Chapter 15 Chapter fifteen

When Li Weilian drank half of the fourth bottle of red wine, Dai Xi asked for the bill.She paid the bill with the cash in his wallet, and gently took the wine glass away from Li Weilian's hand: "William, let's go back." He stood up obediently, and staggered out.Dai Xi hesitated, not knowing whether to reach out to help him.Fortunately, although Li Weilian's footsteps were floating all the way, he still insisted on walking to the side of the car. Sitting in the driver's seat on the right, Dai Xi took a deep breath.Li Weilian leaned his head against the car window, and said with all his strength: "You drive on the expressway first...don't head towards Hong Kong Island...when you are approaching the International Exhibition Center, you...call me again."

The road away from Lei Yue Mun is much quieter than when we came here, and there are almost few fishing boats.There are only rows of shadows of trees on both sides of the road, like endless melancholy, first approaching and then moving away.The expressway forked in front, and Daixi chose the direction of Hong Kong Island without thinking, and drove down the same road. The long tunnel seems to have no end, and Chopin is still with them.On the lane next to it, there was still a steady stream of vehicles.Go out of the tunnel and drive along the original road to the Eastern District Corridor, which is half suspended by the coast, and the dark blue sea comes to the right, dark and silent.The sound of the waves, the sound of the wind, and the turbulent undercurrent of the sea are buried deep under the boundless plane. The lights of the city that originally covered up the starlight become melancholy, but above the sea on the other side, a sky full of stars rises.A looming red light appeared at the farthest end where the sea and sky meet, as if tearing the dawn of the eternal night and the first hope in the dream.

The BMW stopped at the entrance of the Four Seasons Hotel. Dai Xi yelled in Li Weilian's ear several times, but he didn't respond—it seemed that he had to ask someone for help.Dai Xi first took out his wallet from his satchel, and carefully stuffed it into the inside pocket of his jacket. Before she had time to retract her hand, Li Weilian's body moved slightly, and then she felt a gentle touch on her hair, with an irresistible strength. Dai Xi's breathing stopped suddenly.She vaguely realized that she should do something.However, her rationality disappeared along with her breathing, and she could only lie motionless and half leaned against his arms, and she could still clearly feel the rise and fall of his chest in her palm, the intimacy was so intimate that she couldn't express it.She felt close to him, and she was completely wrapped in the clear, mellow and intoxicating breath.The man's breath is so strange and yet so familiar, like a memory from a previous life that was suddenly awakened.It was very dark inside the car, but Dai Xi closed her eyes, as if this was the only thing she could do at the moment.

"...why don't you go to Marco Polo...why don't you call me?" He is asking me, Dai Xi thought in a daze, should I answer?What is the answer? "Alright, tomorrow morning...we'll start from here together." Dai Xi suddenly opened her eyes, and the most violent avalanche set off in her mind, she straightened her whole body coldly.Li Weilian's face was hidden in the shadow of the car window, but Dai Xi could clearly see his eyes. It was full of naked desires, but could not find a trace of warmth. Dai Xi bit her lips fiercely: "William, you're drunk. I'll ask someone from the hotel to take you up."

He put down his hand on her hairline, without saying a word. Dai Xi pushed the car door, just in time the hotel doorman ran over.She suddenly realized that the seemingly extremely long process just now was actually just a very short moment. "I'm going to catch the subway." Dai Xi said to Li Weilian standing outside the car, he didn't seem to hear at all. "Good night." Dai Xi took two steps forward, only to hear Li Weilian say behind him: "Dai Xi, wait for me at the hotel tomorrow morning." It was almost eleven o'clock, and the subway was the emptiest in days.Dai Xi folded her arms and sat on the bench, shivering one after another. No matter how many theories she had studied, the deep sadness in it was still unprepared when she was on the scene.

Dai Xi also clearly realized that she didn't hate him or be afraid of him because of what happened.She was the one who was really drunk tonight, and he just woke her up. At exactly nine o'clock the next morning, Li Weilian called Dai Xi's room, and he was already waiting in the lobby. Li Weilian stood facing in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass windows in the lobby, the morning light shone lightly on his body, and Dai Xi saw that his face was gloomy and tired, as if he had a hangover or hadn't slept all night.In fact, Dai Xi didn't sleep for long, so she probably wouldn't look much better than him.When she went downstairs, her anxious heart immediately calmed down, Dai Xi went straight to Li Weilian, and smiled at him.

