Chapter 351 That Was His Father
The Qin Family’s siheyuan was located on West Street in Dengshikou. It was known to all that the siheyuan building group in that area was mysterious. Quite a lot of big shots and wealthy people lived there. The Qin Family’s siheyuan was hiding in the building group so that it was not noticeable.
There were quite a lot of mansions in Beijing. Take the No. 7 Diaoyutai for example; it was well-known for its outlook toward Yu Yuan Tan park. It appeared a lot in the media, becoming a hot real piece of estate. Upstarts were crazy about these mansions, while real big shots in this city all lived in the siheyuans. Even a middle-sized one had a sky-high price. The residences there were unimaginable.
Of course, some people might say that the houses in Muxidi, apartments in Shijingshan, and siheyuans on Fuyou street were the best. This was true. But they only belonged to those few people that had reached the top of the pyramid.
It took about 20 minutes to drive from the Sanli River community to West Street in Dengshikou. But it might take about an hour due to the heavy snow. Traffic jams in Beijing are well-known. During rush hour, the whole city would be congested, let alone that it was a snowy day.
From Fumenchengnei Avenue to Wenjin Street and from Jingshanqian Street to Dongsinan Avenue, the scenery along the way was worth enjoying. Qin Sheng wanted to have a look at Chang’an Street, which was praised as the First Street in China. Unfortunately, he didn’t get a chance last night or today. Today’s view was much better than yesterday’s. They went along the loop line and then along the Sanli River yesterday. Today, he enjoyed the scenery of snowy Beihai Park and Jing Mount.
Zhuang Zhou and Nan Gong led the way in the front. This was their final part of this task. They really suffered a lot for this task, following Qin Sheng here and there—from Hangzhou to Huang Mei Town, from Jiujiang to Qingdao, and then going back to Beijing. It was a literally exhausting journey for common people. They could finally take a good rest after this task.
Qin Ran and Qin Sheng sat in the backseat and chatted. Qin Ran asked casually, “Have you been to Beijing since you’ve grown up, Qin Sheng?”
Qin Sheng was looking at the outside view from the window, seeing those cars going to and fro and the skyscrapers along the street. He turned to Qin Ran and said, “No. My roommate at university was from Beijing and he had asked me to come several times. But I didn’t have a proper chance.”
“Then I must show you around these days. Though you’ve been to every place of interest when you were young, I think you don’t remember them now,” Qin Ran said with a tease.
Qin Sheng smiled and said, “That’ll be nice.”
After the incident on Mount Jiuhua, Qin Sheng had stayed in Xiamen for a long time, during which time he didn’t have contact with anybody until he went to Hangzhou. He first got in touch with his brothers from university. Xiading was near Hangzhou and had enough leisure time, so he was the first one to come to meet him. Unfortunately, Lao Er and Lao Si didn’t have time. Lao Er was a civil servant. He was busy and his leader appreciated him, giving him too many tasks. It was hard for him to ask for leave; while Lao Si, who was in Nanjing, worked in his family’s company. As the successor of the company, he was fully occupied and was not able to come. They had talked several times about the gathering but hadn’t made it. And then Qin Sheng got into huge trouble and disappeared. His brother was quite used to all this.
Qin Sheng was thinking about contacting Lao Er. He wondered about Lao Er’s situation now.
The scenery along the way was fine and the snowy Beijing was extremely special. Some said that when it snowed, Xi’an would go back to its ancient times, becoming Chang’an; and it was the same with Beijing to become Beiping.
The scenery was extraordinary when they were on Jingshanqian Street. On one side, there was Jingshan Park, in which the mount had snow at the peak. It looked like a masterpiece of art. Qin Sheng looked at the park and thought about the story there. Emperor Chongzhen, the last emperor of the Ming dynasty, hung himself to death on a tree on the mount, which marked the end of the dynasty. On the other side of the street was the world spotlight, the Forbidden City, which was a wonderland in the snow. Qin Sheng was eager to visit it, since his memory of it had faded away. He had to go to visit those antiques in the museum of Forbidden City when time permitted.
An hour later, they arrived at Front Street in Dengshikou. Their car took a turn down an alley and stopped at the gate of a siheyuan. This building had obviously been remodeled since it looked different from other ones nearby, but it was not the only one that had been remodeled in this area. This building looked rather mysterious with a high grey wall and a finely decorated gate. There were several plain-clothes men wandering in the alley.
