On an early summer afternoon, the apricot yellow sun shines warmly in the garden full of English roses.

Outside the garden to a clearing under the promenade, there is a large umbrella for the shade of the beach. On a wicker chair under the umbrella lay a slender girl of sixteen or seventeen.

She was casually flipping through the tabloid in her hand, and her beautiful phoenix eyes still carried the pride of childhood.

This girl is Wen Jianwan.

Six years have passed like a white horse, and in the blink of an eye, the former little beans have grown into girls who are in the prime of their lives.

In recent years, many major events have taken place at home and abroad. For example, two years ago, the Japanese army invaded Northeast China and established the puppet state of Manchukuo, causing an uproar at home and abroad. However, for Hong Kong, which is far away in the southeast corner of the map, the blood and fire in China are too far away. Whether it was the revolution at the end of the Qing Dynasty or the later division of domestic warlords, the flames of war could never burn this small island.

The wind and the sun are warm here, comfortable and quiet, and it makes people drowsy.

Wen Jianwan yawned and prepared to go back to the house to sleep.

She walked through the living room, and a maid came up to her with a newly delivered newspaper and letter in her hand, and when she saw her, she hurriedly backed away.

Wen Jianwan didn't care about it, but when she was about to go upstairs, she suddenly thought of something, and stepped back and asked, "Is there a letter from Wen Jianning?"

After receiving an affirmative reply from his subordinates, Wen Jianwan smiled: "She went out today, and this will not be in the room." Give it to me, and I'll put it on her table. ”

The girl hesitated, and did not answer for a moment.

Wen Jianwan stared at her with a smile: "What, can't you believe me? Could it be that I will still read my sister's letter?"

There was obvious malice in her arrogant phoenix eyes, and if she refused directly, the consequences could be imagined.

The girl had no choice but to hand over the letter in her hand to Wen Jianwan.

After the letter was in hand, Wen Jianwan asked the maid to keep an eye on the door in case Wen Jianning suddenly came back early, and at the same time, she personally went to the kitchen to boil the water, and softened the seal sealed with paste with water vapor little by little, and then opened the envelope with satisfaction.

In the past few years, they have lived in Hong Kong, and except for a few times when they were brought back to Shanghai a few times, they rarely saw the Wen family again, and only Wen Baiqing, a cousin, could see them often.

Every once in a while, Wen Jingshu and the others would call him to invite him to Hong Kong for the holidays.

But everyone's kindness to Wen Baiqing is like a hot face and a cold ass, his attitude is always cold and detached, and he never takes the initiative to call or write letters to them on weekdays.

Wen Jianwan begged a few times, but he just sent a few greeting cards and wrote a few perfunctory blessings during the festival.

Only unlike Wen Jianning, she knew that there had always been correspondence between the two of them.

Seeing Wan, he couldn't figure out what he had to say to Wen Jianning's stuffy gourd-like girl.

As for Wen Jianning, she seemed to have been guarding against Jianwan for a long time, every time she sent a letter, she personally took it upstairs, and the sent letter was personally sent out and mailed, so that she had no chance to start at all.

Since she bumped into Jianwan's hand today, she naturally couldn't miss it.

Wen Baiqing's letter was written briefly.

After explaining his recent situation in a few words, he suddenly turned his pen and asked Wen Jianning if he had a lot of money recently. The meaning of the words is obvious, it is to borrow money from this sister, but there is no mention of the reason for borrowing money.

Seeing this, Wen Jianwan suddenly lost interest in the letter in his hand, and even more disdainful of Wen Baiqing, who was far away in the mainland. She also thought that this cousin was so great, but it turned out that he was just a woman asking for money.

She despises this kind of person the most.

Jianwan resealed the letter and prepared to send it to Wen Jianning's room.

Wen Jianning's room is almost the same as hers, with a desk next to the window, and looking out from the window, you can not only see the garden downstairs, but also the blue sea in the distance.

