The Art of Teasing - Chapter 57

Chapter 57

Wen Zhengyu watched Ye Ling clear the bowls and chopsticks. Feeling awkward just sitting there watching, she offered to help.

Ye Ling said to Wen Zhengyu, "The dishes are greasy, don't get your hands dirty. I can manage alone."

Wen Zhengyu felt embarrassed letting Ye Ling do all the work, so she helped carry the leftovers into the kitchen.

Ye Ling told her the plastic wrap was in the first drawer and had her seal the leftovers with it before putting them in the fridge. After she'd put the leftovers away, she saw Ye Ling had already cleared the dining table clean and was now standing at the sink washing dishes. Ye Ling was still wearing her professional work attire, with an apron tied over it. The image was very much that of someone who'd just gotten off work and immediately stepped into the kitchen to cook.

Wen Zhengyu smiled and teased, "CEO Ye, does this count as being both presentable in the drawing room and adept in the kitchen?"

Ye Ling glanced back with a smile and asked, "It does, doesn't it? Seeing how good I am, want to pair up with me?"

Wen Zhengyu let out an "Uh," not knowing what to say. She said, "CEO Ye, take your time with the dishes. I'll go out first." She turned and left the kitchen for the living room.

Ye Ling's intentions, the kindness Ye Ling showed her—she understood it all. She even felt very at ease interacting with Ye Ling. But when it came to talking about dating, or the idea of suddenly having someone so intimate by her side, Wen Zhengyu found it unimaginable and deeply awkward.

She went out into the courtyard to walk and digest her meal, arriving at the small round table beneath the parasol tree.

The table was made of white marble, with a Go board carved onto its surface, and archaic pattern engravings along its edges. The artistic style was identical to that of Nine Tails.

The spot where she sat, the scene surrounding her, gave her a slightly dazed feeling, as if she were in a dream, or had somehow crossed time and tangled memories. She recalled how, in the dream, the dream version of herself had sat here countless times playing the zither. In the tree above, there was the Phoenix Bird. Beside her, there was the Nine-Tailed Fox.

She sensed something behind her and turned her head to look. There was Ye Ling, standing at the living room doorway watching her. Seeing her turn around, Ye Ling gave her a radiant smile.

Ye Ling walked over and sat down beside Wen Zhengyu, saying, "When you sit here, you blend especially well with the surrounding scenery."

Wen Zhengyu actually didn't much like sitting here. In the dreamscape, that one person, one fox, and one bird who had once been so close ended up so desolate because of her departure. When the Nine-Tailed Fox died, she had been sitting precisely where Wen Zhengyu now sat.

Sitting here always gave her a feeling of mourning old friends, yet those old friends didn't even exist.

The way illusion and reality intertwined felt so real that it gave her a sense of mental dislocation.

However, this was Ye Ling's house. She thought, if she told Ye Ling that story, wouldn't the effect be akin to telling someone their house was a haunted house?

Wen Zhengyu suddenly felt a bit mischievous. She wanted to know what expression Ye Ling would make if she knew the story behind her home's decor was so tragic. Actually, this wasn't very nice. But ever since Ye Ling compared herself to the Phoenix Bird, and she'd had that dream, she couldn't shake the feeling that Ye Ling was the Phoenix Bird. She thought for a moment, then said, "Let me tell you a story."

Ye Ling laughed. "If you want to tell it, just tell it. Why deliberate for so long? Even if you tell a ghost story, I'll listen."

Wen Zhengyu thought to herself: "It pretty much is a ghost story." She felt that telling this story was deliberately giving Ye Ling something upsetting to chew on. She began from when there was a goddess atop the Kunlun summit, and that goddess picked up a Phoenix Bird. She told the story all the way up to the Phoenix Bird dying in battle in the Bottomless Abyss and turning to ash, and the little sprite leaving the Bottomless Abyss. Many years later, the little sprite returned to the Kunlun summit and saw the Nine-Tailed Fox. She pointed beneath the parasol tree and said, "The little sprite buried Nine-Tails right there."

Ye Ling sighed and said, "It was worth it. Whether it was the Phoenix Bird or Nine-Tails, in the end, they still waited until the Kunlun Goddess returned."

Ye Ling asked, "What happened to the little sprite afterward? Did she ever encounter the reincarnations of the Phoenix Bird or Nine-Tails again?"

Wen Zhengyu said, "The little sprite wandered the Kunlun Divine Mountain for a long time. Later, the Kunlun Divine Mountain collapsed. It was a catastrophe of heaven-shattering and earth-splitting proportions, the entire world torn to fragments. The little sprite, along with countless other beings on the Kunlun Divine Mountain, died in that disaster, vanishing together with the collapsing world."

Ye Ling pondered this and said, "In your paintings, there's no image of that heaven-shattering collapse."

