KN | Chapter 2

Gotu Kola and Rehmannia Tea

Before long, the manager quietly came over to Chen Wan’s side and said with profuse apology, “Mr. Chen, terribly sorry. The kitchen says that batch of mangoes from the Vietnam border route was delayed by the typhoon, so we can’t make the mango pomelo sago or the pudding crepes. Would it be alright to switch the after-dinner dessert to red bean soup?”

They were all very typical Cantonese desserts. Chen Wan thought for a moment, lowered his voice, and said a few words. The manager nodded and hurried off.

As the banquet was drawing to a close, Zhuo Zhixuan still had not seen Chen Wan make any move. Exasperated, he personally picked up a glass and walked over, patting him on the shoulder.

Sometimes he thought Chen Wan was very clever, and sometimes very foolish. After all that meticulous arranging behind the scenes, detail by detail, he might as well have just stepped forward and said he’d long admired the man.

The people nearby all looked over and greeted Zhuo Zhixuan eagerly. Since Zhuo Zhixuan was not leaving, Chen Wan had no choice but to rise with his drink and go over with him.

The distance Chen Wan had imagined as a galaxy turned out to be only a few short steps.

When Zhuo Zhixuan brought him over, Zhao Shengge was still talking to Shen Zongnian.

The Shen family’s gambling business dominated Haishi, and their family had ties with the Zhao family running in countless threads.

Only after they had finished speaking did Zhuo Zhixuan say, “Shengge, this is Chen Wan.”

Over the course of the evening, Zhao Shengge had already heard too many such introductions and self-introductions. Attractive faces, illustrious family backgrounds of matching weight, eager and respectful smiles. It was all the same.

He lifted his head with no particular interest, glanced once at Chen Wan, and raised his glass in a perfunctory gesture of acknowledgment.

His gaze was steady, and did not linger for even a second longer.

Chen Wan was not surprised. He also raised his tall glass, greeted him with a polite and deferential “Mr. Zhao,” and said nothing more. He did not even add an extra sentence of self-introduction.

It was not as though he felt especially disappointed.

Zhao Shengge had met too many people. Chen Wan was not the most handsome, nor the most special.

Back in their school days, many people had written Zhao Shengge love letters. Of course, Zhao Shengge was not the sort of protagonist from a brainless novel who would tear them up or throw them away. His upbringing and his breeding would never allow it.

On the contrary, as far as Chen Wan knew, Zhao Shengge was actually a very polite person. He simply had a strong sense of boundaries. He would thank you properly, then refuse you.

As for those people, he probably did not remember a single one of them.

Compared with whether or not he could leave some special impression on Zhao Shengge, Chen Wan was more concerned about the cup of herbal tea by Zhao Shengge’s hand.

It was already nearly empty. Clearly, it had suited his taste well enough.

That was enough.

Haishi lay in the tropics and was summer all year round, hot and dry. Since the dessert was gone, Chen Wan had told the manager to go to the corner lane nearby and buy old-style herbal tea: gotu kola tea and rehmannia water. They cleared the mind and cooled internal heat, and had unexpectedly proven popular.

The madams and young ladies all assumed it was a new item the restaurant had introduced and kept asking for refills.

Chen Wan had no wish to linger, but Tan Youming, seated at Zhao Shengge’s right, casually spoke to him. “Ah Wan, let’s go bowling tomorrow. I just happen to be taking Shengge to have a look at Pearl Bridge.”

Pearl Bridge, a landmark of Haishi, was the city’s first cross-sea bridge, linking Aoyu and Xiangdao, where every inch of land was worth a fortune.

The project had been put out to tender by the mainland under an official state-backed call. The Zhao and Tan families had jointly brought in the investment, and both families had always maintained close ties with the mainland.

This had been a hard bone the Haishi authorities had never managed to bite through. Back then, it was Zhao Shengge who had led the team in the negotiations.

At the time, the market in the special administrative region was deadlocked under the impact of the financial crisis, and economic exchange with the mainland had fallen to its lowest point in nearly a decade.

The launch of Pearl Bridge was the first project to respond to the mainland’s policy of stimulating domestic demand through favorable support measures. After that, exchanges between the two sides gradually warmed again, and Haishi’s economy began to recover. As a result, Pearl Bridge carried not only economic significance, but also major political significance. It was a symbol.

