Chapter 24 Chapter Twenty-Four

The sign on the brownstone reads: "Women's Employment Agency - For You Who Can Work." Majors stood in front of the door and raised his hand, but put it down before knocking.Now he'd rather face a team of artillerymen than do what he's come here to do.He stood silently for a while, reaching out to scratch his leg.Wearing tight trousers instead of the plaid skirts back home that allowed one's skin to breathe made his legs dry and itchy.And he was tired of the heat and humidity of the lowlands. He touched his collar and felt sweat, and for a moment he almost wanted to turn around and run away.But then he thought of Tim Rui, and what kind of life he had been living for the past two years.She's only lived with him for a few months, but since she's gone, his life has been...

He took a deep breath, lifted the brass knocker and let it fall.A maid opened the door almost immediately. "They only look for work for women," said the maid, looking him up and down. "And you obviously don't look like that," she said, with an invitation in the corners of her eyes. "Darry!" came a voice that Jace was deeply familiar with.As soon as he heard it, he knew immediately that he had come to the right place. Tian Rui came out from the corner and saw him.He was sure at the moment that she had suffered as much as he had the past two years.It was easier now, he told himself, his confidence restored.He straightened his back and walked towards her with dignity, as if he was walking on his own territory in a plaid skirt.

"Hello," he said with a smile. "remember me?" For a moment Tim Rui just stared at him; then she slowly broke into a smile. "Jess," she said. "You haven't changed at all." But she wasn't telling the truth.He looked better than the last time she'd seen him - and just seeing him made her heart beat faster. Jess smiled warmly. "I should have told you earlier that I was coming to New York and just missed it," he said, keeping his voice as casual as possible. "That's not true." She replied softly. "Would you like to sit inside? I'd like to hear what's going on in Maijia Village. My mother wrote to tell me something, but..." Her words faded away when Jess approached.Being so close to him made her mouth dry, as if the past two years didn't exist.

The allure of the pie is still there, he thought, laughing again. "Will you come in?" Tian Rui opened the door to reveal an elegantly decorated living room. "Dari, please bring some tea and refreshments." They did not speak again until Dari was ordered to leave.Tim Rui sat down on a small sofa, then gestured for Jess to sit on the chair opposite her.But instead of sitting down, he went to the fireplace and stood with one hand on the grate.She was more beautiful than he remembered, but now she had a mature charm that he had never seen before, which suited her very well.

After Pound's position, Jess will tell her why he came to her.He was going to tell her that he was ready to forgive her for humiliating him at the altar and to accept her again. Just as he was about to speak, the door opened suddenly, and a little boy ran in.His face, hands and the front of his blue and white sailor suit were all covered in dust. "Mom! Mom!" he yelled, burying his head into Tim Rui's skirt.A young woman in a brand new nanny uniform ran in after him. "He ran away, sorry." The nanny said. Tian Rui lovingly scratched the little boy's dark golden hair. "What did you do this time?"

"He dug up all the seeds the gardener planted last week!" said the nurse exaggeratedly. "Oh?" Tim Rui looked up at the young woman. "Where were you then? Going on a date with your boyfriend again?" This sentence brought the girl to tears. "Miss, I'm sorry, I won't do it again. I've only done this job not long ago. It's easier to make money lying down—" "Mei Bao!" Tien Rui screamed, looking down at the little boy; then she cupped the little boy's face with her hands. "I'll introduce you to someone," she said, turning the little boy to Jace. "This is Majors, and he's from Scotland. Go shake hands with him."

The little boy left his mother, stepped forward solemnly, and held out his hand to Jace.Jess held the little boy's hand solemnly and shook it slightly.He is a handsome kid. "Nice to meet you," Jess said softly. The maid came in with a large tray on which stood a large teapot and three pastry trays with cakes and biscuits.With a squeal of joy, the little boy grabbed three cakes and stuffed them into his mouth. "Take him to wash up," Tim Rui said to the babysitter. "Don't sneak out again. And, Darry, from now on you—" She didn't finish, but gave the girl a warning look.After she kissed the little boy quickly, the two maids and the boy left the drawing room.

"Children like to run around, sorry." Tim Rui looked up at Jess and said. He tried to be calm.When the boy yelled "Mom! Mom!" and ran to Tim Rui, his world was falling apart. "It can be seen that you are still rescuing those women in distress," he said, trying to force a light breath, and sat down.All the arrogance disappeared in those few minutes.Why didn't he act sooner?why did he- "Some tea?" she asked, picking up the teapot. "You're doing well," he said, looking around. "Thanks to you. I—" She didn't go on, just handed over the teacup. "You didn't come here to listen to me. What brought you to New York?"

