Rose Lock - Chapter 69

The salty sea wind blew past. The rickshaw stopped, and just as the puller accepted a few copper coins, the woman on the carriage impatiently ran toward the dock. He called out “hey” a couple of times, confused, and then pulled the rickshaw back the way he came.

The woman clutched a small cloth bundle and ran through the streets lined with vendors on both sides. She was jogging, tears welling in her eyes, her nose red and sore. The vast, azure ocean came into view, and the ship’s whistle gave a mournful blast.

As long as she boarded the ship, she could escape this place, escape this absurd “dream.” But with the ticket collector’s loud shout, she woke up as if from a dream. She stopped at the end of the queue, her eyes blank. Slowly, she turned her head to look back, at the endless prosperity, the coastal city where she had lived since childhood. This was where her roots were, where her home was, and where her parents lay in the hills behind the town.

How could she abandon her hometown because of a despicable woman?

Night fell, and Hua Manyi found a small hotel to stay in, passing two days in a daze. It was raining this day. Pedestrians on the road were sparse, and scattered idlers sat on the steps of tearooms and foreign banks. Rickshaw pullers smoked water pipes nearby, listening to the others’ loud discussions, occasionally chiming in with agreement.

“I heard the Yuan family’s mansion was bought.”

“Wasn’t it sealed by the police? How could it be bought?”

“Hah! That’s what you don’t know. Although it was sealed, others can buy it after a certain number of years have passed.”

A man smoking a water pipe was smugly sharing the gossip he had picked up elsewhere. Seeing the confusion on the faces of the people around him, his vanity was satisfied. Just as he was about to take a puff of his pipe, his peripheral vision caught a figure suddenly opening an umbrella and running into the rain. Judging by the figure, it was a woman.

The foul men at the tearoom also noticed the figure. A deep-colored qipao under the oiled paper umbrella swayed slightly in the rain, the curvy figure gradually blurring in the curtain of rain. Unfortunately, the rain was too heavy and the night too dark, making them abandon the idea of whistling or teasing.

Hua Manyi ran all the way to the Yuan family’s mansion with her umbrella. Looking across the wide street, she stopped in disbelief. The Yuan family’s house, which had been sealed along with her Hua family’s house, had unexpectedly seen the light of day again today.

Foreign guards stood at the entrance, and the gate was brightly lit, with many people moving around, seemingly cleaning. Hua Manyi was stopped as soon as she approached. The person spoke a string of foreign words that Hua Manyi didn’t understand, but she still wanted to know who had bought the house of her best friend, Yuan Nai.

Could Yuan Nai be back?!

As soon as this thought flashed, Hua Manyi became excited. The Yuan and Hua families were famous opium magnates in Haicheng (Sea City). The two families were like siblings, helping each other. She and Yuan Nai, the daughter of the Yuan family, grew up together, were best friends, and deeply affectionate sisters. But the day the incident happened, she felt like the sky had collapsed. Her home was gone, and her parents were arrested by the police and imprisoned in Nancheng (South City).

For those few days, she begged all her relatives, but not a single one was willing to lend a helping hand until she was picked up by Gong Yan and became a singing girl at Fenghai. When she finally came to her senses, she could no longer find Yuan Nai.

During the argument, a blonde, blue-eyed woman walked out of the main gate. She spoke in reasonably fluent Chinese, introducing herself as Ailiya (Ariel/Aliya), and said her master had bought the mansion. Hua Manyi wanted to ask about Yuan Nai’s whereabouts, but before she could speak, Ailiya was called back by a female voice. Helpless, she had no choice but to retreat, planning to find another opportunity to ask clearly another day.

The rain had lessened. Hua Manyi turned around and walked back to the hotel, stepping on the wet pavement. The hotel was on the street, with faint electric lights on both sides of the road casting a soft glow. She could barely see the road and the surrounding buildings.

A car’s headlights shone over. Hua Manyi leaned toward the roadside, walking with her gaze lowered. Her peripheral vision caught the familiar license plate, and her heart suddenly tightened. The hand holding the oiled paper umbrella couldn’t help but clench. Subconsciously, she looked toward the back seat but then quickly averted her eyes, hurrying forward.

