, well-decorated buildings, all in post and panel structure. The central part of the yard was separated into different areas according to their various functions. There was also a kiosk with a stone table and chairs inside.

Qin Sheng was astonished by it all. He had seen these top-leveled siheyuans on the Internet before. The price of these buildings was at least a hundred million yuan. Even upstarts could never afford these.

Besides this, there were several bodyguards in black coats and servants going to and fro. They stopped and lowered their heads when coming across Gongsun and Qin Ran. Qin Ran always greeted them politely. She got along well with the people who had worked in the Qin Family for years.

Qin Sheng just observed everybody, saying nothing, but he was actually astonished by everything. Since he entered through the gate, everything and everybody in this siheyuan reminded him that his father was a big shot.

Zhuang Zhou and Nan Gong didn’t follow, but the young man wearing gold-rimmed glasses did. He followed Qin Sheng and the others, keeping a proper distance of three meters.

Nan Gong and Zhuang Zhou had left. Before leaving, Nan Gong sighed and said, “We’ve finally finished our task. We can go home and take a good rest now.”

“I’m done, but not you,” Zhuang Zhou said, thinking about something.

Nan Gong was surprised and didn’t understand him. She stared at Zhuang Zhou and asked, “Uncle Zhuang, what do you mean by saying that?”

Zhuang Zhou smiled and said nothing. Anyway, it was his last time following Qin Sheng.

Qin Sheng and the others entered the main building and reached the hall. Two men in Chinese tunic suits were standing beside the stairs. Obviously, they were not the bodyguards here. They gazed at Qin Sheng with curiosity until Qin Ran’s complexion became cloudy.

After entering the main building, Qin Sheng was like a country bumpkin going to the city for the first time. The decoration in the main building was extremely delicate and obeyed the principle of feng shui, an ancient Chinese philosophy. Common people only paid attention to that valuable furniture, antique articles, and masterpiece pictures hung on the wall. But Qin Sheng discovered all the details of feng shui at his first sight, for he had been taught a lot about it by his grandfather.

He realized the secret of these designs soon. Now that he had learned a lot from his grandfather, his father must have learned more from his grandfather. Furthermore, his father was at such a high position that he could invite a feng shui master to do the decoration for him.

As for the antique furniture, articles, and artworks, Qin Sheng was not amazed that much since he had seen Jiang Xianbang’s collection in his mansion before, which was even more luxurious than the things here. Apart from a few of them, like the artwork of Zhao Wuji and Zhang Daqian and an ancient cooking vessel made of bronze, Qin Sheng didn’t appreciate it at all.

Qin Ran led Qin Sheng to take their seats on the sofa in the side hall. She commented on Qin Changan straightly, “This is really a fuddy-duddy style. This is exactly a middle-aged man’s taste. Don’t worry. I won’t let you live here. You can choose to live either in my house, or in my apartment.”

It was not exaggerating. Qin Ran was literally a rich fair lady. She had her share in the Qin Family’s company and the bonus each year was enough for her to buy many mansions in Beijing.

“This traditional Chinese style is unique,” Qin Sheng said honestly. He didn’t understand the new fashion of the modern Chinese traditional style. But this building, with its traditional Chinese-style design, was decorated with all those antique articles, which was quite brilliant.

Qin Ran sighed and said, “You really are the son of our father. Your taste is similar to Dad’s.”

Qin Sheng said nothing. Gongsun laughed at her words. Qin Ran turned back to Gongsun and said, “Uncle Gongsun, where is he? I’m going to ask him to come here myself.”

“The study.” Gongsun told the truth, for he knew that nobody could stop Qin Ran if she wanted to do something.

Qin Ran went upstairs right away. Gongsun followed her at once, worrying that Qin Ran would break into the study regardless of who the guest was. The young man who had been following them didn’t go to the side hall.

In a second, Qin Sheng was left in the side hall alone. A servant served him a cup of tea and then left.

Qin Sheng waited there, feeling bored. Nobody came to disturb him so that he could enjoy the leisure time to take a careful look at those antique articles and think about the identity of his father.

Actually, Qin Sheng was anxious. He hoped that he had guessed the right person, which would, however, bring more new questions for him. In some way, he hoped that he was wrong.

About five minutes later, Qin Sheng heard the sound of steps coming from upstairs. They were quite soft and steady. He looked at the source of the sound, seeing a middle-aged man coming downstairs and looking at him.

They looked at each other. Qin Sheng was silent. He was right. That man was exactly his father.