Chapter 3 three

Melanie said: "We have to go if we want to go." Immediately, she told all the nuns and monks, then called the gardener to light the lanterns to send them off, and the three of them divided the flowers and brushed the willows, and walked to Mr. Mier's house in a detour.At the door, there have been servants to meet and guide them.A few wolfhounds ran out of the shadows, and were yelled at by the servant, and someone came out and tied the dogs.Mr. Mill changed his evening clothes and waited in the drawing room.Upon arrival, three glasses of sherry wine were served.Melanie ate and took care of it in the kitchen.Here, Mr. Mier and Nixi were talking about each other, but there was no more than two words, but Melanie came back and said that the cook understood everything and there was no need to supervise.Mr. Mill knew that Melanie was on guard against them, so it was inconvenient for him to let her go for a while.

Wine was served at the feast.After the banquet, I went back to the living room to drink coffee and change to a glass of whiskey.Nixi laughed and said, "How come you haven't stopped drinking after a while?" Mr. Mill said: "We British people drink according to the time, no doubt." Ni Xi smiled and said, "So, when will you stop drinking?" Mr. Mier thought for a while and said, "I made a rule before breakfast, not to drink a drop." He ordered his servants to light a row of white candles on the bronze candlestick on the piano, and smiled at Melanie: "Let's play some music. I haven't heard you play the piano for a long time, and you must be more advanced than before." Melanie Anne had to be humble.Mr. Mill said:

"You're welcome. My eldest daughter was taught by you alone." Melanie sat on the piano bench with her back to them and began to play.Mr. Mill specially played a lengthy three-four-fold piece of music, and he sat on the same sofa with Nixi.The ancient English-style hall with ebony latticework on the wall looks like a dim copper picture in the candlelight, only a few vermilion carnations in the glass bottle, which seem to be heavily colored, the red in the dim yellow photo. Protrude straight up. Nixi reached out to touch the flowers, and Mr. Mi Er stretched out his arms to wrap around her waist, pinching and pinching again and again.Nixi couldn't dodge.Mr. Mill explained: "Otherwise, I wouldn't know that you are born with a thin waist. Western women's waists are made of steel rods and whale bones. Although thin, they are like iron." Ni Xi didn't agree. Paying attention to him, only wrapping his arms tightly around his waist.Mr. Mill went to hold her hand, she put it under the skirt of the jacket, and his hand followed.Nixi suppressed a smile and was holding back, suddenly she called out in a low voice, "Huh? Where's my ring?" Mr. Mi Er said, "What's the matter?

Lost the ring? Ni Xi said: "When I washed my hands in the glass cup after eating fruit, I took it off and held it in my palm. You messed it up like this. It must have slipped under the sofa cushion." " Then he stretched his hand into the sapphire blue velvet sofa. Mr. Mill said, "Let me do it." "He put one hand on the sofa on her side, and stretched one hand into the seam of the sofa on her side, holding her between his arms. Although he was frowning and concentrated on looking for the ring, he bowed his waist, A drunken face just moved towards hers. Nixi turned her face away and backed away, only squinted at him, and pouted at Melanie.

Mr. Mi Er said: "I found it. What can you thank me for?" Nixi didn't say much, and snatched it with her hands. Unconsciously, she let out an ah, and said softly, "What is this?" The ring she held on her finger was a single ruby, the size of a fingernail.He sat down beside her, and said, "Don't lose it again. If you lose it again, I won't find it for you." Nixi whispered, "Mine is just jade." Mr. Mier said, "You don't want to magnify it." Be more generous and say: You will find it in the crack of the chair in the future, and you can keep it for yourself as a souvenir.”

Nixi glanced at him and said, "Why should I change one with you? Besides, it's not a question of whether to change or not. I may not be able to find my other one." Mr. Mill said: " As long as you have it, you won’t be able to find it. As long as you have it.” As he spoke, he smiled.He saw that she was trying to coax him on purpose, and Nixi knew it, so she pouted and put the ring over and said, "No, I only want mine." Mr. Mier laughed and said, "Why don't you say you Is it diamond?" Ni Xi gritted her teeth in hatred, unable to tell the difference for a moment.At this time, Melanie turned her head twice in succession. Mr. Mill was about to put the ring on her by himself. Ni Xi was afraid that someone would see her, and left a mark. After thinking about it, she put it on by herself. It seemed like there was nothing, and she lightly put her hands aside.

