Chapter 68
The maid placed a vase of flowers in the window and gently drew back the curtains halfway.
Jin Juli was draped in a cashmere sweater and leaned back on the pillows. The old mom carefully carried a bowl of chicken soup and said, “Miss, have a bowl of soup.”
She grew up in England, used to having dances until midnight, sleeping in until eleven in the morning, having breakfast in bed, and waking up with a bowl of chicken soup.
In fact, in her mind, Duchess Meghan was more like a mother to her, and Mrs. King was a stranger.
She grew up in the room next to Duchess Megan’s, and when she woke up in the morning, she would run through the adjoining door to Duchess Megan’s bed, where she drank chicken soup and ate bread and cookies with her.
It was not until she was ten years old and had to return home that she had to leave the Duchess. She had hugged the Duchess countless times and cried and begged her not to send her away.
The Duchess was also very sad, but at that time it seemed that the Parliament of England had passed some kind of agreement that placed many restrictions on the Qing people. The Duke had died and the Duchess had lost her dependence and had to leave and find another place to settle down. At that time, the duchess hugged her and coaxed her softly, “Julie, go back to your country, beside your parents, take care of yourself, please them, find a rich and powerful man to marry, to make your parents give you the most dowry, so that you will live well.”
She was still in her mother’s womb when she floated across the ocean, born and grew up in this country of westerners, saw all the yellow eyebrows and green eyes, she thought this was her country, although she was different from all of them, although they kept saying that she was a foreigner, although there were still maids and old moms who spoke a different language to teach her Chinese, but she still thought that she belonged right here.
It was only after she returned to her country, from the moment she got off the ship, that she saw people who looked just like her, with yellow skin, black eyes, and black hair. The clothes she changed into on the ship were also the same as the ladies and gentlemen here.
She really wasn’t the Duchess’s child.
The only thing she kept was her own name: “Julie”.
She was Julie, she was not Syunin.
Mrs. Kim hugged her and cried bitterly, and all she felt was embarrassment. The two of them looked similar, but their styles of speaking and doing things were completely different. Although the Golden Mansion also often held dances, everyone dressed in western-style clothes, but men and women without a husband and wife relationship will never go down to dance, and the women on the dance floor to accompany the male guests to dance are all the aunts of the Golden Master.
Mrs. Kim took her with her, but she was not allowed to get off the dance floor, and from beginning to end, she could only sit on the sofa next to the dance floor.
Her English was good and she spoke Chinese, but she still couldn’t understand what they were saying.
Everything she had learned in England, she could not use here.
She knew English and French history, knew the Bible well, and could write Latin. She knew Shakespeare, Dante, and Goethe, appreciated opera, danced fourteen court dances, played the piano, and spoke French.
And when it came to Chinese, she only knew the Women’s Commandments, which the maid and the old maids had taught her to read, and she had not heard a word of the poems, or of the Tang and Song dynasties.
She remembered the Duchess’s words, she had seen how difficult it was for a young lady without a dowry to get married, and she knew that she had to seize the opportunity to please Mrs. Jin and Master Jin, and that once she was married, she would be free.
So she worked very hard to learn from her governess and to dress up as the Chinese lady they liked.
But she was getting more and more unhappy and she felt more and more suffocated.
She wanted to bond with Mrs. Kim and Master Kim like real parents and children, but Master Kim only cared if she had changed her accent, if she had learned more poetry, if she was “ready to meet people?”
He didn’t care what she was thinking, what she wanted. With maids to wait on her at home and cars to get in and out of, she had endless new clothes and precious jewelry, and he thought she should be content with that.
And Mrs. King, she had disappointed her terribly.
She had hoped to be able to talk to her as freely as she did to the Duchess, that they could have some of the little secrets of womanhood, that they could play happily together, or sit quietly and read together, or play the piano together, or sip afternoon tea together.
But Mrs. Kim was more unbearable to her than Master Kim.
