Chapter 56

Chapter 56

The Republic of China Trainee (Seven)

The results were posted on Wednesday morning, and Song Qi purposely took half a day off from the British manager.

Recently, he had also asked a friend working at the police station in the concession to inquire, and it seemed that there were no longer any of Liu Fengyan’s people searching for anyone in Shanghai. After more than half a month with no news, it seemed they had finally given up on their speculation that Yu Manyi had fled to Shanghai.

However, just to be safe, he still accompanied her on a trip. The two of them took the tram from Song Qi’s apartment to Qipan Street. Yu Manyi remained silent the entire time, her body as tense as a bowstring, intensely focused on the pedestrians outside the window. It was hard to tell whether she was wary of Liu Fengyan or just nervous because of the results.

The examination had been on a weekend at least, but on the day the results were posted, many of the publishing house employees had come to work. The entire street was completely blocked. The two of them fought their way into the crowd and finally squeezed to the front row just as the list was being posted.

The person who put up the list was also an employee of the publishing house, dressed in a grey long robe. It seemed that the Commercial Publishing House hadn’t westernized as much as one might think. As soon as the man put the list up, Yu Manyi stood on tiptoe and began looking—her name was written so small that she had to strain her eyes. She looked three times, but still couldn’t find her name.

Song Qi was also helping her search for her name. As they hadn’t finished scanning the list, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his arm. Turning his head, he saw Yu Manyi standing next to him, her face ashen. She was gripping his arm tightly, her nails digging into his sleeve.

Song Qi: "He..."

"It’s over, Song Qi," Yu Manyi said through tears, "I didn’t pass. I really didn’t pass! I have to go back and get married!"

He had other things he wanted to say, but was quickly diverted by her words: "It’s okay if I didn’t pass, Shanghai has plenty of jobs."

"I can’t find a job. This was my only chance," Yu Manyi became even more sorrowful, tears falling uncontrollably, "My tastes are too outdated, no company out there wants me!"

"No, Yu Manyi..." Song Qi immediately corrected himself, "Don’t cry yet, the list..."

"Ah—" Yu Manyi began to sob loudly in place, looking truly heartbroken.

Song Qi, unable to bear it any longer, snapped: "Yu Manyi! There are only fifteen names on this list, and fifteen more haven’t been posted yet!"...

Two minutes later, the employee in the long robe finally, slowly, took out the second notice and began to post it. He felt a resentful gaze on his back, as though someone was angry at his slow pace, making his back feel cold. He hurriedly finished posting and stepped aside to let the crowd see the notice.

This time, it was very easy to find her name, because Yu Manyi’s registration name was a long string of English letters. Mixed in with the names of other candidates, most of which were just two or three Chinese characters, hers stood out clearly.

"There's a foreigner in this batch?" a candidate beside them, also craning his neck to see the list, exclaimed in surprise.

What foreigner? It was just Song Qi’s handiwork, creating a fake foreign identity. Song Qi had sensed that Yu Manyi would make it this time, and now that his premonition had come true, he wasn’t surprised.

He turned his head and saw that Yu Manyi still had tear stains on her face. Her dark eyes were fixed firmly on the bottom half of the new list—her rank wasn’t very high, at number 27. Her score wasn’t much higher than the three candidates behind her, just enough to scrape by and meet the cutoff score.

Song Qi couldn’t tell if she was happy to have been selected or troubled by her low rank. Her expression seemed to hide her feelings well. After a brief hesitation, he lifted the arm that Yu Manyi had just tightly pinched and gently tapped her.

Only then did she snap out of her daze, turning to look at him, her pupils full of disbelief.

"You passed," Song Qi reminded her. "Did you see it?"

"I passed." Yu Manyi repeated, still confused. "I passed."

It seemed that she only fully processed it at that moment. Her joy bloomed like a second spring, and she grabbed his arm again. Though it hurt, Song Qi couldn’t say anything, watching her expression become more and more vibrant, her eyes shining with excitement.

