Winter Begonia, Chapter 13: Chang Zhixin’s side of the story

Winter Begonia 《鬓边不是海棠红》Bin Bian Bu Shi Hai Tang Hong
Winter Begonia, Chapter 13: Chang Zhixin’s side of the story

Third Young Master Cheng or the baby-moon party was spoiled by Shang Xirui. Fan Lin and Chang Zhixin’s wife left without eating, but the guests were so fearful and indifferent that Cao Siling threatened to burst into tears.


Cheng Fengtai frowned, and with anger ran away from the crowd. A maid called out to him: "Second master, Cao Siling is waiting for you!” Cheng Fengtai promised to come, but the maid was worried and followed him every step of the way. The servants and master went to the backyard, where Shang Xirui was completely exhausted from his acting madness, and his spirit was gone. He removed his costume and sat in front of the mirror, while Xiao Lai wiped his face. The other opera actors and pianists had been driven home, and two of Cao Siling's soldiers were guarding Shang Xirui, not knowing what to do with him.

Cheng Fengtai stood at the door, coldly calling out, "Boss Shang...”

No one knew if Shang Xirui heard him, but he didn't react. When he looks at Cheng Fengtai and puts on a cloak, his eyes freeze. Cheng Fengtai thought back to his usual appearance, and now that he was looking at him, he felt a pang in his heart.

The maid who followed urged, "Second Master, go back quickly, Cao Siling is waiting!”

Cheng Fengtai looked sullenly at Shang Xirui again, came with anger, and left with anger.

Cao Siling recalled Shang Xirui's past military glories, and today is particularly happy to see Cheng Fengtai arriving. He necked with him, drank heavily, got drunk, then pounded the table and insisted on seeing the little young master. When Cheng Fengtai asked the nanny to take the baby out, Cao Siling saw the baby in its swaddling clothes and pulled out a gun.

The room full of guests put down their chopsticks and stood up, and one girl smashed a plate of food in fright.

Cheng Fengtai misses the Chang Zhixin’s couple, drank a little too much wine, and sat there with his glass still in his heart, Looked carelessly at the gun, a little drunk: "Shoot him! If you shoot him and you'll pay with your daughter.”

Cao Siling said with a loud tongue, "What a nice fat white boy, why would I shoot him!" Cao Siling shook the weapon in his hand: "This! Is made in Germany, good stuff! I've been with it for seven years, na! I will give it to my nephew as a gift! So he can be a commander one day!" And to show his affection, he squeezed the child's face, and the child cried out.

After the banquet, Cao Siling took Shang Xirui away by force, taking him back to the mansion to reminisce about his glory days. Deeply frustrated and resentful, Cheng Meixin suddenly sobbed to her brother in a whisper: "Edwin, what are you going to say? Edwin, what are you going to say?"

Cheng Fengtai said: "What do you mean how?”

Cheng Meixin said, "You bring Shang Xirui to the Commander, they're going to reignite.”

Cheng Fengtai didn't bother to deal with her today: "Let them!He's a man, and my brother-in-law can't marry him, so what's a sister afraid of? "After saying that, he went back to bed by himself, making Cheng Meixin hate her so much that she cursed him to death.

Cheng Fengtai returned to his bedroom in a state of despondency, collapsed on the bed, and remained silent for a long time. The Second Mistress had already heard what was going on outside, but she was not so angry about her cousin's relationship with him. “Shang Xirui ah...”

Cheng Fengtai hatefully added: "He just needs a lesson!”

I'm afraid he can't swallow his anger, so he'll look for Shang Xirui in a couple of days. “He's got a reputation, and it's hard to stop him."

Cheng Fengtai sneered: "En. I won't fight. I'll go and reason with him.”

The next day was a Sunday, so Cheng Fengtai decided to pay a visit to the Chang family to cheer them up. The government had given Chang Zhixin’s family an apartment with a bathroom, so the couple was living comfortably together.




Cheng Fengtai rang the doorbell twice, and a maid opened the door. ”Who are you looking for?”

Chang Zhixin sleepily tied the belt of his robe, looked out the door from behind the maid: "Mr. Cheng?"

Cheng Fengtai smiled: "I said I was your brother-in-law, not mister.”