Mrs. Kim always complained about her “foreign taste”, her accent “why is it always so strange?”, her taste “why is it always so strange? She complained about her taste, “Why can’t she eat with everyone else?” She was finally allowed to stay at home.
Finally, she was allowed to eat bread, cookies, steak, and pudding at home. This was not out of love for her, but because she could not eat what was on the table, her health was failing, and the Chinese doctor and the Western doctor agreed that she needed to be allowed to eat what she wanted to eat.
Suddenly, Julie Kim realizes that her real parents care even less about her than the Duchess, and that there is no affection between them.
So why did she come back?
Why not stay in England?
Even if the Duchess couldn’t take her in, she should have stayed in England. She could have married a commoner, an acolyte, a small squire with some land, or even a lawyer, a scribe, whatever!
There she was only a little different in appearance, but her whole mind was free and easy!
Here her appearance was the same as everyone else’s, but her mind felt like it was bound.
She had to go back!
No matter what it took, she had to go back!
She took the opportunity of going out on the streets to meet an English soldier. He was amazed that she spoke fluent English and even more amazed at her familiarity with England. To her, he was like a window to the past, making her dream no longer a dream. It didn’t matter what he was like in person.
She told him that she was in love with him and that she would go back with him to be his wife.
He was overjoyed and the two discussed a plan where she would run away from home and he would hide her in the barracks. He said it would be easy, that there were many places in the barracks that were not strictly guarded, and that if they managed to get on a ship, they would succeed in reaching England and returning to their homeland.
She didn’t bother to think about whether his words were true or not, she just wanted to believe him because believing him meant she could go back.
To this day, she still fantasizes that she has gone back, to the home of her dreams.
After Jin Juli finished her chicken soup, the maid came over to help her get out of bed and wash up. Lifting the quilt, one of her legs was in a thick plaster across the bed, and the other leg was wrapped in a white bandage.
The maid moved both her legs down, the old maids pushed the wheelchair away, and the two of them helped her into the wheelchair before pushing her to the washroom.
After washing, she returned to the ward and saw Mrs. Jin and Wang Wanchuan.
Wang Wanchuan was holding a bouquet of flowers and greeted her with a smile, placing the flowers in her hands and even kissing her lightly on the cheek, “For my lovely sister.”
He was a very smart man, and ever since he found out that she preferred England, he would do this to her in private. It had also made her feel close to him at a very young age.
She had thought he would be her choice of husband, but he had never thought of himself that way.
All he wanted was to marry her off and earn favors for the Jin and Wang families.
Julie Jin handed the flowers to the maid and returned to her bed. Mrs. Jin came over and sat on the edge of her bed, held her hand and smiled, “How did you sleep last night?”
She didn’t answer and the maid said, “Miss rested well last night and didn’t wake up again.”
Mrs. Jin smiled, “That’s good.”
Wang Wanchuan smiled and said, “I see that Julie’s complexion is already much better.”
Jin Juli still didn’t say anything.
Mrs. Jin touched Jin Juli’s hand and said, “Ms. Zhu’s daughter, Second Miss Yang wants to come visit you, I’ve asked her to come over.”
Second Miss Yang.
Jin Juli thought for a while before remembering who this person was, but her face was already blurred. She remembered that it was a lively and cute little girl, still very young, must have been well loved at home, and everyone around her must have loved her.
She was nothing like her.
Still, this was the first time a young guest had visited her since she had lived here. Mrs. Kim and Master Kim kept her in such an empty ward that even the nurses and doctors rarely came over. They must not want her to escape again, and they must be terrified that there will be more scandal.
However, Mrs. Jin must have been annoyed by her lack of speech, first Ms. Zhu, then Second Miss Yang. Was she afraid that she would remain silent, and that’s why she was so sick that she had to ask a young girl, with whom she had only met once, to convince her?
For the first time, Julie Kim turned her head and spoke to Mrs. Kim.
