Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The curly-haired elderly lady spoke in a hushed tone, barely audible to anyone nearby.
“Is that her? That young lady from Block 17?”
“Oh, it’s her alright.”
“She seems rather normal, don’t you think? Not as terrifying as Old Wang had described.”
“I accidentally touched her hand just now.”
“Was there anything wrong with her hand?”
“It was cold, like ice. Gave me quite a scare back there.”
Zhou Xufang touched her own hands. They were indeed cold, just like the old lady had described. Her body temperature was significantly lower than that of a regular human after all. If only the old lady had whispered softer, Xufang wouldn’t have unintentionally eavesdropped on their conversation about her. This was because her hearing was over twenty times more sensitive than the average person. The curly-haired lady lived in the building next to hers and was a fan of Mahjong. It was just last night, a few hours after midnight, that she had been woken up by the excited yelling of the said lady when she had presumably won a game despite the pair of noise-canceling earplugs she had stuffed into her ear canals.
After parking the tricycle cart in the garage, Zhou Xufang, instead of walking to the elevator, climbed up to the first floor where the entrance to the building’s main stairwell was located.
She looked behind her shoulder to check that the coast was clear. Seeing that there was no one, she meowed once.
From underneath a pile of abandoned furniture at the bottom of the stairwell climbed out a single gray cat. It peered up at the woman timidly.
“Meow.”
So, it was a gray cat.
Zhou Xufang pulled the tab of the canned cat food open before setting it down on the floor next to a bowl in which she poured the water that she had just bought from the grocery store. The cat meowed a few times, perhaps to thank her, before happily digging into tonight’s feast.
The cat did not flinch nor show any signs of hostility when she gently stroked its head as it ate.
“Could it be that I am a cat monster?” She murmured to herself, to which the cat responded with a meow.
Pursing her lips, Zhou Xufang’s facial expression showed hints of sadness in her heart.
“I’m sorry but I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“Meow~”
She tried mimicking the cat’s ‘words’ if you could call it that.
“Meow.”
“Meow.” The cat mewled in response.
That didn’t seem to be the case, though. Like the cat, she could jump very high, but she was not a cat monster, and neither was she an aquatic monster. After squatting there for a while, long enough for the kitty to finish its dinner, she slowly stood up and proceeded up the stairs. The moon was shining brightly outside and the streetlamps emitted that same sterile, white lighting. Suddenly, the sensor-activated system of Block 17 lit up the entire building from the first to the seventh floor, joining the sea of lights outside.
Ring!
A new message had arrived on Wechat.
Zhou Xufang tapped on the notification pop-up which brought her into the actual app. Apart from ‘WeChat Pay’, ‘the WeChat team’, and a handful of other public accounts, there was only a single contact on her message log, labeled “Group Leader”.
Group Leader: [Kana Film and Television City announcement: The “Wu Ye” film crew will be having a shoot scheduled on the 10th, which is tomorrow. The crew is seeking ten male and twelve female actors (eligible ages: 20~35 y.o.). Males must be 170cm or more and females, 160cm or more. Estimated cost, around 150 yuan (will end around 3 pm in the afternoon). Meet up with the crew at the C1 subway entrance of the Film and Television City.]
Group Leader: [Register here now. Participants will be selected on a first come first serve basis!]
The headquarter of the Jiang family was located on the outskirts of the imperial capital. It had a massive courtyard of its own and was a four-story-tall antique building. It had a grand appearance from the outside and was the residence of the Jiang matriarch. Normally, members of the family wouldn’t appear in this place as they, instead, would be elsewhere running the country, or concluding billion-dollar deals. Even so, there was one rule which Madame Jiang had laid down that they must abide with. On the first and fifteenth day of the lunar calendar, everyone, no matter how tied up they were with their work, must come round to this place for a gathering.
Madame Jiang had five sons and daughters under her as well as a dozen or so grandchildren, all of whom had arrived today except for the heir, Jiang Zhi. No one dared to defy the madame’s words except for him.
“Granny.”
Sat next to Madame Jiang was a young lady from the fourth room who had lost both her parents long ago and had since been raised by the hands of the Madame. Her mother had been the fourth oldest in the family and was the daughter that Madame Jiang had loved the most.
The young lady had had her surname changed to her mother’s and had recognized the Madame as her only grandmother. The madame had also given her a new name, Fuxi, since then.
Jiang Fuxi turned to the madame and said, “It’s already 8 pm, you’ll get an upset stomach. Please have some soup first.”
