Lady's Home

Chapter 28

It must be Zhou Jin. Ling Ge felt a surge of excitement.

What was she singing?

"It's a Teresa Teng song. I don't know which one it is, but she sang it well. I stood there and listened for a while. My wife also likes to listen to old songs. That day, I saw that she had a good voice, so I asked her if she could sing Bai Guang's 'Hypocrisy.' I didn't expect that she could, and she sang it quite well. My wife likes her a lot."

"So Su Zhiwen sang with her?" Ling Ge felt her question was really awkward, but she really didn't know how to connect Su Zhiwen and Zhou Jin. She was afraid Zhang Yufen would suspect she was trying to find out information. Sure enough, Zhang Yufen gave her a suspicious look.

Why are you asking this?

"I was just curious, um, just asking." Ling Ge blushed, feeling as if her mask had been ripped off right there.

"How could Su Zhiwen sing with Zhou Lili in front of his wife? Young lady, how could you come up with that idea?"

"I'm just guessing." Seeing that Zhang Yufen didn't suspect her, Ling Ge became bolder and said, "I think if I were Grandma Shen, I would definitely be worried too. Such a young and handsome husband, and the house is full of women, and now there's a young nanny."

"Don't talk nonsense. That nanny only stayed for a week. She left the day after Fang Rouzhi returned. While she was there, she spent most of her time doing housework with me, or with Fang Xiaoxi. She didn't have much of a chance to see Su Zhiwen." Zhang Yufen seemed very confident in her judgment. She continued, "If she really had something going on with that man, there are plenty of eyes in this house. It's hard to guarantee that it wouldn't reach Madam's ears. Does Madam not know? Our Madam quite likes her."

"Since you like her so much, why not let her stay?" Ling Ge asked further.

"Now that Fang Rouzhi is better, why should we hire another nanny for her? Besides, having another person would be a hassle."

“What trouble is there? She can help with a lot of things,” Ling Ge said.

"She's not bad, she just loves to ask a lot of questions. But she's a pretty honest person. Once, when she was cleaning the bathroom, she found a pearl bracelet and handed it to me. I knew it was Fang Rouzhi's the moment I saw it. She's such a forgetful person, she always needs someone else to take care of everything for her!"

"Does she ask a lot of questions?" Ling Ge wondered if Zhou Jin was trying to find out something.

"Yeah, she was just chatting with me. She asked about my ex-wife's husband falling down the stairs, and then she asked about my wife's last fall. Sigh... I don't know if we'll have enough potato salad... I just chatted with her for a while, since I was just killing time anyway."

"Grandma Shen's husband also fell from the building?" Ling Ge pretended not to know.

"That's right, that happened in '98. That night, my wife took Fang Qi and Yu Shan to a friend's house, and I happened to have to go see a fellow villager. He was the only one left at home. He was in a bad mood at the time and had drunk a little alcohol that night. He went to answer a phone call and fell down the stairs."

"But doesn't he have a phone in his room?" Ling Ge thought about how almost every room in the house had a phone.

"The police said that he had locked himself out of his room in a moment of confusion and couldn't get in, so he went downstairs to answer the phone. Sigh, who knows, this happened a long time ago."

"What did Zhou Jin ask you?"

"The questions she asked were really strange. She asked me how a rope could be missing when my wife was tidying up the books after her husband fell to his death, and whether the rope was ever found later?"

It was quite strange, Ling Ge thought to herself, intending to tell Jian Dongping. Then she suddenly remembered something: she had mentioned Zhou Jin's phone call at the dinner table last time, so why did everyone say they didn't recognize her? Then she realized that Zhou Jin had used a false name when she came to work as a nanny in this house, and she hadn't shown them a photo when she mentioned Zhou Jin, so they didn't know that Zhou Lili was Zhou Jin.

"She's good in every way, except she's a busybody. But our wife seems quite satisfied with her; she even gave her double pay when she left," Zhang Yufen said while mixing salad dressing.

"Your wife is very generous."

“That’s just how my wife is. She’s very generous to people she likes, but she won’t give a penny to people she doesn’t like,” Zhang Yufen said.

