TRCT_30

Chapter 30: Attending the Wedding Banquet— Devastatingly Handsome

After dinner, back in the bedroom, Ji Qingzhou ran Jie Yu'an's bathwater first, as he usually did.

While the other man soaked in the bath, he sat on the sofa in the room, legs crossed, idly sketching out gown drafts on his sketchpad with a pencil.

He'd originally planned to use the free time before bed to knit, but now that Shen Nanqi had confiscated even his needles, he had no choice but to busy himself with other work instead.

He aimlessly outlined a few silhouettes on the paper, then erased them all, dissatisfied.

Ji Qingzhou tried recalling Lu Xueying's appearance and bearing, but for the moment, no design inspiration came to him.

As for Shen Nanqi, though, since he was more familiar with her personality and looks, he already had a few ideas forming in his mind.

Since it was for attending a coming-of-age banquet, the outfit couldn't be too elaborate, it wouldn't do to steal the spotlight from the guest of honor.

Shen Nanqi's bearing, though it occasionally revealed a frank, straightforward side, generally leaned more toward the elegant and refined. He could try a tailored, fitted suit in a dark color, incorporating some metallic or leather elements, to set off the advantages of her figure and bring out that polished, capable air she carried as a professional woman.

As he thought this through, Ji Qingzhou quickly sketched out the silhouette of a women's small suit on the paper.

He was about to add further details when it suddenly struck him that Lu Xueying's birthday fell at the end of June, when the weather might be fairly muggy and humid, breaking into a sweat in a tight-fitted suit like that would hardly look elegant.

So he flipped to a new page and started reconsidering.

Recalling Shen Nanqi's past clothing preferences, when she wore Western-style dresses, she seemed to favor lighter tones, and was fond of pearl-white touches.

And a pearly white with a bit of luster would indeed bring out her cool, fair skin to look even more lustrous and jade-like, giving her a healthier glow and a more elegant, distinguished image.

Nighttime was the best occasion to wear white.

Ji Qingzhou was mulling this over, with a vague idea beginning to form, but before he'd worked out where to start, the bathroom door suddenly opened, cutting off his train of thought.

Jie Yu'an, dressed in black silk pajamas, stepped out of the bathroom, his pace steady and his sense of direction precise as he made his way to the sofa near the window and sat down.

That spot was reserved exclusively for him.

His hair hadn't been dried much yet, it had just stopped dripping, that was all.

His damp, ink-black hair had been carelessly swept back, revealing the sharp, well-defined lines of his face.

Perhaps out of concern that his hair might dampen the gauze band, he'd left his eyes uncovered for the moment, his eyes lightly closed, looking rather like someone drowsy with sleep.

Gazing at the man's cool, mature, handsome face, Ji Qingzhou suddenly thought again of their age gap, and felt a peculiar sense of strangeness deep down.

He really found it hard to think of the other man as a younger brother five or six years his junior.

"I had no idea until now, you were actually born in 1897?"

1897, the Qing dynasty hadn't even fallen yet! he thought to himself.

Catching the surprise in his tone, Jie Yu'an asked back, "Is that strange?"

He couldn't really call it strange, more like marvelous, in an odd sort of way.

A month ago, no matter how hard Ji Qingzhou racked his brain, he never could have guessed he'd end up marrying someone from the Republican era five years younger than himself.

"So when's your birthday, then?" he asked right after.

"November 17th."

"……"

So it was true, Jie Yu'an's actual age was only twenty.

He clicked his tongue, at a loss for words, and remarked with feeling: "You really wouldn't guess it, you're so young."

"Do I look that old for my age?"

"Not really, anywhere from twenty to thirty all counts as young adulthood, so it's hard to tell age just from appearance anyway. It's more that you carry yourself with such a mature air that I kept assuming I was only a year or two older than you."

Not understanding why he was so hung up on the age question, Jie Yu'an said, "When my brother was my age, Linglong could already walk."

Ji Qingzhou laughed at that and said, "Well, you've got a wife of your own too now, you're not falling behind him by much."

The tail of Jie Yu'an's brow lifted slightly, as if to say: Is that so?

"If you want kids, you could always adopt one," Ji Qingzhou suggested, "Or, once your eyes get better, we can get divorced, and you can marry someone you actually like."

The corner of Jie Yu'an's mouth twitched, and he turned his head away.

"What's that face for?"

"The face of someone listening to nonsense." Jie Yu'an felt an inexplicable irritation rising, and said with a touch of mocking in his tone: "Leave the Jie family, and could you even support yourself?"

"Hm? What kind of talk is that, looking down on me, are you?"

Ji Qingzhou raised an eyebrow: "Not to brag, but I'm already saving up startup capital. Once I've saved enough, I'll rent out a big storefront somewhere bustling like Nanjing Road or Qipan Street and open a proper fashion house. Funds might be a bit tight in the early stages, but I'm confident I can pull through on the strength of my own wit and talent."

