Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Tan Guiren took Huo Shaoheng to the dining room. Because the house was now using a diesel generator for power, only one light was on in the dining room, as opposed to typically unscrupulous usage. The long dining table was laden with four delicious and fragrant courses and a soup, all authentic Yangzhou cuisine. A lotus blossom-shaped bowl in the middle was filled with a round, fist-sized Lion’s Head meatball paired with crisp greens accented with broth. A beautiful aroma was apparent as soon as they moved closer. On the side was a dish of vegetarian stir-fry, pan-fried shrimp, mushrooms, and vegetables, as well as a bowl of tofu. More than half the food was vegetarian.
Tan Guiren didn’t hesitate to serve the only Lion’s Head meatball to Huo Shaoheng using the serving spoon. “Try this meatball. It’s Mrs. Fen’s best dish.”
Mrs. Fen had retired after serving the food, and because she didn’t plan on having Huo Shaoheng stay for dinner, she hadn’t made much food. It was only enough for Tan Guiren’s portion. Yangzhou cuisine was based on small but numerous plates, and one dish may have only consisted of one bite.
Huo Shaoheng was familiar with Yangzhou cuisine since his grandmother had been a southerner and there had been an expert Huaiyang chef at home when she’d been still alive. Yangzhou cuisine was merely a branch of Huaiyang cuisine. He used his chopsticks to pick up the meatball to taste and found it mediocre. It was nothing spectacular and was leagues behind the Huaiyang chef who’d used to work back home. However, Huo Shaoheng didn’t verbalize it but only nodded and said, “It’s pretty good.”
It was a rare thing for Huo Shaoheng to even give a compliment, but because he still needed to use Tan Guiren, he had no choice but to bite his tongue and act polite.
Tan Guiren didn’t mind. A smile bloomed on her face, and she continued to serve him more food. Mrs. Fen overheard Huo Shaoheng’s mild compliment and secretly shunned him for not appreciating a good thing. However, she didn’t express it outwardly and went to dinner after serving the rice container.
Huo Shaoheng and Tan Guiren chatted intermittently, so the dinner lapsed into nearly an hour. It was almost 9:00 p.m. by the time they looked at the clock. After they set down their chopsticks, Mrs. Fen then served them tea, and Tan Guiren looked outside to see the rain still yet to cease. It looked like Huo Shaoheng wouldn’t be leaving tonight.
Suppressing the joy in her heart, she left the dining room to help set up Huo Shaoheng’s room. Huo Shaoheng chose a guest room on the first floor, while Tan Gurien and Mrs. Fen both lived on the second floor for convenience. Although Tan Guiren would have preferred for Huo Shaoheng to stay in the guest room on the second floor, he had chosen the first floor himself. She didn’t want to disobey anything he said because he had such a powerful aura.
The power still hadn’t returned after 10:00 p.m., and because the house’s diesel generator wasn’t a high-capacity model, it was almost depleted after two hours of use. They still had to reserve some power for the next day, so the three of them said goodnight to each other and retired to their rooms.
In the early morning hours, Huo Shaoheng opened his eyes and quietly got up. He wore a black T-shirt, black pants, and only socks as he crept out of his room. First, he went to the living room to find the bugs and pinhole cameras planted there. There was a photo frame on the fireplace in the living room, and behind it were four black button-like things originally used to block the photo inside from falling out, but one of the black buttons had been swapped for a bug. Huo Shaoheng reached out to touch it and ripped the bug off.
After leaving the living room, he walked along the pitch-black hallway to arrive at the dining room where they had eaten earlier. A paper lotus lantern hung from the ceiling, and there were thick strings above the lamp as well as thinner strings holding up the lampshade. And within the thinner strings was a slight protrusion that was the CIA’s latest model of pinhole camera. Huo Shaoheng was very tall, so he only stood at the table to reach out toward the lampshade of the lotus lamp in order to pull the pinhole camera off. He then went to the second-floor hallway where the CIA had actually planted several bugs and pinhole cameras. It would be a disaster if Tan Dongbang really became elected and stayed here, because then the Prime Minister would be under the complete surveillance by a foreign country.
Huo Shaoheng patiently ripped out all the bugs and pinhole cameras throughout the entire villa. He wasn’t limited to the information from James’s letter but personally combed through the entire villa from top to bottom. He worked from the early-morning hours until the sun was almost up, then tidied up and went back to his room to sleep. He put all the ripped-out bugs and pinhole cameras into a bag, then smashed them to bits using a hammer. He would leave here tomorrow and throw the dust into the ocean.
The CIA agents wouldn’t make a scene even if they couldn’t find the bugs and pinhole cameras, since this was a violation of privacy and was illegal to begin with.
…
Tan Guiren got up in the morning to find that the rain had stopped. She began to feel a bit irritated and slowly got up, changed, and washed up in the bathroom. After nearly an hour, she finally came out of her room. However, it was Mrs. Fen she saw opening the door and coming out of Huo Shaoheng’s room.
Tan Guiren widened her eyes. “Where’s that gentleman?”
“He left a long time ago.” Mrs. Fen was cleaning inside and smiled. “What a clean fellow. He tidied up the room so it doesn’t even look like anyone stayed here. What a nice person.”
Tan Guiren opened the door to find that there was no trace of Huo Shaoheng. After standing there dumbly for a while, she went out quietly. However, she wasn’t disappointed for long because Huo Shaoheng also came when James visited her three days later.
The two men had made plans and were chatting in the gazebo behind Tan Guiren’s house. The Tans had a large backyard behind their villa, and the gazebo was in the middle of it. With flat fields of emerald grass surrounding it, the backyard was almost one acre. It was impossible to be eavesdropped on in the gazebo with such vast grass fields around. Of course, there were no bugs in the gazebo because Huo Shaoheng and James were both experts who had already checked for them.
In the distance, Tan Guiren sat in the living room on the first floor of the villa as she prepared a fruit platter while watching through the clear French windows, smiling at the two familiar figures in the gazebo in the grassy fields. She was very happy and excited to help these two men—it gave her a righteous feeling.
In the gazebo, James and Huo Shaoheng greeted each other before delving into the main topic. “Gu, are you happy with my gift to you?” James smiled as he held a pipe and put it to his lips.
They had agreed to call each other “Mr. Gu” and Mr. J.”
“J, I feel like you took advantage of me.” Huo Shaoheng crossed his legs and leaned against the seat in the gazebo. He also held a cigarette between his fingers but didn’t smoke it. The white smoke gradually floated up from his fingers, obscuring his face in a hazy cloud.