So, Shen Biyun must really like Su Zhiwen, otherwise she wouldn't have given him 3 million so readily! 3 million! I wonder how long it would take to save that much money. If I had that 3 million, I would… Ling Ge pulled himself back from his reverie, scolding himself, “Ling Ge, Ling Ge, you're so irresponsible! Why can't you concentrate?” What should he ask next? Probably the little dog, Glass.

Glass, what a strange name for that little dog, but it lived up to its name, just like glass, it was shattered. Thinking of this, Ling Ge's heart clenched.

"What's wrong?" Zhang Yufen seemed to notice her tremble and asked with concern.

"Oh, I suddenly remembered the little dog Glass. It was so pitiful. What breed was it?"

Pomeranian.

A pretty, adorable little brown face with a pointed snout appeared in Ling Ge's mind. The thought of this clever little creature with its head smashed and left in a cardboard box brought tears to her eyes. Who could be so cruel? It was so heartless! She wanted nothing more than to chop the butcher to pieces on the spot.

"Who did it?" she blurted out.

“I don’t know either. Sigh, Glass is such a lovable little dog.” Zhang Yufen sighed. “It can do a lot of weird things, and Yushan often asks it to perform for everyone. I also often give it food. The little guy is greedy and naughty. It loves to snatch people’s shoes. If you’re not careful, it will snatch them away.”

Zhang Yufen started shelling edamame with Ling Ge. Ling Ge realized he was really clumsy; he was so busy talking that he had only shelled half of the edamame.

"It seems like all dogs are like that. There used to be an uncle next door who owned a Pomeranian. It always liked to fetch things and barked a lot. Many people didn't like it and thought it was fierce. That uncle told me that when the dog barked, it was actually scared inside. It was barking because it was scared. But it was very nice to me. I gave it shredded meat." When Ling Ge was little, he especially liked playing with the neighbor's dog. Unfortunately, after the uncle moved away, the dog went with him.

Zhang Yufen slapped her thigh.

"Exactly! Glass is so loud! And it's especially mean to people it doesn't like, so it's annoying. I don't even know who it offended."

"I heard from Yushan that it seems to be Sister Fang," Ling Ge whispered a reminder.

"I don't quite believe it. How could she have the guts? She's usually terrified of that dog; most people who hate dogs are afraid of dogs. She's afraid of Glass, and Glass certainly doesn't like her either. For a while, Glass would often urinate in front of her door, and the two of them argued about it more than once. Later, my wife talked to Yushan, and Yushan taught Glass to urinate in a designated spot."

Where are glass chamber pots usually kept?

“There’s a spot right behind the stairs, but you can’t just put a dog pee bowl in the middle of the road,” Zhang Yufen sighed. “Glass died such a tragic death. I’ll never forget it.”

Ling Ge knew that Zhang Yufen had also found the glass corpse. For an ordinary person, the feeling of finding a rotting corpse twice was indeed unpleasant.

When did the glass go missing?

"It was the morning after my wife fell and injured herself. Everyone was in a panic that day and didn't notice at first. It wasn't until the evening that we realized the glass was missing. Yushan was very anxious and searched everywhere, but couldn't find it."

"So, where will Little Glass sleep at night?" Ling Ge asked.

"It sleeps in the cypress's room, of course, but the little guy is very mischievous and often wanders around at night."

"Could it be that Grandma Shen tripped and fell because she stepped on a puppy?" Ling Ge guessed.

"No, if you step on a puppy, it will bark loudly. The other day, my wife fell down, but I didn't hear the dog bark."

That makes sense.

"So... besides Sister Fang, who else in the family dislikes glass?"

"Actually, Fang Xiaoxi doesn't like it either, saying that it once chewed up her shoes."

"What about Fang Qi?"

"Fang Qi really loves puppies. She and Yu Shan bought that puppy together," Zhang Yufen said, her voice always filled with affection and a hint of doting love as she spoke of Fang Qi. Ling Ge felt that compared to Old Mrs. Shen, Zhang Yufen seemed more like Fang Qi's mother. After Zhang Yufen said this, Ling Ge's impression of Fang Qi suddenly improved a lot, because she had always believed that people who love animals are the most compassionate, and they certainly wouldn't kill anyone.

"What about Old Mrs. Shen?"