After Melanie finished playing this piece, she was about to leave: "I have to go back early tomorrow morning to be on duty. Mrs. Lumkin's family has something to do, so I can't miss it." Mr. Mill couldn't stay, so he had to send When they came out, they sent people to light lanterns to light the way. The two of them came back on the moon with a bit of alcohol.Melanie shared a room with Nixi and did not sleep well all night. She got up from time to time to look around, suspicious of ghosts, and felt that there seemed to be lantern shadows shaking on the top of the wall.Get up very early the next day.So he hurriedly urged everyone to pack up and go down the mountain.

The bamboo sedan chair passed by Mr. Mier's door. Mr. Mier stood on the stone steps of Qianxun with two dogs and greeted them with a whistle. A dog ran down and was called by Mr. Mier again. up.The nuns shouted goodbye there, but Nixi only rolled his eyelids and said nothing.On the yellow-pink railings are densely lined with countless black-blue flower pots, like a team of beetles, climbing up the railings, and the pots are filled with small red flowers of Western species. Mr. Mill's ring, which Nixi dared not wear on his hand, was tied with a silk ribbon and hung around his neck, under his shirt.As soon as the sedan chair was shaken, the ribbed gemstone would loosen and stick to her heart, like a red nail, scratching her heart itchyly, and she couldn't help laughing.She now knew that to be a woman, she had to be a well-behaved woman, and if a well-behaved woman was a bit unrestrained once in a while, she would have benefits that ordinary bad women couldn't dream of.

Nixi aspires to become a respectable wife.Married to a husband and married to Yahya, young and beautiful, able to do business, what are the shortcomings?Although not a couple, she has raised two children for him.It's Melanie's words: She "decided the family", where is he going?He only said that she was not from a good background and could not be on the stage. How did he know that even an official like Mr. Mill, who can take airs, was on an equal footing with her, talking and laughing?Mr. Mill's jests were a little reckless, but never in the presence of her husband. ...Since she can socialize with Mr. Mill, how can she not be able to socialize with those businessmen Yahya got acquainted with?It was not long before he realized that she was also an arm.

Nixi thought all the way, and the sedan chair had already descended the mountain.Melanie ordered all the nuns to go back to the monastery first, but she was waiting to escort Nixi's mother and son home.Nixi said that she would give it away, and Melanie said: "It doesn't matter if you give it away. You said that your child left an extra piece of sky blue soft satin for making clothes, which happened to be a cape cut for one of our little statues of the Virgin Mary. I found it today. Take it with me." Nixi nodded in agreement. Take a look at the sedan chair and walk into the busy city, the sloping Qingshiban is washed fishy, ​​sticky and slippery by the water in the bucket of the fishmonger.There are shadowy stone pillars on both sides of the street, with balconies above and sidewalks below, and men in black in bunts come and go.The poor are black; the poor's children, the poor's candies, the poor's paper windmills and the flowers on the sideburns are the brightest red and green -- no matter how red the red is compared with their pink, it is pale in color. As if poisoned.

