Chapter 939: Taking Control

The few educated youths who returned to the city, as instructed earlier, did a good job. Just as Liu Feng said, the house was tidied up quite well. They renovated and maintained the house, changed the water and electrical lines, connected running water, installed sewage pipes, and converted a room into a bathroom. They also laid floor heating throughout and built a boiler room.

The interior of the house was also furnished quite well. They managed to find quite a few Ming and Qing dynasty pieces of furniture, along with many decorations like porcelain and scrolls, most of which were also from the Ming and Qing periods. Wang Yan saw that there were even a few items from the Song and Yuan dynasties. In the study, there was a blue-and-white porcelain scroll jar filled with many scrolls.

Overall, they basically completed the tasks Wang Yan had assigned earlier, and they did them well.

As for the antiques, Wang Yan had only given a passing instruction to use them as decorations. In this day and age, finding things was never a bad thing. He didn't have any desire to collect antiques for appreciation, nor did he have any further thoughts on collecting. After all, he had once been an expert himself; he possessed many treasures, deep historical knowledge, and superb appraisal skills, so he was very open-minded about it.

"Stop messing with the fish in that jar. You're the same as those people you found; you say you don't even live here, so why bother with a Feng Shui jar? And you're ruining the fish. If it rains heavily, or when winter comes, won't they all die?"

Watching Wang Yan feed the fish, Hao Shuwen, who was picking vegetables at the table, complained mercilessly.

"How is the house you two are fixing up coming along?"

"It's quite good. They are very conscientious in their work." Xiao Suizi asked curiously, "How do you know them?"

"Didn't they tell you?"

"They said they met on the main road."

Wang Yan nodded with a smile: "That's exactly where I met them. Seeing them wandering outside with nothing to do, I chatted with them for a bit. I felt they could listen and speak clearly, so I took them out for a meal, gave them a deposit to put their minds at ease, and let them help find a house. Later, the house they found was quite good, so I let them be responsible for tidying it up. Now it seems they've done quite well."

"You two must keep the antiques in your room safe. They say in troubled times you hoard gold, and in prosperous times you hoard antiques. These will only become more valuable in the future..."

He rambled on about the relationship between antiques and economic development, indicating how much wealth he had left for their future.

To this, both women naturally believed him.

The three of them were together, and they still had plenty to talk about. After all, it had been a year since they last met; although they occasionally kept in touch by phone and frequently exchanged letters, there wasn't really much to say. Calculating carefully, from the autumn of 1974 until now, it had only been a little over four years. However, in these four years, the time Wang Yan had spent with the two of them combined didn't even add up to three months, so now that they had finally managed to meet, it was inevitable that they would have much to discuss.

Laughing and joking together, working together, Wang Yan clattered the big ladle and prepared a sumptuous table of dishes; naturally, the fragrant red-braised pork could not be missing. Just as he had said before, red-braised pork was indispensable—it belonged to the youth and beautiful memories of the three of them.

Feng Kuzi attempted to use the success of a group of cadres' children and the displacement and bitterness of those from the laboring masses to summarize the prime of a generation; he was truly worthy of being a master director...

After the meal, Hao Shuwen leaned lazily against the Qing Dynasty sandalwood chair, stroking her belly to aid digestion. She asked, "Don't you have to rest for a day? What are you doing tomorrow?"

"Over five hundred people came over from the Kunming Military Region, and more than four hundred of them have never been to Beijing. I told them about the food and entertainment here before, and they all want to see for themselves. So, I'm paying out of my own pocket to arrange for them to eat shabu-shabu and roast duck tomorrow, and then we'll go for a stroll in the afternoon."

"You are truly generous." Xiao Suizi smiled and gave a thumbs up. She meant it sincerely, without a hint of sarcasm.

"I know all five hundred-plus of them, and they all know me. Many of them provided us with support during the fighting; I can't just treat the soldiers under my command to a meal and ignore the others—aren't they brothers too? I'm not short on that money; writing a book is enough to treat them to several meals, so I might as well treat them all. Many of them, you know, may never have the chance to come to Beijing again in their lives."

These words carried a touch of inexplicable melancholy, determined by people's different fates, different families, and different strengths. Xiao Suizi originally had a bit of conscience, and Hao Shuwen had been satirized by Wang Yan quite a bit in the past, so she paid more attention; both of them understood the meaning behind his words.

However, Hao Shuwen was impatient with this kind of small melancholy. She waved her hand, her face full of dissatisfaction: "You can come to Beijing, but you, you dog-of-a-man, are always dragging your feet. It's either this matter or that matter, and you still have to live and die with the art troupe..."

