After Chu Xiaoxin left, Angie Perlis said to Song Tianyao, "Actually, I can understand words like 'nosebleed' and 'Foreign Girl'."
Song Tianyao wiped his lips and patted the briefcase beside him. Including the 30,000 Hong Kong dollars that Chu Xiaoxin had given him earlier, he now had 126,000 Hong Kong dollars. In this era, that was a considerable sum. This 126,000 could buy at least two tenement buildings. Even if he just worked as a landlord collecting rent, he would be able to live a comfortable life. Before, it was Chu Xiaoxin who spent the money. Now, it was Song Tianyao's turn to spend it.
"Go to the Mong Kok Flower Market this morning and buy a few potted plants that you like and that look carefully cultivated. It's hard to buy valuable and satisfactory potted plants on the spot. You can only choose according to your own taste. After all, you're going to meet the deputy director's wife at the Horticultural Association, so you'll need some plants to show off." Song Tianyao didn't mind the teasing words that the other person understood Chinese, and instead took out five thousand dollars from his wallet and said to Angie Perlis:
"This money is enough for you to go to the flower market in the morning, and to the Horticultural Association in the afternoon to find out what that deputy director wants. Tell me tonight, and I'll make the arrangements. By tomorrow night at the latest, I want Mr. Chu and Shek Chi-yik to be sitting at the same table."
Chapter 73 has been thoroughly investigated.
It seems to have become quite common for high-ranking Britain colonial officials or their wives to enjoy gardening. Ordinary Hong Kong Chinese people are not interested in why these officials like to tend to flowers and plants, but some observant people, such as Song Tianyao, know the reason.
Aside from the Britain's own interest in gardening, there is an even more important point: gardening allows them to get closer to the nobility or royalty. After all, members of the royal family attend the annual Chelsea Flower Show in Britain. Colonial officials or their wives can openly return to Britain, bring the exotic flowers and plants they have plundered from the colonies to participate in the Chelsea Flower Show, and present their eye-catching flowers and plants to the royal family after the show. This is an elegant and unpretentious way to make connections.
The Royal Hong Kong Horticultural Society is a place where a group of Britain living in Hong Kong cultivate plants and exchange ideas for the annual Chelsea Horticultural Show.
If time allowed, Song Tianyao wouldn't mind spending some time helping the deputy director's wife find some rare flowers and plants, but neither time nor money was the best opportunity at the moment, so they could only discuss it later.
After finishing her breakfast, Angie Perlis took a sip of her coffee and looked at Song Tianyao: "Mr. Song, will my business deal be closed once Mr. Chu and the deputy director sit down at the table?"
"How do you think this kind of life is compared to eating a cold sandwich in your office in Gloucester Building?" Song Tianyao looked up at the woman and asked her with a smile.
Angie Perlis nodded. "Very good, but I feel that once you get to know that deputy director, someone like me without a law license will be of no value to you, right?"
"How could you have such an idea? Of course not, the head of the legal department on the business card isn't a joke," Song Tianyao replied earnestly to Angie Perlis.
Angie Perlis looked at Song Tianyao and smiled elegantly, "If it were that Mr. Chu, I might actually believe it."
"If you like your current work style, you can draft a contract in your spare time to guarantee you can maintain this quality of life. Wouldn't that be a sign of my sincerity?" Song Tianyao pondered for a moment, then said to Angie Perlis, "I also really like your current work style, and I hope we can work together for a long time."
"Should I cooperate with you, or with Likang?" Angie Perlis slightly raised her beautifully curved chin at Song Tianyao, as if with a hint of pride.
"I..." Song Tianyao watched Angie Perlis's actions, subconsciously reaching out his left hand to gently pinch her chin. "Your brain is the only thing I don't want to hand over to my boss right now."
Only when Song Tianyao's hand touched Angie Perlis's smooth skin did he realize his rudeness; she wasn't one of those nightclub dancers. "I'm very sorry, I was a little rude just now. Please believe me, it was unintentional."
But as he withdrew his hand, he suddenly seemed to snap out of his daze, looking at Angie Perlis with a meaningful gaze. "You're teasing me?"
"Are you really only eighteen? My God, the way you looked at me when you reached out to touch me just now was like a man over thirty. Only when they encounter someone or something they're interested in do they have that restrained yet unconsciously revealed possessive desire. I wasn't teasing you, I was just testing whether what you said earlier was true or not. It turns out it was true. I'm going to the flower market. Remember to tip the waiter for me. The coffee was great. See you at the restaurant tonight." Angie Perlis smiled brightly and gave Song Tianyao a victory sign, then picked up her handbag, stood up, and turned to leave the restaurant.
Song Tianyao lowered his head and stared intently at the left hand that had just squeezed Angie Perlis, then suddenly gave a self-deprecating laugh.
After returning to his room and putting his purse on the bedside table, Song Tianyao went out to hail a rickshaw to go home.
The Dulles Hotel was safe, at least safer than a bank, in Song Tianyao's opinion. If he went to the bank to deposit money, someone might suddenly appear and shoot him in the head as he stepped into the bank, then steal his bag. But such a thing wouldn't happen at the Dulles Hotel.
Those Kuomintang soldiers who fled to Hong Kong were far more decisive and direct than gangsters like Golden-Tooth Lei and Chan Ah-sap; they killed without hesitation.
Before Song Tianyao even entered the Squatter Area, he saw a long line of people already waiting in front of his Dad's shoe repair stall on the street corner, each holding a pair of shoes and waiting in line to have them repaired by their Dad.
"When did shoe repair become so profitable?" Song Tianyao got off the rickshaw, a cigarette dangling from his lips, and looked at the line of thirty or forty men and women waiting to have their shoes repaired, muttering to himself in bewilderment.
Song Chunliang quickly mended an old shoe, not even bothering to wipe the sweat from his face. Song Tianyao walked over and squatted down in front of his honest and introverted Dad, taking out a Dunhill cigarette that Chu Xiaoxin had given him the night before and handing it to Song Chunliang.