Miss Meng

Text/Murray

2023.07 Jinjiang Literature City debuted

01

"You've got a big idea! As soon as my brain is hot, I have to go to Beijing to go to university. ”

"Ignore what I say!"

Huang Wumei poured a basin of comb water on the courtyard on the blue brick floor.

She turned around and shouted at her granddaughter Meng Jia, who was packing her luggage, in the sour branch wooden window of the longevity group.

The Huang family lives in the middle of the mountainside, it is the ancestral house, and it occupies the entire mountain. It is surrounded by low and sharp white hedges, which have the remnants of early Nanyang architecture. Standing at the foot of the mountain and looking up, it is like a piece of Hetian bi held out of thin air in the green cedar green bushes.

Meng Jia folded up a lace white shirt and put it in the suitcase, she ignored it, she couldn't hear her grandmother's broken mouth.

"Your black-hearted father, he'd better recognize you. If you are really kicked out, you don't have to come back to cry with your grandmother! ”

Huang Wumei said loudly again.

Meng Jia frowned, loosened her tightly pursed lips, and replied in Cantonese, "Got it, grandma." I'm not looking for him. ”

But Huang Wumei's anger is not so easy to dissipate.

From digging out the admission letter that Meng Jia had hidden for a summer vacation, I learned that she had privately applied for a school in Beijing, and instead of what they had originally discussed, she started studying at a local foreign language university, and her grandmother had been studying for a week.

"I knew you were so disobedient, just like your mother, I shouldn't have taken you in the first place. You are dead or alive, your wings have not yet grown, and you want to fly away, and you have no conscience! ”

Speaking of Meng Jia's mother, Huang Wumei was sad again, holding on to the stone table in the courtyard by herself, and sitting under the thick shade of mahogany in a daze.

She wiped her tears with her hand wearing a jade bracelet, "I wanted to stop her back then, I didn't ask her to go to Beijing, and I didn't know your father." ”

Meng Jia heard that her grandmother's voice was not right.

She lifted the beaded curtain, and a slender waist was hidden under the dark cotton skirt of Qing Gardenia, and came out and said, "I'm not Mommy, you're too used to her, and you don't have any scheming." But how did you teach me? ”

Huang Wumei was amused again, "How clever do you think you are?" It's all cleverness! ”

"At least I won't fall for a man," Meng Jia pouted, "I dare to give birth to him before I have a clue, what does Mommy think?" ”

Huang Wumei poked her head, her wrist that had been withered and thinned, she couldn't wear this green and slippery jade bracelet for a long time, and as soon as she raised her hand, she shook and shook, Meng Jia was always worried that one day she would fall down and smash it.

Grandma and ancestors earned a lot of industry, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to raise Meng Jia so delicately.

It's just that a few uncles are not angry, they are good at gambling, greedy for cups, and they are fun to play with little models, but none of them are serious about business. passed into the hands of my grandmother, leaving an empty shelf that was less than the top and wider than the bottom.

Grandma sighed to herself, as if she had finally compromised, "After you finished reading, you came back to me honestly, did you hear that?" ”

"I know, where can I give you up."

Meng Jia leaned on her grandmother as she spoke.

Huang Wumei pretended to be disgusted and pushed her out, "It's not hot, stay away from me." ”

After sighing, his hand automatically wrapped around Meng Jia's shoulder.

Meng Jia suddenly softened, "Grandma, I will miss you." ”

"Humph! will deceive people, look like your mother, say that she is reluctant to me, and when she sees a handsome man, she won't remember her grandmother, and she won't come back. Now it's good, it's ...... It became ......"

Huang Wumei was very excited at first, but then she couldn't talk anymore, and choked up for a long time, "I've become a lonely ghost." From the moment she packed up her things and left with your dad, I knew that she wouldn't be going back to this house. ”

When her mother passed away, she was not yet thirty, and it didn't take long for Meng Weijun to find the Huang family, plan her daughter's future, leave a large sum of money, and a maid who took care of her grandchildren's daily life, and returned to Beijing with peace of mind.

Meng Jia attended a local aristocratic school, which was arranged by her biological father in Beijing.

She has a prominent posture and figure, wearing a neat and uniform white school uniform skirt that does not look flat and chubby, and she is also more vivid and eye-catching than little girls of the same age.

Meng Jia was already dull in this regard, and it was only in high school that she vaguely understood the obscure and inconvenient things between male and female classmates, and she blushed slightly when she mentioned it. Occasionally, after school, a boy from the neighboring class stopped her on the road, blushed and confessed, asked her to eat ice, and stuffed expensive gifts into her desk.