She didn't give Wang Yan a good look, just like four years ago, as if she wanted to kill this damn man with her eyes.

"How many days are you staying in Beijing this time?" Xiao Suizi asked.

"Four or five days, I suppose." Wang Yan counted on his fingers, "Tomorrow I'll go out eating and drinking with the soldiers, the day after tomorrow I'll attend the commendation meeting, and the day after that I have to run around for Liu Feng's job transfer. The chief might also want to chat with me, and I have to attend some meetings and such. I also have to pay a visit to both of your families. Calculating it this way, four or five, maybe five or six days will be necessary."

"You still dare to mention going to our house?"

Hao Shuwen said, "Wang Yan, let me tell you, the three of us are the same age. Suizi and I are already twenty-five; we're heading toward thirty."

"In terms of actual age, you're only twenty-four. Don't make yourselves sound so old. Aren't you both only sophomores now? You should study hard and strive for progress every day."

"You bastard."

Hao Shuwen gave a cold snort and stood up, "I'm leaving. I don't want to look at you."

"Then I'm leaving too." Xiao Suizi followed her up, "It's almost dark. You've been on the road for so long, get some good rest."

"This place is big and has everything. Why not just sleep here?"

Hao Shuwen glared: "In your dreams."

Wang Yan smiled back and stood up too: "Then I'll drive you home."

"No need. You bought this big house well; Jingshan Park is right to the east, and the buses come one after another. It's very convenient. Get some rest, we're off." Xiao Suizi waved her hand and left with Hao Shuwen.

Since they wouldn't let him drive them, Wang Yan didn't insist. He packed up the kitchen waste and walked a little way with them to see them off, returning only after throwing out the trash.

As for bedding and such, Wang Yan didn't need to worry. Hao Shuwen and Xiao Suizi had already cleaned the house and aired out the quilts for him in advance. Of course, expecting them to be very diligent was impossible. They had only cleaned the places that needed to be used: the bedroom in the main house, the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom, and most importantly, the study.

Ever since he was blessed by the 'Living Father', no matter where Wang Yan lived, a large study was a must. Although he had already read many of the books, he never deliberately memorized them; even with his superior memory, if he stretched the time out, he would still gradually forget.

Therefore, his free time was basically spent reading, pursuing that sense of finding something new every time he read. Of course, this only referred to books on literature, history, and philosophy. In fact, Wang Yan had also been reading various engineering books; even if he didn't have much talent in this area, he had always been learning.

Of course, his lack of talent was only relative to his gap in the liberal arts; compared to others, he was already a genius. After all, he had been an academician of both academies and a leading figure who guided the country's leap in development. The textbooks for his later students were all written and compiled by him, and the textbooks for the students after that were all from the hands of his disciples.

When it comes to high-end, precision, and cutting-edge fields, every domain is the world of wise geniuses, possessing strong irreplaceability. Whether you call it academic factionalism or a continuous lineage, it is inevitable; it just depends on who has no conscience.

This time, he was considered a writer so far, so naturally, he had to have a big study. This time, he had opened up the entire east wing, using a large bookshelf made of rosewood, and a massive desk and chairs made of old yellow pear wood. On the desk sat a brush rack with brushes hanging from it, along with paperweights, ink sticks, and an inkstone—a Song Dynasty Duan inkstone. The desk cabinet held quite a bit of old paper.

At the same time, he had also brought in a sofa and a tea table. The tea set on the table was complete, with quite a few Ming and Qing Dynasty tea sets he had acquired piled up on the table.

The tall bookshelves, reaching to the ceiling and occupying three walls, were already piled full of books—ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, liberal arts and sciences. Of course, there was also the sprawling seven million words he had published so far; gathered together, they took up quite a bit of space.

He hadn't looked closely before, but now that he was carrying his bag and preparing to write in the study, it started to feel quite good. Wang Yan decided not to investigate whether those people who handled the errands had taken the opportunity to swallow part of his money, or if they had kept some good things for themselves while hunting for antiques for him.

This was not malicious speculation, but an inevitability. Even if they didn't keep the precious ones, if they just kept a few small items worth a few dollars for themselves, who knows how much those things would be worth in the future.

If calculated according to future prices, Wang Yan not investigating might mean a loss of millions, but in fact, it was a small matter to him; it was really unnecessary to waste so much breath. After all, these people had done their work diligently.

