“A separate table?”
Butler Lou looked at Ji Heng hesitantly. After all, Ji Heng was an elder – it didn’t seem right to have him sit with a group of children.
“It’s fine,” Ji Heng was never one to care about such formalities. If not for Bai Lian and the others, he wouldn’t have returned to Jiang Jing. Seeing Butler Lou’s hesitation, he lowered his head and took a drag of his cigarette. “Just arrange it this way.”
“I’ll discuss it with the young miss.”
Outside in the courtyard, Lan Si and Jiang He were still crouching under the sun umbrella, watching the newly planted seeds.
The wind outside had gotten a bit chilly. He told Jiang He to come inside and put on a jacket.
“Also, regarding Miss Mu Lan,” Butler Lou remembered something, “She has an appointment next Wednesday to transfer her household registration.”
Ji Mu Lan’s household registration had gone through many twists and turns.
After countless complications, these children from the Ji family finally returned to the Mu family. Now on Ji Heng’s household registration, only Bai Lian remained.
Smoke drifted upward.
Ji Heng lowered his eyelids.
After delivering his message, Butler Lou didn’t stay to disturb them. He said goodbye to Ji Heng and left with the crab roe buns Ji Heng had given him.
Lan Si brought Jiang He inside. Seeing the crab lying in the box in the hall, he paused before saying, “How come there’s still more? I don’t want to eat anymore today!”
—
6 PM, Kang Yu Tower.
Gao Shu felt somewhat nervous. She arrived an hour early and was on the phone with Gao Yan, asking about Bai Lian’s personality.
“You mean Lian Lian? No need to be nervous,” on the other end of the phone, Gao Yan put down her fan and walked to the doorway to look at the koi fish under the bridge. “She’s very well-behaved and polite…”
Gao Yan leaned on the bridge railing under the lamplight, listing many complimentary words about Bai Lian.
They had already discussed these things on WeChat before.
It was old news.
Gao Shu had briefly met Bai Lian once before. Just from her appearance, she could tell Bai Lian was someone cultured and dignified, definitely having received cultural and artistic nurturing since childhood.
Come to think of it, both Gao Shu and Gao Yan found it strange – where had Bai Lian received such traditional cultural education?
“I know, but I’m still a bit nervous,” Gao Shu laughed. Even when she became vice president in her thirties with promotion imminent, even when she single-handedly protected her unconscious nephew, she hadn’t been this nervous. “Sigh, it wasn’t easy getting to today. With his temperament, I don’t know if this young lady can handle it.”
Jiang Fu Li was nothing like his sister and brother-in-law. After becoming an orphan at eight, he seemed to become a different person – just one word described him: “cold.”
He was distant with everyone, rarely smiled, and even scolded Jiang Xi Ju for no reason.
“About that, you don’t need to worry.” Hearing Gao Shu mention this, Gao Yan raised her eyebrows.
Gao Shu hung up the phone, somewhat surprised.
She had just asked Gao Yan about Bai Lian’s food preferences and called the manager of Kang Yu Tower through Secretary Xue to discuss the dishes, desserts, and tea to be served later.
The manager bowed respectfully as he entered and replied to Gao Shu: “Young Master Jiang has already arranged everything.”
“He did it himself?” Gao Shu stood up in surprise.
“Yes.”
Gao Shu was very astonished. Given Jiang Fu Li’s “who are you” expression, he was casual even about his own meals. Though Jiang He was picky with food, only Ming Dong Heng and Jiang Xi Ju would watch out for him.
It seemed somewhat surreal.
After the manager left, Gao Shu sat back down by the window. Secretary Xue poured her a cup of tea, “You can put your mind at ease now.”
Gao Shu picked up the teacup and nodded.
It was still early. Secretary Xue stood beside her and brought up business matters: “Yesterday, Little Li saw Mr. Shi having dinner with Vice President Ji. Vice President Ji… why does he keep targeting you?”
After Shi Qing Yu had dinner with Gao Shu last week discussing the composition matter, Ji Ying Hui went to find Shi Qing Yu this week.
