Rose Lock - Chapter 18

Hua Manyi looked at the woman in front of her, who was speaking English excitedly and rapidly, and felt a bit confused. She turned her head and asked Xiaoxiao beside her, “Xiaoxiao, do you know what she’s saying?”

Xiaoxiao’s eyes widened, and she waved her hands, as if afraid she would be asked to translate, “Sister Manyi, don’t look at me, I don’t know English either.”

Hua Manyi: “…”

Hua Manyi felt her scalp prickle. If she had known, she would have paid attention in her junior high school classes. Now she was embarrassed, unable to understand a single word.

The beautiful and sexy foreign lady in front of her spoke a lot, but damn it, she couldn’t understand a single sentence. However, when she saw the other person wanting to hug her, she understood. She smiled and exchanged a hug with the woman. Just as they were about to part, the woman placed a kiss on her cheek.

Hua Manyi froze but quickly realized it was a foreigner’s cheek kiss greeting. She could only smile and nod.

Ian looked at the beautiful young lady in front of her, recognizing her as the person she had been looking for, but noticed that the other person seemed to have no reaction to her, and even seemed not to understand.

In a corner of the café, the three people suddenly fell silent. Hua Manyi was agonizing over how to escape this awkward situation.

“Xiaoxiao, how about I say I need to go to the restroom, and you stay here and chat with her for a bit?”

Xiaoxiao glared at her, quickly gripped her arm, and held onto her, “Sister Manyi, don’t you dare try to run away and leave me here alone.”

“What do you mean ‘run away and leave you’? This is strategy, do you understand, strategy?” Hua Manyi whispered into her ear, while trying to avoid the foreign lady’s bewildered gaze.

“I don’t understand,” Xiaoxiao said confidently, “But leaving me behind is not okay.”

“…”

“Hello, Miss. This is my employer, Miss Ian.”

A sudden female voice made the two mistress and servant immediately fall silent, and they simultaneously turned their gaze to the woman standing next to the foreign lady.

“Uh… hello.”

“I am the translator hired by Miss Ian. My name is Deng Tao. Miss Ian said she hadn’t considered the language barrier just now, and it was her oversight. She apologizes.”

“It’s nothing, it’s nothing…” Hua Manyi examined the translator named Deng Tao. A dark green jacket, trousers, a square hat, and neat white gloves—she looked completely like a female secret agent.

The moment Ian spoke, Deng Tao translated almost immediately. This speed of reaction truly made Hua Manyi feel ashamed of herself.

Xiaoxiao: She is a woman of great capability.

With the language barrier gone, Hua Manyi learned, through Deng Tao’s translation, that this sexy foreign lady named Ian was from Bohemia, had traveled a long way to Haicheng with her uncle for business, and enjoyed painting in her spare time. She also learned that Ian had sent the scroll, written the letter, and personally arranged for the painstakingly made pastries to be left there.

“Are they delicious?” Ian sat opposite her, propping up her beautiful chin. Her well-defined jawline, olive-green eyes, and thin, incredibly sexy lips were particularly enchanting in the twilight.

Hua Manyi was somewhat mesmerized. Her eyes kept unconsciously drifting to those olive-green eyes, like emeralds. She couldn’t help but sigh inwardly, wondering how someone could be so beautiful.

Suddenly, a coolness touched her lips, and Hua Manyi snapped out of her daze, momentarily stunned.

“Don’t move, let me wipe it for you.” Ian still spoke in English, but the translator beside them very discreetly did not translate.

Hua Manyi felt the delicate pad of a finger gently wipe the corner of her mouth. After the touch withdrew, she couldn’t help but look at Ian’s fingers. With just one glance, she was overwhelmed with shame.

The other person’s beautiful, slender fingers were stained with chocolate because of her.

“Thank you.” Hua Manyi’s face was flushed, and she felt somewhat uneasy.

“It’s nothing, Miss Manyi, you are too lovely,” Ian chuckled.

They hadn’t chatted for long when Xiaoxiao reminded her that it was time to go back, as she had her shift that evening.

Ian understood and offered to drive her back since she had a car. Hua Manyi felt the other person was too enthusiastic, and she couldn’t handle it, so she excused herself by saying Fenghai was nearby and she didn’t need a ride. Ian had no choice but to drop the idea.

…

In a spacious, upscale ballroom in Haicheng, a large evening party was taking place.

Jiang Yin and Gong Yan were seated in a window corner on the second floor. The center stage was a social gathering for various literati, distinguished ladies, and young women. A half-height gramophone softly flowed with a leisurely and gentle melody. People were engrossed and lost in their waltzes and couple dances.