Pouring water and making tea, Wang Yan took a pile of manuscripts out of his bag, preparing to write. The manuscripts here included some of the situations he had recorded from his conversations with the soldiers, the draft of "Youth Plateau" which he had already written quite a bit of, and ideas for his new book "My View." There was no order; he was working on them simultaneously.

Even because of this battle, some of the soldiers in the "Youth Plateau" he was writing had already died in combat, and some were seriously injured; he had to make quite a few revisions to the "Youth Plateau" he had already written a considerable portion of.

Just as he was busy writing with his fountain pen, a burst of knocking sounded from outside...

Wang Yan got up and went to the front yard to open the gate, just in time to see Xiao Suizi standing outside.

"Why did it take so long to open the door?"

"It's because it's far away. If my ears weren't sharp, I wouldn't have heard it." Wang Yan smiled and stepped aside, letting Xiao Suizi in, and then slid the bolt on the gate.

The sound of wood rubbing together made Xiao Suizi jump. Without waiting for Wang Yan to catch up, she quickened her pace and trotted into the brightly lit study.

"Youth Plateau..." She flipped through the manuscripts on the table and asked curiously, "Didn't you say you were going to write this last year? You haven't finished it yet? Is this one also quite long?"

"It's in the form of a memoir, about our experiences performing in the Kunming Military Region over the past few years. I've written about many people; it'll probably be over a million words. You asked about this when we were eating earlier."

Wang Yan crossed his arms, leaned against the bookshelf, and watched Xiao Suizi, who was masking her panic, with a smile.

Hearing this, Xiao Suizi's face turned red, and then, embarrassed and angry, she came over and made a move to hit Wang Yan: "See if I don't hit..."

Her words didn't continue, because Wang Yan had already grabbed her wrists, pulled her into his arms, and held her face with his other hand, kissing her.

Her body softened instantly, lost in confusion and infatuation; she was drowning in it.

After a long while, their lips parted. Wang Yan looked down at her flushed face: "No backing out now."

Xiao Suizi's eyes were like silk as she gave Wang Yan a punch on the chest, neither light nor heavy: "You're getting a bargain..."

She suddenly let out a cry of surprise, but her whole body had already been picked up by Wang Yan. Her hands subconsciously wrapped around Wang Yan's neck, letting him carry her into the bedroom in the east wing of the main house...

Xiao Suizi was a person who was gentle on the outside but firm on the inside. Unlike Hao Shuwen, who was all claws and teeth but weak on the inside, she was weak on the outside and strong on the inside—they were two extremes.

But even so, when facing feelings and the future, she had decided to return, decided to give her whole heart and soul to this bastard Wang Yan. She didn't know how many times she had tossed and turned, or what kind of struggle she had gone through in her own heart.

Wang Yan was, of course, very considerate. It must be said that he really was very experienced.

Xiao Suizi shyly covered herself with the quilt, hiding her beautiful figure, and watched as Wang Yan changed the sheets before getting into bed to lie down.

"Aren't you hot?"

"Not hot."

"You're covered in sweat, and you say you're not hot? I'll go boil some water, and we'll wash up simply in a bit."

"What's the rush? Lie here for a bit first, let's talk."

Wang Yan followed her lead, leaned against the headboard, and lit a cigarette.

Xiao Suizi leaned over and stroked Wang Yan's arm: "This is the wound from the war, right? And you said nothing happened; you're always lying."

"It's just a bit of flesh taken by a bullet. Soldiers losing their lives or having limbs amputated is commonplace; my little wound is nothing worth mentioning. My communications officer had both ears blown off. His was the dangerous one; a little bit off and he would have been shot in the head. He went through that twice. Alright, stop covering up; it's midsummer, you'll catch a cold if you keep covered up like that, it's quite uncomfortable."

As he spoke, Wang Yan pulled back the quilt.

This made Xiao Suizi let out a small cry of surprise, but in the end, she didn't wrap herself in the quilt again. Instead, she moved closer to Wang Yan, leaned against his chest, and gave him a punch, neither light nor heavy: "You're getting a bargain."

"I'm getting a bargain!" Wang Yan nodded with a smile, playing with her hair.

"What are you thinking?" she asked.

Wang Yan knew what she was asking and told the truth: "I want to be a landlord."

"If Hao Shuwen were here, she would definitely beat you to death and say she knew you were up to no good." Xiao Suizi hit him quite hard this time, imitating Hao Shuwen's style.

"Hiss... you're really hitting to kill."

"You deserve it." Xiao Suizi chided, "You talk about awareness and ideology all day long, but when it comes to yourself, you're engaging in feudal remnants?"

