As a Chinese saying went, even a day together as husband and wife meant endless devotion for the rest of your life. Zhao Anzhi and Qin Changxing had been married for forty years. They used to be two love birds in the first twenty years, but acted like enemies in the latter twenty years. At the moment, they seemed to have simply forgotten they were still married.
Qin Changxing chose to become a monk twenty years back in the Nanchan Temple. Even as a monk, he still suffered from the sad feelings about his marriage. His wife Zhao Anzhi had not attempted to contact him since then. In other words, he had not seen his wife in twenty years. The only accessible information about his wife came from his younger brother, Qin Changan, and through other friends who went to visit him sometimes.
Even Qin Changxing himself had no idea that he had any children until a couple years back when Qin Changan went to see him and told him about a daughter he had not known about before. Qin Changxing was shocked and still for quite a while. He asked for more details and then he burst out crying tears of joy.
Qin Changan was of course telling the truth to his elder brother. This was quite important. She was Qin Changxing’s only daughter and Qin Changan’s niece, a part of the Qin Family. Qin Changxing and his wife used to be a DINK family. It was quite an accident that when Qin Changxing decided to become a monk, Zhao Anzhi found out that she was pregnant, but she didn’t tell her husband. The Qin Family was at the very center of a series of hurricane-like difficulties. Zhao Anzhi didn’t want to trouble his husband anymore, so she took their daughter to Canada.
The girl had become a young lady as years passed. She had just gotten her Master’s degree the year before, to later begin to work in the North American Branch of Qin Changan’s company. This was a secret only known by Qin Changan, Zhao Anzhi and her families. Not even Qin Ran had a clue about her cousin.
Qin Changxing had been sitting in the yard for quite a long time. Moon was in the sky and breeze swept through the willows. A young monk came to him and said, “Senior Uncle, it’s cold in the spring night. It’s time to go back and have some rest.” This young monk used to be quite an outstanding young man. He even had a PhD on Architecture, but he chose to become a monk after being out of love.
Qin Changxing made a gesture asking him to leave him be. He just wanted to be alone. The young monk sighed and left.
After a while, an elder monk approached Qin Changxing and said, “Junior Brother, I’ve never seen you like this.”
“Senior Brother, am I wrong?” Qin Changxing asked. He had been thinking about this all day long.
This elder monk was the abbot of the temple, a well-known master of Buddhism in Mount Wutai. But he didn’t care about the things that happened outside the temple. The elder monk smiled and said, “Right or wrong, only you have the real answer. No one else does. You’ve already found your own answer, right? Junior Brother, you have stayed in this temple for years, but I think you never left your past behind. I have no idea what your past is like, but I know Buddhism. If you don’t release those things dragging you down, the time you’ve spent in the temple would have been meaningless.”
“Thank you, Senior Brother. I’ll think about it carefully,” Qin Changxing said and nodded. He knew why his wife had visited him. She had returned to see THAT young man, the one who had been taken away by Old Master Qin. There was no other reason. Zhao Changan gave him two essential pieces of information: First of all, that young man represented the future of the Qin Family; secondly, his brother Qin Changan had never mentioned this to him. And he was also thinking about what Qin Changan had told him in his last visit—their father died.
Obviously, Sheng’er had been home.
When Sheng’er was taken away, the Qin Family was in its largest chaos. Although Qin Sheng returned at a time when the Qin Family was like the sun in broad daylight—quite influential, it was hard to say when the next downfall would come. The only consistent thing in the world was change. With continuous reforms in the new era, the upstart was eager to strike at people who came from old money. The Qin Family was among those of old money who were targeted. That was why Qin Changxing was worried.
Zhao Anzhi saw Qin Changxing and left Mount Wutai, returning to Beijing by car. She had gone there directly from the airport and had yet to see anyone else. Before she arrived, she had a lot to say to her husband, but those words faded away once she stood in front of him, face to face.
Zhao Anzhi reached Beijing and settled at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel close to the Qin Family’s siheyuan. She used to live in her parents’ place or the Qin Family’s siheyuan whenever she visited Beijing. This time she chose another place to live since she had something to take care of.
The Qin Family had been living in that siheyuan for several generations. But the siheyuan had been sold when the family was in crisis. A couple of years after the crisis, Qin Changan bought it back and repaired it when his business endeavors became successful.
Zhao Anzhi entered the hotel suite. A girl in gray pajamas was washing her face in the bathroom. She was sleepy and her hair was a mess.
“Mom?” The girl heard the door opening.
The girl’s voice finally relieved Zhao Anzhi’s mind; her frown faded away. She felt quite at ease as she replied, “Yaya, you just got up, right? I’m sorry for the jet lag.”