And yet, after three rounds of mediation, consultation, and negotiation had finally secured the project, Zhao Shengge had immediately flown abroad, leaving the follow-up to the Tan family. He had not even attended the auspicious day of the final ribbon-cutting and opening ceremony.

Chen Wan smiled and answered Tan Youming, “Holland Residence is just across the bridge. We could wait until the day after tomorrow, once the typhoon has passed, and go over there to play ball and camp. The scenery is beautiful.”

“Oh, right, this damned weather.” Tan Youming cursed, then said, “You’re the thoughtful one.”

Chen Wan only smiled and said nothing. The young masters were responsible for their passing whims. He was responsible for planning, deployment, and cleaning up afterward. Weather, geography, personal preferences, all of it sat clearly in his mind.

There was nothing more to say. Chen Wan did not want to stay there too long and make himself unwelcome, so he gave the group a slight toast in the air with his glass. “I’ll go ask the manager to bring more tea. Please enjoy yourselves.”

Once again, Zhuo Zhixuan felt the kind of frustration that came from wanting better for someone. Normally Chen Wan was so smooth and capable in social situations, yet when it came to the real thing, he had not managed one bit of effective socializing.

For someone like Chen Wan, if he wanted a person to like him, it was easy. It all depended on whether he wanted to.

But Zhao Shengge did not fall into that category.

Zhao Shengge glanced at the herbal tea in his cup, then at Tan Youming, who was waving goodbye at Chen Wan, and said nothing.

Tan Youming gave him a helpless look and said in a low voice, “He’s fine.”

Leaning back in his chair, Zhao Shengge took a sip of tea and gave no comment either way.

Tan Youming had known him for so many years, yet even now there were times when he still could not fully read him. Even as a child he had already been mature beyond his years, cool and sparing with words. In recent years, he had become even more unreadable.

Haishi was full of factions. In their circle, it was true that no one new had really been admitted from childhood to adulthood. But Chen Wan was genuinely a very decent person. His ability, his character, his temperament. With that in mind, Tan Youming could only turn a pleading look toward Shen Zongnian beside him.

Shen Zongnian, who was usually sparing with words, also said quietly that there was no issue, though his tone carried no particular warmth.

Zhao Shengge’s doubt had only been an instinctive, routine question. But the fact that both Tan Youming and Shen Zongnian had jumped out to vouch for this person made it anything but ordinary.

Even so, Zhao Shengge did not particularly care. He raised a brow. “I didn’t say anything.”

Tan Youming: “…”

After all these years, the fact that talking to Zhao Shengge had not killed him from sheer aggravation was practically proof that his life was a sturdy one.

When the banquet broke up, Chen Wan had already had the cars brought around to the entrance in advance.

Once outside, the roar of the waves at the foot of the mountain became clearer. Rain beads hung in rows beneath the eaves, and the sea wind at night was strong enough to blow down many of the white azaleas and lantern flowers blooming among the hills.

Chen Wan had come out without taking a coat. The sea wind whipped his shirt into loose disarray, outlining a narrow section of waist and clean-cut shoulders, like a stalk of bamboo in the night rain.

Someone came out behind him. He did not need to turn around. His nose and ears were enough to tell him who it was.

Chen Wan straightened his back slightly, lowered his head by half a measure, and moved aside, nearly disappearing into the night.

Zhao Shengge did not see him. He passed straight by, coat hooked over one arm, phone in the other hand, speaking into it in a deep voice.

The doorman handed the keys over to each man’s driver in turn. Chen Wan heard Tan Youming call to his assistant, “Straight to Guilan Square.”

The biggest pleasure quarter in Haishi.

Zhao Shengge, who had already hung up the phone, said something in a low voice that Chen Wan did not catch clearly.

It felt as though an ant had stepped on some tender nerve at the tip of his heart, a faint, soft soreness, not much. Quietly, he stood under his umbrella and watched them off.

Tan Youming stuck his head out through the car window and called for Chen Wan to come along and have some fun with them. Chen Wan smiled gently, like a full lamp glowing in wind and rain.

“Next time, Young Master Tan. There are still many guests who haven’t left.”

Tan Youming let him have his way.

Chen Wan stood straight as the black Maybach, boxed in between Cayennes and Bentleys, sped away into the distance, until it disappeared into the storm clouds lit by thunder and lightning.

