Chapter 322
Mr. Zhang stayed at the French Ambassador’s official residence. Of course, the ambassador had already returned home at the first opportunity, and the staff had been withdrawn one after another.
Zhu Yuyan had not had the honor of coming to visit the French ambassador before, but she saw the flag-raising platform in front of the large white building with a huge courtyard.
What kind of house needs a national flag in front of its own door?
Considering that this was the French Concession, it was clear who the last owner was.
It’s a beautiful day, the sun is shining and the neighborhood is very peaceful and quiet.
The courtyard has a very beautiful landscape, like in the movies, with a neat lawn, neatly arranged landscape trees trimmed into spheres, and two flower gardens full of tulips to the left and right of the front of the Daihaku Building.
In contrast to these beautiful sights were dark-colored military vehicles, soldiers with loaded guns, and the tips of the guns peeking out from under the tents of the vehicles.
When the car stopped, the soldier who was guarding the gate came and opened the door with his gun on his back. Adjutant Counter said, “Adjutant Lee.”
Adjutant Li asked, “Is the youngest awake?”
The soldier smiled and said, “Just woke up and is practicing with his gun.”
Adjutant Li then came to open the door for Zhu Yuyan and said, “Mrs. Su please come down, we are here. I’ll take you to see Ms. Zhao.”
Zhu Yuyan got out of the car and heard the sound of firecrackers in the distance.
Lieutenant Li saw her gazing and listening, and said, “This is our eldest young man practicing his gun. Young master always needs to get up in the morning to practice his gun.”
Zhu Yuyan smiled and did not say anything.
She looked at her watch.
Well, it was already eleven o’clock.
This was the morning of the French aristocrats, starting at eleven o’clock.
Lieutenant Li changed from his chatty behavior in the car and didn’t say a word the whole way leading her into the house.
They entered through the small door, passed through the narrow corridor, and met a lot of male maids wearing Chinese-style lapel-collar coats and female maids wearing slanting collars and belts, and then came to a huge and bright hall.
Zhu Yuyan knew that the path that Lieutenant Li had just led her down was the back door, that is, the one used by the subordinates.
Through the hall and up the revolving ladder.
The revolving ladder has a problem, that is, it will make people lose count of how many floors you actually went up to, because it does not have the obvious up and down floors where the stairwell stops. This design is intentional, in the palace this is for security, to ensure that the first assassin back to no acquaintance to lead even the master’s bedroom where can not be found.
Zhu Yuyan would not know how many floors she went up before turning to a corridor, entering a room, and walking through a large house before meeting the owner who invited her, Ms. Zhao, in the second room.
Ms. Zhao was drinking tea and reading a newspaper. At the reminder of the maid beside her, she looked up and saw Lieutenant Li and Zhu Yuyan, she quickly stood up with a smile and said to Zhu Yuyan, “Mrs. Su, I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”
Ms. Zhao looked to be twenty-five or twenty-six years old, with the most popular wavy hair, still short, parted, angled over from one side, narrowly covering half of her eyes.
She had single eyelids, a goose-egg face, a straight nose, and tiny lips.
She wore powder but no lipstick, and her mouth was naturally a little pink, making her look like a teenager and a young woman at the same time.
She wore a dark green cheongsam with water ripples and a pearl white shawl.
She looks very beautiful, is the kind of big girl type of beauty, quiet and skillful, like a quiet flower shining water.
Lieutenant Li stood at the door when he arrived here.
Zhu Yuyan walked up, Ms. Zhao hands together to come up to hold her hand, warm and cordial, seems to be a very amiable person.
Ms. Zhao: “Sit down. Lieutenant Li, you came in from the back, right?”
Lieutenant Li smiled and replied, “Yes.”
Ms. Zhao smiled and said, “That’s good. Going to the front will make him see and interrogate again.” She said to Zhu Yuyan, “Mrs. Su, please don’t mind. Our eldest son is a troublesome guy, he loves to have a lot of fun and has many friends, but he doesn’t know that I also want to make friends, and he always keeps me in check and doesn’t allow me to do this or that, which is very annoying.”
Zhu Yuyan could only laugh, after all, it was the first time we met, she was not sure about Miss Zhao’s temperament, she didn’t know how to talk and what to say.
Ms. Zhao said to Lieutenant Li, “Lieutenant Li, go do your work first, I’ll find you later.”
Lieutenant Li sharply stood upright and left dryly.
Ms. Zhao asked the maid to pour tea and bring snacks and asked Zhu Yuyan what to drink and what to use.
Miss Zhao: “Everything. They sent a lot of things. That American Coke I drink always feel the top of the stomach, what’s the point of getting a belly full of gas.”
Zhu Yuyan said she would only drink regular tea, any kind of tea would do.
Zhu Yuyan: “I can’t tell the difference.”
Ms. Zhao smiled and said, “That’s good, you’re called a good feeder.”
Zhu Yuyan thought these people must have her bottom line, said: “My mother’s family is poor, since I was a child at home did not eat or drink anything good. Now married people know that there is so much to say, everything has to be learned from scratch, and I’m afraid that others will see that I do not know how to give Mr. Su shame.”
Miss Zhao: “You call you Mr. Su teacher ah? This name is good, but also appears to be learned, but also polite.”
Zhu Yuyan: “He used to be my tutor, since then, so called, and now can not change.”
Ms. Zhao held up a cup of tea to cover her mouth and laugh, laugh and ask: “You know many years, right?”
Zhu Yuyan hand index: “There is always a five, six, seven, eight years, right? He used to be a poor student who rented our house, and then couldn’t afford the rent money, my mom saw him as a college student and let him do tutoring for me to offset the rent.”
Ms. Zhao looked at her with a smile and asked curiously, “In your eyes, what was he like before?”
