Chapter 3#
In Jiang Yicen’s eyes, it was an incomparably beautiful city with bustling nightscapes and contented citizens living in peace; but to Nan Shuyi, this city was full of selfishness and annoyance.
He had drunk alcohol again today and couldn’t drive, so he followed Nan Anru’s car back home.
With no outsiders present, the conversation between father and son grew sparse.
Since reaching adulthood, he no longer lived in this house, and Nan Anru could do nothing about it.
He had drunk a little red wine at the dinner, and Nan Anru drank the hangover soup that Yao Mengxun had brought.
Yao Mengxun poured a bowl for Nan Shuyi as well: “Shuyi, have a bowl.”
Nan Shuyi didn’t refuse.
As he drank the soup, Nan Anru asked Yao Mengxun: “Where’s Shuqi?”
Yao Mengxun said: “The nanny said he was exhausted from PE class in kindergarten today and went to bed early. I’ll go upstairs and check if he’s asleep.”
Nan Shuyi: “Go check. When I came back a couple of days ago, I found he wasn’t asleep at all but secretly playing on his tablet.”
Yao Mengxun said anxiously: “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Nan Anru: “I confiscated his tablet.”
Yao Mengxun: “No, I’m going upstairs to check. He’ll ruin his eyes.”
She shed her quiet and gentle demeanor from the dinner table and hurried upstairs.
Nan Shuyi wordlessly placed the empty bowl on the table, ready to go to his room to rest, but Nan Anru called him back.
“Hold on.”
Nan Shuyi, who had just straightened his back, lazily slumped back onto the sofa: “What is it?”
Nan Anru: “What do you think?”
Nan Shuyi: “Think about what?”
Nan Anru: “You know exactly what I mean.”
Nan Shuyi knew he was talking about Jiang Yicen: “Do I need you to introduce me when I want to make friends? What era is this? Still setting up blind dates.”
Nan Anru couldn’t help but roll his eyes: “With the friends you have, how many have good character? You’re nearly thirty and still unsettled. How can I trust you with the company in the future?”
Nan Shuyi: “Then train Nan Shuqi instead.”
Nan Anru was nearly infuriated to death by him, but luckily this time he didn’t get led astray off-topic, or else he would have started yelling as usual.
“Stop loafing around all day. If you have any feelings for Jiang Yicen, try dating him and get married soon. Don’t keep fooling around with your bunch of friends. Sure, he studied abroad, but look at him today—well-mannered, respectful to elders, a graduate from a prestigious school, interested in you, in a compatible field, and he can help you in the future.”
Nan Shuyi rarely refuted him instantly. For once, he listened through his father’s long speech without leaving, lazily resting his arm on the back of the chair, taking in his father’s evaluation of Jiang Yicen, but still said: “You can know a person’s face but not their heart.”
Nan Anru was furious: “You think I can’t see through a young man? His upbringing is carved into his bones; not anyone can fake it.”
Nan Shuyi: “Just one meal and you give such high praise? Maybe he was pretending on purpose for your sake.”
Nan Anru just smiled: “It’s up to you. If you like him, settle the marriage. Even Grandpa Lin has gone to a lot of trouble for your sake. Think it over carefully.”
As Nan Anru stood up, Nan Shuyi finally spoke slowly: “Jiang Gongming just wants investment from Nanyuan, and Nanyuan needs Jiangda. You’re just using me as a tool to expand the company and solidify your position. Why should I listen to you?”
Nan Anru had thought this time he could talk reasonably with Nan Shuyi, but the latter’s words made him flare up again—truly unable to distinguish good from bad!
“Because I’m your father. And besides, haven’t you always wanted the Yucheng shares your mother left you? I can give them to you, on the condition that you marry Jiang Yicen and, after marriage, go work at the subsidiary I assign to you. If the subsidiary’s performance increases by one hundred percent by next year, I’ll give them to you.”
“You’d better keep your word.” Anyway, you can always divorce after marriage.
“I’m afraid you won’t be able to do it.” Nan Anru provoked him.