"My wife likes cleanliness and thinks dogs are dirty. However, as long as Yushan can take good care of the dog, she won't interfere. My wife is very busy, and she has enough to do with the company every day, so she doesn't have the time to care about their affairs."

“The old lady hasn’t been feeling well lately.” Ling Ge thought back to the night before when they were eating barbecue, Shen Biyun barely touched her chopsticks, only eating a little bit of vegetables and a few spoonfuls of steamed egg.

“No one can be happy when a man dies, and besides, the wife really liked him.”

After shelling the edamame, Zhang Yufen poured the edamame beans into a basket and began to rinse them.

Just then, Ling Ge's phone beeped with a text message. Could he be back already?! It was only 3 PM. Ling Ge eagerly opened his phone and saw that it was indeed a text message from Jian Dongping: "I'm back. I'm waiting for you in Room 160A, Tongguang Building, No. 28 Shangqiu Road."

She had assumed he would ask her to meet him at the teahouse. Shangqiu Road…

Could it be Lu Min's house? She knew Lu Min lived in a building on Shangqiu Road; they had once broken up downstairs at Lu Min's house. Did he mean he was staying at Lu Min's house when he said he was temporarily staying elsewhere? The excitement she felt when she received the text message vanished instantly at this thought. He must have something going on with her, otherwise he wouldn't have gone to her place as soon as he got back. The thought of him staying at Lu Min's house, and so openly telling her he'd be staying for a couple of days, made her feel very sad. But she couldn't refuse; they were going to discuss business, and besides, there really wasn't anything special between them. She knew she had no right to pry into his private life.

"I'm going out for a bit, Aunt Yufen," she said dejectedly.

"Are you coming back for dinner?" Zhang Yufen asked, her back turned as she washed vegetables.

"I'll be right back." She decided to come back after finishing her business with him, so she should still be in time for dinner.

14. The answer to "meeting"

Ling Ge walked into the Tongguang Building with a heart full of doubts and displeasure.

It must be Lu Min's house; she couldn't be mistaken. Last time he drove here, he kicked her out. "It's not far from your house, you can go back yourself, I have things to do." He even winked at her after saying that. Could it be that Lu Min was listening to their conversation? Thinking about this, she wanted to go back too. But just as she was about to step out of the elevator, the doors closed. She could only tell herself, "Ling Ge, you're not going there for romance, you're going to discuss work. Who cares about Lu Min? It's none of your business. Just discuss business, and leave when you're done."

Just as she made up her mind, the elevator stopped on the 16th floor. As she walked to the door of apartment 160A, she suddenly felt incredibly embarrassed by her outfit. Her red t-shirt was faded from washing, and her skirt was a five-year-old style—originally white, now yellowed. Her sandals were also old. She felt utterly frustrated that she couldn't find anything decent to wear, but then anger surged within her. She thought bitterly, "Fine, I'm just this unfashionable! I'm just this unfashionable! You two fashionable people can laugh all you want!"

She hesitated at the door, then it suddenly opened, and a long arm grabbed her and pulled her inside. She looked up and saw it was none other than Jian Dongping. How did he know I was here? I hadn't even rang the bell yet. Was he waiting through the peephole the whole time? Was he really that nice?

She should have been overjoyed to see him after not seeing him for several days, but instead, she felt no happiness at all. The first thing she saw when she looked up was a large photograph of a beautiful woman on the wall. She had seen Lu Min before; that was her. She wasn't necessarily stunningly beautiful, but she was very fashionable and possessed a unique confidence that she lacked.

"What are you doing at the door? I've been waiting for you for ages and you haven't rung the bell," he said, releasing her arm.

As usual, he was dressed in a clean and comfortable style, looking fresh and natural. Today, he wore a dark green short-sleeved shirt, casually paired with oddly styled beige shorts that barely reached his knees. Goodness, he looked incredibly handsome today. Ling Ge felt a little dizzy and had to repeatedly remind herself that this guy was currently entertaining his girlfriend at her house. Noticing he was wearing slippers, she asked, "Would you like to change your shoes?"

"Change," he said, referring to a row of slippers by the door. "Take whichever pair you like."

She spoke as if she owned the place, and angrily changed into slippers.