Yahya's satin shop is the noisiest shop in this noisy place, with gongs and drums beating from morning to night to attract customers.Balls are hung in the store to celebrate its permanent New Year here.The precious light of piles of Indian silk shone in the dark counter.The small door leading to the inside is hung with an oil-stained curtain of flat gold, jade-colored satin and red lining, just like the entrance door of a stage.A gold-framed mirror hangs above the door, with colorful piles of flowers on the mirror, depicting a thrush standing on a peach blossom branch, inscribed with rhinestone characters "Kai Zhang Zhi Xi", and upper and lower inscriptions. Yahya happened to be flipping through the newly delivered lace samples on the counter, and exchanged a few words with Melanie.Nixi was worried that Melanie would speak up in front of Yahya, because she intentionally lingered downstairs, but one of the two children was going to drown and the other was going to be breastfed, so Nixi had to go upstairs with the maid to take care of her. , and found that piece of spare material for Melanie. Nixi leaned over the gutter on the balcony, bent down to urinate for the child, and when she looked up, she saw two pots of withered red flowers on the railing, with the vast sea behind the flowers.The sun was shining at noon, and the color of the sea was a chaotic duck egg blue.The same sea looks very different from Mr. Mill's house.The gongs and drums downstairs could not be beat, and the voices of the people on the street were suppressed. A splash of water dripped from a pair of copy silk trousers that were hanging out on her face.She shrugged her shoulders and wiped with the shirt, and wiped again and again, but what she wiped were two lines of her own tears.Why would she want to waste her busiest years in this shop?A woman lives to be eighty years old, and only these few years are truly alive. After the child finished urinating, she started to make a fuss, and she just realized that she was in a daze. Touching the child's buttocks, it was already chilled by the wind.Back in the room, Melanie came upstairs to say goodbye to her, and went to get the satin.Even though Melanie has repeatedly told Yahya not to get angry, she just needs to be careful and not allow Nixi and Mr. Mier to continue dating, how can Yahya hold back?Not long after Melanie left, he came upstairs, threw the lace samples on the bed, and kept calling for the samples that Galgatta brought last year. The house is messed up like a kennel, and there is nothing I want. Seeing his gloomy face, Nixi had already guessed the reason. She squatted on the ground and looked through the drawer. She turned her face slightly and didn't look at him. She sighed and said, "You have such a temper—I'm really afraid of you! I'm afraid of you!" I have two words to say to you, but it just happened to catch up with you when you are unhappy." Yahya said: "What do you have to say?" Nixi said: "I am a little embarrassed to say it. Those nuns in the monastery, Back then you told me to stay away from them, but I didn’t listen, so now I’m talking on my own?” Yahya said, “What’s wrong with the nun?” Nixi said, “You don’t know, last night, if you didn’t drag two My child, I ran down the mountain alone in the dark." Yahya said: "What's wrong?" Nixi sighed: "It's really nothing, but Mrs. Melanie is a bit contemptuous. Pull me hard Went to a foreign friend's house for dinner. His wife is not in Hong Kong, so she had to avoid suspicion. She walked away as soon as she came, but I didn't know what she meant! I didn't turn against her at the time, but I was upset, and she also I can see it." Yahya sat on the edge of the bed, put her hands on her knees, and said with a sneer; "I see. She was here just now, why didn't you talk to her face to face?" Nixi said: "Oh, then Is it possible? If you get angry and jump three feet high, you will really offend her, which is not good. It doesn't matter if you stay away from her, but you can't offend her. Your thunderbolt temper... I I'm really scared of you!" Yahya was blocked by her few words, and was unable to speak on the spot.After thinking about it, although her words may not be reliable, Melanie is not a good person.When I saw Melanie again, I said: "When you have a gathering next time, you don't need to call the one at my house. She is confused and ignorant, and there are many bad people outside." The ghost who likes to play tricks, got so angry that he broke up with him from then on, holding a grudge in his heart, nothing to worry about. This day, it should be something.Yahya invited a distant cousin from Hong Kong, newly arrived from India, over for a potluck.The man's name was Farris Fora, he was not in his twenties, he was not tall, but he was fat and solid, with a purple-black complexion, a pair of big black and white eyes that protruded slightly, and a mess of black and oily curly hair. He was wearing an Indian striped shirt, but his feet were bare under his suit trousers.How could Nixi let him go, making