Last night is over, and they won't mention each other again.After getting rid of the hypocrisy, Li Weilian became a little more real in Dai Xi's eyes. Fortunately, she was prepared for this kind of realness.Dai Xi couldn't figure out what Li Weilian was thinking, but the subtle relief in his expression made her feel sympathetic. Now, she has more confidence and desire to be honest with him. "If you want to catch the flight at 3:30 in the afternoon, you'd better take the airport express at 1:30, so we don't have much time today." After getting in the car, Li Weilian said to Dai Xi: "We can go as far away as possible. Repulse Bay, or go to the top of the mountain first, I made a reservation at the nearby Peninsula Hotel at 12:00 noon, and eating is still the most important thing.”

Dai Xi looked out the car window. The weather was not very good. The sky over Victoria Harbor was covered with overcast clouds. Most of the tall buildings along the mountain were hidden behind the gray mist. There was a rustling sound, and the petals of the bauhinia flowers that had bloomed to the end fell one after another, like pink butterflies fluttering and dancing on the street.The Spring Festival has long been over, and every Saturday morning, there are suddenly few pedestrians on Canton Road, and there are even fewer people in front of famous boutiques. The luxurious decorations without crowds stand alone in the wind, revealing a bit of aloofness.

From bright to bleak, just overnight.Without crowds of people, the naked cityscape looks dirty.Abandoned things are always dirty, and it's about feeling, not substance. "I don't want to go to the top of the mountain...and I don't want to go to Repulse Bay." Dai Xi replied to Li Weilian. He started the car and slowly drove out of the driveway in front of the hotel: "Then where do you want to go?" "North Point." "Why?" He didn't seem very surprised. Although it has been brewing for a long time, Dai Xi was still quite nervous when she answered. She heard her voice trembling slightly: "'Vulgarity is the greatest sin in the world', I want to understand the person who said this sentence. I have thought about it carefully, I think what your mother said makes sense."

Fortunately, Li Weilian didn't say anything more.After turning on Salisbury Road, he increased the speed of the car. The Peninsula Hotel, Sheraton Hotel, Renaissance Kowloon, Shangri-La... Modern, rich or elegant buildings passed by the window, and the prosperity of the brocade passed by like this. Gone without a trace. After driving for a long time, Li Weilian said: "The theory is very simple, but the reality is not beautiful at all. Do you definitely want to see it?" "affim." Li Weilian nodded: "There is still a long way to go, do you want to listen to music?"