He walked ahead of her to lead the way, and she suddenly noticed that his hair was wet, but his clothes were clean. She guessed he must have showered and changed clothes, otherwise, how could he be so clean after traveling so far? It seemed he and Lu Min were really close! But where was Lu Min? Ling Ge now hoped she would run out immediately. If Jian Dongping had invited her here behind his girlfriend's back, what kind of person would she be!

"Come in, come in, don't be shy," he said, turning back to look at her with a smile.

Following him into the living room, she realized it was a very large house, and Lu Min's living conditions were quite good.

“Let’s go sit on the sofa.” He pointed to the sofa on the inside of the living room and went over first.

"Where is this?" she asked coldly as she followed behind.

"Didn't you already guess?" He turned to look at her with a grin. "It's Lu Min's house, right? Why did you call me here?" she said angrily, but regretted it as soon as the words left her mouth. She felt so rude and ill-mannered. She came to discuss business, what had she become? He would definitely overthink things, and sure enough, she glanced over and saw his smiling face.

He sat down on the sofa.

“Please have a seat,” he said.

"What are you laughing at?" She rolled her eyes at him and sat down, wanting to turn her head away, but she was a little reluctant. She hadn't seen him for so many days, and she really wanted to see him properly. However, what she needed to know first was where Lu Min was.

"What are you looking for?" he asked curiously, seeing her looking around.

"Where is your girlfriend? I don't want to talk behind people's backs," she said coldly.

"You mean Lu Min?" He glanced at her with a smile. "She went on vacation with her boyfriend."

"Her boyfriend?" Ling Ge asked, puzzled.

“Yes, that’s why she agreed to let me stay in the house for a few days.” As he spoke, he took a pair of glasses from the CD cabinet behind him and handed them to her. She saw Lu Min intimately embracing a burly, muscular man.

"Is that her boyfriend?"

"Yes, they own a gym. They're probably getting married this year. I didn't want to tell you, but I'm afraid you'll tell them something like, 'Lu Min's boyfriend knows boxing,' and I don't want to get beaten up." He seemed a little worried about getting beaten up.

Ling Ge couldn't help but laugh, thinking to herself, "With your skinny body, you're no match for anyone. You'll definitely be photographed in no time." She wanted to laugh out loud, but she was a little embarrassed because he would definitely be angry, and he might even see through her thoughts. So she could only awkwardly return the photo to him.

"You yourself said she's your partner B, how would I know what your relationship is?" she said, suppressing her joy.

He smiled.

“Ling Ge, ‘B’s partner’ means playing bridge. Bridge is bridge. I’m a bridge fanatic, I won’t stop until I’ve played all night, and so is Lu Min’s boyfriend,” he explained sincerely.

What about partners T and W? She wanted to press her advantage, but then she thought, "Why should I ask?" So she simply stopped herself. To her surprise, he started talking on his own.

"As for 'T partner,' that means travel buddy. A few of us have been to Tibet, Yunnan, and many other places together. 'W partner' means work. You might not understand how great it is to have a good work partner. Since I started working, Li Xiaohong has been my most capable assistant, but she's several years older than me, and her child is already seven. Besides, I'm not Chu Liuxiang; we're just very good friends." He tilted his head to look at her. "I've told you before, it's not that I want a girlfriend, but there are so many women in this magazine industry, so all the people I date are girlfriends. Do you understand?"

Ling Ge felt that his attitude today was very different from usual; he seemed very sincere, and his words carried a convincing power. She liked his attitude and immediately believed him. However, she also felt uneasy. Why was he suddenly explaining these things to her today? Weren't those his private matters that he couldn't touch?

“You didn’t have to tell me,” she said.

“I used to find it amusing to see you overthink things, but now I don’t want you to misunderstand, so I think it’s better to explain things clearly.” He got up, walked to the refrigerator, stopped, turned around, and said, “Actually, you should know that I’m a very lonely person. I only have casual acquaintances with most people.”

She didn't understand what he meant by that. She only noticed him opening the refrigerator, taking out a red orange and a small box of vanilla ice cream, and walking back to the sofa. She also noticed his gaze sweep over her feet. It was hot, and she hadn't worn socks, just slipped on a pair of sandals. Now, with her feet on the sandals, his gaze made her blush instantly, and she quickly shoved her feet back into the sandals.