However, the scene of that woman sitting in the back seat with her eyes closed kept replaying in her mind, and there was a pair of hands rubbing her temples.

The woman was a newcomer, but she was fair and pretty. Perhaps she was the next star singer at Fenghai.

For several days in a row, Hua Manyi waited for someone at the Yuan family mansion, but she just couldn’t wait for the woman named Ailiya. Even before long, those people disappeared as well, leaving no trace. If the seal on the main gate hadn’t been removed, Hua Manyi would have even suspected it was a dream.

But this gave her one piece of information: her Hua family’s ancestral home could be bought back. Hua Manyi no longer dwelled on who bought the Yuan family’s mansion. She only had one thought now: to buy back her own house.

It wasn’t until she went out looking for work and hit roadblocks everywhere that she realized she was useless except for having a good singing voice.

In front of the Paramount Ballroom, Boss Sun frowned, “Miss Manyi, you’re putting this old man in a difficult position. Everyone knows you belong to Madam Gong. It’s only been a few days, and you’re saying you want to be a singing girl here. People who don’t know better will think I’m trying to steal people from Fenghai and openly oppose Madam Gong. I can’t do that.”

Hua Manyi heard that woman’s name again, and her face paled. Although Gong Yan hadn’t pursued the matter of her indenture, she thought she had gained her freedom, only to find that the paper still restricted her everywhere.

“Boss Sun, I’m no longer with Fenghai,” Hua Manyi said calmly.

Boss Sun raised an eyebrow, “Is that true? If so, then let me see the indenture Madam Gong gave you. If there’s no problem, you can sign another contract with me.”

“I can, but I have one condition: I sell my art, not my body,” Hua Manyi was cautious this time.

Boss Sun agreed instantly, “No problem.”

After receiving the promise, Hua Manyi felt a slight sense of relief. Now, all that remained was to retrieve her indenture contract from Gong Yan. Arriving in front of Luhuo Winery, she looked through the green-painted iron gate at the villa built against the mountainside. Hua Manyi bit her lower lip and pressed the doorbell. The gatekeeper came over to inquire.

“I want to see Gong Yan.”

“Do you have an appointment?” the gatekeeper asked.

Hua Manyi shook her head, and the gatekeeper looked troubled, “Miss, without an appointment, we are not allowed to let anyone in.”

“Then could you please inform her? I am Hua Manyi, and I have something to discuss with her.” The sun was blazing, and Hua Manyi felt anxious standing outside the gate.

A short while later, the gatekeeper jogged back and let her in.

Hua Manyi followed the gatekeeper all the way to the villa. At the entrance, she encountered Butler Fu, who seemed to be talking to a doctor, vaguely mentioning something about “a bad stomach… needing more rest these few days…”

Hua Manyi suddenly recalled the scene she had witnessed two nights ago in the rain—the woman in the back seat looking pale and fatigued.

With a complicated mood, she went upstairs. No one was in the living room. Hua Manyi saw the bedroom door ajar. She hesitated whether to go over, but by the time she reacted, she was already in front of the bedroom door.

“Mother Gong, I’ll go get you a glass of water.” A graceful female voice came from inside the door, startling Hua Manyi. She soon bumped right into the woman at the doorway.

The woman asked in surprise, “You are?”

Hua Manyi instantly recognized who this woman was—the woman who had massaged Gong Yan in the back seat that day. Thinking of this, Hua Manyi’s expression was indifferent, “I am Hua Manyi. I have something to discuss with Gong Yan.”

Lin Wanyi sized her up for a few seconds, then opened the door and let her in, “Mother Gong, a Miss Hua Manyi is looking for you.”

Hua Manyi nodded slightly and walked in, seeing Gong Yan sitting on a chair. Thinking of what had happened before, an inexplicable timidity arose, “Mother Gong, I’ve come to ask for my indenture contract.”

“What? Did your Ian not solve this for you? So you have to come see me personally?” Gong Yan walked toward her. Although her face was pale and bloodless, her beautiful, almond-shaped eyes were full of scrutiny and sarcasm, “Did I not tell you never to let me see you again in this lifetime?”

