The Vanishing Beauty - Chapter 4 - 7

Chapter 4 - 7

At first, Yumeng didn't understand why Weng Yue was willing to accompany her abroad to see her son during the Spring Festival. Weng Yue had an older brother and a niece, and during a special moment like the Lunar New Year, she ought to have been reuniting with her family. Perhaps she found Weng Yang to be a nuisance? Yet even if her brother wasn't up to much, as an aunt, she should at least have considered her niece's feelings.

Weng Yue didn't have children. Her eldest niece was quite important. In all likelihood, she would be an important companion in her later years.

However, upon arriving at the school and meeting Haoyu and Zhengyu, Weng Yue suddenly announced she was going to visit a friend—a child.

A young girl.

Yumeng was enlightened.

This girl was Weng Yue's true target. Oh no, wait, not the girl herself; in all probability, the man behind the girl—for instance, her father—was Weng Yue's target.

Weng Yue had not yet accepted her fate and was attempting to "save the nation by a roundabout path."

Yumeng asked her son Haoyu to inquire about the girl. Haoyu was startled. The person his mother was asking about was none other than Han Xiqian, with whom he was currently deeply and sweetly in love. Yet romance was precisely what his mother Yumeng had repeatedly and strictly forbidden.

"She's just an ordinary girl," Haoyu fudged.

Yumeng was not satisfied with this answer.

"Her family is quite wealthy," Haoyu added.

Now Yumeng was satisfied. Flies do not bite uncracked eggs. Would Weng Yue go out of her way to suck up to the daughter of a penniless family? Seeing that his mother's expression was shifting between clear and stormy, Haoyu quickly played his trump card.

"Dad has been here."

Luan Chengyun? Didn't he not have the time?

Going back on his word. A crafty businessman.

"Did he say anything?"

"No."

"He gave you your living expenses, right?" Yumeng asked with concern. She was still bitter about how little he had left her during their divorce settlement.

"He did," Haoyu replied. "Mom, I stand firmly on your side."

Mentioning her ex-husband threw Yumeng's mind into utter chaos, leaving her in no mood to ask about the girl. However, such a minor matter could not stump Yumeng. Taking advantage of the window while Weng Yue took the girl out to eat and shop, she had already dug out the connections behind the girl. Her father was named Han Guang. It seemed he had once worked at the same company as Weng Yue, though his rank was much higher than hers. While Weng Yue was a director of a company, Han Guang was a director of several firms. Photos of Han Guang could be found online—a few brief video clips of him attending events. With so many people around, he was hidden in the crowd and hard to see clearly, but one thing was certain: his looks were utterly ordinary. He couldn't compare to Zuliang Cai at all.

Liangcai had also contacted her before the New Year. She had told him she was going abroad, and he hadn't pursued the invitation further. With an official post to his name, he couldn't travel abroad casually, so accompanying her was out of the question. However, he had asked for her itinerary and said he would pick her up at the airport when she returned.

Jiang Taigong fishing—those who wish to take the bait will hang themselves on it.

Yumeng felt that up to this point, she held the upper hand in her relationship with Zuliang Cai. Unlike Weng Yue, who—humph—was pathetic enough to suck up to another man's daughter. Yet precisely because of this point, Yumeng also felt she could be friends with Weng Yue. They were both women who could not live without a man. Even a woman like Weng Yue, who had no financial pressures left in her entire life, still wished to receive a man's love.

This had nothing to do with money.

Money was often merely the byproduct of realized value. Women needed to be doted on by men, and men needed to be tormented by women—this was the way of heaven... The Dao generates one, one generates two, two generates three, and three generates all things. Where there is heaven, there is earth; where there is yin, there is yang. Men and women are naturally meant to be together... Yumeng completely failed to understand Yushuang's monastic, ascetic independence and persistence.

After consecutive meals of Western food, Yumeng and Weng Yue fled to Chinatown to eat roast duck in order to rescue their palates. It was served. It didn't taste the same as back home, but they ate it anyway.