The girl didn’t answer her before she went out of the bathroom. “I’m just too tired for working overtime these days. I’m OK. Jet lag is nothing. Don’t worry, Mom.”
“Just dress up, then. We’ll have dinner with your uncle and auntie later.” Zhao Anzhi lay on the sofa and began to reply to messages in her cellphone.
Yaya frowned and said, “I’d like to visit Uncle Changan. I have a lot to report to him. The staff in North America is full of idiots. What a way to ruin everything.”
“No work today, honey. Don’t become a workaholic. Humph, just like a true Qin Family member would act, huh? You’re worrying too much for your Uncle Changan,” Zhao Anzhi said.
Yaya was the very daughter of Zhao Anzhi and Qin Changxing. She was beautiful thanks to the good genes from the Qin Family. Her face was quite charming; she looked kind of like Qin Ran.
Yaya rarely went back to China. It was during her teens when she visited her mother country for the first time and was introduced to all those relatives. She returned to China a few times after that. Zhao Anzhi, though, didn’t want her daughter to become a “banana”—a person of yellow Asian skin but being white inside. Yaya was raised with traditional Chinese culture, and she could speak very good Chinese. Besides, she was also fluent in French and German.
“Mom, you saw him, right?” Yaya asked with her mind stirring. She knew it. Her mother must have gone to see that man, her father. She had no feelings for him since she had never met him, except for his pictures. She was more familiar with her uncle, whom she had met and seen several times. Even when her mother asked her whether she wanted to see him, she refused. She just didn’t know what to say to him. The only connection between them their blood ties.
Zhao Anzhi nodded and said, “Yes, I did. I felt disappointed. He used to be energetic and positive, but now… He’s nothing but an old monk. He’s not the man I used to know anymore.”
Yaya could imagine what her father looked like from her mother’s description, so she didn’t want to see him at all. She didn’t hate him, and she never did, not once. He had just been absent in her life. By then, it was meaningless to disturb each other’s lives. She would have recognized him as her father if he had acted as one for even one day during the time of her growth. But the truth was bitter.
“Mom, do you still hate him?” Yaya asked, wondering about the answer.
Zhao Anzhi answered without a second thought, “Of course, I hate him. Why not?”
Yaya continued, “Really? Are you telling me the truth? Or are you lying? I know your answer, Mom. You still love him, right?”
Zhao Anzhi fell silent.
Anyway, they were husband and wife, they never divorced. She had left for Canada and remained there all those years. If she really hated him, she would have divorced him. She still remembered how positive and brilliant Qin Changxing was when he was young; and how he achieved such a successful career. Everybody admired him. She loved THAT Qin Changxing.
But what about then? Her love came to an end the moment her husband chose to become a monk in a Buddhist temple. She only felt hatred when that happened. But the love and the hatred were both present in her mind. She lived in an eternal contradiction. That was why she had been escaping, avoiding to see him. Qin Changxing escaped from reality, and she escaped from her husband.
Yaya saw her mother, whose mind was wandering, and didn’t ask any more questions. She returned to China to report about her work in North America to her uncle, and to see her two cousins, Uncle Changan’s daughter and son. She was quite excited about that.
Qin Changan, though, had no idea that his sister-in-law had arrived in Beijing. For some reasons, his sister-in-law had to return to do something. After all, Qin Changan had promised to give Yaya a share of the company’s stock.
Qin Sheng, however, arrived in Xi’an with Chang Baji and Hao Lei. Hao Lei didn’t inform his parents of his return, since he wasn’t planning to visit them. He and Chang Baji would both live at the Hyatt Hotel, which was near the Jindi Furong Shijia, Qin Ran’s place.
First they sent Qin Sheng to the Jindi Furong Shijia, and then went to check in at the hotel. Qin Sheng told Hao Lei about his plan, including the people he would see this day and the next day, including the special arrangements for dinner. Chang Baji also had his mission. That was to get in touch with the businessman who used to be his boss in Xi’an, to be ready to help if it was needed.
Qin Sheng had informed Auntie Wang and Xin Xin in advance that he was back in Xi’an, that was why Xin Xin had also returned to Xi’an the night before. Auntie Wang and Xin Xin were both waiting for Qin Sheng at home, anxious and with anticipation. Without Qin Sheng, they had no idea about what to do with the current situation. They had been waiting for this day for years.
Qin Changan’s promise gave Qin Sheng the confidence to settle the matters in Xi’an. He would surely encounter resistance, but Qin Sheng was unstoppable at the moment.