But my grandmother was very strict in this regard. Once I found a love letter in her school bag, and I found the school in a frustrated manner, and asked the head teacher to find out who this boy who delayed her granddaughter's studies was, please be sure to punish him.

Even Meng Jia herself was punished by Huang Wumei for copying the notebook a hundred times, and her hands trembled. She is very stubborn, so she doesn't say anything wrong, let alone tired.

In the middle of summer, the indoor temperature is 356 degrees.

She stood in front of the desk sweating, holding a sheep's pen in a proper posture, hanging her wrist, and writing a standard hairpin letter.

Meng Jia wrote, and her grandmother said next to her, men don't have a good thing, just look at your mother.

She wanted to say that her grandmother's worries were unnecessary.

Meng Jia's upbringing, not an outsider's life experience, all made her precocious, and her heart has been wrapped layer by layer, which is a self-protection mechanism that she stripped from her mother, so as not to suffer similar injuries to her father.

Since then, no male classmate dares to provoke Meng Jia, and they are all afraid of her powerful grandmother.

In the matter of going to Beijing to study, Meng Jia saved his selfishness.

When she was eighteen years old, she had seen Meng Weijun once, and she was far away, and she only felt that he was majestic. She wanted to meet him and see what it was like to be a scholar who had made her mother obsessed with her for half her life, and finally became insane and committed suicide on an early spring morning.

Look at that, I told my mother to go and refused to come back, and Beijing, which tortured and buried her life, how strange it is.

After Zhang's mother finished buying vegetables, she stepped into the courtyard door with a basket made of bamboo chips, "Yo, I haven't eaten breakfast yet, so I cried first?" ”

Huang Wumei wiped away her tears, pushed Meng Jia away, and went into the kitchen with her, "The older you are, the more weird things you say." ”

Zhang's mother sat on the small bench and took out the fresh vegetables, "When Jia Jia leaves, there will be only two old women left in this house." ”

Zhang's mother received Meng Weijun's salary and took care of her grandchildren in the Huang family for more than ten years. Huang Wumei has treated her like a family member.

She watched Huang Wumei take off her bracelet and ring, carefully wrapped it in a handkerchief, and put it on the cooking table.

Zhang's mother guessed that she was about to cook, so she stopped her, "Old lady, you better go and rest, what do you want to do, just tell me." ”

Huang Wumei said that it was okay, "Jia Jia will leave in two days, and I will make two more dishes of her favorite food." ”

Mama Zhang neatly processed the vegetable leaves, rinsed them with water, and said, "You don't have to worry too much, Dean Meng is her father after all, and his blood is thicker than water, so he won't disown him." ”

"My granddaughter, what do you want that Chen Shimei to recognize!" Huang Wumei immediately took a sip, "Jia Jia is not going to recognize her relatives." ”

Zhang's mother laughed. Although Huang Wumei is old, between her eyebrows and eyes, she can still see five points of the beauty of her youth, going back a few decades, when the Huang family is still beautiful in Hong Kong, she also puts on night dresses and small leather shoes before dawn, waiting for the rich family to come to pick her up to swim in Repulse Bay, the sun sets, and then go to the Lido Hotel to eat and dance.

Meng Jia got the true biography of her grandmother, read a few more books, and gave birth to Zhuang Yalai who shines on the water and flowers on the bright spring silk background.

At dinner, Huang Wumei's Wenchang chicken was served. Meng Jia wanted to make her grandmother happy, so she deliberately added an extra bowl of rice, and even ate the ham and chicken liver in the ingredients.

After eating Haisai, Meng Jia had a bloated stomach, and he was embarrassed for most of the day. Zhang's mother made her a diet tea, her hands and feet were thin, and the same herbs were added, and Meng Jia sat in the kitchen and waited.

Zhang's mother stirred the purple clay jar, "I wanted to stop you just now, eating so much is like suffering from gluttony." ”

Meng Jia walked around, rubbing her belly, "You don't see how happy my grandmother laughs, am I very filial?" ”

"If you are really filial, you shouldn't go to Beijing," Zhang's mother looked left and right to make sure that there was no one, and then lowered her voice and said, "I don't dare to tell the old lady this, I have worked in the Tan family for two years, and that lady is not easy to get along with." ”

Mama Zhang was carefully selected by Meng Weijun's hands, and she was in the courtyard of the deep house, and she had seen the nobles going in and out, and she was also very careful when she spoke.