"Pull through how? Eating three bowls of rice and wearing silk?"

"You're all talk, you know that?"

Ji Qingzhou pursed his lips but didn't get genuinely annoyed, mostly he just felt there was no point arguing with him. Whatever the future held, he'd let time settle the score.

With that, he stood up, picked up his sketchbook and pencil, and started walking toward the door.

"Where are you going?" Jie Yu'an asked.

"To start my business," Ji Qingzhou said, walking to the door and pressing the bell to call for Huang Youshu, not even turning his head back, "I can't draw in here. You're nothing but a distraction, getting in the way of my work."

Listening to his footsteps gradually fade away, Jie Yu'an pressed his lips together silently, his irritation only deepening.

For a moment, even the ordinary sound of the wind outside the window seemed unbearably noisy to his ears.

After sitting still for a while, he abruptly stood up, walked to the right side of the bed, and sat down. Leaning forward, he felt for the lower drawer of the nightstand, opened it, and pulled out a flat wooden box.

Lifting the lid, Jie Yu'an took out an M1911 pistol from inside.

With practiced movements, he loaded the pistol with bullets, pushed the safety catch up, fitted it with a leather holster, then tossed it with a flick of his hand onto the other side of the bed.

.

Since he'd need to take two days off to go attend the banquet in Suzhou, Ji Qingzhou spent the following two days finishing off all the odds and ends of work besides the custom orders.

After a period of practice and training, Zhu Renqing could now thread needles and use the sewing machine to mend simple garments with some skill.

Ji Qingzhou had also taught him how to take customers' measurements and record their information and order requirements.

So even though he needed to be away for two days, with his little assistant on hand, the tailor shop could carry on running as usual.

Before long, the fifth arrived.

It was Jie Yu'an's acupuncture day. Since he always broke into a sweat after every treatment, Ji Qingzhou usually didn't bother changing his clothes on acupuncture days, he'd just let him receive the treatment in his pajamas and change afterward.

In the south-facing dressing room, Jie Yu'an stood in his pajamas; the red marks from the needles on his skin had already faded, but his complexion still retained a touch of the pallor and fatigue left over from the treatment.

Just as Ji Qingzhou was about to pick out clothes for him, noticing he didn't look particularly energetic, he suggested:

"If you're feeling tired, why not just stay home and rest? I'll go to Suzhou and eat your share of the banquet gift money for you."

"……"

Jie Yu'an was silent for a moment, then said, "Since I already agreed to go, I won't go back on it."

"Alright, alright, stubborn as ever."

Too tired to argue further, Ji Qingzhou picked out a navy blue shirt and a pair of iron-gray Western-style trousers from the wall and closet full of clothes, and handed them over: "Don't wear a long robe today, wear a suit instead. It'll look better standing next to me."

Just as Jie Yu'an was reaching out to take them, he raised an eyebrow slightly at this and said, "Why does it need to match you?"

"No particular reason, is it so bad if it makes us look more like cousins?"

In truth, it was because he felt this deep navy-blue shirt had a sort of uniform-like air to it, and since Jie Yu'an rarely went out and so never had the chance to wear it, he wanted to take this opportunity to get him to try it on.

Hearing this, Jie Yu'an said, almost as if deliberately taking the opposite stance: "I'll wear the long robe."

Ji Qingzhou wordlessly shook his fist at the empty air in front of him, then turned and put the clothes back in the closet, pulling out instead a soft satin long robe in a dark blue cloud pattern.

He chose this one with a bit of a vengeful streak, thinking that since Jie Yu'an was so fond of wearing long robes, he might as well let him dress in something that made him look old-fashioned and stuffy.

As it turned out, the man emerged in this carefully chosen "old gentleman" outfit looking just as elegant and graceful as ever, like jade catching the wind.

In fact, because the robe's cut ran a touch large and the hem a touch long, it even lent the young man, only just turned twenty-one, a certain dignified, scholarly air more befitting a married man, his every movement carrying the bearing of a man of letters.

So this was the transformation style Luo Mingxuan had been dreaming of, then…

Ji Qingzhou sighed inwardly, fully won over by the man's looks and bearing standing before him.

He reached over to smooth down Jie Yu'an's hair, which had gotten a little mussed while changing, then led him downstairs, where they had a simple lunch together in the dining hall.

After lunch, the two of them, along with A' You, carried their small suitcases and got into the black Chevrolet, hurrying off to the train station.

Carrying the luggage was Huang Youshu's job; Ji Qingzhou only needed to look after Jie Yu'an's movements for this trip.

Worried that in such a crowded place Jie Yu'an might feel unsteady getting jostled about, once they got out at the train station, he reached through the man's sleeve to take hold of his wrist.

