"You won't get the death penalty for striking up a conversation, right? Forget it, take your time. When I get promoted to Chief Detective Chief Inspector by that Foreign Devil one day, I'll make him stand obediently in front of me and repeat what he just said a thousand times. Then I'll flirt with that Foreign Girl right in front of him. What do you think?" Lam Kong turned around and opened the door of his Ford 49, saying this.
"You can have these kinds of dreams when you're in that position," Gao Lao Cheng said, standing still.
Lam Kong leaned out of the car window. "Hey, get in, we're going somewhere, I'll give you a ride."
"No need, we're on different paths. I'm hitching a ride on Likang's coattails now," Gao Lao Cheng said, putting a cigarette in his mouth right in front of Lam Kong.
Lam Kong shook his head and sighed as he retreated, started the car, and drove away.
Once the car was out of sight, Gao Lao Cheng spat out the cigarette from his mouth and said to the two henchmen beside him, "Keep an eye on Headless for the next few days. He's a womanizer and never gives up until he gets what he wants. If he causes trouble, tie him up first, don't wait for me. In short, we can't offend Secretary Song and ruin Likang's business."
"I know, Brother Shing."
"Rejecting a handsome policeman with a private car who tries to chat you up, and then taking the last tram with a secretary who doesn't have a car, what kind of feeling is that?" Song Tianyao asked Angie Perlis, who was wearing his coat next to him, as he sat on the tram seat.
Angie Perlis thought for a moment, then smiled and said to Song Tianyao, "The rational answer is that a Chinese policeman, even though he drives a Ford, won't have much of a future in the current Hong Kong Police Force structure, and he's not even worth my time. But this man on the tram next to me, unless he does something really stupid, definitely has more potential than that policeman. That's my feeling."
"Can't you give a more sentimental answer? You're not a pure, rigid Anglo-Saxon; you also have some ancient, free-spirited Celtic blood in your veins," Song Tianyao said.
Angie Perlis blinked and asked Song Tianyao, "What kind of emotional response do you want me to give?"
"I hope you tell me that my coat is so warm it makes you want to cry, and that I'm someone you can entrust your life to," Song Tianyao said with a smile, looking back at Angie Perlis.
Angie Perlis laughed at first, thinking Song Tianyao was joking. But soon, she sat up straight and fell silent. A few minutes later, she turned to look at Song Tianyao, whose features were mostly hidden in the lamplight, and asked with curiosity, "If I really couldn't help but think like that one day, what would you do?"
Song Tianyao sighed and rudely reached out to stroke the other person's soft, long hair. "This is the dilemma you face when the woman beside you is too smart and you yourself aren't a fool. But I will find a solution. Trust me, until that day comes."
"Two nobodys." Angie Perlis tilted her head slightly toward Song Tianyao's shoulder and said with a self-deprecating laugh.
"Wrong, they should be two rather clever little guys." On the last tram carrying only the two of them, Song Tianyao, whose face was divided in two by the lights and shadows, one half in the light and the other half in the shadows, spoke softly, correcting Angie Perlis's last sentence.
Chapter Ninety-Three: Thoughts of Shanghai Outside the Lichi
Tonight's Angus roast beef failed to elicit the usual enthusiastic praise from Mr. and Mrs. Shek Chi-yik, who were sitting opposite each other. Even after personally serving them the food and introducing all the dishes, the restaurant's head chef Charlie, did not receive any warm compliments from Mr. and Mrs. Shek Chi-yik. Mrs. Bess only offered a perfunctory "thank you."
Slightly disappointed, Charlie walked back to the kitchen and muttered something under his breath when no one was looking. No one could hear what he said, only vaguely hearing the words "Australia St Kilda".
After having dinner at the restaurant, the couple returned to their villa in the Mid-Levels. The children had already been bathed and put to bed by the maids. Shek Chi-yik and Beth took off their coats, quietly went to the children's room, gave them goodnight kisses, and then quietly withdrew.
Beth and the family's maid were opening the gifts that the five groups of people who had met with her and her husband that evening had brought and entrusted to them by the restaurant waiter.
Shek Chi-yik went to the wine cabinet, selected a bottle of red wine, poured it into a stemmed glass, gently swirled it, and stood in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window in the living room, admiring the night view of Hong Kong Island.
Sixteen years have passed since he was selected by the Britain Colonial Office to serve as Second-Class Cadet Officer at Queen's College University of Cambridge, after only one year of advanced study. He arrived in Hong Kong to begin his career as a colonial official. The once dashing young Britain man has now become a China expert who can speak fluent Cantonese, Chongqing dialect, and Shanghai with China person. Starting as Second-Class Cadet Officer, he has experienced the entire World War II, and his career has taken him to Hong Kong, Malaysia, Chongqing, Guangdong, London, and finally back to Hong Kong.
Many of the young political officers who joined the Britain Colonial Office as Second-Class Cadet Officer in the same year as him are now first-class officer students. Some with special status have even become chief officer students, serving as important figures in places like Mauritius, Malaysia, or even the Falkland Islands. Even some of his colleagues who worked with him in Hong Kong before the war participated in the civil affairs work of the British Army military government in Hong Kong after the war, receiving medals and promotions. Civil officials of the military government such as Desmond, Barry, and Ho Li-man, who held similar positions to him before the war, became important ministers to Governor Sir Young after the war.
Shek Chi-yik felt no envy towards these people, because these old colleagues had almost all been imprisoned by the Japanese army or immediately engaged in combat when Hong Kong fell, while he had been seconded to the Malaysia colonial government as the chief assistant Colonial Secretary just half a month before the fall of Hong Kong, thus avoiding the Battle of Hong Kong. After Malaysia was taken over by the Japanese, Shek Chi-yik successfully evacuated and moved to Chongqing and Qujiang, where he continued his work in China as a counselor in the Refugee Relief Department of the Britain Embassy. In 1943, he returned to London and met his wife, an Anglican Church from St Kilda, Australia.