Gao Shu had some influence in the Jiang family and research circles.
But in the theater, Gao Shu had achieved today’s position through solo efforts.
Although her son studied piano under Director Jian, Director Jian always treated his three disciples equally.
“If Director Jian could still compose now,” Gao Shu brushed away the foam and said softly, “I wouldn’t need to compete with Ji Ying Hui.”
Director Jian was Gao Shu’s first choice.
Secretary Xue was momentarily speechless. She looked at Gao Shu, knowing well how difficult her journey had been. But in the Gao family, except for Li Jiu, no one walked alongside Gao Shu.
Li Jiu hadn’t completed his apprenticeship yet and hadn’t inherited Gao Shu’s artistic talent. There wasn’t much he could do.
—
At 6:50, Bai Lian and Jiang Fu Li arrived.
Gao Shu hurriedly put down her teacup, brushed her sleeves, and stood up to look toward the door.
The door was pushed open by a pair of hands with distinct knuckles, with a neatly folded houndstooth scarf draped over the arm – this was Jiang Fu Li.
Gao Shu’s gaze fell on the person behind him, a young woman wearing a red embroidered jacket over an apricot-colored dress, her eyes downcast.
Last week when she saw Bai Lian, she was wearing plain clothes, gentle and reserved.
Today’s red jacket was both brilliant and captivating.
It made Gao Shu pause slightly again.
“Aunt.” Jiang Fu Li reached out to close the private room door, politely greeting Gao Shu.
Even this “Aunt” was extremely indifferent.
Bai Lian showed no constraint, calmly greeting Gao Shu with composure.
Secretary Xue quietly retreated to the side, discreetly observing the young woman before her. She was very surprised – the Gao family had always produced beauties. When Gao Si married Jiang Fan, it was a beautiful story in Jiang Jing, followed by Gao Yan marrying Xu Jue Ling.
Now Jiang Jing also had the Ming family’s young ladies. Secretary Xue had seen them too – they were indeed growing up beautifully.
But seeing Miss Bai today, Secretary Xue felt that even Ming Zong Yao would have to take a step back. Just this bearing alone, the Ming family couldn’t compare.
Others, even if Old Master Chen sat beside Jiang Fu Li, would be affected by his presence.
Yet this Miss Bai remained calm and composed, graceful and elegant.
Jiang Fu Li picked up the teapot, pouring tea for himself and Bai Lian. Outside, the manager had already started serving dishes.
“Is the pressure at Jiang University very high? I saw news recently about a probe successfully landing on Mars…” Gao Shu sat beside Bai Lian, talking to her. She had heard from Gao Yan that Bai Lian had good grades – perhaps she would end up in a laboratory like Jiang Fu Li in the future.
Gao Shu studied arts, but these past two years, because of the Gao family and Jiang Fu Li, she had gained some understanding of research circles.
Last night, she had specifically asked the Gao family to give her some materials about the research field and reviewed them, but to insiders’ ears, there were still some discrepancies.
Bai Lian smoothly changed the topic.
Starting from research, they eventually discussed art.
Once on the topic of art, Gao Shu couldn’t help but talk more, mentioning that her painting enlightenment teacher thought highly of Jiang He.
Bai Lian nodded, “Jiang He’s paintings have a strong sense of virtual and real elements.”
The two chatted casually, while Jiang Fu Li rarely spoke, only occasionally picking up some food for Bai Lian with his chopsticks. He had always been cold, treating everyone this way, so Gao Shu wasn’t surprised.
Gao Shu got caught up in the conversation until the meal ended, finally putting down her chopsticks with reluctance.
She then had Secretary Xue bring out a gift box, personally handing it to Bai Lian.
Downstairs at Kang Yu Tower, Gao Shu and Secretary Xue stood together, watching Bai Lian and Jiang Fu Li get into the car. After the car turned a corner and disappeared from view, Gao Shu turned her head with a smile, “This child is truly wonderful.”
