Chapter Ten Dinner Party

  Yue Xiang Lou is not a well-known old restaurant, but due to the owner's diligence and integrity, it has gradually established its reputation. The dishes here are no less than those of other famous old restaurants, but the price is one-third cheaper, so every day is crowded with guests.

  At six o'clock in the afternoon, An Yi arrived at the second floor of the restaurant on time after washing up and changing into a silver-gray young suit. He had just sat down when Ou Yaoting and his daughter, who looked like a little bird, arrived under the respectful guidance of the restaurant owner, He Qi. An Yi quickly stood up to greet Ou Yaoting and Miss Ou, then politely called out "Seventh Uncle" to He Qi, who was very fond of this young man with a sense of justice. Due to his busyness, He Qi could only respond with a smile before excusing himself to leave. A nearby waitress, wearing a short blouse with floral patterns and looking petite and delicate, smiled brightly when she saw An Yi, and the two exchanged a few words in hushed tones as she poured him tea.

  "Are you familiar with the people up and down here?" asked Ou Yaoting, smiling from his seat by the window.

  An Yi politely nodded: "Very familiar, including the big chef Tan Shu here, they are all kind-hearted people."

  Miss Ou, who was sitting opposite, had just seen the young and beautiful waitress whispering to An Yi, and suddenly felt a little annoyed. After listening to An Yi's words, she sarcastically said: "Wow! I didn't expect it, is it because you have some dirty money that you come here to indulge in luxury?"

  "Miss, you misunderstood." An Yi explained sincerely, recalling the miserable scene at that time with a sorrowful expression: "Last October when I just arrived in Guangzhou, I almost got beheaded by the merchant troops. I was penniless and had no relatives to turn to. Later, during my job search, I fell ill again. It was the girl named Cai Juan who, under the orders of Seventh Uncle and Tan Uncle, gave me a bowl of water and handed me two pieces of beef jerky to fill my stomach. You don't know, at that time I was so hungry that I swallowed half of the wrapping paper along with it, without even knowing what flavor it was. Later, the merchant firm took pity on me and hired me. Once I had money, every three to five days I would come to the first floor here to buy two pieces of beef jerky, so gradually I became familiar with everyone here."

  Miss Ou's face turned red and she apologized to An Yu like a child who had done something wrong: "I'm sorry, I didn't know it was like this."

  "It doesn't matter, isn't it fine now?" An Yi was completely carefree, revealing a calm smile.

  Ou Youting nodded: "I didn't expect you had such an experience, born in a chaotic era, life is not easy!"

  Cai Juan and the other two servants carefully placed the dishes on the table, bowed their heads politely and said "The dishes are all here, please enjoy" before quietly retreating.

  Ou Yating personally poured wine for An Yi, who quickly stood up and said he didn't dare to accept the honor. He swiftly took over the French wine bottle from Ou Yating's hand and carefully poured a small amount into the glasses of the father-daughter pair. Only after returning to his seat did he add one-fifth of the amount to his own high-footed cup.

  All of this fell into Ou Yaoting's eyes, and apart from appreciating An Yi's understanding of etiquette and propriety, he was also surprised by his familiarity with Western-style wine serving habits: "Little Yi, where did you learn such refined skills?"

  "In Chongqing... there are many factories in our area, and private training schools. Some bosses give their training schools a name that sounds like a technical college, but actually it's just a simple vocational school. I spent two years inside, one and a half years as an apprentice in various factories nearby, and after graduation, I worked for another year in a larger machinery repair factory, operating a lathe. That's where I learned this skill." An Yi bluffed with confidence.

  Ou Youting said in surprise: "I didn't expect Chongqing's industry to be so developed, how come I've never heard of it before?"

  "I think it's mainly because Chongqing is not far from Wuhan, the Yangtze River basin has always been an important industrial area in China. I heard that the Shi Jing Arsenal in Guangzhou only started copying Soviet and German rifles two years ago, and artillery is still being tested, but the Hanyang Arsenal had already produced them. I even heard that the German-made shell guns seen all over Guangzhou were also mass-produced by the Hanyang factory." An Yi said calmly.