Wang Yan took a deep drag of his cigarette, exhaled slowly, and sighed: "Can't help it. Heroes have trouble passing the beauty's test. I told you both before that I just can't let go."

"Yeah, can't let go~" Xiao Suizi said the same.

She lay on Wang Yan's chest, ignoring the summer heat, just sticking to him like that, rising and falling with Wang Yan's breathing.

After a while, she said: "Marry Hao Shuwen."

"Hmm?"

"Marry Hao Shuwen! I've talked to her. You have to get married eventually, otherwise, it will affect the organization's appointment of you, and it won't be good for your future. Her father is a chief, and you're in the military; her father's help to you will be greater. In this regard, my father can't help you at all. So, marrying Hao Shuwen is the best choice."

"And what about you?"

"Me? I'll just follow you like this, in a mess, without shame."

She said it with a smile and didn't look at Wang Yan, but the sobbing in her voice and the warmth Wang Yan felt on his chest all indicated her crying.

Anyone suffering such a great grievance couldn't help but cry. If possible, she certainly wouldn't make this choice. But she really couldn't bear to part with him, didn't want to let go, so she could only do this, and still had to consider the bastard man.

This wasn't an open era. Whether it was Hao Shuwen or Xiao Suizi, neither was that open. Their family backgrounds and personal ideologies wouldn't allow them to do this. Even Lin Dingding, the most open of them all, was far from reaching that level.

But there was no help for it; the word 'love' is the hardest to solve, and the one they met was Wang Yan.

He was an old bastard who had dominated for a thousand years; he was like mellow, fragrant wine. Even those who don't love to drink, as long as they smell the scent, can't help but want to taste and savor it. No need for much, just a light sip, and once you're stained with a drop or two, you can never stop, unable to resist drinking more and savoring it. Savoring it like this, before you know it, you're drinking more and more, and you're drunk—drunk willingly, unwilling to wake up.

Wang Yan, of course, understood the sacrifice Xiao Suizi had made for this. He gently wiped her tears: "Actually, I originally thought about not getting married."

"Yeah, we all felt it. You were up to no good and had ulterior motives long ago."

"I had planned to retire after a few more years, and didn't think about..."

"Alright, enough." Xiao Suizi shook her head, "We've already decided, why say so much? We know you're a great writer, you write books well, and you can earn enough money to live without worry for a lifetime. But the merits you earned with your life on the battlefield cannot be wasted, and your future cannot be gone."

"It's just that I've wronged you."

"It's okay, I'm willing. I was the one who took the initiative to suggest it to her. She knows too; this is the best choice. Otherwise, it would be a lose-lose situation, and none of us would be happy in this life."

Wang Yan didn't speak again, just held her tighter...

He really did want to not get married. This was, of course, irresponsible, but it was fair to Hao Shuwen and Xiao Suizi. Although they both suffered hurt and pressure from their families, they were both the same.

At the same time, Wang Yan was also under greater pressure. After all, this was only 1979. Perhaps some people were doing the same thing, but the situation was definitely different. Who the hell would dare to have one foot in two boats when one girl's father was a chief and the other's father was a bureau director? Even if you had the guts of a bear, you wouldn't dare do this.

But since they had both discussed it, Wang Yan wouldn't look for trouble anymore. This was actually the best result now. Xiao Suizi had made a concession, returning a future to the three of them.

In this, no one was really well off. Hao Shuwen got Wang Yan as a husband, but Wang Yan had Xiao Suizi on the side. Xiao Suizi conceded and got Wang Yan's debt, but at the same time, she had to bear the name of a mistress and face the pressure from her parents. As for Wang Yan himself, besides getting the body and heart of two girls, he also had to bear the disdain of his chief father-in-law and the anger of Xiao Suizi's parents.

It was just that things looked better on the surface; at least there was an explanation.

But that was all. Wang Yan certainly couldn't resolve the various negative impacts; this was something that would never go away in this life, but he didn't care in his heart.

As for the grievances of Hao Shuwen and Xiao Suizi, let them be aggrieved.

In matters between men and women, Wang Yan was a true bastard. Except for his parents in the real world—that was the family affection he had yet to see through—there was really no one who could shake his heart.

In the end, he was a selfish person; he was only pleasing himself.

He wasn't born this way; everything stemmed from the abundant energy brought by the long life blessed by the 'Living Father'. Even if he wanted to be shaken, it was really hard to have so much sorrow and parting.

However, he never showed it; he was always responsible to the end.

He just loved more broadly; what could he possibly have done wrong...