She finally understood why Gao Yan was so intent on taking Bai Lian as her goddaughter.
Secretary Xue saw her happiness and really didn’t want to mention other matters to distract her, but still said, “Dr. Gao requested to meet with you.”
Dr. Gao – who else could it be but Gao Jia Chen?
The smile disappeared from Gao Shu’s lips as she pressed her brow: “Tell him I don’t have time.”
What else could these Gao family members want from her besides getting into Jiang Fu Li’s group or Academician Ma’s group?
Recently, Gao Shu had been busy with theater matters, and she was indeed busy.
When Gao Shu returned home, Li Jiu was practicing piano. Seeing her return, he came out to help her with her house slippers.
“Mom,” Li Jiu put the slippers beside her and didn’t leave, instead saying, “Teacher asked if he could see the script for ‘Flowers on the Tree.’”
The play hadn’t been performed yet, still in rehearsal, and the theme song hadn’t been decided. Only insiders had the script for “Flowers on the Tree.”
Last week, to convince Director Jian to compose, Gao Shu had mentioned a few details of the plot to him.
“Your teacher wants to see the play’s script?” The script wasn’t exactly confidential, but Gao Shu couldn’t understand why Director Jian would want to see the script if he didn’t want to accept the composition work. However, she didn’t refuse, “I’ll send it to you from the study.”
—
Jiang Jing, Shi family.
Shi Qing Yu was an old artist, and recently two future stars from the theater had approached him. He was weighing the pros and cons.
He got out of Ji Ying Hui’s back seat.
Ji Ying Hui got out of the driver’s seat, smiling at Shi Qing Yu, “Mr. Shi, I heard your son’s asthma hasn’t been well. I have an invitation from Dr. MTR here, hope it helps.”
Saying this, he handed Shi Qing Yu a gold-embossed business card.
Shi Qing Yu took it and looked at Ji Ying Hui, “Thank you, Vice President Ji.”
“Also, I’ll definitely recommend your composition to Director Jian,” Ji Ying Hui smiled, “Let him personally arrange it for you.”
Director Jian’s previous role as a guzheng inheritor needs no mention, he was at his peak at Jiang Music.
In the past half year, as Yan Lu’s arrangement master, he had far surpassed others in the art world.
Shi Qing Yu wasn’t incapable of arranging music himself, but putting aside the fact that Director Jian’s arrangement skills were superior to his, having the words “Director Jian” on his work would make its value different from usual.
He returned home with the business card and began to consider this matter.
He had always known about the old theater director’s call for theme music, and had managed to get his hands on the script for “Flowers on the Tree.”
Ji Ying Hui’s family had been in theater for generations, his grandmother was even a Peking Opera inheritor, holding significant weight in the art world.
Although Gao Shu didn’t have such deep heritage, but… she was from the Gao family.
Shi Qing Yu had hesitated between the two – he definitely wanted to compose this piece, and was confident about it, but he had to decide whose side to take, and in this situation, he would inevitably offend one person.
At his age, everyone wanted to climb higher, and he was no different, quite utilitarian.
Ji Ying Hui not only found out about his son’s condition but also promised him Director Jian’s involvement, all of which demonstrated his capabilities. Shi Qing Yu placed the business card on the table, his mind already made up.
—
Mountain Sea Apartments.
When Bai Lian returned, Zhang Shi Ze, Tang Ming Ning, and Xiao were doing homework in 303, while Lu Xiao Han and Jiang He were sitting on the carpet playing with puzzles.
She had a very fresh rose in her hand, with crystal-clear water droplets still hanging on the crimson petals.
“It’s next Saturday.” Bai Lian entered the study, where besides the usual small items on the desk, there was now a blue porcelain vase next to the black computer.
Ming Dong Heng had brought it back several days ago.
There were several roses casually arranged in the vase, placed at different times – some were in full bloom, others were beginning to wilt. Bai Lian unhurriedly placed the rose in her hand into the blue porcelain vase.
Jiang Fu Li lazily leaned against the desk, looking down at the roses in the vase, carelessly asking: “At the Mu family?”