  Ou Youting nodded: "This is indeed a fact, and there are many reports on this aspect in the newspapers."

  "How did you know so much?" Miss Ou asked curiously.

  An Yi replied: "I eat this bowl of rice and usually pay attention to these things."

  "Haha! Come on, Xiao Yi, you've done a great job these past few months. Hope you'll keep up the good work!" Ou Yaoting raised his cup to take a sip, then put it down and said with a smile: "Let's eat while we talk, Xiao Yi, don't be shy."

  "Thank you!"

  Everyone had been chatting for a while when Miss Ou suddenly asked: "How come your Mandarin is so good?"

  "Not what I learned from Luojing..."

  An Yi realized he had misspoken and quickly added, "Haha... Luo Jing was a teacher at my school in Sichuan, no, not exactly a teacher, more like a bell ringer. Every evening at 7 o'clock sharp, he would ring the bell and we would start our evening self-study session. His Mandarin is very standard, listening to him speak often made me want to learn too."

  Miss Ou nodded: "No wonder, but you northerners find it easy to speak Mandarin, unlike us people from the two Guangs, who have a hard time learning it, especially those retroflex sounds, which are very awkward."

  "Ha ha, as long as you study with your heart, there's nothing that can't be learned. Look at Xiao Yi's Cantonese now, it has improved a lot, right? Ha ha... Sorry, an old friend has arrived, I need to go say hello. You two feel free to use this, Xiao Yi, don't be polite."

  An Yi followed Ou Yaoting's back and saw a large group of people standing in front of the door of Room No. 1, including two military officers who looked like generals. Suddenly, An Yi saw Jiang Xianyun, He Zonghan, and Hu Zongnan, who had become increasingly familiar with him recently, all fully armed with holstered pistols, standing upright behind a kind-looking middle-aged man, particularly conspicuous among the Yunnan army guards.

  Hu Zongnan also saw An Yi, and smiled at him with a squint, then leaned over to whisper something to Jiang Xianyun and He Zhanchan. Jiang Xianyun and the other two also glanced at An Yi with a faint smile, but due to military discipline, they remained still and didn't greet An Yi.

  Miss Ou saw the two famous figures, He Zhonghan and Jiang Xianyun, smiling at her and became very excited: "Ah, did you see? The two spirited guards behind my Uncle Liao are none other than Jiang Xianyun and He Zhonghan of the Whampoa Trio! They're greeting me!"

  An Yi was stunned, and after a while, he saw two arrogant Yunnan military generals leading the way into the private room. Ou Yaoting followed in under Mr. Liao's enthusiastic invitation, while Jiang Xiandun stood straight at the door of the private room, forming a stark contrast with the sloppy guards of the Yunnan army.

  "Hey! What are you looking at? Can't you hear me talking?" Miss Ou was clearly dissatisfied with An Yi's indifference.

  An Yi nodded calmly: "I heard that the one who pulled your father into the private room was Mr. Liao Zhongkai, I saw him last time when I passed by Nan Ti Road No. 2, he is the second person in charge of the party headquarters, the party representative of Huangpu, a very down-to-earth elder."

  Miss Ou's nose was slightly upturned, her lips were lightly pursed, and she teased An Yi to the point of being dumbfounded: "You, how come you always speak in such an old-fashioned, cold and icy tone? Honestly, don't you have any sense of awareness? Haven't you heard of the Three Heroes of Huangpu? You're really ignorant!"

  Affected by the beauty, An Yi, who pretended to be old and mature, couldn't sit still: "Isn't it just the three heroes of Huangpu? I know them all and am very familiar with them. Not only do I know them, but also Du Yuming, Huang Jie, Liu Kan, Chen Mingren, Song Xilian and a dozen other fierce generals, as well as several famous figures from the second period. I'm familiar with them... Don't you believe me? Haha, let me tell you, every month they come into the city twice, although they take turns to ask for leave, but almost every time they come into the city, they will find me to chat, do you know why my days off are always on Sundays? It's just to accommodate these old brothers' schedules, that's why I asked Chen Zhuangjia to arrange it this way, got it?"