Wen Jianwan pressed the letter under the inkwell, and originally planned to go out.

But she thought about it, and then stepped back, and looked softly through the desk and drawers, trying to find something to come out of.

Seeing that Wan had good luck today, Wen Jianning forgot to lock a drawer before going out, so she smoothly pulled out a notebook from it.

When she opened it and looked at what was written on it, Wen Jianwan couldn't help but raise her eyebrows.

......

When Wen Jianning returned to the villa, went upstairs into the room and saw the envelope on the desk, he already felt that something was wrong.

Most of Wen Baiqing's letters were brought upstairs by herself, and occasionally she was not there, and she also told people to be sure to put them on the bookshelf, in short, not to put them in a conspicuous place, why did they press directly under the inkwell today.

But after she opened Wen Baiqing's letter, she didn't have time to pay attention to these small issues.

- Wen Baiqing wants to borrow money from him.

Wen Jianning felt a little abnormal, how could Bai Qing suddenly write to her to ask for money.

Although the Wen family has many bad things, at least they will not treat them harshly in life, not to mention that Wen Baiqing is still a boy in the family, and he has a lot of pocket money. He suddenly wrote to her asking for money, something must have happened.

She was thinking when the maid knocked on the door and reminded her to go downstairs for dinner.

Wen Jianning casually put the letter in the drawer, went downstairs to his seat at the dining table, and sat down.

Soon, she noticed that everyone in the family was a little strange today.

From time to time, they looked at Wen Jianning with a strange look, and occasionally exchanged glances from time to time, as if they were exchanging some tacit secret. Only Jianxiu secretly winked at her, as if she had something to say to her.

Wen Jianning only felt uncomfortable, and after eating a few bites, he said that he was uncomfortable, and went upstairs to rest.

When she returned to the room, she wrote back to Wen Baiqing, asking him why she wanted money and how to send money this time, and then began to rummage through the boxes and cabinets to find the money she had saved over the years.

Although Wen Jingshu was careful about money, in order to prevent the girls in the family from looking at the goods in the department store with their eyes open, she gave pocket money every month. In addition to the money to buy books on weekdays, Wen Jianning saved up his pocket money, but it was not much.

She sandwiched the large paper ticket in the letterhead, sealed the letter and put it in a drawer, intending to send it out in person when she had time.

After all this, Wen Jianning was about to go to bed after reading a book for a while, when he suddenly heard three subtle sounds outside the door, as if someone was carefully buttoning the door panel with his fingernails.

She hurriedly opened the door, and outside the door, barefoot and in pajamas, Mixiu came in through the gap.

The two got into bed together and got into a bed.

Wen Jianning complained: "Why don't you even wear slippers when you come, what if you catch a cold?"

Jianxiu lowered his voice and said, "It's too loud to wear slippers, and I was almost discovered by Jianwan when I sneaked over before." And it's only a few steps, it's fine. By the way, Jianwan sneaked into your room today. She saw you writing, and everyone in the family knew about it. ”

Wen Jianning understood the reason for the strange gazes of everyone at the dinner table tonight, and couldn't help but be silent.

Jianxiu couldn't help but ask, "Are you really writing?"

Wen Jianning said a little unnaturally: "It's just writing and playing, it's not a big deal." ”

Seeing that she didn't want to say more, she didn't ask more when she saw Xiu.

The two little sisters originally had a good impression of each other, but because of the existence of Jianwan, they didn't dare to communicate openly. Later, the two went to school together and studied in the same class, and the two communicated more and more, and they had a very strong relationship over the years.

The two sisters hid in a quilt and whispered, and when they saw that Xiu was a little sleepy, they got out of bed and went back to their room to sleep. Once before, she and Wen Jianning slept on a quilt for one night, and the next morning she was almost caught by Jianwan, and since then, she no longer dares to stay in Wen Jianning's room for the night.