For you, he wanted to say it, but his self-esteem made him hold back. "Business," he said, then put down his teacup and took a small box from his coat pocket. "I brought you something." Tian Rui took the box and pulled off the ribbon on it.Inside the box, wrapped in tissue paper, was a gold shell on wheels.On the shell is a delicate man holding a rope as thin as a hair, and the other end of the rope is connected to the front end of the wheel.Not only is this thing exquisite, it looks like it's made of pure gold. "Yes, my mother told me that you found those treasures," she said, and put the beautiful ornament on the coffee table.Those treasures cost her a lot, she thought.Just after she learned that the treasure was found, she wrote to her mother that she didn't want to hear any more about Maijiacun.Now she smiled back at Jace. "Looks like you figured out the secret to those cards and that copper piece?"

Jace grinned. "Not really. At least not after I, uh, threw something at the mirror over the library fireplace. The mirror fell, revealing a deep hole in the back where all the treasures my grandmother bought were hidden." "You must be very excited." Tian Rui said, taking a sip of tea and looking at him. "And how did your grandmother put those things behind the mirror?" "You're always so smart," he said with a smile, but Tim Rui didn't return his laugh. "There's a hidden door in Grandma's room, and it's so hidden that we wouldn't have found it if we hadn't found those treasures first. And that piece of copper is a key, not some hidden treasure map on the back of the card. "