Chang Zhixin laughed, let Cheng Fengtai in, went into his room to change his clothes, and leaned against the windowsill to talk to him.

Cheng Fengtai asked, "Where's cousin's wife? Is she okay?”

Chang Zhixin's expression was somewhat sullen: "It's not good. Last night she had a heart attack, and didn't sleep a wink, I am thinking about leaving Beiping. I managed to calm her down in the middle of the night, but she is still resting."

Cheng Fengtai said: "I'm sorry about yesterday. I'm sorry for what happened yesterday.”

Chang Zhixin smiled: "It's not your fault. Brother-in-law, you've been in Shanghai all this time, how could you know what happened in Pingyang back then? You're always in Shanghai, so how could you know about those events in Pingyang?"

Cheng Fengtai said: "No. I've heard about what happened in Pingyang. I didn't realize Shang Xirui was still upset, even to this point, but I was negligent. But cousin, this time you can't just walk away, like you did in Pingyang, because your job at the court is going to be given to someone else and that job is not easy to come by. Shang Xirui is just a little crazy, a little spiteful, a little disgraceful, but other than that, there's nothing to be afraid of.”

His frankness inspires in him a sense of camaraderie, and he takes two steps forward and sits down to talk with him: " Shang Xirui, I'm not afraid of him. But Mengping, your cousin's sister-in-law is scared to death of him!”

Cheng Fengtai thinks this is really making a big deal out of nothing: "What's there to fear from an opera singer?"“

The maid now brought two cups of tea, and Chang Zhixin stopped talking, and told her: "Go and buy some snacks, not fried ones, She has a stomachache from eating it. See if they have cabbage buns and soy milk.”

The maid went out with a promise to come back in a hurry. Chang Zhixin closed the door to his bedroom, offered Cheng Fengtai a cigarette, lit one himself, and said: "There are some things that will be misinterpreted if they get out. That's why I've only told Fan Lian, and I'll tell you now. I'll tell you now."

Cheng Fengtai nodded cautiously...

Chang Zhixin said in a soft voice: "Back then in Pingyang, Shang Xirui and those shrews in the Shuiyun Pavilion forced Mengping to a corner. No way out, none of the theaters dared to take her in, and Mengping was forced to pay a large sum of money for breach of contract, losing all her savings. So Mengping had to go out on the street and sing, like a beggar. I'm sure you know all this."

Cheng Fengtai really doesn't know these details.

"But, do you know what else Shang Xirui has done? He instigated the thugs on the street to molest Mengping. If I had been late that day, she would have...” Chang Zhixin was scared at the mention of that verse, and took a deep drag on his cigarette. “I had to be with Mengping to protect her. Shang Xirui didn't give up, so she hooked up with Marshal Zhang and sent soldiers to break up the fight. Mengping was so scared, she begged me to take her away from Pingyang. Shang Xirui now says we've eloped, but he forced us to do it, didn't he?”

Cheng Fengtai asked, "Didn't he follow Marshal Zhang after you left?"

Chang Zhixin’s new words: "No. He was the one who first hooked up with Marshal Zhang, and that's why we were forced to leave Pingyang. Mengping covered up for him and didn't want anyone to know about it.”




Cheng Fengtai smiled: "It's normal for him to have a hard time with you. Brother-in-law, please don't blame me for being rash, but he could have killed her easily, because of his hatred for his wife. But he was too cruel to kill your cousin's sister-in-law, and that's a bit mean.”

Chang Zhixin shook his head and smiled, flicking the cigarette ash in his hand, saying: "There's no hatred for taking his wife. He and Mengping, it's not like that. They're not the kind of relationship that's rumored.”

Cheng Fengtai twisted around, feeling surprised.

Chang Zhixin said, "It's true. Shang Xirui was sold into the Shuiyun Pavilion as a child, and Mengping raised him. He loves Mengping, but he's a child who is obsessed with an adult, who he loves a little bit too much, he is someone who is perverted, who doesn't want his sister to think of others as better than him. The first time he saw me and Mengping together, that look in his eyes, it was like he wanted to eat someone! He came up to me and pointed at my nose and cursed the street. So you tell me, what kind of brother would there be in the world? He's crazy! He's crazy I tell you!"

