"Sixth Miss, there's a young man at the foot of the mountain who claims to be your nephew, Song Tianyao. He wants to see you, so I told him to wait at the foot of the mountain while I came up to inform you."
"Brother Yiu is here?" Before Lin Yujing could speak, Feng Yunzhi blurted out with a look of surprise, "He must have raised enough money to take us home!"
However, after saying this, she sat down somewhat dejectedly. Lin Yujing looked at Sister Xiang beside her, whose face was a little downcast, and said, "Sister Xiang, could you please bring me the two hundred yuan you saved? If Tianyao hadn't encountered any difficulties, he wouldn't have come to ask for help after dark. He must have encountered something very troublesome."
Sister Xiang agreed, put down her chopsticks, and went upstairs. Lin Yujing walked to the locked door, unlocked it, and said to Wen Jingyuan, who was standing ten meters away, "Uncle Yuen, could you please ask him to come up?"
"Understood, Sixth Miss." Wen Jingyuan, whose hair was now completely white but whose body was still strong, was wearing a long gown. He had worked for Lin Yujing's father in his early years. He turned and walked down the mountain path, which was riddled with holes from Japanese artillery shells and had never been properly repaired since the war.
Not long after, a car with its headlights on drove up from the bottom of the mountain.
Feng Yunzhi had secretly stood behind Lin Yujing and was also looking outside, exclaimed, "Brother Yiu knows how to drive? Did he become a driver?"
When the car stopped a short distance away, the headlights turned off, and the door opened, Lin Yujing and Feng Yunzhi's hearts skipped a beat when they saw the young man getting out. Song Tianyao, dressed in a suit and tie, took two large plastic bags from the car, smiled at them, and walked over.
"Brother Yiu! Is that you? I almost didn't recognize you!" Feng Yunzhi didn't care that his mother would scold him for his indecent behavior. He raised his arm and waved at Song Tianyao at the door, shouting happily.
Lin Yujing was momentarily lost in thought. It had probably been two years since she last saw Song Tianyao. The last time she saw Song Tianyao was when she went to visit her father-in-law, Song Chengqi, and Song Tianyao happened to be secretly visiting his grandfather as well. In the two years since they last met, the naive boy had grown into a tall, handsome young man with an elegant demeanor.
Lin Yujing watched as Song Tianyao walked up to her, and asked uncertainly, "A-Yao?"
Song Tianyao looked at his third aunt and nodded gently. "It's me, Third Aunt. I've come to take you and Yunzhi home."
These few words brought tears to the eyes of both Lin Yujing Feng Yunzhi. Lin Yujing covered her mouth, looked at her nephew in front of her, and after a long while, she stepped forward, hugged Song Tianyao, and tried her best to control herself and not cry out loud. She then led Song Tianyao into the room.
As Sister Xiang was counting her loose change as she came downstairs, she saw Lin Yujing and Feng Yunzhi surrounding Song Tianyao, whom she barely recognized, around the dining table, their expressions filled with excitement. She froze at the bottom of the stairs. Feng Yunzhi, with tears in her eyes, smiled sweetly at Sister Xiang and said, "Brother Yiu said he's taking us home!"
Sister Xiang's hands trembled, scattering the money all over the floor. Was this life of living under someone else's roof finally coming to an end?
"Here's Hong Kong dollars 20,000. Those two bags are food supplements. Please take good care of my third aunt and Yunzhi, Sister Xiang. My third aunt isn't in good health, so please use those supplements to help her recover." Song Tianyao took out a stack of banknotes and placed them in front of Sister Xiang. "Also, whatever clothes the other daughters of the Lin Family wear, Yunzhi must have at least one better one. She can't be any worse than them."
Before Lin Yujing and Feng Yunzhi could react, Song Tianyao had already taken out a wad of banknotes from his wallet, placed them in front of Sister Xiang, who was stunned after sitting down, and said with a smile.
"Brother Yiu, aren't you taking us with you today?" Feng Yunzhi was the first to react, asking Song Tianyao, "We don't need that much money. My mother and I are very frugal. I've already secretly calculated it myself. Even if we add up all the food expenses and rent over the years, it's only 23,800 yuan. If we pawn those expensive tonics, we should be able to make up the difference. Why don't we give the money to Wen Jingyuan down the mountain and have him help us pay back the Lin Family? We can go back to Kowloon City to see Grandpa now."
Song Tianyao reached out and touched Feng Yunzhi's head, ruffling her neatly combed long hair as if she were a child, and said, "Of course you can't leave now. I'm going to have the Lin Family bring you and your third aunt to the mansion, open the gates, and wait for me to come and take you home openly and honorably."
When Feng Yunzhi was little, she hated Song Tianyao messing up her hair, but now she let Song Tianyao's hands move on her head. It seemed that this action no longer made her feel disgusted, but only nostalgic for something she hadn't felt in a long time. "I want to see Grandpa, I want you to take me to catch shrimp, I don't want to live here and study anymore."
"A-Yao, how did you..." After Lin Yujing finally remembered to ask Song Tianyao how he could come up with so much money.
Song Tianyao also looked at Lin Yujing. His third aunt was only forty years old. Perhaps in other people's eyes, she was dressed in simple but expensive clothes, served by maids, and her daughter was chauffeured around and studied at Diocesan Girls' School. She must have come from a wealthy family. But no one could imagine that she had experienced so many ups and downs, joys and sorrows in the past forty years. If it were an ordinary woman, she probably would have died of illness long ago.
Lin Yujing was born in 1912 and was the illegitimate daughter of Lin Xizhen, a Hong Kong opium tycoon.
The Lin Family's opium business has a long history. As early as the time of Lin Yujing's grandfather, Lin Liangyi, they had already been involved in the opium business and became well-known wealthy people in Hong Kong. Later, Lin Liangyi did not want his son, Lin Xizhen, to go into the opium business. He was sent to study in Hawaii and then returned to Hong Kong to study at Queen's College. With his fluent English from childhood in Hawaii, Lin Xizhen was hired by the Britain HSBC after graduating from Queen's College.
He could have enjoyed a life of wealth and comfort, but Lin Xizhen was energetic and restless, determined to go into business. His father, Lin Liangyi, bought a cargo ship and put Lin Xizhen in the timber transport business. Lin Xizhen used the ship to travel between Nanyang and Hong Kong, enduring years of storms and waves, which transformed him from a refined and wealthy young man into a ruthless and fearless tycoon who had seen life and death.