"This is why I hate going abroad," Yumeng said.

Weng Yue smiled. "I didn't see you eating much back home either."

"When you have it, you don't care; when you don't have it, you want it. People are just that cheap," Yumeng remarked. "You sit and look at the second while wanting the third and demanding the fourth—never satisfied."

"I really envy you, having two big sons," Weng Yue said, half-jokingly and half-seriously. She had undergone abortions in her youth—several times. Whether she could still bear children was an unsolved mystery.

"You can have children too."

"It's not that easy."

"Oh, come on," Yumeng said, waving her arm with the flexibility of kelp. "My dear Director Weng, you want a child, isn't that a matter of minutes?"

"Getting pregnant is easy to solve; the problem is with whom," Weng Yue raised the crucial question, maintaining a stubborn front.

Yumeng didn't pick up the thread. Of course, she wasn't foolish enough to bring up Han Guang directly. Some things could only come out of Weng Yue's own mouth. If she initiated it herself, it would be a mistake. "That little girl is quite pretty, though," Yumeng tossed out a lead. She had accompanied Weng Yue to meet Han Xiqian and had even snapped a stealthy photo of the young girl.

Weng Yue remained silent, rolling up a piece of roast duck and shoving it into her mouth.

This topic could no longer be discussed.

Yumeng changed the subject. "A woman must never be too proactive."

Weng Yue replied with neither warmth nor coolness, "That's you."

"Really, whether a beauty or plain, if you're too proactive, people will think you're cheap." Yumeng was preaching her philosophy of love, despite having only a handful of pitiful romances herself. "You have to hold your ground." Weng Yue playfully refuted her a few times, both of them chuckling away.

Two people walked in: a man and a woman.

Facing directly toward the entrance, Weng Yue spotted them first. Her smile faded instantly.

"What is it?" Yumeng put down her chopsticks and looked back.

A woman was linked arm-in-arm with Luan Chengyun, and the two walked over to take seats at a table right next to Yumeng and Weng Yue. Yumeng felt as though she had swallowed a fly. He was everywhere! And he had brought along some slutty piece! He came to see his son and brought her? Why hadn't Haoyu mentioned it? The bastard! Talking all that nonsense about remarrying while chasing after mistresses faster than anyone else!

A man's mouth is a lying ghost!

Hmph! Humph! Bah!

"Don't look at him," Yumeng lowered her voice, speaking to Weng Yue.

Weng Yue smiled and adjusted her line of sight.

Yumeng spat again, "What terrible taste! Bringing a wild chicken! And this is a duck restaurant!"

Weng Yue urged her to keep her voice down.

Yumeng retorted, "He has no shame himself, why should we run away?"

Weng Yue pushed her small plate forward. "It's not as simple as you think."

"Where's the complexity?"

"What if he's here to talk business?"

"I don't care!"

"Old Luan is a multi-millionaire now, you know."

This was the second time Weng Yue had brought this up. It seemed she had done plenty of investigating and research. A little bell went off in Yumeng's mind. Could Weng Yue be interested in Luan Chengyun? No, her interest in that girl with the surname Han was genuine. But that didn't rule out the possibility of casting a wide net—the girl's father was her catch, and for all she knew, old Luan might be too. Weng Yue looked up. Luan Chengyun was glancing in their direction. Weng Yue warned, "He's looking over at us."

"Let's eat our own food," Yumeng said.

"Not even going to say hello? You were friends."

Yumeng didn't answer and took a big bite. That was her attitude. The woman by Luan Chengyun's side was likely a high-end escort brought along to travel and satisfy his animalistic urges.

After a short while, Luan and his female companion stood up to leave.

Passing by Yumeng and Weng Yue's table, he came to a halt and smiled, saying, "Such a small world."

Yumeng stared intently at the roast duck bones.

Weng Yue returned the smile, "It's fate."