  Miss Ou looked at An Yi in disbelief, deeply surprised that he could recite so many names of Huangpu military men. However, her long-cultivated sense of superiority and the spoiled temper of a young lady made her unwilling to show weakness in front of An Yi: "Big talk! Humph! The three heroes of Huangpu often gave speeches on the streets and in parks, and many people have seen them. It's no big deal that you can recite other names, the whole city of Guangzhou is discussing the Huangpu military, you must have heard others say it and memorized it. Now you're showing off in front of me, sticking gold to your face by claiming to know so many excellent military school students... Ah? You're angry? I hit the nail on the head, right? Haha, if you really knew them, I'll ask you, who is that short soldier standing next to Jiang Xiangyun? Don't know, huh? If you can say his name, I'll admit defeat."

  An Yi was already feeling uncomfortable, and after hearing Miss Ou's words, he obviously took himself as a cheat. With anger in his heart, he didn't care about the occasion anymore. He stood up with a huff, grabbed the largest fried shrimp ball from the plate, walked to Hu Zongnan who was standing at attention, and said with a smile: "Old Hu, come on, it's delicious."

  Hu Zongnan looked around nervously and asked in a low voice, "I'm on a mission, how did you end up here? You little scamp has struck it rich again?"

  "It's just a fart of wealth, but enough to eat and drink. Come on, have some shrimp balls, you must not have had them before." An Yi said as he roughly stuffed the shrimp ball into Hu Zongnan's mouth. Hu Zongnan wanted to refuse but couldn't, so he could only hold the fragrant shrimp ball in his mouth and look at Jiang Xianyun beside him.

  An Yi saw Jiang Xianyun's accusing gaze and laughed: "Wait a minute, I'll get two for you and Old He as well."

  "Xiao Yi, get out of here! So many people are watching, it's affecting our image, don't you understand? Scram!"

  Jiang Xianyun stood up straight, whispering a warning to An Yi. Two meters away, He Zhonghan had a smile in his eyes, and took advantage of An Yi's distraction to sneak up and kick him in the butt, before retreating back to his original position and resuming his upright posture. He then rapidly blinked at An Yi, meaning "stop messing around and get out of here".

  An Yi patted his butt and returned to his original position, looking at Miss Ou's shocked face with a smile: "How about it? Believe me now? That slightly shorter one is called Hu Zongnan. He and Principal Jiang are both from Zhejiang Province. Now he and Chen Geng are both company commanders of the school's military special operations unit. After graduation, those other guys became company commanders, deputy company commanders, instructors, and at least platoon leaders. Although Old Hu and I got to know each other a bit later, we really hit it off. Don't look at Old Hu's serious face when he's outside; when he's with me, he's not serious at all, haha! He and my fellow villager Zeng Kuansheng are both very interesting people."

  Miss Ou listened with interest, "Hmph—" and smiled, then lowered her head in thought. After a long time, she slowly raised her head, a mischievous smile on her face: "Even if you do know... have you seen the Blood Flower Drama Club's performance?"

  "This is not the case, I heard Huang Jie and Lao Du say that Chen Gong's performance as a dan (female role) was very good, but I always had some doubts. Can Old Chen's raised eyebrows scare away a fighting bull? How can he possibly play a dan? If it were said that he played a matchmaker or something, there might be a possibility," An Yi found this particularly puzzling.

  Miss Ou laughed loudly: "You're so funny, haha... But there's something you definitely don't know. Tomorrow our Women's Normal School is going to have winter break. Tomorrow afternoon the Huangpu Blood Flower Drama Society will come to our school for a get-together and perform a new play. Our schoolmates have been preparing for this for several days now. What a pity! You're not a student of any university, nor are you a revolutionary soldier, so you won't be able to see it."

  An Yi was taken aback for a moment, then glared at Hu Zongnan and several others standing guard in front of the package room ten meters away, as if complaining to himself:

  "So that's how it is! No wonder old Du, old Hu and those few bastards were yelling last week, insisting I treat them to lunch tomorrow. It turns out they're having me foot the bill after hitting on girls at the all-girls school! Damn old Du and old Hu, how sneaky can you be..."