"No," said Daisy firmly, "I want to ask you a question." He smiled: "Really? You finally have a question you want to ask me?" "There are... a lot of problems." "Okay, let's ask." Dai Xi suddenly became nervous again, and when this moment finally arrived, she still couldn't avoid panic.The more she gets acquainted with him, the fragments of her heart that were scattered and incomplete gradually come together, the more timid Dai Xi becomes. She is afraid of the cruel truth revealed by the complete puzzle, and also afraid that her recklessness and ignorance will hurt the world that has fallen into endless misery. However, she can only move forward bravely, otherwise help will always be empty words... "First question: Yesterday you said that the process of coming to Hong Kong was very smooth. I want to know why." With a sudden brake, Dai Xi rushed forward. "I'm sorry, I was not concentrating." Li Weilian stared at the traffic lights at the intersection and said, his complexion was already pale, but now he was even paler. The red light turned green and they continued on their way. Li Weilian began to answer: "At that time, even if there were immediate family members in Hong Kong, after the application was submitted, it had to go through layers of review, and there would be various obstacles. It took half a year to delay. But from the time I submitted the application to the time I got It took only a month before and after the approval, so it went very smoothly. As for why it went so smoothly, the reason was... I was in a special situation at the time." He paused for a moment before saying, "I was seriously injured in an accident. , I have to come to Hong Kong for an operation. If I can’t get timely medical treatment, I will be paralyzed for life.” "Ah!" Dai Xi let out a low cry. Li Weilian smiled: "Don't be nervous, isn't I very good? In fact, people in that era were quite humane. When the agencies that handled the application saw my situation, they all gave the green light. I have no trustees, There were no gifts, and of course I wasn't in a position to do any of those things at the time. Surprisingly, I was approved within a month." "Daisy, I once swore not to come to Hong Kong." He sighed a long time, "When my parents brought my brothers and sisters to Hong Kong but left me alone in Shanghai, I made up my mind to never come to Hong Kong." Living alone in Shanghai, I would never go to them again. But under the circumstances at the time, I had no choice but to come to Hong Kong for surgery as my only hope, so... I still came.” A large piece of silence, like dark clouds in the sky, is so dull that it is suffocating. Li Weilian parked the car on the side of the road: "We are here." After getting off the car, what appeared in front of Dai Xi were the ugly buildings he had seen last night, one after another, densely arranged on both sides of the narrow street.The wind was still very strong, and the paper scraps and garbage on the ground were rolled up. Under the daylight, the stains on each wall were clearly visible.There were not many pedestrians on the street, only gray figures in gray clothes hovering in front of small shops on the side of the road, and some empty stalls and hangers scattered on both sides of the street, which looked like an area where a road market was held. "This street is called Marble Road, and like the nearby Seven Sisters Road, it used to be the focus of small garment factories in Hong Kong." Li Weilian motioned Dai Xi to look at those buildings, "Every building has a garment workshop and is also a residential building. .Living here has to endure noise and a messy and dirty environment, so only the poor have to live here. Every Sunday, the garment factory will take out the backlog of goods and set up a roadside market. The poor people in the neighborhood happen to have the opportunity to pick out cheap clothes. This practice has continued to this day, and if we come tomorrow, we will meet." He walked towards one of the buildings: "Today is Saturday, the factory is closed, maybe we can go in and have a look." The building was indistinguishable from the surrounding buildings. The iron bars and wire mesh that sealed every window were rusted lead yellow, and the iron gate on the ground floor was tightly closed, which was also the same color. Li Weilian said to Dai Xi: "You wait here, I'll ask." Dai Xi stood on the side of the street, watching from afar as Li Weilian walked to the iron gate, and knocked on a window next to him.The window opened, and he chatted with the people inside, and soon the iron door was wide open, and an old man bowed his back quickly walked out, standing in front of Li Weilian and talking loudly to him.Dai Xi couldn't understand what they were talking about, and could only see the abnormal excitement from the old man's expression and movements.After a while, Li Weilian came back with a bunch of keys in his hand: "Let's go up." They did not enter through the main entrance, but went around to the back of the building, where the back wall was dirtier than the front, and the sewage trail trailed down from the roof.After passing through the accumulated sundries and packages, Li Weilian opened the back door with the key in his hand, and Dai Xi followed him in. The unlit corridor was almost as dark as night, and it seemed to be closed all year round, causing the smell to be damp and unpleasant, rushing straight into the nose.Dai Xi clung to Li Weilian's side, and he whispered, "Don't be afraid, follow me, it's on the second floor." Dai Xi was not afraid, she just wanted to get closer to him. The stairs were narrow, so Li Weilian turned his body slightly so that Dai Xi could climb up the steps side by side with him.Up to the second floor, Li Weilian opened the door at the end of the corridor, gently pulled Dai Xi over, and immediately closed the door behind him. With a "click", the dark room suddenly shone brightly.Dai Xi's eyes were full of bright white light from fluorescent lamps. She blinked several times before she saw clearly that the room was full of sewing machines.Fabric pieces of various shapes and colors are stacked around each sewing machine, and the gaps between the sewing machines can only allow people to pass sideways.The whole space was crowded and depressing, and even the air could not circulate smoothly.The windows facing the street are covered with thick gray curtains, which are dark yellow due