"I made it!" Her voice rose, drawing envious glances from a few candidates nearby. "I really made it. I can go to the Commercial Publishing House as a trainee! I don’t have to…"

The last few words she murmured softly, "…I don’t have to go back to Shaoxing…"He was never going to let her go back to Shaoxing, whether she passed or not. Yu Manyi turned around a few more times, confirming that she wasn’t seeing things, then grabbed Song Qi’s hand and pulled him out of the crowd.

It was like the ancient story of Fan Jin passing the imperial examination, and now Yu Manyi was on the list. Song Qi felt that she seemed so happy, as if she had forgotten everything else. For the first time, she actively stopped a rickshaw, pulled Song Qi into it, and told the driver the name of the foreign firm where Fang Qian worked.

He had taken her on rickshaws before, but she would always keep her head down, sitting quietly beside him, rarely looking at the shops on the roadside. But today, she was unusually lively, leaning out of the rickshaw to look around, as though the dazzling lights of Shanghai had truly caught her eye for the first time, making her face even brighter than before.

There were coffee shops, bookstores, and tailor shops by the roadside. They had taken her to these places before, but she never thought they had anything to do with her. Yet now, she suddenly felt like she belonged in these places. Liu Fengyan’s people couldn’t find her and had left. She had passed the exam. The Commercial Publishing House was a well-regarded company, and the training program could even help cleanse her old, feudal tastes and reshape her completely!

When they passed by a flower shop, she told the driver to stop, ran down, and bought two bunches of peonies, then brought them back to the rickshaw. Fang Qian had once given her a bunch of peonies, which she had placed in a glass of water on Song Qi’s dining table. She kept it until it withered, then reluctantly threw it away. She really liked peonies. She never let Song Qi buy them for her, and she couldn’t bring herself to buy them either. But now, she could even buy two bunches—one for herself and one for Fang Qian.

She was no longer the same woman as Yu Shen’s wife, who clung to the dowry her family brought her, hidden under the cabinet, only spent but never earned, calculating everything, eventually watching her son-in-law’s overseas cotton coat be used up, and when her son-in-law was gone, she was left with nothing. Now, she would earn fifteen yuan a month, money she would earn entirely by her own ability! A company that big was more reliable than her family or a man!

Song Qi accompanied her to the bottom of Fang Qian’s firm building, which was located by the Bund. They stood at a street corner surrounded by marble buildings and saw Fang Qian, who hadn’t even had time to put down her documents, running down to find her. Yu Manyi also ran to Fang Qian, stuffing the large bouquet of flowers into her arms.

Song Qi stood by, watching the two girls talk. They were both so happy. Yu Manyi cried a little while talking, and Fang Qian reached out to wipe her tears. She pinned a peony in Yu Manyi’s hair and coaxed, “Don’t cry, Manyi. How can such a beautiful girl be crying in the street?”

Indeed, she looked beautiful, and Song Qi thought she looked stunning.

“I have a meeting with my colleagues,” Fang Qian said at last, “I can’t stay to chat. How about this? Let’s go have dinner tonight. I’ll invite Lu Xiangcang too. We’ll go to the same place as last time, and you can treat us, Song Qi!”

“Why me again?” Song Qi joked with Fang Qian, though his eyes never left Yu Manyi. It was clear he was just teasing; he really did want to treat them.

“Well, I’m going upstairs now. See you tonight.”

“See you tonight.”

Fang Qian went back to work, and Yu Manyi became much calmer on the way back. Holding the large bouquet of peonies, she sat quietly on one side, occasionally looking up at the streets of Shanghai. Summer had truly arrived. As the day went on, the sun climbed higher, and a fine layer of sweat began to bead on her forehead.Yu Manyi didn’t care about the sweat. She reached to the bottom of the bouquet, picked a single peony, and said, “This one is for Uncle Qi.”

“Give it to him,” Song Qi leaned back in his seat. “Fang Qian has one, Uncle Qi has one, and I don’t have any. Does Lu Xiangcang get one tonight too?”

Yu Manyi snapped back to reality and was about to pick another one. Song Qi shook his head, remembering how she had just pinched him earlier. He gave up on the idea and said, “Put it in a water cup when we get home. Just leave it on the table, and that’ll be like you gave it to me. The house smells a lot better than usual.”

As they spoke, the rickshaw arrived.