Meng Jia held the porcelain cup, her mouth was circled, and she blew lightly, "Is Dean Meng afraid of her?" ”

She doesn't call Daddy.

Huang Wumei didn't allow her to call her that, saying that he left you when you were two years old and didn't deserve to be a father, but it was rude to call him by his name, so every time he mentioned it, Meng Jia only talked about Dean Meng.

Zhang's mother laughed at her innocence, "You're still young." Between husband and wife, it is difficult to say who is afraid of whom, and there should be a lot of reliance. ”

Meng Jia stared at the bottom of the pitch-black bowl, "That must be Dean Meng, and it is rare for him to be supported by his father-in-law." ”

There was a cold and compassionate look on his face. For her mom, for herself.

"Of course. When it comes to the famous families in Beijing, who can bypass the Zhong Tan family? ”

Meng Jia rubbed her stomach, "I know the Tan family, it's Mrs. Meng's maiden family, who is surnamed Zhong?" ”

Zhang's mother reported the name of the old man of the Zhong family. Meng Jia was immediately silenced.

It's a figure she can't talk about.

Mother Zhang suddenly looked out the window, as if she remembered something, and sighed briefly, "Dean Meng's life is also tormented, and they all say that the son-in-law and daughter-in-law of the Tan family are the most difficult to be. Their house is notoriously hard to get in and ugly. We, the ordinary people, even if we have this life to cross the threshold and enter the silver screen and gold house, we will also suffer. ”

"If you have gained, don't ask for it, and you can still be free."

Meng Jia was noncommittal, and he didn't think that people like Meng Weijun were worthy of sympathy.

She had always eaten very little, but this time she was broken, and even though she drank the tea, her stomach was still belching. Meng Jia couldn't sleep, put on a pair of mules, walked out along the white jade gan, and went to take two steps on the slope of the mountain.

In the summer, people are willing to come out and walk around at night, and at eight or nine o'clock, you can still hear the noise from the streets. Meng Jia has walked this road many times, twice a day to take the bus, once to go to school and once after school.

My uncle came to persuade my grandmother to sell the house and go to the Pearl River to replace a house, which was enough for the three of them to live in, so that it would be convenient for Meng Jia to go to school, but Huang Wumei refused. I always feel that only by guarding this yard can I be worthy of my grandfather's entrustment.

Meng Jia walked aimlessly down the mountain, slipped near the bus stop, hiccuped, and walked back again.

"Little girl."

A car caught up behind, and the driver rolled down the window to call her, and a face with weather-stained sideburns turned out of the car.

The driver's age looks to be around 50 years old, and he is very capable and steady.

Meng Jia stood still, "Do you have something?" This gentleman. ”

What an ethereal and delicate voice.

Zhong Shushi, who was sitting on the back of the chair with his legs stacked on top of his legs in the back of the car, looked up from the lengthy document, frowned and unfolded, and before he could see Meng Jia's appearance, he drew a conclusion.

Looking through the gap in the car window, the little girl was about seventeen or eighteen, with shaved shoulders and a thin waist, and her appearance was as clear as a pearl. I can suppress the tone of this jade spring.

Zhong Shushi came to Guangzhou on business and just dismissed at seven o'clock. Before leaving, he was entrusted by his teacher Meng Weijun to visit his mother-in-law and daughter, who had not been dedicated for many years.

Dean Meng's original wife is from Guangzhou, but not many people in Beijing know about this matter.

In the eyes of outsiders, they only thought that Meng Weijun and Tan Zonghe were a good story of a talented man and a daughter of a family.

The Tan family has many secrets, and this is only one of them that must not be mentioned. It is Miss Tan Er's long-cherished illness that is difficult to heal.

One year, the new maid was unconcealed and privately talked about it, as if he had seen Meng Weijun somewhere, when he was holding another beautiful woman in his hand. After a few days, it reached the ears of the invincible Miss Tan, and within two days, she found a wrong way to break the dishes and asked her to go elsewhere, saying that the family could not afford to raise such a clumsy person.

Zheng Ting said, "Let me ask you, Ms. Huang Wumei's house is from here, right?" ”

He is Zhong Shushi's secretary.

said that he was a secretary, but Zhong Shushi called him Uncle Ting. This is the person that Mr. Zhong picked for him, and he has been following him since he graduated, taking care of his personal affairs.

Meng Jia kept a thoughtful eye, "Yes, go up along here." ”

The car slowly drove in front of her, and Meng Jia didn't notice an inquiring gaze flashing across her face.