Hua Manyi’s scalp tightened. She took two steps back in fear, biting her lip and taking a deep breath, “The indenture contract is my own business. Why should I look for Ian?”

Gong Yan sneered, seeing the fear in her eyes, “Since you’re afraid, why did you dare to come alone? Aren’t you afraid of what I might do to you?”

As soon as she finished speaking, Hua Manyi instantly thought of what had happened that day—being inexplicably slept with so many times by her, yet utterly powerless to resist. She had calmed down these days. Some things that happened just happened. It was her fault for misjudging the person back then, never expecting the person she liked to be this kind of person. She’d just consider it a moment of blindness!

“Mother Gong, I know you are not short of people and can have anything you want. But I am just an ordinary person. The indenture contract is nothing but a piece of paper to you. Please let me go.”

“Let you go?” Gong Yan suddenly laughed, “Hua Manyi, you really know how to twist the truth!”

Suddenly, there was the sound of something being knocked over outside the door, accompanied by a scream. Hua Manyi watched the woman in front of her change expression, turn around, open the door, and rush out. She also followed to see what was going on.

“Mother Gong, I accidentally knocked over your water glass, and the carpet is also stained. I didn’t mean to.” Lin Wanyi was squatting amidst the broken glass, apologizing repeatedly while picking up the glass with her hand.

Gong Yan frowned, “Stop picking it up. I’ll have someone clean it later.”

There was another small gasp. Hua Manyi watched as the woman named Lin Wanyi’s fingertip was cut by a piece of broken glass. Bright red blood dripped, and her delicate eyebrows were tightly knitted in pain, making her look pitiable. However, seeing Gong Yan approach, those eyes, clear as water and autumn, always seemed to hold a few indescribable meanings.

Hua Manyi’s face paled slightly.

“Mother Gong… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cut myself.” Lin Wanyi was filled with self-reproach.

“I told you not to touch it. Why did you touch it?” Gong Yan pulled the person up. Just then, she saw Butler Fu coming up and ordered him to call the maidservants to clean up, and then asked Butler Fu to take her downstairs for bandaging.

After the maidservants finished cleaning, only she and Gong Yan were left in the vast living room.

“She… who is she to you?” As soon as the words left her mouth, Hua Manyi suddenly realized what she had said, feeling annoyed. Things were different now. She was no longer the most favored singing girl of Fenghai.

“What is she to me? What does that have to do with you?” Gong Yan scoffed, sarcastically mocking her for being nosy. She picked up a glass of wine and drank it, “You came to me for the indenture contract. Are you going to be a singing girl at the Paramount Ballroom?”

“How do you know?” Hua Manyi frowned, trembling with anger, “You sent people to investigate me?!”

“I investigate you?” Gong Yan countered with a light sneer, “Hua Manyi, I only just discovered how arrogant you are. Boss Sun told me about you going to the Paramount Ballroom early on.”

Hua Manyi’s face flushed crimson from the mockery. She couldn’t help but retort, “Even so, you don’t need to humiliate me like this. My perspective and knowledge are not as broad as yours, so naturally, I don’t know these things.”

“Since Mother Gong, you know I’m going to the Paramount Ballroom…” Hua Manyi glanced at the time. It was getting late. She had to get the indenture contract as soon as possible. She swallowed her anger and pleaded, “Then can you return my indenture contract to me? I believe Mother Gong certainly won’t quibble with a small woman like me, right?”

“Is this your attitude when begging? Begging me openly, but secretly mocking me for being narrow-minded?” Gong Yan sat on the sofa, her expression cold. Whenever she closed her eyes, her mind was filled with Hua Manyi’s words cursing her as a pervert. She had said all the good and bad things. Now, when she came to beg for her indenture contract back, she acted as if Gong Yan owed her something.

A rustling sound came from behind. Gong Yan frowned and looked back, only to see the woman, who was originally arrogant and self-righteous, slowly unbuttoning her qipao one by one. Her eyes gradually turned red and moist. She was clearly sobbing but still stubbornly held her neck stiffly and continued.

The qipao dropped to the floor. Hua Manyi’s arms hung down at her sides. She stared fixedly at Gong Yan, her lips pale, “Then… how about this? Mother Gong, can I have my indenture contract back now?”

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