The father and son parted on bad terms once again.
Yao Mengxun, who had heard their argument upstairs, quickly showed concern when she saw Nan Anru come out of the elevator.
“Why are you arguing again? Weren’t you talking just fine a moment ago?”
“Don’t even mention it. He’s just a stubborn mule!”
Yao Mengxun glanced at Nan Anru and swallowed the words she was about to say. If she didn’t know better, she’d say they were truly father and son.
In fact, she knew Nan Anru was very satisfied with Jiang Yicen, but she didn’t know why. After thinking for a moment, she asked: “Back during the New Year holiday, didn’t President Li bring his second son to pay a New Year’s visit? Nothing came of it?”
Nan Anru shook his head: “President Li’s second son is a no-go. That kid didn’t even glance at him. I suspect he had no idea I set him up on a blind date that day. But Jiang Yicen is different.”
Yao Mengxun: “How so?”
Nan Anru’s anger, ignited by Nan Shuyi, had already subsided: “Didn’t you see at dinner tonight? He was unusually quiet, with a proper attitude, and he even gave him his phone number. Have you ever seen him so well-behaved in front of anyone before?”
Yao Mengxun suddenly realized: “So he likes him?”
Nan Anru: “There’s definitely some liking. Whether it turns into love depends on how they get along in the future.”
Nan Shuyi sat in the living room for a while before going back to his room.
He could hold his liquor well; the little bit of wine at dinner couldn’t get him drunk. After showering, he didn’t go into the bedroom but instead sent a message to his lawyer friend.
·
Jiang Yicen returned to the Jiang family residence with Jiang Gongming and his wife.
Jiang Gongming was a man who loved to display his wealth with money. In the early days when the Jiang family was richest, they bought a villa with a private garden. The garden had a small bridge over flowing water, rockeries, and pavilions. Although not large compared to gardens from the Republic or earlier eras, the Jiang garden was a miniature version, meticulously maintained, deliberately creating an antique garden style, even the blue brick walls were treated to look old.
Perhaps the villa’s lighting was dim, but when Jiang Yicen faced the garden villa, it was as if he had returned to his own home. Yet he knew very well that this place was ultimately not his home.
From the outside it looked like a garden, but the interior decoration of the villa was quite different from the modern-style houses he had lived in. The floor tiles were shiny and new, and the milky-white walls were coated with some kind of paint that, though it felt grainy like sand, was smooth to the touch.
But the indoor arrangement was overwhelming. The spacious living room had two sets of sofas: one modern leather sofa on the left, and a set of Chinese-style mahogany armchair sofas on the right. Decorative items included antique porcelain vases, Chinese ink wash paintings, calligraphy, and Western oil paintings, creating a sense of absurd patchwork. This stood in sharp contrast to the garden outside, completely dispelling Jiang Yicen’s faint “feeling of returning home.”
In his family, each member had their own tastes, but they would never place objects of different styles together, adding visual clutter to others’ eyes.
Jiang Gongming paid no more attention to Jiang Yicen and went straight to his room, while He Nuanqing seemed more concerned about her husband’s moods. She casually told Jiang Yicen to go to bed early and not stay up late, then went to her room. She didn’t even notice any change in her son.
Jiang Yicen thought: if it were his own mother, she would have questioned him endlessly over a single bite of food he didn’t like, and would change the entire meal the next day.
He missed his family so much that his nose tingled. He looked up at the ceiling, holding back the tears that welled up.
He found the Jiang family’s servant and used the excuse of needing to clean the bathroom to have the servant lead him to his room. After watching how to use the bathroom fixtures, he could manage the night on his own.
Although he had been sent to his maternal grandfather’s side since childhood to study traditional literature, his paternal family had been adapting to the new era, accepting new things quickly. Daily life didn’t feel too different to him.
After a tense evening, once he lay down after bathing, overwhelmed by thoughts—whether he was in a dream or truly alive again—he fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow, exhausted both mentally and physically.
He slept straight until nine the next morning. The sun was already high, and no one came to wake him.