“Yes.” Bai Lian sat in front of the computer, turned it on, found the email from Academician Ma in her inbox, printed it out, then opened what Little Seven had sent about Wen Zhi Xia’s recent situation.
She glanced at it, opened WeChat, found Xu En’s avatar and asked a few questions.
The Wen family was an old Jiang Jing family in the electrical appliance industry.
Looking further down, there was a message from Director Jian, containing only one file —
“Flowers on the Tree”
Bai Lian had a good memory and recalled this was the play Director Jian had mentioned to her before.
She clicked to receive it and connected to the printer, printing it out as well.
Jiang Fu Li reached out to gather the thesis she had printed, took the stapler, and neatly stapled all the printed papers together, “I’m free next Saturday.”
After the thesis finished printing, “Flowers on the Tree” printed out right after.
Jiang Fu Li again took action, stapling the play together.
He had no interest in plays, only glancing at it briefly.
Bai Lian didn’t look at the printed play script first, but rather finished reading the literature Academician Ma had sent her. After a simple translation, it was already close to midnight.
She sent the translated document to Xiao’s email.
When she stood up pressing against the desk, she saw “Flowers on the Tree” beside her. She lowered her head to look at the cover for a moment, then sat down again, reading it under the study’s light.
The forty-some page script wasn’t very long.
Bai Lian read quickly, scanning multiple lines at once.
“Flowers on the Tree” came from military strategy.
The script told such a story, using situation to gain advantage, achieving great effects with small forces, cleverly borrowing from Chen Ye’s battle to create this dramatic story. Chen Ye had learned from Bai Chong Yu, and this was his usual tactic.
It took only five minutes to finish reading the script.
She pressed the computer keyboard, replying to Director Jian —
[The story is good.]
It was almost midnight, but Director Jian hadn’t slept, as if specifically waiting for her reply: [Now then, are you interested?]
Bai Lian leaned back, her pale fingers resting on the keyboard. After thinking for a few minutes, she replied: [Don’t have much time.]
The Tong Feng class schedule was tight, she was also researching problems from the Bo Yuan class, and physics was based on mathematical foundations – doing Wang Xu’s problems was also improving herself.
Academician Ma hadn’t relaxed his expectations of her either, he seemed to be in a hurry.
Bai Lian truly didn’t have much time, and besides… this kind of art, Bai Lian thought, she was too young. Even if Director Jian was confident, the theater people wouldn’t be confident, right?
Of course, she had no awareness that —
The two characters “Bai Jian” had brought such a huge earthquake to the music world in one year.
—
Winter came quickly in Jiang Jing.
Ji Heng found it simple to make summer dresses for Bai Lian, but winter clothes weren’t as quick as before – one piece of clothing took half a month or even longer.
Bai Lian’s wardrobe had gained some clothes sent over by Ming Dong Heng.
When Gao Yan learned about this from Ming Dong Heng, she invited Bai Lian to Qing Xin Tower on Sunday afternoon to have a tailor take her measurements.
Hearing this, Gao Shu also brought out several rare pieces of fabric.
Looking at the fabric she brought, it was delicate with a floating sheen on the surface.
Only Gao Yan and Gao Shu could compete with Ji Heng in this.
Bai Lian stood on the carpet, her hands casually stretched out, her eyes lazily lowered, letting someone take her measurements.
The female tailor wrote down the numbers on paper.
Gao Shu and Gao Yan stood to the side, looking sideways at this scene, finding it very harmonious.
After the measurements, the female tailor took the data and left. Gao Yan beckoned to Bai Lian, asking her to try Qing Xin Tower’s new desserts.
It was at this moment.
Secretary Xue came in from outside, appearing somewhat flustered. She somewhat lost her manners, knocking on the door but barging in, “Mrs. Xu, Miss Bai.”
She stood in the hall, greeting Gao Yan and Bai Lian, before turning to Gao Shu, “Mr. Shi has explicitly rejected your invitation. Today he accepted Vice President Ji’s invitation to watch rehearsals at the theater.”