Cheng Fengtai frowned and smiled: "Even though you say so, I don't believe it. Maybe he's too late in the game, and he's having an affair, but he doesn't know it?”

Chang Zhixin waved a cigarette between his fingers, denying very firmly: "Absolutely not. He was fifteen years old, and he used to sleep in the same bed with Mengping, using Mengping's breasts as a pillow. They went everywhere arm in arm. They would bite into each other's food. Mengping and I haven't been that close yet. If he has even the slightest thought of a man and a woman, he can't be that innocent when it comes to intimacy - you know, when a man has thoughts... That's impossible to hide. How could Mengping not notice? As far as I can see, his relentless and insane attitude is because he treats Mengping as his mother and her being with me was like she abandoned him.”

Cheng Fengtai chuckles: "Sounds like him.”

Chang Zhixin said: "There was a more ridiculous thing. And when it came to a fight, I was angered and said, 'You won't let your sister be with anyone, so you must want to be her husband? Shang Xirui said: 'Why should I be her husband, why must she have a husband? Is there anything a husband can do that I cannot do? If she tells me, I can do it.' They say, 'If you won't let her have a husband, then won't you not have a wife?' Is this the way for a man and a woman to be left alone?' He said, 'Yes! If she won't marry, I won't marry either! We shall be happy together, and have no one else. 'Listen, brother-in-law, it's not only a matter of time, it's foolishness. '

Cheng Fengtai shook his head at this, but on second thought, he found it understandable. Whenever a genius has superhuman understanding and talent in a certain field, he must be lacking in another area, or if he was a man of no understanding, or a man who was difficult to understand, or a man with a strange temperament, or a man with a physical disability. Shang Xirui's genius in opera is unquestionable, as the newspaper said of him: "The spirits of a thousand years actors in the Pear Garden are gathered in this one person.” If he were to be a worldly person, he would be the only one to have all the bells and spirits in the world. For God is just and has his own way of balancing things, and he must have his own foolishness to balance his opera acting geniusness.

Chang Zhixin smoked a cigarette, saying: "When Shang Xirui says something like that, people know he's inherently deficient in all his passions and desires, He listened silently, not arguing with the others, as if he had listened to his heart and heard he will understand,but when he thought about it, he came up with his own confused reasoning, and came to discuss it with Mengping and me in a generous way. ‘A man and a woman have to get married to live their lives together, so I'll reluctantly allow you two to be together! But you have to promise me that I'm the only one that matters to you. Chang Zhixin can't be more important than me! No one can overtake me! He's just someone who sleeps with you and wants you to give birth to his child!’”

Cheng Fengtai said an "ahh", laughing repeatedly.

"He asked that in front of me! How do you want Mengping to answer? Mengping could only say, 'How can I guarantee such a thing as love, when it's beyond my control? He quit, saying that Mengping had lied to him. That time, our last three-way meeting, we completely broke up.” Chang Zhixin got a little angry when he said, “It's not funny, but Mengping didn't sell herself to him, but she couldn't keep her heart, who she wants to love, and why should he be the one to approve?”

Cheng Fengtai sighed: "Actually, I'm feeling touched by this passionate sister-brother sentiment.”




Chang Zhixin laughed: "If he wasn't so crazy and cruel, I'd be impressed, too.”

There was a little noise in the bedroom, probably because Jiang Mengping had woken up. When Chang Zhixin put out his cigarette and went in to take care of his wife, Cheng Fengtai got up to take his leave.

"Don't worry about what happened yesterday.” Chang Zhixin patted him on the shoulder: "I'll see you later.”

Cheng Fengtai smiled and said this is what he should have said. He shook hands with Chang Zhixin, and he liked the way he talked, so he really considered him a friend.

Cheng Fengtai came home for lunch and dozed off, and then it was night. It was cold, dark, and snowing, so if he wanted to go out again after dinner, Mistress wouldn't like it.

"Who's the host today? Master, you can't make a game of cards your business.”

Cheng Fengtai knelt down on the bed, leaned over and kissed her on the cheek: "Isn't Second Master's main business to eat, drink and be merry! Oh, and having a daughter with the Second Mistress.”

The Second Mistress laughed and shoved him away playfully.


~ Winter Begonia ~


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