Red Bean Lives in the Republic of China - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Yuqi didn’t pay attention to Yu Hongdou at all and was only busy talking with the person in front of her. She seemed to be talking about very interesting topics because Yuqi bit her lips and chuckled from time to time.

The man who was talking with Yuqi was a tall, middle-aged man. He was wearing a silver-grey suit; his hair was combed meticulously at the temples; and a gold watch gleamed on his wrist. He was holding a cup of coffee and looked like a gentleman.

After looking at them for a while, Yu Hongdou lost interest, and she turned her head and was about to talk to Gu Yun, but before she could speak, she heard Gu Yan’s voice.

“Hey, classmate He? What a coincidence! Are you better now?”

“My second brother was invited to this tea party. He was afraid that I would be bored at home, so he brought me with him. He will be the speaker on a topic later.” Miss. He pointed to He Yunqin and said, “That’s my second brother.”

Over there, He Yunqin had noticed that his younger sister was talking with someone. Seeing that it was a girl of eighteen or nineteen years old, she must be the Yu Hongdou that his younger sister mentioned, so he took a hasty look at her.

The girl’s face was extremely delicate and beautiful; her eyes were shining with eagerness; and there was no deliberate pursuit of fashion from head to toe, which was rare but not ordinary. She wore a dark green fleece sweater over a white shirt and a pair of extremely clean black round-toed leather shoes underneath. Her hair was held up by a pearl-coloured celluloid headband and fell neatly over her shoulders. There seemed to be a bright and cheerful demeanour on her body, and she had been observing the people and things in the hall with great interest since she sat down.

Yu Hongdou didn’t expect He Zhuyun to suddenly mention her second brother, and due to social etiquette, she had to pretend to be surprised to look over, and she happened to meet He Yunqin’s eyes.

She didn’t know how long he had been staring at her. He was trying to light a cigarette, and seeing Yu Hongdou looking at him, He Yunqin slowly put the Western lighter back into his trouser pocket and suddenly smiled at Hongdou. The smile seemed impeccable at first glance, but upon closer inspection, it seemed a little perfunctory.

Yu Hongdou bared her teeth and smiled.

He Zhuyun covered her mouth and said with a chuckle, “Senior Yu, you are so interesting.”

Yu Hongdou was taken aback, not knowing how funny she was.

He Zhuyun explained. “My second brother is actually very nice, but sometimes he likes to joke around, so don’t take it to heart.”

Yu Hongdou tried her best to look sincere, smiled, nodded, and said, “It can be seen that Mr. He is very good.”

He Zhuyun pursed her lips and said to Yu Hongdou, “Sister Yu, I forgot to say that I have prepared some small gifts for you.” Then she said to Gu Yun and others, “Sisters, although I am unable to remember your names now, I will always have an opportunity to get to know you all in the future. My name is He Zhuyun, and I am very happy to meet you.” After saying those words in one breath, she then gave the fountain pen to Yu Hongdou, took out the enamel bookmarks, and gave them to Gu Yun and the others one by one.

Soon after He Zhuyun distributed the presents, the piano music stopped, indicating the event was going to start. He Zhuyun smiled at everyone, stood up with a smile, and went to her seat.

The host was Qin Xuekai.

It was the first time he hosted such a large-scale event, and he was a little more restrained than usual. Standing in the middle of the hall, he first raised his hand and pulled the tie, then stretched the hem of the suit, and when he spoke again, with a high-pitched voice, “Everybody welcomes. The content of today’s topic is unprecedentedly rich, and the participants are talents in various fields in Shanghai—”

Yu Hongdou was not interested in the lengthy introduction and leaned forward to pick up a piece of refreshment brought by a waiter, put it in her mouth, and looked up again and saw that her cousin Yuqi was no longer in the hall.

“Presumably everyone has read the newspaper. Detective Wang is a man of extraordinary knowledge and has solved several unsolved cases in the police department that have not been solved for a long time.

Hearing Peter Wang’s name, Yu Hongdou finally became interested. She was a fan of this person’s column, and she not only read the articles but also asked her brother about the prototype of the cases. Later, Peter Wang suddenly stopped writing.