fun of him in every possible way at the banquet.Falisna shook his head and just dipped the suet pancakes into the curry sauce and ate them.Yahya thought the curry sauce was too spicy, so she ordered Nixi to pour a glass of cold water.Nixi gave him a cup of cold water, but poured a cup of hot tea and served it to Faris. Faris took a sip, and his tongue became more and more hot as if it was burning, and he unconsciously raised his eyebrows and inhaled.Yahya laughed and said, "You're just teasing him! You don't want to add anything else!" Nixi smiled and stretched out her hand to pour the tea, but Faris pressed the teacup and shouted: "No need, sister-in-law, don't bother!" After two fights, the tea bowl was tilted and overturned on the table, Nixi hurriedly took out a rag to wipe the stains on the tablecloth, and said: "The tea stains are not a problem, the curry drips on the tablecloth." The white tablecloth is the most difficult to wash." Faris's plate dripped and splashed some curry sauce, Nixi wiped it, wiped it, and wiped it all the way to his side, Faris was embarrassed.Yahya laughed and said, "It's a big deal to change the tablecloth and cook it. You're just eating your food, what are you busy with? Don't bully my brother." Nixi laughed and said, "Who said he said half a word?" What do you mean? It’s not his fault—he’s not used to tablecloths.” As he spoke, Faris became even more purple and swollen. Yahya said with a smile: "Don't think that my brother is honest, he knows how to do business, and he is about to obtain the Fa." Nixi hurriedly put a hand on Faris' shoulder and said, "Really? You Get rich quickly, my sister-in-law will be your matchmaker and tell you a beautiful little daughter-in-law." Yahya said: "You don't need to talk about it, our eldest brother just wants to go back to his hometown and marry his cousin." Faris couldn't hear this, so he scratched his head and ears anxiously, begging him to shut up.Nixi smiled and said: "Is he engaged?" Yahya looked at Faris and said with a smile: "It's not settled." Nixi said: "The two of you are close in private?" He smiled and said: "You don't know how big the rules in our hometown are. How can you privately order your life? Chinese women say they don't see people, and they are not as tight as India. You ask Faris to tell you how he climbed on the tree Seeing his cousins ​​go to play football in the garden, let his cousins ​​know and tell his uncle, and he got beaten." Nixi couldn't help laughing, and squeezed Faris' shoulder Squeeze, then push, and said: "You are so infatuated! What if when you go back, all the cousins ​​are married?" Yahya laughed and said: "Anyway, there is still a cousin-a matchmaker for him." Nixi glanced at Yahya. After eating, Yahya wiped his face, and went out with Pharis.Nixi said: "Where are you going? Don't lead our big brother down!" Yahya laughed and said, "Rather than letting my sister-in-law teach him down, it's better to let my brother teach him down! If he learns badly, You won't be fooled by my sister-in-law!" Nixi spat at him, guessing that Yahya must not be going to some good place, feeling unhappy, how could she sit still at home, watching the maid clean up the dining table, she changed her clothes and wore Gold earplugs the size of a grain of rice, leading the child to the street.Along the way, I passed a newly opened Chinese medicine store, and I recognized the three words on the signboard, which seemed familiar, so I stepped on the threshold and asked, "Are you in the same family as Tongchuntang in Jiandao?" The clerk inside He replied: "Yes, it was distributed." Nixi stepped in and said with a smile: "I grabbed the medicine in your old store, and you gave me such a small package of preserved apricots, which is better than buying them from outside. I weigh a catty." The guy shook his hand and said: "It was given as a gift, and it was prepared to take medicine. There is no such rule when buying preserved apricots alone." Nixi said angrily, "I have never seen such a dull businessman! Do you have to buy your preserved apricots? Buy your medicine? Who will you buy it for? Unless you are going to die—I’m afraid that if you cure your illness, you won’t be able to cure your life!” The guy blushed and said, “You Grandma, why are you hurting people?” Nixi said, “When I come to buy things, I have to apologize to you for being careful?” A young guy next to him rushed up and said, "Grandma, don't bother with him, he's used to offending people for a long time. Grandma wants preserved apricots, but grandma hasn't tasted the plums we made. Some people make medicines, and they specify that they want plums to eat. "Speaking, he opened the small mahogany drawer, took a handful of each item, held it with paper, and sent it over.Nixi tasted it, was full of praise, and said: "Weigh the plums for half a catty." While talking, she looked up and down at the guy and said, "Children, it's good if the mouth is sweet." The clerk was not in his twenties, with red lips and white teeth. He was a good-looking