Wen Zhengyu thought: "Are you focusing on the wrong thing here? Shouldn't you be wondering if something's off about this house?" But she saw that Ye Ling didn't seem to be thinking about anything inauspicious at all. She replied, "I didn't have time to paint it."

Ye Ling remembered that Wen Zhengyu hadn't picked up a paintbrush in a long time. She said, "You could continue painting it now."

Wen Zhengyu sighed a little helplessly, "Too busy."

Ye Ling offered Wen Zhengyu an idea: find a general manager to handle the trivial business matters. She said, "Given the studio's current scale and profitability, it's not worth you investing all your energy there. Right now, you're only managing a single art studio under your name and you're already this busy. If your business grows in the future, other investments take off, it'll run you into the ground."

Wen Zhengyu's phone rang. She took it out and saw it was the old madam calling. After answering, she greeted, "Grandmother."

Hearing Wen Zhengyu call out "Grandmother," Ye Ling immediately understood who it was.

The old madam asked Wen Zhengyu, "Are you free this Saturday?"

Weekends were the studio's busiest time, but Wen Zhengyu was already accustomed to skipping work. She immediately replied, "I'm free." She figured the elder definitely had something in mind—free or not, she had to be free.

The old madam said, "Then come over for a casual meal. While you're here, you can meet all your male cousins."

Wen Zhengyu answered, "Alright."

The old madam said, "Then it's settled." And with that, hung up.

Wen Zhengyu thought this old madam was completely different from other families' grandmothers. With other families, before getting to the point, they'd chatter on and on about other things, rambling for ages with a bit of fussing over your well-being mixed in. Her family's old madam was direct and efficient.

Wen Zhengyu thought Ye Ling's suggestion was viable. The key issue wasn't that she was unwilling to invest her energy in the studio, but rather that she was often tied up with other matters and couldn't attend to it. But hiring a general manager wasn't like filling an ordinary position. She sought further advice from Ye Ling on the matter.

As they chatted, time slipped by unnoticed, and soon it was time for dinner again.

Wen Zhengyu had eaten too much at lunch, so Ye Ling simply made some congee, quickly stir-fried a green vegetable dish, and prepared a few cold side dishes.

When at home, Wen Zhengyu never ate leftovers. Her family's dishes were prepared in precise portions with little left over, and even when there were occasional leftovers, they wouldn't be kept. She noticed Ye Ling's refrigerator still contained a lot of food from lunch and asked, "What about all those leftovers in the fridge?"

Ye Ling said, "I'll heat them up later for a late-night snack, problem solved." She knew Wen Zhengyu was very particular about food and clothing, had never endured hardship, and didn't have the habit of eating leftovers. After her parents passed away, both she and her brother had gone through a long period of real poverty. Her bodyguards and assistants also all came from ordinary family backgrounds, some from families that were still quite struggling. No one was too fussy about food; as long as it hadn't spoiled and could fill the stomach, that was fine.

Ye Ling actually quite wished there could be regular home-cooked meals in the house. Although most lunches and dinners were eaten out, they had to buy late-night snacks every single day. Her entourage of bodyguards and attendants followed her twenty-four hours a day. During the day, they didn't have time to sit down for a proper meal, and by the time they returned at night, they were almost always starving. Previously, among her bodyguards, there'd been a young man from Sichuan who was an excellent cook, and then they'd had proper late-night snacks every day. Later, that young man resigned and went home to get married, leaving her as the only person in the house who could cook. So it became takeout, instant noodles, and bread with fruit.

Ye Ling felt her standard of living had become almost as rough as that of her band of coarse bodyguards and attendants.

Hire a chef to come in and make breakfast and late-night snacks?

The issue wasn't a lack of a chef; it was a lack of someone to eat with. Without someone to share a meal with her, the food just didn't taste right. If she hired a good chef for the household, but could only eat with her bodyguards and assistants grouped together, living like it was a big cafeteria meal, that would only make her feel worse.

Outsiders saw her as having immense wealth, an impressive entourage, dazzling and brilliant. But on the inside, you only knew your own reality. Even a steaming bowl of plain rice was hard to come by.

And she had no one to tell. If she spoke of it, people would just say she was being pretentious.

At first, she had been captivated by the paintings of the Kunlun Little Sprite. Then, upon meeting the Kunlun Little Sprite in person, both the appearance and aura were a breathtaking surprise, making her instinctively want to get closer. Later, after more contact, it was the girl's exquisite and meticulous way of living that she grew fonder of the more time they spent together. Of course, in the very beginning, she had secretly envied Wen Zhengyu for a long time—watching her have specially prepared meals delivered by a family chef even just for lunch at the studio.

For dinner, she didn't make much. Just the two of them: a bowl of plain rice congee each, plus two side dishes and a plate of greens.

These two meals, Ye Ling ate with extraordinary satisfaction.