to age, like the sclera of an old man. "The last time I came here in 1997 was to sell it. Unexpectedly, twelve years later, everything remains the same." Under the fluorescent lamp, Li Weilian's complexion looked even worse, but his eyes were piercing, and his resolute expression made him look strange: "When Chinese manufacturing is sweeping the world, this small workshop-like garment factory can still survive. Come down, Hong Kong people are really tough." He walked to a sewing machine and stroked it gently: "When I came to Hong Kong at the end of 1984, my mother only ran such a garment workshop. At that time, I had separated from her. After nearly ten years, when I saw her again, I didn't know her at all. Dai Xi, my mother is very beautiful. In my mind, she has always been the most beautiful and elegant woman in the world, but when I met her in Hong Kong When we reunited, she was a haggard, prematurely aged woman, and it is impossible to imagine that she had said something like 'vulgarity is the greatest sin,' and asked me to be a gentleman." "Why is that?" Daisy asked. "My maternal grandfather was a garment entrepreneur. Before the liberation, he had been traveling between China and France to run the garment industry. The family business was very prosperous. In 1975, my mother was specially approved to inherit his inheritance in Hong Kong, so that she could move to Hong Kong with the whole family. At first, she inherited four clothing factories with a considerable scale, but because she trusted others, she ran into serious problems, and was later defrauded of a lot of money. When I applied to come to Hong Kong in 1984, her The industry has shrunk again and again, and finally became such a small workshop. At that time, my father and my brothers and sisters had already transferred to the United States to seek relatives, but my mother refused to admit defeat and stayed alone in Hong Kong to support herself.” "However, it was precisely this difficult situation that made me know that my mother loved me after all." Speaking of this, Li Weilian showed a sincere smile, "I went to the General Post Office on Sichuan Road to make international long-distance calls to her for almost ten years. I didn’t talk to her anymore, and I didn’t know how to speak. But as soon as she heard about my situation, she immediately let me apply to go to Hong Kong. In order to raise money for my operation, she also mortgaged the last factory, So as soon as I recovered, I came to the factory to help her. My thinking is that no matter what the cost, the mother must be released from this situation. She does not belong in such a place. Daixi, in your words , I want her to live a life of bourgeois luxury again." Dai Xi blushed and smiled at Li Weilian, the sad memories illuminated by the fluorescent lamp were so beautiful that it made people's heart ache.Dai Xi felt the mysterious attraction of Li Weilian when he first sorted out Li Weilian's photos.After going through last night and this morning, and now here and now, this attraction turned into sympathy and understanding from the bottom of her heart, allowing her to calmly deal with the distance between them, which is both far and close. Now the two of them are standing side by side in front of the sewing machine, Li Weilian pointed to a small staircase in the opposite corner: "Do you know what's on it?" "The top?" Dai Xi could see that it was a small attic, and the thin brackets made of wooden strips and iron sheets seemed to be overwhelmed, "...for stacking things?" "That's the workshop." "Workroom? But it's too short..." The floor height of this workshop was very average, and the attic was so low that no one could stand on it. "Yes, the top is only 1.45 meters high. But it is the workshop with the highest technical content in this small factory - the cutting room." Li Weilian lowered his head and asked Dai Xi, "Do you know what cutting is for? ?” Dai Xi thought hard: "Well, just cut the cloth according to the pattern? I saw a tailor do this when I was a child..." "It's not the same. Cutting pieces in a garment factory use machines to cut a large stack of cloth, which requires both physical strength and skill, and only men can do it. This work is the soul of a garment factory, and the attic can provide a small environment for concentration. They work bent over." "Oh, so the attic doesn't need to be so high." Dai Xi understood. "I sleep in the attic every night. During the day, if no one is cutting pieces, I will read there too," Li Weilian said looking at the attic. "After get off work, it becomes very quiet here. The cutting bed can be used as a table, and there is a Square stool... One year later, we paid off the debt and took back the factory. Two years later, I helped my mother buy another factory with better conditions, on Seven Sisters Road. On the eve of the handover of Hong Kong in 1997, My mother decided to officially retire and go to the United States to spend her old age with my father. We sold all five garment factories. At that time, she lived in a villa in the middle of the mountain. She was almost seventy years old and drove a BMW around by herself. Back to what it should have been…” Dai Xi stared at Li Weilian intently, she was fascinated by the expression on his face, the vivid and vivid pride, the undisguised love for his mother, just like the morning light illuminating his gray and haggard face today.This kind of love can only happen between mother and child. It is the love of blood relatives that is often intertwined with misunderstanding, reconciliation, possession, rebellion, favoritism and dedication. Because they belong to the same clan, it is more intense and will never change until death. Dai Xi asked herself quietly: Is he very, very much like his mother? - must be! "Okay," Li Weilian walked towards the door, "Let's go, the air here is too bad." Sitting back in the car again, through the front window, Dai Xi watched Li Weilian go to return the key.Standing in front of the gray building, the bowed old man held Li Weilian's hand and kept nodding.Suddenly, Li Weilian stretched out his right arm and hugged the old man's shoulder tightly.The wind blew up the hem of Li Weilian's Burberry trench coat, and gently patted the old man's blue overalls.They stood leaning against each other like this for a long time, until a puff of water mist floated in the dark sky, and Daixi's eyes were misty and misty.