She said, “You can’t wait to send me to the Japanese house already?”
Before Mrs. Jin could rejoice at the fact that Jin Juli had opened her mouth to speak, her face turned white at her words.
Wang Wanchuan closed the door gently and guarded the doorway, watching the mother and daughter quarrel.
In fact, it is not a quarrel, Jin Juli is talking softly, Mrs. Jin is just silent and shedding tears.
Jin Juli: “I didn’t realize that I’m not even qualified to have a formal marriage. Not only did you not marry me off as a proper wife, not even a side room or concubine, but you gave me to the Japanese as a plaything.”
Mrs. Jin said in vain, “Not a plaything …… Mr. Yamamoto said that you would be his wife in China, the only wife.”
Julie Kim didn’t let up, “When I was in England, only marriages sworn before God stood. When I returned to China, you taught me that only marriages that follow my parents’ orders, matchmakers’ sayings, and have to worship heaven and earth are real couples. Japan must have customs that belong to it as well, and can I be considered that man’s wife when I have not performed the Japanese rites?”
Mrs. King held her hand and said pleadingly, “Julie, it is very hard for your father now, the Japanese are expanding …… their power, the British have withdrawn, and we used to befriend the British, but it doesn t work any more. The Japanese fleet is parked there, we have no way ……”
Jin Julie drew her hand back and smiled coldly, “So you send me over as a gift, you no longer have a better gift?” She pressed closer to Mrs. Kim and said coldly and cruelly, “It’s because you guys couldn’t spare the money to send to the Japanese! It’s because you couldn’t spare the money that you sent me out!!!”
Mrs. Jin bites her lip, trembling, with tears in her eyes, and prays to her, “Julie, Julie, stop saying that!”
Seeing this, Wang Wanchuan quietly opened the door and hid out.
When he stood on this side of the door, the sound in the door became smaller. Whether it was Mrs. Jin’s crying or Jin Juli’s blunt questioning, it was less audible.
With a sigh of relief, he took out the cigarettes from his pocket, drew one out, bit it in his mouth and lit it.
Inhaling deeply and exhaling heavily.
He sighed deeply.
The truth was exactly the same.
The foreigners were running the city, the government didn’t work, and the army didn’t dare to fight.
Master Jin’s business was big, so he naturally had a wide range of friends. He used to earn mountains of gold and silver with his good connections all around, and never tasted what he’s feeling now.
Because the Japanese are too greedy.
They are not at all like the British, Portuguese and French who used to be so nice to talk to. Those people just want money, as long as there is money, everything is fine.
But the Japanese wanted everything of the Jin family from the very beginning!
All the money of the Jin family, all the business of the Jin family, all the stores, all the employees, all the technology, all the plants, everything.
Master Kim has tried many ways and many people, with little success.
The next step of the Japanese might be to arrest him and execute him secretly, and in the end all the money of the Jin family would still go to the Japanese.
Master Jin had to come up with a way to turn two families into one: he wanted to marry Julie Jin to the Japanese, so that the business of the Jin family would go to the Japanese on the surface, but in reality, it would still go to him, and the Jin family would still be his when the Japanese left.
But the Japanese are also very shrewd, and the beauty of Julie Kim doesn’t shake their resolve. But they don’t seem to want to tear their faces off so quickly, so that Yamamoto agreed to accept Julie, but not as an official wife, because he already has a wife in Japan, and his wife is the daughter of a prominent Japanese family. Jin Julie could not compare with his wife at all. He was merely willing to accept this offer made by Master Kim.
By him accepting Jin Juli, Master Kim is no longer their enemy and they can work together.
What Jin Juli said wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t right either.
Wang Wanchuan said in his heart.
That is not some money, that is all the money of the Jin family.
Not to mention that Master Jin can not afford to give up, Mrs. Jin can not afford to give up, he Wang Wanchuan can not afford to give up, the whole Jin family can not afford to give up ah.
So, can only be sorry Jin Juli.