At times like this, Jie Yu'an tended to be especially obedient, wherever Ji Qingzhou walked, he followed along, not falling a single step behind, not asking a single extra question.

They'd booked first-class seats for the train again, as usual.

After entering the compartment, Ji Qingzhou originally sat facing Jie Yu'an, with Huang Youshu seated beside Jie Yu'an to keep watch over his other side.

However, once the train set off and Ji Qingzhou took out his copy of "Sherlock Holmes", meaning to read aloud to pass the time, he found that his voice simply couldn't carry over the noise of the moving train.

So he crooked a finger toward A' You: "Switch seats with me, I'll sit next to him."

Huang Youshu glanced at Jie Yu'an, and seeing no reaction from him, nodded quick-wittedly and got up to switch seats with Ji Qingzhou.

Once seated beside Jie Yu'an, Ji Qingzhou spread the book open on the little table between the seats, propped his right elbow on the table, rested his chin on his hand, and read the English novel aloud amid the train's clattering rhythm.

Huang Youshu couldn't understand a word of it. The moment he heard that chanting, sutra-like foreign language, he started feeling drowsy, figuring that with Mr. Ji here, nothing could really go wrong, he leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes to rest.

Perhaps it was the hypnotic effect of the letters swimming on the page, but after finishing a chapter, Ji Qingzhou himself started yawning too.

He turned his head to look out the window, hoping to wake himself up, and as he watched the villages and fields flashing by outside, a wave of unexpected emotion suddenly welled up in him.

A month ago, when he and Shen Nanqi had taken the train to Shanghai together, his heart had been full of confusion about the future and unease over marrying into the household of a sickly invalid to ward off ill fortune.

Now here he was, riding the train back to Suzhou again, and the one traveling with him this time was his "newlywed husband". Truly, the way things turn out in life is impossible to predict.

Thinking this, Ji Qingzhou's gaze drifted, without him quite realizing it, to rest on Jie Yu'an's face.

The man sat motionless, leaning back against the chair, his posture relaxed and his expression composed. With his eyes covered, there was no telling whether he was awake or asleep.

Ji Qingzhou rested his head on his hand and studied him for a moment, then gently nudged the man's right leg with his left leg under the table, asking, "You didn't take a nap earlier, are you sleepy?"

Jie Yu'an's pale lips parted slightly: "What of it?"

"I'm sleepy. This train rocking back and forth is hypnotic." Ji Qingzhou yawned again as he spoke, snapped the book shut with a 'pap,' crossed his arms over his chest, leaned back against the seat, and closed his eyes to sleep.

"I'll sleep for a bit, the conductor should call out when we get there, right?"

Jie Yu'an was just about to answer when his shoulder suddenly sank under a weight.

Ji Qingzhou had tilted himself sideways to rest his head on his shoulder, saying, "This seat's uncomfortable. Let me borrow your shoulder for a while."

"When did I agree to lend it to you?"

"I've been looking after you this whole way, what's the harm in letting me lean on you for a bit?" As he said this, Ji Qingzhou deliberately nuzzled his head against the shoulder a little, settling into a more comfortable position.

"Isn't that your job anyway?"

Jie Yu'an replied in a low voice, the words sounding reluctant, yet he made no move to push him away. Instead, he adjusted his sitting posture slightly, straightening up a touch more, and said nothing further after that.

Across from them, Huang Youshu had already started snoring softly.

After a while longer, the breathing of the man whose shoulder he leaned on grew long and even as well.

So in the whole compartment, he was the only one, a blind man, no less, who remained awake.

Jie Yu'an found the thought somewhat absurd.

Although the train's swaying had a somewhat hypnotic effect, the noise was simply too loud in the end, and Ji Qingzhou only managed about half an hour of sleep before being jolted awake.

Afterward he leaned on the table watching the scenery go by for a while, and thinking that Jie Yu'an had gone this whole time without a nap and without anyone to talk to, surely bored out of his mind, he opened the book again and started reading the novel aloud to him.

After reading a dozen or so pages, the two of them discussed the plot back and forth in a desultory way, and a little over an hour later they finally arrived at their destination.

Outside the train station, a carriage hired by the Jie family was already waiting for them.

The three of them got into the carriage and made their way to Shen Nanqi's residence in Suzhou, the newly built little Western-style house on Xizhong Street.

Upon arriving at the new Jie family residence, they'd just set down their luggage and hadn't even had a chance for a sip of water when Ji Qingzhou received a message relayed through a messenger sent by Shen Nanqi.

The message said that she and her husband had already finished watching the bride and groom's bowing ceremony at the hall, and had moved on to the groom's family home for the evening banquet, telling them to head straight to the Lai family's ancestral home in Taohua Wu once they arrived.

Attending a wedding banquet from the Republican era was, for Ji Qingzhou, genuinely a novel experience, though it was a shame he'd missed the bowing ceremony and couldn't witness the "first bow to heaven and earth" in person.