When he went downstairs, he learned from the servants that everyone in the Jiang family had their own schedules. On the surface, the Jiang family was tolerant of his sleeping habits; in reality, they didn’t pay much attention to him.
Three days after the blind date, Jiang Gongming announced at the dinner table that the cooperation between the two families was progressing smoothly, and the marriage between Jiang Yicen and Nan Shuyi was thus settled.
He Nuanqing mostly told Jiang Yicen to contact Nan Shuyi and show himself in front of him more often. She gave him a lot of advice on how to win a man’s heart, which left Jiang Yicen astonished and also embarrassed.
Even in his own era, his mother had never said such things to his older or younger sisters.
Over the next few days, Jiang Yicen stayed holed up in his room, not going anywhere. He learned to watch television and watched for five consecutive days. He had seen black-and-white movies before, all with live soundtracks—only images, no sound. But today’s movies and TV shows were so realistic. In this new world, he was amazed by new things every day. Even the Jiang family’s servant using a lawn mower could keep him standing on the balcony watching for a long time.
Through the TV, he learned that he had come from an era of despair to a future eighty-eight years later. He learned who the current leaders were and what the social situation was like.
Peace and prosperity, everyone living in contentment—the worries were no longer about war, but about rising unemployment rates and declining birth rates.
At the same time, he spent some time subtly figuring out the Jiang family’s population and relationships.
Jiang Gongming had four children in total: the first three were from his first wife, and only Jiang Yicen was He Nuanqing’s son. He had two older brothers and one older sister, and their relationship with him was quite cold.
Strangely enough, He Nuanqing’s eyes were only on Jiang Gongming. She had no demands for her son either. Everything revolved around her husband, like the women of their era who regarded their husband as heaven, adhering to feudal ethics and the “three obediences and four virtues” without having read a single book. Yet, according to what Jiang Yicen gathered from the servants, He Nuanqing had graduated from a prestigious university and had worked as Jiang Gongming’s secretary in the general manager’s office at the Jiang family company when she was young. It was because of this proximity that, after Jiang Gongming divorced his first wife, she became his second wife.
Later, she gave birth to “Jiang Yicen,” who, for some unknown reason, was sent abroad six years ago and returned just before the New Year. The purpose of his return was to form a marriage alliance with the Nan family.
Regardless of the Jiang family’s internal dynamics, Jiang Yicen didn’t care much. His soul had traveled through time and space to eighty-eight years later, gaining a new life. He cherished it.
Their country had a future; the imperialists had been driven out; the blood and tears they shed had been rewarded. That was enough.
He wanted to see this new world with his own eyes.
After five days of staying home and watching TV, Jiang Yicen decided to go out and see how this new world differed from the one that had been reduced to ruins.
He asked for a new map of the city, and the family driver took him to one of the former Jiang family industrial zones.
The Jiang family had plenty of properties, but unfortunately, many had been sold off over the years for various reasons. Part had been sold by him to fund the greater cause, part by his other brothers. During the war, keeping these properties would only have benefited the Japanese.
After the War of Resistance began and the city fell, even the garden of the former richest family was used as a Japanese operational command center. His family’s properties were inevitably lost. At least he had sold them in time, and the money helped many displaced people.
The driver was taciturn and followed instructions to drop him off at the location.
The former Jiang family commercial street had been completely transformed. He would have to walk in; the car could only park outside.
“Young Master, should I wait for you in the parking lot?”
Jiang Yicen had brought his wallet and wanted to stroll around: “No need. I’ll take a cab back myself later.”
Getting out of the car, the first thing he saw was the former Jiang family gold shop, once at its peak. Now that gold shop was gone, replaced by a major brand jewelry store—a brand he had never heard of, but which had somehow become a time-honored brand. This street had also become a historical scenic area in the city. At one time, eighty percent of the shops on this street belonged to the Jiang family.
At this time in the morning, the foot traffic was light.
Beside the jewelry store were restaurants, various beverage shops, snack shops, and clothing stores.