Zhu Yuyan said shyly, “It’s hard to say.” Then lowered his voice and said, “A poor student, especially thin, only one set of clothes to wear back and forth, and always borrowed my pocket money to eat.”
Ms. Zhao smiled and said, “I thought you liked him as soon as you saw him, and finally married him.”
Zhu Yuyan said with a flat face, “I only fell in love with him later.”
Ms. Zhao: “Then how did you marry him?”
Zhu Yuyan: “When he became an officer of the Finance Bureau, my mom mentioned the marriage.”
Ms. Zhao: “Oh, so that’s what happened.”
Ms. Zhao asked after this pass is not a courtesy to talk about her own love story. Instead, she asked Zhu Yuyan what her usual pastimes were.
Miss Zhao: “I just came, I do not know where to play, Mrs. Su if you know of fun places can be sure to take me together, but also so that I am not bored at home every day.”
Zhu Yuyan: “It’s not safe to go anywhere now, I’ll just play mahjong at home.”
Ms. Zhao’s eyes lit up and immediately said, “You know how to play mahjong ah, that’s good, I haven’t played for a long time, it’s not easy to find suitable poker partners, since you’re here, you’ll play two rounds with me.”
She called out for someone to bring the mahjong, and the servants immediately set up the table.
In addition to Zhu Yuyan and Ms. Zhao, there were also two female servants to accompany the game.
The mahjong tiles were ivory, jasper inlaid on top, the characters were inlaid with gold, already old, it could be seen that they were commonly used.
A shuffle, four hands out all white and tender. Two maids each wearing a gold ring, one of the top inlaid may be red agate, the other inlaid may be emerald.
Miss Zhao wore an emerald, coffin-shaped and not small.
Mrs. Su didn’t show any shyness either. Before she left the house, she told Lieutenant Li that she had to clean up, changed her clothes, put on a watch, and wore the wedding ring that Ms. Su had given her. Now as soon as she stretched out her hand, the blue diamond big ice candy on her finger was very present.
The first topic on this mahjong table came from the ring on this hand.
Ms. Zhao: “Aiya, this gemstone of yours is very nice.”
Zhu Yuyan: “Where, not as good as your emerald. It’s rare to see such a big emerald. This is the wedding ring that Mr. Su gave me.”
Ms. Zhao smiled and said, “Your Mr. Su is so generous.”
The second topic of conversation came from Mrs. Su’s poor card skills.
Ms. Zhao laughed out loud, “I’ve never lost so fast.”
In this game, because Zhu Yuyan let loose, Ms. Zhao, who was her underdog, lost with her to the two maids of her house. The two maids didn’t push back and both happily collected the money.
Zhu Yuyan apologized, “I’m not very good at playing.”
Ms. Zhao said, “I don’t want to sit with you, I’ll still lose if I play with you, let’s change seats.” She switched seats with the maid and started playing again. Sure enough, Zhu Yuyan lost money at lightning speed again.
Miss Zhao was not happy with her win, so she called out to another person and said, “Sit behind Mrs. Su and help her out.”
With a master at arms, the third hand opened.
Miss Zhao asked, “Mrs. Su, do you not usually play much poker?”
Zhu Yuyan honestly said, “I started playing mahjong only after I got married and stopped going to school, and today is only my second mahjong game. I wanted to practice at home before going out to make a fool of myself, but I don’t want to make a fool of myself today.”
Ms. Zhao: “No wonder. You used to go to college all the time, how come you stopped once you got married?”
Zhu Yuyan: “After I got married, I had to give birth to a child, and after that, I had to bring up the child, so how could I still have time to go to school?”
After saying this, Zhu Yuyan played a two-bit game, and Ms. Zhao, who was on the other side of the table, immediately said, “It’s gone.”
At that moment, a maid came outside and said that Mrs. Su’s driver came to deliver something to Mrs. Su.
Mrs. Su Zhu Yuyan immediately said, “What a coincidence! I’ve lost everything.”
Ms. Zhao smiled and said, “Did he come to give you money? Let him in.” She sends the maid to say so.
Zhu Yuyan: “Since he’s here, I can call him back to get it.”
Ms. Zhao: “Then what is he here to deliver to you?”
How does Mrs. Su know?
When Driver Chen came in, Mrs. Su knew.
Driver Chen was really here to deliver money.
Driver Chen smiled and said, “Mr. Su said that Mrs. Su loves to play cards and lose money, so he called me to deliver money to Mrs. Su.”
He was carrying a suitcase that had been inspected by the soldiers outside. He put the box on a small table and opened it, and there was a whole box of dollars.
Miss Zhao looked at it and said, “Mrs. Su is so generous.”
Zhu Yuyan called out to Driver Chen, “I can’t afford to lose so much!”
Driver Chen smiles and says, “Mrs. Su lost more than 10,000 dollars in only half a day last time she played poker, Mr. Su is afraid that you won’t have enough fun.”
Miss Zhao smiled and said, “Don’t be angry, I think Mr. Su is doing this because he loves you too much.”
Zhu Yuyan glared at Driver Chen again and said, “Alright, the money is delivered, go back.”
Driver Chen smiled and said, “What if Mrs. wants to use the car? Let me stay and run errands.”
Ms. Zhao said, “He’s just worked hard to get here, so don’t drive him away. You lead this gentleman out for tea.” She said to the maid.
Driver Chen looked at Zhu Yuyan.
Zhu Yuyan: “Then you should take a rest and go back together later.”
Only then did Driver Chen follow the servant.
Ms. Zhao said, “Let’s continue.”
Zhu Yuyan said, “Yeah.” She laughed to herself, “Let’s see how long it takes me to finish losing this box.”
Miss Zhao and the servants serving next to her laughed.