“A’Yan, what’s wrong?”

Jiang Yin was a little worried about the woman in front of her. The bottle of red wine on the table hadn’t been touched, but she had smoked almost half a pack of cigarettes. Sometimes when Jiang Yin asked her something, she seemed to be drifting off.

Jiang Yin decided she must be deep in thought and didn’t dwell on it. “A’Yan, I want to dance.”

Before she could get a response, Jiang Yin saw the woman opposite her suddenly summon Fu Bo, seemingly asking him something. Jiang Yin pursed her lips and reluctantly fixed her gaze on the hand holding her wine glass, tapping it gently with her finger.

“Is Hua Manyi performing tonight?”

Fu Bo leaned in to hear the question, already accustomed to it. “Yes, Madam.”

Gong Yan checked the time, picked up her bag, stood up, and said to Jiang Yin, “Jiang Yin, it’s getting late. I’ll take you home.”

Jiang Yin looked at her in confusion, then looked at the men and women on the dance floor, laughing and chatting while dancing. “But…”

Before she could finish her sentence, the woman in front of her had already turned and headed downstairs. Jiang Yin bit her lower lip, a faint “Alright” dissolving into the music.

After dropping Jiang Yin off, Fu Bo immediately turned the car around and drove towards Fenghai. He knew that ever since a certain day, whenever Miss Manyi performed at night, his Madam would go back and pull her away from those rich young wastrels.

It seemed his Madam was not entirely cold-hearted and ruthless.

The familiar neon sign appeared around the corner ahead. Perhaps because tonight was Miss Hua Manyi’s first performance since her leg injury healed, but the night was already late, and there were few people at the entrance of Fenghai, only footprints on the ground indicating that the place had been crowded not long ago. As the car drove closer, Bai Ling’s singing could be faintly heard inside.

“Madam, we have arrived.” Fu Bo parked the car and followed Gong Yan inside.

He had expected to see a drunken Miss Manyi still struggling to entertain guests and drink with them, but the scene before him made him surprised.

A quick scan of the hall showed no sign of her. He wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

However, the Madam’s expression clearly suggested she thought it was a bad thing, especially when she heard Xiaoxiao report that Miss Manyi had taken a guest upstairs to her room. The ambient temperature unconsciously dropped by several degrees.

“What were you doing? Why didn’t you stop her? She was drunk, and you just let her take someone upstairs?” Gong Yan suppressed her anger and turned to walk up the stairs.

Xiaoxiao was stunned by the scolding. “B-but… Sister Manyi didn’t drink tonight.”

Perhaps due to the surrounding noise, Gong Yan did not hear this and stepped straight onto the wooden staircase.

“Miss Ian, is this pose correct?”

Deng Tao translated impassively beside her.

Ian stood up, thoughtfully glanced at the woman lying on the long sofa with her curves highlighted, and nodded in satisfaction, “Just like that, very good.”

Hua Manyi looked down at her wine-red silk nightgown. Her slender arms luckily hadn’t gained weight in the past month, and the wavy perm close to her forehead made her look even more alluring.

After she finished singing tonight, she had expected to have to entertain guests with drinking again. Who knew that this foreign lady named Ian would ask her to keep her company. At first, she was surprised that a woman would dare to come here, but then she thought, people have open minds, why couldn’t they come to listen to a song girl sing? Maybe the person was even cultivating her taste.

Later, the person truly was cultivating her taste. After listening to the song, she even suggested drawing a portrait of her. See, what a refined interest! It was completely different from those stinky men full of dirty ideas. She was beautiful, sweet-voiced, and incredibly capable. There was only one slight drawback: she couldn’t understand a word of the English the other person spoke. But she had brought her own translator, and with such sincere hospitality, how could Hua Manyi refuse?

The bright overhead light was turned off, and the small lamp beside the sofa was turned on instead. The oily yellow light poured out, shining on the people, as if they were in a movie.

Suddenly, a scream escaped from the beautiful woman’s mouth, “A moth!”

The beauty was terrified. Ian quickly put down her paintbrush and stood up, asking in English, “What happened? What’s wrong?”

Deng Tao, standing not far away, was momentarily at a loss as to whose words to translate first, as the two were speaking too quickly for her to catch the main points.

“Quickly, get it away!”

Hua Manyi frantically tumbled off the sofa. Ian cried out “Careful,” and reached out to grab her, but due to the momentum, she couldn’t hold onto her and was instead pulled down onto the floor.

Hua Manyi’s face sank into something soft. Before she could react, the room door was suddenly flung open. The light from the hall outside instantly shone in, falling upon her, like a divine judgment.

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