When Su Mei was young, she was one of Shanghai's famous socialites. Her circle included Zhang Liying, Zhou Zhifu, Yan Renmei, Wu Jing, Sheng Aiyi, and, of course, the famous Miss Zhao Four.
What these young ladies had in common was that their families had been wealthy for generations—and were still wealthy. Some came from families whose ancestors had been close friends of Li Hongzhang, served as governors-general of Liangjiang or Liangguang, or held the post of minister of Beiyang. Others belonged to founding elders of the Republic or heads of government. And some were old-money capitalists who didn't even take the "Four Great Families" seriously.
Miss Zhao Four ranked relatively low among them. Her father was merely a vice minister in the Beiyang government's Ministry of Communications, roughly equivalent to a deputy minister today. The children of senior officials were nothing special in their circle. Miss Zhao Four could only elope with Zhang Xueliang because, in the eyes of her family, he was not of good enough birth—even though his father was Zhang Zuolin.
The country was broken and its rivers and mountains lay in ruins; the people were destitute. Yet this did nothing to stop the upper classes from preserving the literati airs they had cultivated for three thousand years. Lu Xiaoman and Lin Huiyin were famous and talented in those days, but many socialites and heiresses looked down on them. After all, they were either already fallen on hard times or had no more than a local official who'd passed the imperial examination for a grandfather.
Old Madam Zhu... No, back then she was still Miss Su. She had little interest in spending her days indulging in romantic pursuits with the society ladies. She was a close friend of Qin Peng and Ye Sijin, and had done much for the revolution and the war against Japan. She hadn't simply posed for a picture with Tagore, shot at birds, gone fishing, and put on a sorrowful air, then called herself a lone soul adrift in a world of wind and snow, worrying about the country and its people.
The decades that followed brought upheaval and change. Who hadn't been driven from home and forced to wander? The Zhu Family, too, left the mainland. After reform and opening-up, the country urgently needed investment, and Qin Peng personally invited the Zhu Family to return and invest. Over the years, the family's investments had flourished across the mainland, helped along in no small part by the old ties between them.
Like Qin Peng, Su Mei had overseen the Zhu Family for more than sixty years. She no longer handled its affairs, but ever since the Qin and Zhu families resumed contact, their relationship had remained close. Zhu Juntang had known Qin Yanan since childhood.
Before marrying into the Zhu Family, Miss Su had been in love once. The story of that romance was said to have been both passionate and heartbreaking, with a fickle man and a lovelorn woman. In the end, it simply faded away. There was nothing new about it.
"I remember you once said that the man in that photograph on your great-grandfather's desk—the one you couldn't identify—looked a lot like a man your great-grandmother used to draw, right?" Women of that era had to possess some talent to be considered fit for society. Sketching, oil painting, or traditional Chinese painting were mere trifles to them. They might not be especially skilled, but they could put on a show, earn admiring praise from men, and add to their charm. That was easy enough.
"He did look a lot like him. But when I asked her about it, she wouldn't tell me. Her expression was so grim that I didn't dare ask again." Zhu Juntang was most afraid of her great-grandmother. She was also her great-grandmother's favorite, but when Zhu Juntang got into trouble, her great-grandmother never went easy on her.
Qin Yanan took out her phone and searched for a while before finding the picture she'd taken of the photo frame on her great-grandfather's desk. She pointed at the mysterious man.
Zhu Juntang nodded vigorously. As someone close to the family, she'd gone to pay her respects before Qin Peng's birthday. That had been the real birthday banquet, a family gathering. The event held a few days ago had been a political function.
Zhu Juntang had already visited Qin Peng's study and spoken with the old man that day. Of course, she'd seen the photograph too.
"Why are you suddenly asking about this?"
"That man might have been your great-grandmother's first love." Qin Yanan sounded fairly certain. "Only a first love could be remembered so fondly."
"Why are you bringing up all this ancient gossip?" Zhu Juntang said unhappily. The Su Family had once been a wealthy clan, and the Zhu Family had deep roots of its own. When Su Mei first married into the Zhu Family, she'd inevitably faced the kind of melodramatic family drama common among powerful households. Rumors about her former romance had spread throughout the inner quarters. Some even claimed she hadn't been a virgin, and questioned whether the young master was really the eldest son of the Zhu Family's son.