But she also knew that getting Wen Zhengyu to stay for dinner before leaving was already no small feat. So, after the meal, before Wen Zhengyu had a chance to notify Wen Jing, Ye Ling proactively brought up the matter of her driving Wen Zhengyu home. Worried Wen Zhengyu might refuse, she even found an excuse, saying she had business over in that direction anyway and could drop Wen Zhengyu off on the way.

She'd given her household bodyguards and attendants the day off. Ye Ling drove Wen Zhengyu home herself.

She enjoyed spending time with Wen Zhengyu. Whenever Wen Zhengyu was around, her heart always felt wonderfully content.

The day after she invited Wen Zhengyu home for a meal, Lian Huaixin invited her to dinner and even specially presented her with a thank-you gift.

Yesterday, having overheard Wen Zhengyu on the phone addressing her grandmother, and now receiving a thank-you gift from Lian Huaixin, Ye Ling was already reassured. Still, she asked with a smile playing on her lips, "Uncle Lian, did the matter of reclaiming your niece go smoothly this time?"

Lian Huaixin was in very good spirits and replied with a grin, "Smoothly."

Ye Ling said, "That's good then." And added, "Congratulations."

Since she was visiting her grandmother's house on the weekend, and it was her first time formally visiting, Wen Zhengyu naturally couldn't just make herself presentable and walk out the door the way she had at their last meeting. Showing up empty-handed to visit elders simply wasn't proper.

It was her own maternal grandparents' home; there was no need to stand on ceremony or deliberately give some particular gift. She could simply handle it the way she interacted with Elder Wen.

On Saturday, after accompanying Elder Wen through breakfast, she headed out.

She arrived at her maternal grandparents' house a little past nine in the morning.

Their home was also in the old city district. The residence was a mansion built during the Republican era, later converted into a private residence. A European-style building with a courtyard and garage, planted with large trees. Over the years, the trees had grown exceptionally tall, casting the courtyard in deep shade.

Her maternal grandparents had four sons and one daughter. Her four maternal uncles: the eldest uncle's family had three children; the second, third, and youngest uncles each had two children. The children of the eldest, second, and third uncles were all already married. The youngest uncle's two children were both studying abroad, one in high school, one in university.

In a family with so many people, with all the children and grandchildren established in their careers and busy with their own pursuits, unless it was a major holiday or festival, it was hard to gather everyone in one place. Thus, when Wen Zhengyu stepped through the door of the main drawing room and was met with a room full of people, she was genuinely taken aback.

The moment she reached the doorway, everyone inside turned to look at her. All at once, over twenty pairs of eyes landed squarely on her.

Wen Zhengyu felt that if her mental fortitude were a little weaker, she probably would have been scared stiff.

Old Master Lian was right at the door, leaning on his cane to greet her. Seeing Wen Zhengyu enter, he immediately grabbed her hand and said, "Come!"

Old Master Lian's hand was different from Old Master Wen's. Old Master Wen's hands were an artist's hands, well-maintained. Old Master Lian's hands were extremely rough, with old calluses remaining on the palms and finger pads. When he grasped her hand, it felt like a layer of sandpaper scraping against the back of her hand and fingers. From these hands alone, Wen Zhengyu knew: this was an elder who had endured immense hardship in his time. She supported the mobility-impaired Old Master Lian as they walked inside, and toward the old madam who was already looking her way, she revealed a smile and called out, "Grandmother."

After she had greeted the two elders, her grandmother began introducing her to the room packed with people.

By the time her grandmother finished the introductions, Wen Zhengyu was speechless. She knew her grandmother had given birth to four sons and one daughter. She also knew how many children each of her maternal uncles' families had. What she hadn't known, however, was that all of her uncles' children, without exception, were sons. And in the grandchildren's generation, her eldest uncle's family had three children, her second uncle's two, her third uncle's one—still not a single girl. The women in the room, aside from herself, were all the old madam's daughters-in-law and granddaughters-in-law.

Wen Shiyi lacked a son. All these years, he'd found countless women, yet still failed to produce a single son.

The Lian family had produced nothing but sons.

Wen Zhengyu instantly felt it was an absolute miracle that Wen Shiyi hadn't been sliced to death by the Lian family.

Wen Zhengyu's own heart also sank a little, cold and dismal. In interactions between women, without the barrier of gender differences, it was much easier to connect. From skincare and haircare to clothes and jewelry, you could chat casually about anything and quickly become close. With men, aside from topics she excelled in like calligraphy, painting, and antiques, there wasn't much she could really chat about. She had originally hoped to get familiar with some female cousins first, and then, through them, gradually get to know her male cousins. But now, as it turned out, she stood alone. In the Lian family, she'd become a rare species. Wen Zhengyu couldn't help but feel a bit apprehensive. Steeling herself, she went through the motions of greeting her uncles and aunts, and then greeting her male cousins and their wives.

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