Her brother had told her that Peter Wang was indeed capable. He had helped the police department solve several cases. But after the chief of the police department was changed, Peter Wang refused to cooperate with them. Later, he went to Germany and started writing a column in the newspaper.

Now the police department wanted to ask Peter Wang to help find some clues, but it was almost impossible. He was either away from Shanghai all year round or he simply pretended to be an alcoholic, so that even they almost forgot the existence of this person afterward.

“Today’s first speaker is our Inspector Wang Peter. Let’s welcome him.”

Everyone saw that Wang Peter’s seat was empty. Seeing that, everyone started to look here and there, and Qin Xuekai was even more at a loss. At this moment, He Yunqin suddenly waved to Qin Xuekai.

When Qin Xuekai walked up to He Yunqin, he whispered something to Qin Xuekai. Then Qin Xuekai went back hurriedly.

After a while, Wang Peter was indeed found.

When Yu Hongdou saw Wang Peter, she had some doubts. ‘Why is Wang Peter different from my imagination? His facial features are similar to those of a comedian. Fortunately, this person seems fairly particular about his clothes. The suit on his body fits very well and is ironed. It should be specially ordered in a western dress shop, and he is not like an ordinary drunkard who randomly went to a tailor shop to buy it and put it on.’

Although Wang Peter’s walking appeared to have been affected by alcohol, he managed to speak clearly and quickly, saying, “Sorry, sorry, I kept you gentlemen and ladies waiting for a long time.”

Then he took a sip of water brought by a waiter to sober up. Then he leaned lazily on the piano and said again, “I have been involved in mysterious incidents for several years, and I do have some experience. For this tea party, I have prepared a total of three mysterious incidents. I don’t know which one you want to hear. In my opinion, the most twisted one in recent years is The wife-killing case.”

After listening for a while, Yu Hongdou was disappointed. Actually, the three cases that Peter Wang talked about didn’t happen recently. They were old cases. ‘Is he confused by alcohol?’

Fortunately, at least half of the people here seemed to have never read his column. With their faces, it showed that they were listening very enthusiastically.

Yu Hongdou ate some snacks boredly, thinking of her cousin Yuqi. She couldn’t help but look around again, but she still couldn’t find Yuqi. ‘She probably left early.’

“I wonder if you are interested in playing a little game with me. I have a deck of bridge cards here. I will randomly draw some patterns later, and as long as anyone can accurately recall the order and patterns of the bridge cards I have distributed, I will award a prize.” After finishing talking about the old cases, he wanted to start a new event.

Hearing that everyone got excited, several people already raised their hands.

However, when everyone calmed down and thought that Peter Wang was a rare and intelligent man, the conditions he proposed must have been extremely difficult, and the hall became quiet again.

Peter Wang hiccupped and said, “Everyone is right; this game is really not easy. Over the years, I have only seen one person write down all the positions and patterns of the bridge. Here is my good friend, Doctor He Yunqin.”

[T/L: He Yunqin is not a doctor by profession; he is a professor and a Ph.D. degree holder.]

Yu Hongdou cast a quick glance at He Yunqin, who was talking with a person who appeared to be a professor.

Wang Peter said again, “I’ll give you half a minute. If everyone is not interested, then this game can only be cancelled.”

Yu Hongdou bit her lip and thought. ‘The conditions offered by Wang Peter were really tempting. If I win, then I will be able to get his help to solve Chen Baidie’s case. Then my brother will not quit his job. And even if I lose, it will not be a shame. Didn’t our Chinese teacher say that she had never met anyone who had a better photographic memory than me? So let’s try.’

“Hey, it seems that no one can break the record set by Dr. He.” Peter Wang shook his head and seemed to be planning to return to his seat.

Yu Hongdou stood up before the others and said, “Inspector Wang, I want to try.”

Everyone looked at her, even He Yunqin. Seeing that it was Yu Hongdou, he raised his eyebrows and smiled, seeming to encourage but also to show sympathy.

That’s right, countless people had challenged this game for so many years, and He Yunqin had won alone, so the difficulty of this game could be imagined.

Yu Hongdou grinned and said, “Inspector Wang, please start.”

End of chapter 7

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