"Your grandmother must have been a very interesting woman," said Timothy, then glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece. "I'm glad you found the family treasure. Is everyone in Maijia Village all right?" "It's fine, everyone's fine," said Jess, sensitively aware that she was about to order an eviction. "Guiqin married the man who delivered her materials, and they moved to Edinburgh. Xiao Lisi has already started studying in medical school." "That would be great," said Tim Rui, finishing her tea. "I reburied my grandmother in a blessed cemetery." "I'm so happy. I know that means a lot to you." "What about you?" Jace said quietly. "Although I failed to fulfill the requirements of the contract and find a wife for you, your uncle still fulfilled his promise." "It's not your fault that I don't have a wife," he said. "Ange said the same thing. When I stopped hating him, I found that he was actually a very good man. He allowed me to use my father's house, and some of the money my father left to my mother; Someone is watching." "The maid who answered the door said, 'They only look for jobs for women.' Are you working with Miss Majubo?" "How! But I must say that horrible girl completely changed my life. She made me see that before I knew it, I had sold myself." "you?" His tone made Tim Rui frown, as if he was implying that she was too perfect to be human.She has faced charges of that sort. "Ma Chubo made me realize that I was feeding my pride and not really helping people in need. I'm ashamed to admit that I used to be happy being a 'socialite'. I love when little girls ask me for autographs Photo, I like—" She waved her hand disdainfully. "Anyway, after leaving Maijia Village, I thought, maybe I have the talent to help people find jobs, so I went back to New York and set up an employment agency. Let other people leave their names in history!" She smiled lightly. "You mentioned that someone 'supervised' your money. Is it your husband?" He wanted to bite his tongue off as soon as the words came out.He had no intention of asking her this.Ever since he saw that boy, and then realized that he had lost her, he set out to maintain his self-esteem with indifference and alienation. "No." Tian Rui said happily. "Qina is my partner, and she is in touch with Ang's bank manager. Financially, we are well taken care of." "Sina?" Jace asked in disbelief. "Rosina? The one in Maijia Village—" "That's her. Mother persuaded Ang to make Cina my guardian. 'A down-on-his-luck Mai daughter,' that's what my mother called Cina." For the first time since his arrival, he saw a gleam of the gleam of Timid that he had known in the old days.Does she hate him?He could have sworn her eyes sparkled when he first saw her.But now he began to suspect that the spark was self-hatred. "So Celina handles your money," he said. "I hope you have a trustworthy accountant to read the books." For a second, Tim Rui's eyes sparkled with fire. "Cina is my business partner," she said angrily. "She lives upstairs with me and my son, and we run this employment agency together." She slams down her teacup and looks at him across the table.This time her eyes were undoubtedly full of anger. "You really haven't changed, eh, Majestic? Do you know how my mother got your uncle to agree to give Qin Na a job? My mother told Ange that after you treated Qin Na like that, after you and Mai's village After everyone treated her like that, he needs to restore the Mai family's honor." The words made Jace stand up. "I didn't do anything to offend that woman. A few years ago, she tried to trick me into marrying her for the Mai family's money! She deserved that treatment." Tian Rui also stood up, with anger written all over her face. "So I guess you think you're smart because you use trickery to try and find your treasure. But if a woman uses trickery to get money, she deserves it. And I guess I deserve it, eh ? After all, I have done so many bad things to the people in Maijia Village, I deserve to be cheated and manipulated, don’t I?” "You were lied to?" he said. "You are the one who secretly conspired to let me marry a wife—" He stopped abruptly, took a step back, and lowered his voice. "I came here to tell you that I would have forgiven you for humiliating me like that, but now I—" "Forgive me?" she whispered. "forgive me?" "I can see I'm wasting my time," he said, his back stiffening, and he turned and walked out of the drawing room, slamming the door behind him. When he came to the front hall, he was already trembling with anger.He came all the way to America just to... what? Of course not being humiliated again, that's for sure.As soon as he thought of her abandoning him and humiliating him in front of the whole village, he— He grabbed the handle of the front door and was about to leave when he stepped on something.Looking down, he saw a box of crayons. He picked up the crayon and looked at the crushed nib.When Tian Rui was in Scotland, she asked her mother to send several boxes of things to the children in Maijia Village.And when Tim Rui saw a picture drawn by one of the children, she wrote several letters to two art schools in New York.But those letters had no results, because Jess did not marry Tian Rui as planned, and Tian Rui left Maijia Village forever. Turning around, he looked at the door leading to the living room.When she had left him and walked out of the church, she had said that if he had asked her to marry him, she would have said yes.It was too late now because she was married and had a child.She has a business helping down-and-out women, and she's happy.he... Jess sucked in his breath.Pride was a cold bedmate; he knew it very, very well. Straightening his back, he opened the door, entered the living room, and closed the door behind him.She was still sitting on the sofa, and he could see that she had cried.She turned her head away, wiping away tears with her hands, trying not to let him see her face. "I have something to say." He said softly. "I think you've said it all." "No," he said, and for a moment wanted to turn around and run away.If she was married, nothing he said would change anything.Right now he could still redeem his self-esteem and walk out that door.And... and what?Go home with full self-esteem?Then again, isn't it his self-esteem that brought him to where he is now? "I broke the mirror in the library out of anger. In fact, I've broken a lot of things since you left." "You don't need to tell me these things." Tian Rui stood up. "No, I do," said Jace. "Now that I've come all the way to this hot city and put on these stuffy, itchy trousers, you can sit back and listen to me." Tian Rui blinked in surprise, then sat back on the sofa. Jace began to pace back and forth with his hands behind his back. "Guiqin left Maijia Village with her new husband, her daughter, and her business. But before she left, she told me something about her inner thoughts. She said she couldn't stand the situation in Maijia Village. Prospect. She said that my bad temper and what happened to my ex-wife, and later my resentment towards you, were all excuses for me to stay on the mountain and refuse to face the world. So she left with her children and business." "In fact," he said, "most people in the village have told me what they think." Jace breathed a sigh of relief, staring at the wall in front of him.He thought of the disappointment and low ebb that permeated the whole village after Guiqin took away the fashionable new business in the village. When he spoke again, his voice softened. "In addition to Guiqin, other people also left, because they said that in Maijia Village, they could not see the future." Jace stopped pacing and sat down in the chair in front of Tim Rui, but he didn't meet her eyes.Would he see sympathy in her eyes?The great Mr. Mai could not save his people. "As for Ke Ling, he didn't want this land at all. He said