She had a gentle and virtuous personality. Her looks were not too bad either, which earned her the love of Madame Jiang. When the Madame heard her words, her tense face loosened up before she replied, “We’ll wait a little longer for Brother Zhi.”
Jiang Fuxi had no choice but to agree.
During the banquet, the daughter-in-law from the second room asked, “Mother, have you heard about the issue in regards to the Ming family?”
The second son of the Madame, Jiang Weili, had married the third daughter of the Luo family, Luo Changfang.
As of this year, the Madame was seventy-three years old. Her ancestors were officials of the capital and hundreds of year’s worth of family heritage had been passed down continuously since then. She was raised by a family of elites, and even at her advanced age, her hair remained meticulous. She wore an elegant purple cheongsam traditionally woven from silk and her eyes were as sharp as when she was twenty. One could clearly understand from all these factors that the old lady was a refined and intelligent individual.
“What issue?”
Luo Changfang frowned as she explained.
“Brother Zhi had apparently ordered for the fourth child of the Ming family to be tossed into the sea. She gulped in more than a mouthful of seawater during that incident and has remained hospitalized since then.”
Phrased like that, it was clearly a complaint.
There was no one else left in the third room except for Jiang Zhi, the lone bean sprout. This was why he was treasured the most by the Madame, which invoked the jealousy of the people from the other rooms.
“Oh, I’ve caught wind of it.”
The old madame said as she quietly sipped her tea. Her expression was the same as always, showing neither anger nor happiness.
Ordering people to throw someone else’s daughter into the sea was definitely something that a learned heir of a noble family shouldn’t do. Luo Changfang showed a look of dissatisfaction on her face as she complained.
“Don’t you think that Brother Zhi has gone overboard with this? The young’uns were just engaged in horseplay, who would’ve thought that it wou–”
The madame interrupted Luo Changfang’s complaint.
“Horseplay?”
She placed the cover of the teacup down onto the table. Raising her head, her sharp gaze pierced right into her sulking daughter-in-law.
“Do you seriously think that horseplay is something that Brother Zhi can engage in with that fragile body of his?”
“…”
As a mere daughter-in-law, there was nothing she could say to retort to the madame’s question. It was a fact that the old lady had spoiled her grandson rotten. Even so, no one dared to speak up against this. After the little skirmish, the two sat quietly in place, awaiting the arrival of Jiang Zhi.
“Brother Lin.”
Madame Jiang called out.
“I want you to temporarily suspend the joint-project with the Ming family.”
Brother Lin was the eldest grandson of the Jiang family who was also the sole child produced by the madame’s eldest son. There weren’t too many male grandchildren from the Jiang family, so other than Jiang Zhi, Jiang Xiaolin was also a member of the family who carried a great deal of significance.
Understanding his grandmother’s order, Jiang Xiaolin nodded.
Right around this time, the housekeeper, Jiangchuan came into the room to announce Jiang Zhi’s arrival.
“Madame, the young master has arrived.”
The sound of his coughing came even before the man himself entered the room.
The young master was finally here.
At last, a smile could be seen on Madame Jiang’s face. She turned to the young lady seated beside her and gave an order.
“Fuxi, go get some clothes for Brother Zhi.”
Fuxi rose from her seat and went away to retrieve some clothes for the young master.
Jiang Zhi’s body was weak. As winter approached, the autumn nights were getting colder, which in turn exacerbated his condition.
The madame asked the housekeeper, “Is the soup for Brother Zhi ready?”
“We’re warming it up in the kitchen,” Jiangchuan replied.
After the young master’s discharge from the hospital at noon, a tonic soup had already been stewing away in the kitchen. There was only one person in the entire Jiang family who would get this sort of treatment from the madame.
“Quick, bring it over.” The madame ordered with a great smile on her face.
“Understood.”
“Granny.”
Jiang Zhi greeted her from the doorway before slowly making his way in. His footsteps were exceptionally slow, but that was already enough to make him pant. There were even times when he would burst out coughing.
At the sight of her beloved grandson, Madame Jiang rose from her seat with the aid of a cane to beckon Jiang Zhi over.
“Brother Zhi, quick, come over to Granny’s side.”
Members of the Jiang family who occupied both tables all stood up alongside the old madame. No matter how much they disliked Jiang Zhi, they had no choice but to help the delicate young master.
Jiang Zhi was the product of the madame’s heart and soul. He was more precious than any gem she owned, and if she could, she would have created a heaven made specifically for the young master.
It was a cloudy morning on the day after, and the young master Jiang was facing another problem on set. The script he clutched in hand was flung at the ground followed by a firm “Stop.”.