talent, but his teeth were a little scratched.The hair was low, shaved on the forehead, and a spiky flower tip appeared faintly.This Nixi is a person who wants to strike up a conversation with a bearer when buying a bunch of cotton thread on the street. How can you not like it when you meet such a person?Yin said, "What's your surname?" The man said, "Cui." Nixi said: "Cui what?" The man smiled and said, "Cui Yuming." Nixi smiled and said, "Who gave you the name?" Cui Yuming laughed and said, "This grandma is asking questions as if I were a child. Nixi laughed and said, "I don't think you are a child, how can I really ignore you?" At that time, another customer came. The prescription prescribed Korean ginseng, angelica and other ten kinds of herbs, which were crushed and kneaded into small balls with honey.The clerk told him to pick it up in seven days, and Nixi said, "So you still have honey. Let me see." Cui Yuming walked into the shop, lifted the wooden lid of a large vat, and said, "Grandma buys the real honey. Try half a catty?" Nixi followed and smiled, "I can't take the big and small packages." Cui Taiming found a small earthen jar and said, "If you can't take it, I'll send it to you." Nixi looked at him and said "You have seven heads and eight guts to come to my house!" This Cui Taiming picked up a puff of honey with a copper spoon, and Nixi sniffed it and said: "Why is it not fragrant? I don't know what it is fake!" Cui Taiming angrily sent a full-bodied bee in the spoon to Nixi and said, "What do you see?" Nixi groaned and said, "You're going to die! Dump all my honey! " Then he took out the handkerchief under his arm and wiped it on the front of his clothes, and said: "What do you care about bees? It's not easy to catch two more bees and put them in the tank? Take them out and show them to regular customers, and they will believe you." Yu Ming laughed and said, "Grandma is really stingy!" The apprentice fetched a basin of water and waited for Nixi to clean her clothes.Nixi simply sat down next to a golden lacquered Eight Immortals table inside their counter, slowly twisted the towel, wiped his clothes and hands, and chatted with Yuming, asking him about the situation in his hometown, the treatment in the shop, and telling about his own affairs. not one. Her eight-year-old son Jimmy, she gave him a handful of preserved apricots, and he was playing in front of the drugstore, but was seen by Mrs. Melanie of the convent.Melanie walked past in a white hat and black dress, holding a black cloth handbag and a large black umbrella.Jimmy, who had known her all his life, threw himself on her knees, and fiddled with the ebony rosary hanging from the waist of her skirt, and the little silver cross.Melanie smiled and said, "Why did you let you run around alone, like a wild child? Who brought you out?" Jimmy pointed at the pharmacy and said: "Mom is here." Melanie poked her head.I caught a glimpse of Nixi sitting in the back of the shop, with a basin of wash water on the Eight Immortals table, but she didn't see her washing her face, she just tapped the handle of the hot towel on the edge of the table, squinted at the waiter next to her, and made a piece of it.Melanie nodded secretly, and went to report without mentioning it. Nixi was in Tongchun Hall, just when she was having fun, she suddenly heard a cough, and a thin old man walked out, with a flat yellow face and no beard, a jade-colored gown with a red and green vest on top of his two legs. The buttons are all unbuttoned, revealing a straight yellow chest and a horizontal belly. She is wearing two blue damask double-faced shoes and turning around with her hands behind her back. All the guys were silent together.Nixi quietly asked Cui Yuming, "Is that your boss?" Yuming nodded slightly, not even looking at her.Feeling disappointed, Nixi picked up all kinds of tea and food she bought, dragged the child and left.It was dusk when I got home.Yahya and Faris came back from a deal, sat down in the silk shop and ordered two bowls of noodles for snacks.Melanie had already found the store, and told him what she had just seen, and said: "In theory, I shouldn't know how to advance or retreat as a monk, and repeatedly gossip in front of your boss, it's just that your grandma is young and doesn't work well. I can’t help but be self-willed, for fear of causing outsiders to comment. Although I haven’t met her these days, we’ve always been good friends. It makes people suspect that I’ve got bad intentions and brought your grandma down. I’m a monk, but I can’t afford it. Besides, I am not the only one in our monastery, I cut off a branch, ruined all skills, and blamed by the superiors, do I still want to live?" Yahya heard this, without asking the truth, Hou Nixi came home, and made up his mind If he wanted to make trouble with her, if he disagreed with him, he would pluck her hair, pulling her eyes back into it.Pharis was stunned beside him.After Nixi breathed a sigh of relief, she refused to let it go, threw the plate and danced, and danced