he was tired of the whole family treating him as a monster because he liked to play a few cards occasionally. He said he was happily married and loved his children deeply, and he He has served as a director of three banks, so his gambling impulse has been relieved there. He said that Maijiacun is only a responsibility, and he does not want to get involved with it.” Jace looked down at his hands.It was hard to admit failure, but when he did, he felt something inside him be relieved.Speaking out loud about his regrets was like lifting a huge weight off him. He looked up at Tian Rui, but there was no sympathy in her eyes, only amusement.Encouraged by this, he continued. "I went to a lawyer to discuss that will. It took two years and it ended up with several people testifying that I had been married for love and the will didn't say what would happen if she died." Jess smiled faintly at Tim Rui. "Since Ke Ling doesn't want this place, the efforts of me and the lawyer have no practical effect, except that now I am the real owner of Maijia Village—and I can pass it on to my descendants." "For Lacey." Tim Rui said softly. "Yes, for Lacey." Jess didn't say anything for a while, but then he looked up, and there was no longer any concealment in his eyes - any shield enough to protect him.Tian Rui understood that what she saw now was his heart, a place he never let others see. "All these years," he said softly, so softly that she had to lean forward to hear him clearly. "I've always thought that the problem with Mai's Village is money. If I have enough money, I can lead my people back to their former glory. You said that the Mai family has become the laughing stock of Scotland, and you are right." Tian Rui opened his mouth to apologize for his thoughtless angry words, but he raised his hand to stop her. "No," he said. "You're right, and what you said just hit my nerves. I was ashamed of my family's gambling history and the decay of my hometown. Guiqin was right, I was indeed hiding in Maijia Village, escaping from the whole world .” Unable to sit still any longer, Jace stood up again and began pacing. "But before you came, I was satisfied with my life, my job, and my solitude. Now I realize that I do physical work fourteen hours a day just to avoid thinking." He stopped pacing and looked at her. "Then you came and woke us all up. You made us laugh, and you made me want to be with women. Before you came, I never felt lonely; after you left, I was tired of being alone." Jess sat back in his chair and looked directly into Tim Rui's eyes. "But I never told you. I never told you how much it meant to me to have dinner with you. And how much joy the time we spent together in that cave brought me. What you mean to the people of Maijia Village They are all kind and generous, even better than me as the patriarch. Because I am the patriarch, I don't need to do anything." He looked at her, tears streaming down his face. "You were right to leave me, you should. If you stayed, I would—" "Taking me for granted?" she said. Those words made Jace smile. "You always have a way of making me laugh. Yes, if you were married to me, I wouldn't have treated you kindly. We don't value easy wins." He took a deep breath, looked away, and then looked at her again. "I'm here today to—" "What?" she urged him. He smiled at her. "I'm telling you, I forgive you and I'm taking you home. It seems I haven't learned much in the past two years, have I? I never thought you'd get married and have kids. I thought you'd—" "Crying alone for you every night, just like you do for me?" "Exactly." He smiled slightly, and then took another breath to ease his emotions.He lost.His abominable, unforgivable pride cost him everything. But when he raised his head to look at Tim Rui, he was smiling. "I can't believe it, but I feel so much better now. I thought once I let my body down, I would break in half. Instead, I feel a sense of relief. I feel so much lighter." Tian Rui smiled warmly at him. "I guess the phrase 'confession is good for the soul' isn't popular in Scotland." "It's not taught in the patriarch's school," he said, making her laugh; and he drew another box from his pocket. "I have something to show you." It was a ring box. "Jess, I don't think—" she was interrupted by him.Apparently she was telling him that he didn't need to humble himself. "No, I have to tell you about it," he said. "It was for myself. You said before the altar that all you wanted was a ring and—" "Jess, please," she said. "You don't need to do that." "No, I do," he said. "I must show you something. I did deceive you and manipulate you, as you say; but perhaps my intentions were good. Once I walk out of that door today, I promise I will never bother you again. You, so I must let you leave a good impression on me." He opened the box, took out a gold ring and handed it to her. "Can you read the lettering inside?" She took the ring and turned it to the light. "You said on the wedding day that if I proposed to you with a ring on, you would say yes. I want to show you that I did it on purpose. But I also wanted And bring you wealth, so I have been spending the last minute with Qina to see what she knows." He took out a receipt from the ring box and handed it to her. The date on the receipt was a few weeks before she left Maijia Village.The receipt said that the ring should be engraved: "To Tian Rui, with all my love, Jess." Tim Rui looked at the inner edge of the ring and saw that it was engraved: "To my beloved TM, JM". "The text is too long, they have to shorten it," said Jace, smiling slightly. "They knew I was in a hurry, so they just let it go." Tian Rui returned the ring to him, then sat back on the sofa and looked at him silently. Jace looked at her hands, his heart twitching.She has a wedding ring on the middle finger of her left hand. He spoke again, trying to keep the tone his heart hadn't broken. "So, who is he?" Jace asked. "Who is who?" "Your husband. If my uncle finds him for you, I will kill Ange." Tian Rui smiled slightly. "I don't have a husband. I tell people I'm a widow and they accept it. I don't think anyone really believes it, actually, but the lie makes me feel more human. Celina helped me a lot. She's good at business, and you could say she likes making money more than, uh, men." Jace stared at her gaping. "But the kid..." he said. "He's yours," Tim Rui said cheerfully, as if announcing a dance. "what?" "He's your son. I've never been good at remembering numbers, and so much happened in the last few weeks that I didn't realize I was pregnant." It took several minutes for Jace to understand what she was saying. "No husband?" he murmured. "No husband." In the next moment, Jess frantically found the ring, almost dropped it twice, before he came to Tim Rui, then he landed on one knee and took her hand. "Will you marry me? We'll live where you want. New York, you can take care of your business. Now I can afford to buy you anything you want—not that I thought you could be bought, but I—" Tian Rui covered his mouth with her fingers. "I want to go back to Maijia Village, and I want my son... Our son grew up there, with his big brother Leixi by his side. As for this place, Qin Na can run it. She doesn't need me." "I need you," Jace said, his eyes pleading. "We all need you. Desperately." "And I need you too," Tim Rui said softly. "Our son needs us both." She bent down and kissed him softly on the lips. "Would you like to meet our son? Really recognize him?" For a moment Jace looked like he was about to cry; then he stood up, and Tim Rui could see what was going on in his mind.He threw away his pride to win her heart back, and now she's got him back and won back her own dignity at the same time.The past two years have not been easy for her.As a single mother— "Shall we go?" he asked, holding out his arms to her. "Okay," she said. "OK." ——End of the book——