Zhu Juntang naturally disliked those rumors and the talk surrounding them.
"That's such a ridiculous stretch..." Zhu Juntang said, then suddenly realized what Qin Yanan meant. "You think this could have something to do with my great-grandmother?"
Qin Yanan nodded.
"We absolutely cannot let my great-grandmother find out. If she did, she might insist on coming to see him. What if she caught sight of a face that vaguely reminded her of the old days, got excited, and dropped dead?" Zhu Juntang still loved and respected her great-grandmother dearly. She'd lived almost as long as Old Master Qin Peng, but Zhu Juntang still hoped she'd live one more day for every day she could.
"I think my great-grandfather might tell your great-grandmother about this. After all, he's the descendant of a dear friend they shared back then." Qin Yanan narrowed her eyes and gave Zhu Juntang a mischievous look. "Think about it. My great-grandfather might do it. What about the man in your family? I think you two would make a good match."
"You're trying to pin this on me? Just wait—I'll feed you to the dogs." Zhu Juntang spoke fiercely, deliberately showing her two little tiger teeth to prove she meant it.
Zhu Juntang was also a little worried. She could understand the sort of thoughts old ladies had, especially with Old Madam Su Mei's temperament. The man she'd failed to win back then might now have his descendant marry into the Zhu Family. That kind of revenge was entirely possible... Though, as far as Zhu Juntang was concerned, it hardly counted as revenge. Anyone who could marry into the Zhu Family and become her husband, Third Miss Zhu, would be marrying a fairy. He'd have to start earning that good fortune when Pangu first created the world.
Qin Yanan, meanwhile, was considering whether the plan was feasible. Should she just turn around and sell Zhu Juntang out?
Zhu Juntang saw the look on Qin Yanan's face and knew she was up to no good. "Don't even think about it. I, Zhu Juntang, would rather jump from here than get together with a man you don't like! I'll only steal the men you like!"
"You little brat. You think you can steal a man I like?" Qin Yanan said scornfully. Then she glanced at her reflection in the mirror, and an incredulous expression slowly appeared on her face. "Do you think I'm ugly?"
The beautiful woman in the mirror stood amid the flowers, her upper body visible, her figure graceful and her brows faintly tinged with sorrow. Without that deliberate air of indifference, the helplessness gathered at the corners of her lips made her seem even more like Ye Sijin in the photograph.
"You're so-so." Zhu Juntang froze for a moment. Qin Yanan's topics had been jumping all over the place that evening, and she answered with great reluctance. "I'm the most beautiful fairy in the world, so you can be the second."
"Let me tell you, I'm not like you think I am..."
"Like this, like that! Don't copy the way I talk. Speak properly!"
"He said I looked too much like my great-grandmother, so he couldn't accept my appearance... Do you think that was just a tactful way of saying I'm ugly and he isn't interested in me?"
Zhu Juntang studied Qin Yanan closely, then said angrily, "He must be blind! Though that probably was what he meant. What kind of excuse is it to say he can't accept you because you look like another great beauty?"
"People really come up with all sorts of things. What a lousy excuse. As if I cared about him! The little brat doesn't understand the beauty of a mature woman. I bet he prefers a beautiful young girl like you." Qin Yanan sounded a little jealous. She'd been forced to face an unbelievable fact: the question wasn't whether she liked Liu Chang'an. It was that Liu Chang'an didn't like her at all. His excuse—that she looked like Ye Sijin—was so awful that Qin Yanan could only assume he liked girls his own age. Otherwise, what reason could there be?
"Exactly..." Zhu Juntang was about to gloat, but quickly grew wary. "Don't try that on me. You're the second most beautiful fairy in the world, not much less beautiful than me. If he doesn't like you, he won't like me either. Don't expect to use me as a shield."
Qin Yanan rolled her eyes. Their sisterly affection was as flimsy as mud. Still, she hadn't really planned to put Zhu Juntang forward... If Liu Chang'an didn't like her, then he didn't like her. Was she supposed to beg him to marry her? She'd already gone along with her great-grandfather's wishes. Liu Chang'an was the one who didn't want to, so it was no longer her concern.
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