Chen Wan blinked, snapped the long black umbrella shut with a clap, turned, and stepped back into the brilliantly lit world of rank and wealth.

Sinlaku’s passage did not last long. By the third day, the clouds had begun to clear and the rain had begun to stop. Early that morning, Chen Wan was summoned back to the old residence.

It had already been two months since his last visit there, and because his mind was elsewhere, he took the wrong turn at the foot of the hill and did not arrive until nearly eleven.

People from the second and third branches were all there, grandnephews, clan relatives, elder uncles, a whole packed crowd of them. Some surrounded Madam Chen at the mahjong table, while two more tables had been set up for bridge. The place was lively.

Chen Wan swept his gaze around and, not seeing Song Qingmiao, went straight upstairs to the side room on the third floor.

Chen Bingxin, seated at the head, wore a dark expression and tapped his cane. “Don’t you know how to greet people?”

Chen Wan stopped on the spot, then calmly inclined his head to the people below and said in Cantonese, “Good morning.”

Only then did the people at the card table look up and notice Chen Wan. The fourth branch’s illegitimate son was always the least noticeable one.

At that moment he stood halfway up the redwood staircase, looking down from above while keeping his brows lowered and manner docile. The contrast was strange, almost eerie.

But Chen Wan had been considered touched by baleful winds since childhood. Even the feng shui master had said that among three generations of the family, his fate was the harshest and most ruinous to the family line. Then there had also been that incident. The Chen family had locked him away in a psychiatric hospital until he was twelve before letting him out.

Everyone was busy drawing tiles, and no one answered his greeting. So he simply kept walking upstairs.

The side room on the third floor was very narrow. Because it was the top floor, and because Haishi was damp all year round, the white walls had already mottled and peeled, with water stains seeping through in places.

The masters of the Chen family all lived on the second floor for the most part. Only Song Qingmiao lived on this level.

Because she had not entered the family as a lawful wife. She had passed through the hands of many wealthy merchants in Haishi before, and had used a few tricks to keep Chen Wan. Chen Bingxin had only brought her back because by then he had no way of shaking her off.

Chen Wan knocked on the door. There came a rustling sound from inside.

“Who is it?”

“It’s me.”

The lock clicked open, and a head poked out from behind the door. “BB.”

Chen Wan was already used to it. He gave a soft “Mm,” turned slightly, and went in.

The old wooden floorboards let out creaking groans. It looked as though the place had not been cleaned for several days. A layer of dust had settled over everything, and the floorboards had even curled at the edges.

Because of the weather and poor lighting, the room was very dim. The chandelier overhead cast Ah Wan light that made the face of the Guanyin statue on the flaking Buddhist altar look eerie and distorted.

Several empty jewelry boxes lay openly scattered across the dressing table.

Chen Wan remembered that only last week, when he had taken her out for a meal, he had brought her a Tiffany set. It was an auction piece not yet on the market. He had had someone bid on it for him because the auction house had not even sent him an invitation.

And every half month when he arranged to take her out for dinner, he would transfer her another sum of money, never a small amount.

Chen Wan lowered his gaze slightly toward that pile of jewelry, pressed his lips together, and said softly, “Didn’t you say you wouldn’t go there anymore?”

Song Qingmiao hesitated a little helplessly. Then she picked up the slim cigarette resting in the ashtray and put it to her lips, smoking right there in front of the golden Buddha statue with no fear at all of incurring the Buddha’s blame.

The ashtray was already full to overflowing with cigarette butts. It had not been emptied.

“Cao Zhi skimmed my dividend money, and Liao Liu cheated me out of a Bulgari set at the card table. I was so furious I wanted to kill someone.”

She was not from this city. She had been sold here. The way she spoke always carried the soft Wu tones of Jiangnan, and even when she spoke to her son, there was a girlish kind of innocence and coquettishness to it.

Song Qingmiao looked deeply annoyed. She rested one elbow on the dressing table and propped her head on it. The oval bronze mirror with painted floral patterns reflected a slender, graceful figure.

She had the kind of bone structure that barely showed age. Almond eyes, pearl-like teeth, full lips with a distinct lip bead. Sultry and delicate at once. Even at her age, a sheet of long, straight black hair on her did not seem the least bit out of place.

TL/N:

Gotu Kola or pennywort in Cantonese herbal-drink contexts.

Rehmannia Tea refers to a herbal cooling drink made with rehmannia