Luan added, "Our son's tuition has already been paid." He said it for Yumeng to hear, and for Weng Yue as well. Yumeng stubbornly kept her neck stiff. Once divorced, they were no longer friends.

His female companion linked her arm through Luan Chengyun's once more, and they gracefully departed.

Once they walked out of the restaurant doors, Weng Yue announced she was going to pay the bill. Turning back around after a moment, Weng Yue smiled and said, "Old Luan already paid for us."

Meddling busybody! Showing off like a stinking show-off!

All the way back to their accommodation, Yumeng felt as though a heavy stone were wedged in her chest. Her son's tuition being taken care of and someone else helping to pay the bill should have been good things. But since the person who did it was Luan Chengyun, and he had mentioned it right in front of Weng Yue, it carried the subtle implication of intentionally humiliating her. He had plenty of money now, yet when they divorced he hadn't been willing to bleed a single drop? Now that his "encrypted" business had grown massive, he could patronize prostitutes and run amok every single day? Why didn't he encrypt the thing between his legs instead? Knowing Yumeng was displeased, Weng Yue came over to comfort her, though it sounded more like satire: "You have two precious sons, and he's made money—what more could you possibly be dissatisfied with?"

"It's not about the money."

Weng Yue dried her hair. "Then what is it? Feelings? After so many years, romance is bound to transform into familial affection; that's entirely normal."

"You talk as if you've been married for decades."

"Even if I haven't eaten pork, haven't I seen a pig run?" Weng Yue said. "Old Luan isn't bad."

Yumeng's first instinct: Was she sent by him? Acting as a lobbyist? It didn't seem like it. Then why was she always speaking up on behalf of the enemy? Yumeng had countless hardships she couldn't put into words; speaking bluntly would make her lose face entirely. Could she say Luan had loose ties outside and was messing around unclearly with numerous women? Could she say he had hit her? Could she say she felt entirely disrespected? Could she say she had lived under his violent tyranny for so long? Her divorce was tantamount to an uprising—more magnificent than the people of Paris storming the Bastille!

She could only joke, "I'll hand him over to you."

Weng Yue let out an exclamation of mock surprise and laughed, "If I really bore him a child, could you stomach it?"

Obviously she couldn't stomach it. Yumeng put on a tough front. "Have as many as you want, give birth to a whole soccer team and nobody will care."

Weng Yue said, "Meng, seriously, if you truly don't want him, given the chance I might just push Old Luan up as a recommended candidate. Charity water shouldn't flow into outsiders' fields."

"As you wish," Yumeng said irritably.

The next day was spent taking the children out to eat again. By bringing Haoyu and Zhengyu along, Yumeng was also somewhat contesting custody and snatching people away from Luan Chengyun. If she didn't take her sons, he would likely snatch them away. She didn't want that. Weng Yue invited Han Xiqian out, but the young girl replied that she was busy.

They still had several days left in their stay.

After deliberating for a long time, Weng Yue and Yumeng decided to visit a high-mountain lake region nearby. Some Taiwanese businessmen had opened an internet-famous resort hotel there. Bordering the alpine lake, the water was shallow and tranquil, and many people went there to check in and go boating.

Zhengyu's school wouldn't release him, and Haoyu wanted to go hang out in Koreatown with his classmates. Neither of them wished to tag along with their mothers. Yumeng's sole travel companion was Weng Yue, and Han Xiqian refused to come either—the young girl wasn't particularly interested in nature.

Going there went smoothly; checking in went smoothly. The scenery in the lake region was indeed gorgeous, and they both agreed it resembled Xu Zhimo's Cambridge. A decade earlier, both of them had been devoted fans of Xu Zhimo.

Yumeng remarked, "That's a river. This is a lake; it's different."

Weng Yue corrected herself, "Thoreau's Walden Pond is probably about like this." Bathed in brilliant sunshine, the two women were filled with enthusiasm for exploring and rented a boat to take out onto the lake. However, just as the boat drifted a mere dozen feet or so away, Weng Yue tumbled right into the water along with her oar.