Nan Gong had told Gongsun that they were coming. Once the horn was honked, the gate was opened slowly with a low and loud sound. Two bodyguards in black were standing at the gate as Zhuang Zhou drove the car into the yard.
When the car stopped, Qin Sheng’s complexion was clouding over. He was thinking about his father. Who was he? Was he the uncle he met before? Qin Sheng was approaching the answer. He could have never imagined that before. But since things happened to him recently were too incredible and all those impossible things came true, he began to imagine further now.
Before they got out of the car, a bodyguard came and opened the door for them. The bodyguard lowered his head to show his respect with as much experience as those guards working in Zhong Nan Hai, the office complex of the Chinese central government. But they also added some psychological pressure to others. Qin Sheng had experienced too much recently, and this was nothing to him.
Qin Ran got out of the car first and the two bodyguards greeted her. “Miss Qin.”
Qin Sheng got out of the car following Qin Ran. Those bodyguards had no idea who Qin Sheng was, so they just nodded to him. Zhuang Zhou and Nan Gong also got out of the car after them.
Gongsun came to welcome Qin Sheng on behalf of Qin Changan. There was a young man beside Gongsun. He was in a formal suit, wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. He looked like an elegant gentleman, with a friendly smile and eyes.
“Young Master, welcome home,” Gongsun said to Qin Sheng. He dressed very decently and was in a good condition.
The young man wearing gold-rimmed glasses also said with a smile, “Welcome home, Young Master.”
Qin Sheng was surprised. These rites and courtesy seemed to belong to a big family from ancient times, which he was not used to. He had been a nobody for more than 20 years and had never expected to take such a role.
Qin Ran ignored them and was not pleased, for Qin Changan was not here. But when she looked at Qin Sheng, her eyes were filled with love and care again. “Just ignore them. Our dad likes these silly things.”
After that, she held Qin Sheng’s hand and walked ahead. She said to Gongsun with dissatisfaction, “Uncle Gongsun, why did he not come?”
Gongsun took a glance at the Audi nearby and strode over to Qin Ran. “A guest came this morning and they’re talking in the study. You can wait in the side hall. It won’t take long to finish their talk.”
Qin Ran said, “Hmph, he’s been so busy. It’s even more important than his son.”
Gongsun showed a forced smile in reply. It was totally an accident since the guest just came without making an appointment. Of course, it was someone Qin Changan couldn’t refuse. Qin Changan had been waiting for almost the whole night and got up very early this morning for Qin Sheng. He had not expected this guest.
There were four cars stopped in the front yard of the siheyuan. Apart from the Mercedes, which Qin Sheng rode in, there were a Toyota Alphard, an Audi A8L, and a Bentley Mulsanne. The Audi A8L belonged to the guest in the study.
Qin Ran was dissatisfied with Qin Changan. His son had been separated from him for all those years, and they had suffered so much to gather together. Though he had met Qin Sheng before, it was not a formal meeting. She thought that Qin Changan should have shown enough respect and love to Qin Sheng by refusing all those works and invitations. Qin Ran almost wanted to take Qin Sheng away, rather than stay here and bear this ignorance.
Qin Ran herself didn’t care about this. She just looked at this siheyuan. It was quite large. Even the front yard was big enough to park five or six cars in. The gate at the front yard was also luxurious with antique, finely carved wooden decoration. The ground of the front yard was covered with blue flagstones, with flowers and plants around, as well as a pair of Chinese scholar trees. On the wall opposite the front gate, a Chinese calligraphy work was made, written “大道无为”, which meant doing things according to the principle of nature, rather than someone’s personal view. This was written in the cursive script style, obviously by a master, with great energy contained in the strokes.
Qin Sheng followed Qin Ran and Gongsun, going through an arched door and entering a new world. The space inside was extremely large, unlike common siheyuans. The other three sides of the building were surrounded by three two-floored, well-decorated buildings, all in post and panel structure. The central part of the yard was separated into different areas according to their various functions. There was also a kiosk with a stone table and chairs inside.