By now it was nearing dusk, and the sky had begun to dim.

After a brief rest at home, Ji Qingzhou, along with A' You, brought Jie Yu'an and took a carriage to the Lai family's ancestral home.

The Lai family was a prominent local clan in Suzhou. According to what he'd heard, their ancestral residence had a great many buildings spread over a large area, divided into east and west compounds, each with seven successive courtyards, and each courtyard having three-story front and back buildings with side wings on either side.

This was what Ji Qingzhou had heard from Huang Youshu on the train; he'd also later heard from Jie Yu'an that property prices in Suzhou were considerably cheaper than in Shanghai, which left him rather tempted to save up and buy a big house in the city himself someday.

But that was just a passing thought.

The banquet was being held in the east compound. Upon arriving, before they'd even reached the main gate, Ji Qingzhou spotted Shen Nanqi waiting outside, and hurried over with Jie Yu'an in tow to greet her.

Shen Nanqi was chatting with several middle-aged men in long robes and mandarin jackets, along with their families.

She was the headmistress of a Suzhou girls' school and held considerable standing in the area, able to make conversation with just about anyone.

Seeing Ji Qingzhou and the others approach, she casually introduced their identities to those nearby, then gave Ji Qingzhou and Jie Yu'an a light push on the back, telling the two younger ones to go on in ahead and find a seat to wait for the banquet to begin.

Ji Qingzhou glanced around at the children chasing and teasing one another nearby, thinking that standing in such a busy, crowded spot really wasn't very safe for Jie Yu'an, so he took hold of his arm and led him in through the main gate.

Passing through the tea hall and stepping over the threshold into the main hall, they found the spacious room furnished with several empty large square tables.

He was just about to pick a seat at random when he heard a familiar, high-pitched voice carrying on loudly amid the crowd.

"Your brother Luo here is a different man these days, let me tell you, once you've found the right path, it's devastatingly handsome, through and through!"

"You all should go take a stroll down the streets of Shanghai, slicked-back hair and Western suits? Old news already. Those four-eyed bookworms in their glasses, every last one of them looking like dumb geese, putting on airs of refinement with not an ounce of real flair!"

"Now this outfit of mine, dashing, sharp, impeccable! This is what real fashion looks like. The walking embodiment of modernity, that's yours truly!"

Ji Qingzhou raised an eyebrow and looked toward the direction the voice was coming from, and sure enough, spotted a figure standing with his back turned, puffed up with self-satisfaction.

He let go of Jie Yu'an's arm for the moment, gesturing with his eyes for Huang Youshu to keep an eye on his young master, then strolled over at an easy pace behind Luo Mingxuan, the corner of his mouth lifting as he listened to him bragging.

"Wu Erniu*, don't go pawing at it blindly, this leather jacket of mine doesn't come cheap! The finest tailor master in all of Shanghai spent a full three months crafting this one specially for me!"

*t/n; Erniu (二牛, Èrniú), literally means "second ox/bull," maybe a given name.

"What, you want one too? Don't even bother dreaming, there's only one in the whole world, and it cost me a full hundred silver dollars!"

"How much did you say? Did I hear that right, a hundred silver dollars?" Ji Qingzhou raised his right arm and draped it over Luo Mingxuan's shoulder, drawing out the question.

"That expensive, and you actually went and bought it?"

"Tch! Who do you think I am, a mere hundred dollars, I could easily—" Luo Mingxuan boasted away, all the while shrugging his shoulder, trying to shake off the hand resting on it.

Little did he know, the moment he turned his head, he found himself face to face with a smiling, handsome visage.

His bravado instantly deflated. He laughed sheepishly and amended: "I could easily... not quite afford it, but luckily the shop owner was kind and generous enough to give me half off."

Ji Qingzhou let out a light snort and withdrew his hand.

Not bothering to expose the man's bragging for what it was, he turned and nodded a greeting toward the cluster of wealthy young men around them, all looking practically interchangeable in their dress and appearance, then turned back to rejoin Jie Yu'an.

"Let's go, find ourselves a seat first," he said, reaching to take hold of Jie Yu'an's left arm, but the moment his fingers brushed the man's sleeve, it was pulled away.

Ji Qingzhou raised an eyebrow, about to demand "what's gotten into you this time," when Jie Yu'an reached out and took hold of his wrist with precise accuracy.

Then his fingers slid down along the sleeve and clasped his right hand instead.

"There are a lot of people here. Don't wander off carelessly."

He said this in a low voice, as if it were Ji Qingzhou, not himself, who was the blind one needing to be looked after.

Being the one whose hand was taken hold of by Jie Yu'an for the first time left Ji Qingzhou feeling a flutter of unexpected nervousness. At the words, he gave an unthinking "Oh," and led the man over to a table closer to the back to sit down.

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