He walked along, browsing, holding a freshly bought milk tea in his hand, taking a small sip. Everyone on the street drank like this. As the young master of the Jiang family, he had been raised with restraint and discipline; he had never eaten anything on the street before.
In this new era, there was great freedom. No one would judge him, nor would there be strange looks. Women even openly admired his appearance, making him so embarrassed that he quickly walked away from their gaze.
He followed Qingyuan Road southward. The tallest, biggest building ahead was one of the Jiang family’s largest tea houses. It had five floors, and its most attractive feature was the opera stage. Famous actors of the time considered it an honor to perform here, and many interesting stories about famous performers had originated there.
Jiang Yicen stood in front of the tea house. It had clearly been renovated, resembling the old tea house but not quite.
Nearly a hundred years had passed, and the place had changed dramatically. The owner seemed to have tried to restore the tea house to its original style, but it still fell short.
Jiang Yicen was relieved that the tea house still existed.
He walked inside. The interior was indeed nostalgic, with wooden chairs and tables. Even the menu imitated their era’s style, and the walls displayed the tea house’s history.
A waiter led him to the fifth floor, to a seat by the window. From there, he could see the bustling, modern street below, and in the distance, endless high-rises—modern buildings beyond anything Jiang Yicen had ever imagined.
He ordered himself a pot of pre-rain Mingqian tea and sat there until two in the afternoon, just in time to catch the opera performance on stage. The tea house had a rich variety of entertainment, including not only opera but also performances from all over the country: pipa music, Sichuan opera face-changing, and cross-talk.
Jiang Yicen watched with great interest, and time passed until five in the afternoon.
He came out of the tea house. As soon as he stood on the sidewalk, the streetlights above him automatically lit up, and the shops along the street turned on all kinds of neon signs, each uniquely shaped. He walked and looked, experiencing high-tech wonders he had never seen before—even the pavement had colorful lights.
But he forgot where he had wandered to and didn’t know the Jiang family’s address. In the old days, he would just say “XXX Mansion,” and the driver knew where to go. Pedestrians around him got into cars one after another, but he couldn’t hail a cab. There were buses on the street, but he didn’t know which stop to get off at—once again feeling as lost as when he first arrived.
The present was wonderful, but he couldn’t fit in. He was just a lonely soul from the last century.
He walked along the edge of the street, entering an old alley. There were also many shops here, but less bustling than the main street.
He saw an old-fashioned landline phone, similar to those from his era.
The shop owner sat behind a transparent counter, scrolling through his phone with the volume turned up high. A familiar voice came from the phone—Jiang Yicen seemed to have heard it from the Jiang family servants’ phones before.
“Miss Jiang, facing five fiancé candidates, resolutely chose the handsomest one. In her previous life, she chose the most gentlemanly man, but that man only wanted her family fortune…”
Jiang Yicen thought to himself: even the content of these modern storytelling shows is about “rebirth.”
He approached the shop owner: “Excuse me, boss, could I borrow your phone?”
“Sure, go ahead.” The owner nodded without lifting his head, continuing to stare at the short drama on his phone screen.
Jiang Yicen was glad he still remembered a modern person’s phone number.
He picked up the phone and dialed. He called twice without anyone answering. It wasn’t until the third call that someone picked up—he had begun to wonder if he was dialing wrong.
The other party didn’t speak. Jiang Yicen tentatively said: “Nan Shuyi, is that you?”
Nan Shuyi: “It’s me.”
Jiang Yicen: “I’m sorry to bother you at this hour. Do you…do you have time right now?”
Nan Shuyi’s voice was unreadable: “What’s the matter?”
Jiang Yicen said awkwardly: “I’m lost.”
Nan Shuyi paused for a second: “…Lost?” This overseas returnee wants to see me, couldn’t he come up with a better excuse?
In this day and age, everyone has a phone, navigation, or at worst can call a Didi. And supposedly the Jiang family has sixteen drivers, each in their own group chat.
Jiang Yicen, thin-skinned, said in a low voice: “Could you possibly come pick me up?”
Nan Shuyi responded succinctly: “Address.”