13

                                    

                                          
Chapter 4.3 - Story in the City (3)
By the time he left Shi Yi's home, it was already 12:45 a.m.
He looked up at her apartment. It was on the twelfth floor. From the position of the warm, orangey-yellow glow of what was likely a heat lamp, she should be in the bathroom showering. The acidic, bitter taste of the herbal medicine was still on the tip of his tongue. Earlier on, when she had brought it over to him, he had actually very much wanted to tell her that, because he had drank too many of this type of Chinese herbal medicine when he was a teenager, he had long ago become averse to the smell.
But it was very difficult to turn her down, was it not?
Just like in Guangzhou's Baiyun Airport, she had chased after him in her bare feet, asking him to stay behind and wait for her. That, too, had been very difficult to refuse.
This girl's eyes were too pure. She was like someone who had stepped out of an ink-and-wash painting.
He had once thought that he was being deceived.
However, when he held the more than 200-pages of information on her, he could not find the slightest point for suspicion.
Zhousheng Chen stood in one place for some time until he saw the light of the heat lamp turn off.
Then subsequently, it was the bedroom light that illuminated.
He glanced down at his watch. Twenty-five minutes. Mm, so that was the duration required for her showering habits.
"Eldest Young Master." Uncle Lin walked over to him. "It is about time now."
Uncle Lin's car was parked by the roadside. Far away, there were four or five other vehicles that were also stopped. He nodded, turned around, and without looking back again, sat down in the car. In the beginning, those four or five vehicles only followed from a distance. They drove at a high speed. From Shanghai to the old manor in Zhenjiang, it took less than three hours. The old manor was brightly lit and bustling, not at all seeming like it was four o'clock in the morning.
As he stepped out of the car, he felt a little chilly, so he rolled down his sleeves and buttoned them up.
All of a sudden, he remembered Shi Yi's words.
He said to Uncle Lin, "'Spring to cover up, autumn to feel the cold.' Uncle Lin, have you heard this saying before?"
"A saying often mentioned by common folk. Was Miss Shi Yi the one who told Eldest Young Master, you about it?"
Zhousheng Chen did not comment.
The trip from Zhenjiang to Shanghai could not be considered a long and arduous journey, but it had still consumed some energy, especially since he was still ill. However, there was no way around it. Right now, if he was to depend on the rules of an old, traditional family to smoothly take over all matters, big and small, in the Zhousheng family, then he needed to follow the old conventions and act in accordance with the rules. For example, the six o'clock morning meal was a rule, and it was required to be in Zhenjiang.
However, because he had the habit of rising early, it was changed to five o'clock.
He did not think there was much significance in this, but in other people's eyes, this was a centuries-old rule forcibly being changed. On the surface, it was merely the hour at which the morning meal was to be partaken, but in other people's hearts, they were not thinking about just the simple matter of having a meal.
This man, who at the age of fourteen had stepped onto the pathway of scientific research and had always been indifferent to the matters in the family, was using a wordless method to declare his status and position.