Chapter 391 - Feeling Upset (2/2)
At the moment, Qin Changan also came out to greet the guests. Behind him followed Gongsun, the old housekeeper, for he was wise enough to lord over anyone but his sister’s husband, and Zhu Weiguo, who was both his brother-in-law and a high-rank official in the army. All except great-grandma, who would never set her feet on the siheyuan’s ground.
“Brother and sister, we’ve all been waiting for you,” Qin Changan smiled and said. Though he was one of the biggest names in Sijiu City for so many years, Qin Changan had to take it down a notch in front of Zhu Weiguo, the big wig. That was, because he still had a fresh memory of Zhu Weiguo’s earth-shaking wrath after the heartbreaking news of his wife’s death and son’s running-away. He would have taken a hard blow if he hadn’t been protected.
Zhu Weiguo and Qin Changan barely saw each other in a year. They wouldn’t make phone calls often, except for some special occasions like festivals and holidays, when the kids would drop by to pay their respects. And the reason for all the relatives going to the siheyuan for the Spring Festival was to ease the tension between two families. They were making things right for Qin Sheng and Qin Ran only; it had nothing to do with Qin Changan.
Zhu Weiguo patted Qin Changan’s shoulder and said, “Well, come in and we’ll talk. When was the last time we two drank together? We must get good and drunk today.”
Zhu Weiguo, being a wise and refined general, had always possessed an amazing tolerance for booze, and that impressed Qin Changan quite a bit. So he said, “I guess it might be difficult to get you drunk. But I will ensure to have enough drinks to keep you content.”
Both the two powerful men were walking ahead; following behind were Qin Sheng and his aunt, both laughing and chatting together. As for Qin Ran, she was holding Nao Nao in her arms while talking with the two wives. The house seemed to be bustling with laughter and joy.
Except for Zhu Weiguo and Wu Yajun, everyone else was quite familiar with the siheyuan, for they would always go to visit quite a few times every year. Then night came, with festivity floating happily in the air. The whole siheyuan looked extremely beautiful when those big red lanterns and lovely decorations were hanging under the roof. Kids were chitchatting happily over all those novel things that they had never seen. Anyway, they liked spending time there, because they would receive one fat check from that grandpa, and that might be the biggest ever.
Since the family feast had already been prepared, people went to the dining room for dinner as they were all starting to get hungry by then. It was quite a feast. And people started drooling over those delicacies full of color and fragrance, which were cooked by the executive chef from the nearest Waldorf Hotel.
The main guests were the first to be seated. The seat of honor went naturally to Zhu Weiguo. Then both families, respectively led by Qin Changan and Wu Yajun, took their seats along the table, occupying the opposite side. Gong Sun brought forward the wines, and he would be serving at the table in person, together with three servants.
Men took the white spirits, while ladies took the red wine and ordinary drinks. The wives of his two elder cousins were chose soft drinks because they would be driving after dinner that night.
After a few drinks, the atmosphere was getting warmer and warmer. People were drinking, eating and chatting over that familiar year after year song on TV programs, then began to recall all those dribs and drabs from the year that was about to end in a couple of hours. The biggest event for both families was Qin Sheng’s return.
Qin Sheng was drinking quite a lot, like his father, and was bound to make his uncle and cousins drink to their hearts’ desires. Luckily, Qin Sheng had a solid tolerance for booze and was quite good at playing drinking games and making toasts to the seniority. However, by contrast, his two cousins seemed tired of all that.
When dinner was over, everyone made their way to the living room while kids went to play in the courtyard outside. With all those lovely toys Gongsun had bought beforehand, the kids would definitely have a great time that night.
As for the adults, they were playing cards in the living room. At the same time, the Spring Festival Gala began, an essential dessert on everybody’s to-do-list while on the eve of the Lunar New Year, though it was getting all the more boring year after year. Zhu Qingyuan taught the others a popular card game called “who runs faster”, which was brought in from the Jiangsu Province. The rules were both easy and difficult. Players needed to pair up in the game and play their cards in turns; the pair who finished their cards first would be the winner. Those people were smart enough to understand the rules with a simple illustration. Qin Sheng was paired up with Qin Changan, while Zhu Weiguo with Zhu Qingyuan. The two father-son pairs played against each other to see which pair could be the winner.
And the ladies were offering advice and backup when men were excused from the table due to phone calls that couldn’t be avoided. They were as busy as in the usual workdays, with phone calls coming one after another, interrupting the games time and again, except for Qin Sheng.
The card game was dismissed shortly after eleven in the evening, as people needed to make their New Year calls to their seniorities. They were all holding cellphones, making calls or texting messages, except for the small kids. As for Zhu Weiguo and Qin Changan, they had extra work to do, like paying respects to important people.
Qin Sheng excused himself from the crowd with his cellphone and went upstairs. He first video chatted with Xin Xin and Auntie Wang, offering them his best wishes and hung up after a short conversation. He felt somehow uneasy to see them alone at home at a time when others were enjoying their reunions. He then called Hao Lei, who answered his phone quickly after it rang and couldn’t wait to ask Qin Sheng about what it was like to live in Beijing. Qin Sheng told him without holding anything back, saying that it was the best Spring Festival he had ever had, and Hao Lei felt happy for him.
After that, Qin Sheng called Lao Chang to wish him good luck for the next year, but wasn’t lucky enough to reach him because his phone was still off, and there were no clues to his whereabouts. But Qin Sheng had long gotten used to his unpredictability and knew that he would be fine.
Qin Sheng stood by the window, phone in hand, looking at the kids playing in the courtyard as if absorbed in deep thoughts. After seconds of hesitation, he made up his mind at last and dialed Lin Su’s number.
He felt somewhat guilty for not taking the initiative to contact her for so long; after all, she was his actual girlfriend. With all the complex past between him and the Lin Family, Lin Su must be having a very hard time being stuck in the middle.
Qin Sheng was wondering what to say or what to ask to break the ice with Lin Su, but what was waiting for him was the familiar sweet voice telling him that the phone number he was calling was powered off.
It didn’t surprise him to find that Lao Chang was out of reach with a powered-off cellphone, but when it came to Lin Su, Qin Sheng started to feel upset.