She only saw a handsome side face with a high nose bone, which was briefly illuminated by the street lamps on both sides of the mountain road, and then sank again.

Zhong Shushi got out of the car in front of the half-open iron fence gate, his slender fingers turned the lower collar joint, and after loosening the two plackets, he tightened it properly, and the cold and indifferent look on his face was also half gone.

He was busy with official business, and this time was also forced out, otherwise he would not have waited until the evening to visit. How much did I lose the etiquette of the juniors.

Only Meng Weijun, who is his mentor, has this big face.

Zheng Ting followed, bringing the gift box out of the trunk. He asked, "I wonder if the old man is asleep?" ”

Zhong Shushi calmly ordered: "Go knock on the door." ”

Zhang's mother was just about to fall asleep, when she heard the movement outside, she came out to look, "May I ask who you are?" ”

Zheng Ting said, "We are from Beijing, and Dean Meng asked my husband to visit the old lady. ”

Mother Zhang welcomed them to the main hall and thoughtfully made tea, "Wait a minute, I'll ask the old lady to come out." ”

Huang Wumei is nervous about her granddaughter, and she hasn't slept well these nights. When Zhang's mother went to call, she had already changed into a Suzhou embroidered silk moon white cheongsam, although the style was old, but it was rare to have fine workmanship, which she only wore when she saw foreign guests.

Zhang's mother curled her hair, "Did you hear it?" ”

Huang Wumei said, "Such a big battle, can you still not hear it?" What about the leaves? ”

Zhang's mother said, "I went for a walk, I couldn't digest too much for dinner, and she was too, and she hasn't come back yet." ”

Huang Wumei put on pearl earrings and said with a smile, "She, Yayazai." ”

Zhong Shushi sat quietly in the front hall and waited, his jade white knuckles knocked on the Huanghuali round tabletop, faintly revealing a little impatience, his eyes turned, and he looked at the furnishings here.

These seemingly ordinary words on the wall are all from the hands of famous artists, the Ru porcelain on the red sandalwood eight immortal pattern carved square cabinet, aside from the market goods that fill the door face, not to mention that there are two or three genuine products, but I am afraid that there is no special person to take care of it, and there have been a few small cracks.

It seems that Meng Weijun's first wife is also from a large family, and she will inevitably be raised. No wonder he couldn't swallow that breath, and he was forced to go insane.

Zhang's mother helped Huang Wumei out. Zhong Shushi stood up to greet him, "Hello old lady, my surname is Zhong, and I am a student of Dean Meng. ”

If he hadn't said that he was a student, Huang Wumei would almost have thought that this was the descendant of the Tan family in Beijing. The calm temperament of his body, the elegance that cannot be imitated in his speech and actions, and the demeanor of not being angry and arrogant when his eyes are slightly drooping, do not seem to be able to be cultivated by waiting for an idle door.

Huang Wumei stretched out her hand and motioned for him to sit, "Drink tea." ”

Zhong Shushi sat down slowly, "I took the liberty to disturb this time, first, the teacher is concerned about your body." ”

"Thank you for your trouble, I'm fine."

Huang Wumei smiled kindly, and the politeness on the bright face always has to be given.

After all, these old things at the bottom of the box, no matter how angry she is, it has nothing to do with the thoughtful young man in front of her.

After a few pleasantries.

Zhong Shushi picked out the intention, "Although the old lady is good here, it is a unique territory, but after all, it is remote. The teacher has a house in Tianhe District, and he would like to ask you to move in with your granddaughter. ”

Speaking of this, Meng Jia came in from outside the door, "Grandma, haven't you slept yet?" ”

Huang Wumei beckoned her to come over to meet the guests, "Jia Jia, I've seen Mr. Zhong." ”

This person called Mr. Zhong overlapped with the silhouette that had just passed by, and his eyebrows were unexpectedly clear, and the frost and snow of winter covered the cold and clean feeling like glazed tiles.

Especially his eyes, faint and sharp, unable to see at a glance, reminded her of the deep well in the backyard.

She never dared to approach the mouthful.

Meng Jia's hands were folded on his lower abdomen, and when he sat down, he called softly, "Good evening, Mr. Zhong." ”

In her long tail note, it seems that she has sewn into a subtle morning light with spring tide and rain with fine legs.

In the staggered lights and shadows, the peach branches outside the window suddenly shook and rained flowers. Zhong Shushi raised his eyes, and his face was not happy and angry, and he was distracted for a short time.

After a while, he nodded slightly, and his voice was cold, "Miss Meng, fortunately." ”