for a while, only thinking that Yahya met a dirty woman outside, so she was like a black-eyed chicken when she came home. The next morning, Jahya went upstairs to check the goods in the storeroom, accompanied by the clerks, one of them was lighting a fire under the stove, the other was cleaning the shop, and the maid went to the street to buy vegetables.Cui Yuming, carrying two-color candied fruit and two jars of honey, came to the door, and only said that he wanted to find the third tenant upstairs, named Zhou.The apprentice said that he had moved for a long time, and he asked where he moved, but the apprentice didn't know.He raised his voice and asked all the way upstairs.Nixi dragged the dark clouds and walked out of the room listlessly. When she saw him, she was startled, put her hands on her mouth, and couldn't make a sound for a while.Yahya came out from the opposite room, and saw nothing else. First, she saw the small tile bowl in Cui Yuming's hand, with pink signboard paper stuck to its mouth. It was the same as the one Nixi bought at the pharmacy yesterday. I knew there was a reason for it. Feeling angry from the heart, evil came to the gut, punched his face, Cui Yuming rolled straight down the half-stairs, got up before he fell, and ran outside before it was too late.Yahya chased down the stairs three by one, stepped on the greasy shards of the pot, chichi slid a few feet away, and when he arrived in the shop, he sat on the ground, got up again, and rushed out . Nixi was watching from upstairs, as if she had been thrown into the sea, lost her mind.He listened to the outside, but there was no loud noise. He was wondering, but when he listened again, it seemed that Yahya was joking with someone. He became more and more suspicious. He leaned on the handrail of the stairs and walked down step by step, afraid of the barking honey. Dirty shoes.She hid a piece behind the door curtain, but it turned out to be the widow Yu, who was a bit like Yahya. She came to the store to cut the clothes, and Yahya lost her temper. She leaned on the counter and picked up a green lotus The Indian silk was opened half way and draped over her body for her to see. Nixi gritted her teeth, and thought: "He is so blatant. I disagreed with Cui Yuming and said a few more words, and it caused a lot of trouble all day long. It must be because of Cui Yuming that someone came to him yesterday." It’s a trick. I can’t run away and beat me up today. Just to make the sesame bigger, I’ve been humiliated twice in a row!” Thinking about it, I was filled with indignation, and I couldn’t get any utensils for a while, so I pulled the door openly The hanging "Kai Zhang Zhi Xi" painted mirror was in his hand, he lifted the curtain, and threw it out hard, the mirror flew over their heads, and a thousand rays of light fell on the side of the street, shattering, shining like a splash. ground water. Following the mirror, Ni Xizao jumped out, fisted and kicked, and beat Widow Yu into thousands of holes, turning her into fly ash, a puff of smoke, a puff of anger, and then beat her back.Yahya regained his composure, and was about to reach out to grab Nixi. Nixi lifted up the piece of green lotus-colored Indian silk spread out on the counter with both hands, and swept across it out of thin air. More than half of the silk was cut off, leaving only The lower layers covered the wooden plank, it was so strong, with a crack, the widow fell back, Yahya got a little bit of it, and her arms were numb from the shock, Nixi became more and more satisfied, and piled on the counter. The three-foot-high stack of silk and satin is swept away from the waist, and the whole stack of horses pushes the golden mountain and the jade pillar topples down, a variety of reds, purples, and blacks, flashing flowers, dark flowers, printing, embroidery, piled flowers, sprinkled flowers, Sprinkling thread, flicking ink, and pepper blue ideas flew all over the ground, and Nixi jumped on it and trampled on it.Yahya also didn't care about the material, she grabbed Nixi's collar and slapped her face a few times, her head tilted to one side and then to the other, Nixi kicked, scratched, and It was biting, the two of them twisted into a ball, the widow Yu sat on the ground just panting, the old lady who came with Yu's family bent down to pick up the hairpins and hairpins that the widow had scattered, and took Nixi's earrings and broken pieces The head of the jade bracelet is also tucked in the sleeve. The guys next to him came up to persuade them, and finally pulled Yahya and his wife away.Widow Yu, holding her hair with one hand, has already slipped away.Nixi was covered in bruises, leaning against the wall to feel her way in, and there was a pair of large scissors on the counter, she took it quietly, dodged behind the curtain, took two steps back to make room, and threw the scissors out casually.After throwing it out, I was also terrified, sat down on the foot of the stairs, clapped my hands and feet and burst into tears, suppressing the noise outside.