When he got up early the next morning, Wen Jianning took the little change he had left and went to the department store to buy a new lock, locked every drawer, and stuffed the keys and important letters into the cracks between the bedside and the wall.

After all this, she sat down at the desk, took out the notebook that she had seen that day, and gently rubbed the cover with her hand. Mr. Qi did not break his promise after leaving, and she has been in correspondence with Wen Jianning since she arrived in Shanghai.

Almost every month, Wen Jianning would send his writing exercises to Mr. Qi to read, and then receive a reply from Mr. Qi, listening to her opinions and making revisions.

After six years of practice, and only in these two years, Wen Jianning vaguely felt that he had touched a little bit of the way to write. Although she doesn't know what her level is, at least she can write her thoughts fluently.

It's just that this time she plans to write a love story, and she is always embarrassed to send this kind of article to Mr. Qi, so she can only write it slowly by herself. Unexpectedly, as soon as he got up, he was seen by Jianwan. Fortunately, she hasn't written the back yet, otherwise Jianwan wouldn't know what to arrange when she saw it behind the scenes.

Wen Jianning opened the notebook and carefully examined the beginning of what she had written.

At present, there are only two types of literature that can be published in newspapers and periodicals: one is orthodox literature, which follows the path of new literature since the May Fourth Movement, and the other is popular literature for the public. The boundaries between the two are not clearly defined, but are only broadly distinguished by the meaning expressed in the work. Like the love story that Wen Jianning wants to write, it belongs to the latter.

Aunt Wen Jingshu likes to read the popular serials on the local tabloids on Hong Kong Island, so the girls in the family also read a lot. There are many popular themes, detectives, martial arts, and murders, and romance is the most popular, because this category sells the best.

Hong Kong's local tabloids are not quite the same as those in the mainland. The domestic market is larger, readers have a variety of tastes, and are more inclusive, in addition to the popularity of romance and love, other themes such as martial arts romance are also very popular. In contrast, the tabloid themes on Hong Kong Island are also relatively simple, and the plot tends to be more patterned.

Wen Jianning has seen a lot, but he only feels that it is all a routine, and he can write it himself.

It's not that the newspaper operator who has no ambition wants to break this dilemma, but the sales are bleak, and the funds can't keep up, so it goes out of business within a few days.

She collected the tabloids that Wen Jingshu had read in the past few years, studied them, and didn't start writing until recently, so naturally she wouldn't interrupt her plan because of Jianwan's sudden interruption.

Wen Jianning plans to try to find a local small newspaper to try to test the effect after writing this article.

Mr. Qi once said, let her accumulate steadily, and don't rush for quick success.

But Wen Jianning thought that after six years, it was time for her to try to take the first step.

Her foundation in orthodox literature may not be solid, but she wants to give it a try.

About a week later, she received a reply from Wen Baiqing.

The letter said that on the day of the coming-of-age ceremony, he would also come to Hong Kong, and he would personally explain to her the reason for borrowing money at that time.

Wen Jianning put the letter away, and while waiting for Wen Baiqing's arrival, he wrote his own according to the plan.

This year, the climate in Hong Kong is hotter than usual, and the school holidays are already early. Wen Jianning has never liked to socialize, hiding in the upstairs room all day to read, and occasionally going down to the garden to breathe.

It wasn't until this day that she called her to go to the garden for afternoon tea that she felt a little strange.

When Jianwan was at home, in order to avoid trouble, Jianxiu would hardly take the initiative to be with Wen Jianning, let alone drink afternoon tea in the garden together.

When she sat down and asked the reason, she glanced upstairs before whispering: "She has been locking herself in her room to write poems for the past few days, and even the meals are sent in by the maids." ”

Wen Jianning reacted quickly, it turned out that Jianwan was going to say goodbye to her again.

But that's okay, Wen Jianwan has something to do, so she can have less right and wrong, and she can be quiet.

(End of chapter)