Qin Sheng was astonished by it all. He had seen these top-leveled siheyuans on the Internet before. The price of these buildings was at least a hundred million yuan. Even upstarts could never afford these.
Besides this, there were several bodyguards in black coats and servants going to and fro. They stopped and lowered their heads when coming across Gongsun and Qin Ran. Qin Ran always greeted them politely. She got along well with the people who had worked in the Qin Family for years.
Qin Sheng just observed everybody, saying nothing, but he was actually astonished by everything. Since he entered through the gate, everything and everybody in this siheyuan reminded him that his father was a big shot.
Zhuang Zhou and Nan Gong didn’t follow, but the young man wearing gold-rimmed glasses did. He followed Qin Sheng and the others, keeping a proper distance of three meters.
Nan Gong and Zhuang Zhou had left. Before leaving, Nan Gong sighed and said, “We’ve finally finished our task. We can go home and take a good rest now.”
“I’m done, but not you,” Zhuang Zhou said, thinking about something.
Nan Gong was surprised and didn’t understand him. She stared at Zhuang Zhou and asked, “Uncle Zhuang, what do you mean by saying that?”
Zhuang Zhou smiled and said nothing. Anyway, it was his last time following Qin Sheng.
Qin Sheng and the others entered the main building and reached the hall. Two men in Chinese tunic suits were standing beside the stairs. Obviously, they were not the bodyguards here. They gazed at Qin Sheng with curiosity until Qin Ran’s complexion became cloudy.
After entering the main building, Qin Sheng was like a country bumpkin going to the city for the first time. The decoration in the main building was extremely delicate and obeyed the principle of feng shui, an ancient Chinese philosophy. Common people only paid attention to that valuable furniture, antique articles, and masterpiece pictures hung on the wall. But Qin Sheng discovered all the details of feng shui at his first sight, for he had been taught a lot about it by his grandfather.
He realized the secret of these designs soon. Now that he had learned a lot from his grandfather, his father must have learned more from his grandfather. Furthermore, his father was at such a high position that he could invite a feng shui master to do the decoration for him.
As for the antique furniture, articles, and artworks, Qin Sheng was not amazed that much since he had seen Jiang Xianbang’s collection in his mansion before, which was even more luxurious than the things here. Apart from a few of them, like the artwork of Zhao Wuji and Zhang Daqian and an ancient cooking vessel made of bronze, Qin Sheng didn’t appreciate it at all.
Qin Ran led Qin Sheng to take their seats on the sofa in the side hall. She commented on Qin Changan straightly, “This is really a fuddy-duddy style. This is exactly a middle-aged man’s taste. Don’t worry. I won’t let you live here. You can choose to live either in my house, or in my apartment.”
It was not exaggerating. Qin Ran was literally a rich fair lady. She had her share in the Qin Family’s company and the bonus each year was enough for her to buy many mansions in Beijing.
“This traditional Chinese style is unique,” Qin Sheng said honestly. He didn’t understand the new fashion of the modern Chinese traditional style. But this building, with its traditional Chinese-style design, was decorated with all those antique articles, which was quite brilliant.
Qin Ran sighed and said, “You really are the son of our father. Your taste is similar to Dad’s.”
Qin Sheng said nothing. Gongsun laughed at her words. Qin Ran turned back to Gongsun and said, “Uncle Gongsun, where is he? I’m going to ask him to come here myself.”
“The study.” Gongsun told the truth, for he knew that nobody could stop Qin Ran if she wanted to do something.
Qin Ran went upstairs right away. Gongsun followed her at once, worrying that Qin Ran would break into the study regardless of who the guest was. The young man who had been following them didn’t go to the side hall.
In a second, Qin Sheng was left in the side hall alone. A servant served him a cup of tea and then left.
Qin Sheng waited there, feeling bored. Nobody came to disturb him so that he could enjoy the leisure time to take a careful look at those antique articles and think about the identity of his father.
Actually, Qin Sheng was anxious. He hoped that he had guessed the right person, which would, however, bring more new questions for him. In some way, he hoped that he was wrong.
About five minutes later, Qin Sheng heard the sound of steps coming from upstairs. They were quite soft and steady. He looked at the source of the sound, seeing a middle-aged man coming downstairs and looking at him.
They looked at each other. Qin Sheng was silent. He was right. That man was exactly his father.