These were all their own people here.
Gao Yan and Gao Shu had decades of friendship, and as for Bai Lian, she was someone both Jiang Fu Li and Gao Shu approved of.
Secretary Xue had no intention of avoiding the topic.
To prevent Bai Lian from feeling uncomfortable, she didn’t treat her as an outsider.
“He’s clearly decided to stand with Ji Ying Hui?” Gao Shu put down her teacup and stood up. She had approached Shi Qing Yu first, thinking she had some chance of success.
She hadn’t expected Shi Qing Yu to delay for half a month, only to side with Ji Ying Hui at this time, catching her off guard.
Gao Yan usually enjoyed watching Gao Shu’s plays and knew a bit about this. She sat up straight, “Is it troublesome?”
“A bit,” Gao Shu stood up, smiling at Bai Lian and Gao Yan, “I won’t be able to have dinner with you two tonight, I need to go to the theater.”
“It’s fine.” Bai Lian stood up, wearing a simple white top, her eyes dark, reflecting the room’s warm colors, her voice unhurried.
Hearing her voice, Gao Shu calmed her emotions, “Come to my house for dinner in a few days.”
She hurriedly left with her bag.
After Gao Shu left, Gao Yan finally had the chance to explain the theater situation to Bai Lian, “These years haven’t been easy for her. It was better when the old director was there, but if he retires and gives the position to Ji Ying Hui, it will be even harder for Shu Shu at the theater.”
Butler Xu stood behind Gao Yan, also frowning, “This Ji Ying Hui has always acted like a petty person. When Miss Gao was evaluated for vice president, he was also causing trouble.”
Bai Lian lowered her head to blow on her tea foam, quietly listening to Gao Yan’s words.
Until Gao Yan mentioned “Flowers on the Tree,” Bai Lian raised her eyes, “Flowers on the Tree?”
“Yes,” Gao Yan picked up a plum blossom cake and took a bite, “It’s the theater’s new large-scale production, also the old director’s final work. It took five years, and they’ve selected quite a few actors. When it’s officially performed, I’ll take you to see it.”
“They couldn’t find anyone else?” Bai Lian closed the white porcelain lid of her teacup.
“For such a masterpiece, most people wouldn’t dare take it on. Shu Shu first approached Director Jian, there are probably only those two in Jiang Jing, but Director Jian didn’t agree.” Speaking of this, Gao Yan’s fingertips tapped the table, looking at Bai Lian, suddenly having an idea, “Lian Lian, you’re close with Director Jian, why don’t you try persuading him?”
Gao Yan knew that Bai Lian and Director Jian were very familiar, like old friends.
She had seen Liu Shu He interact with Director Jian, completely lacking the ease and harmony that Bai Lian had with Director Jian. Moreover… Gao Yan always felt that when Director Jian mentioned Bai Lian, there was an inexplicable respect.
Especially when mentioning Bai Lian’s teacher.
Gao Yan anxiously looked at Bai Lian.
Bai Lian didn’t speak, only picking up the white jade bone fan she had set aside earlier. The fan was cool in summer and warm in winter. She held it in her right hand, casually opening and closing it, her eyelashes lowered, seeming to be thinking about something.
The private room was silent. Watching her skillfully play with the fan, Gao Yan knew this gift hadn’t been given wrongly.
“Never mind,” she shook her head with a smile, “Director Jian said he had no creative inspiration, even if you persuaded him it might not work. It’s just that Shu Shu this time…”
“No, I was just thinking,” Bai Lian suddenly closed the bone fan, pressing the fan head against her palm, appearing relaxed, “When does she need it by?”
Surprised by Bai Lian’s sudden question.
Gao Yan was stunned, she wasn’t too clear either, “A month or two maybe, it won’t be too urgent.”
“Betting on Wine” came out in just a few days, a month or two…
“That should work,” Bai Lian slightly narrowed her eyes, “If Director Jian can’t do it, I’ll do it.”
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