Uncle Qi was standing at the door again. He had been very diligent recently, quite different from the version of Uncle Qi back in Shaoxing. As soon as he saw them, he came right up to meet them.

“Uncle Qi, here’s a flower for you,” Yu Manyi immediately handed one over. “I got into the Commercial Publishing House.”

Uncle Qi had originally come forward with a worried expression, but upon hearing such great news, he appeared to hesitate, almost as if he didn’t know what to say. After Yu Manyi gave him the flower, she bounced happily into the apartment. However, Song Qi, being sensitive, noticed Uncle Qi’s unease. He stopped and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“The police came by.” Uncle Qi immediately replied, still holding the precious flower that Yu Manyi had given him.

Yu Manyi didn’t take the elevator; she preferred walking when she was alone. Song Qi heard her light footsteps as she ascended the stairs. When he turned his gaze back to Uncle Qi, his expression was no longer as calm as usual.

Yu Manyi walked up the stairs and waited at the door for a while before she heard the elevator chime. When Song Qi stepped out, he had a slightly anxious look on his face. She wanted to talk to him, but she noticed that his gaze was fixed on the door lock.

The lock had been smashed open.

Yu Manyi, holding the flowers, immediately became flustered.

“Did we get robbed?” She speculated based on her experience. “Wasn’t Uncle Qi just at the door?”“Not a thief.”

Song Qi reached out and pushed the door. The hinges creaked, and the living room, turned upside down, was a shocking sight. Yu Manyi involuntarily tightened her arms around the flowers. She saw the tall glass vase she had planned to use for the flowers had been knocked over, and pieces of glass were scattered across the floor.

A memory of their first conversation after reuniting suddenly flashed in her mind. Not a thief... then why was the door forced open and the house turned into such a mess?

“Was it the police?”

Song Qi didn’t answer her.

He walked over to the bookshelf and found a hidden compartment. He had previously told Yu Manyi to always store his things in that compartment before leaving. Fortunately, he had reminded her again this morning. There was nothing of anyone else’s in the house, so they likely hadn’t discovered that someone else had been there.

However...

Uncle Qi had said that when they left, they had taken a book from Song Qi— a very thick, green-covered English book. They had told Uncle Qi to inform Song Qi that he would need to go to the police station tomorrow to pick up the book and thoroughly explain its origin and purpose before he could get it back.

Yu Manyi also noticed that the book, the one Song Qi had been reading most often these days with the word “RADIO” on the cover, was missing from the shelf.

“Why did they take that book?” Yu Manyi couldn’t help but ask. She had refrained from asking so many times, but this time she couldn’t hold back. “I looked it up in the dictionary, ‘Radio’ just means wireless, it’s not anything illegal…”

Song Qi glanced at her, and Yu Manyi realized that she had crossed a line. She immediately stopped talking. The joy of passing the exam had disappeared in an instant. She lowered her eyes and said, “I’ll help you clean up.”

“No need, I’ll do it myself,” Song Qi replied. “You pack your things. I’ll take you to stay with Aunt Ping for a few days. Next month, you’ll start at the publishing house, and you can move into the staff dormitory.”

Aunt Ping was the person Yu Manyi had stayed with when she first came to Shanghai, and she was Song Qi’s previous landlord. Yu Manyi didn’t like that aunt; she was too harsh, and she didn’t like the idea of Song Qi sending her away either. It wasn’t that she couldn’t move out, she knew that staying at Song Qi’s was just temporary, but it felt like he was rushing her to leave, just like on the day they first reunited...

“No need,” Yu Manyi said. “I’ll pack up, and I’ll just find a hotel.”“Stay at a hotel or...”

“Stay at a hotel,” Yu Manyi said. “I won’t stay at Aunt Ping’s.”

Staying at Aunt Ping’s meant staying at Song Qi’s previous place. He was already trying to get rid of her, so why would he arrange for her to stay at a place he had lived in? If she stayed there, she would remember the day he taught her to use a flashlight.

She had already made an effort to get to know this city, this new world. But they were always one step ahead of her, always doing things she couldn’t understand. When he was working with the newspaper, she couldn’t make sense of the pages that talked about ideologies. Now, she understood a little, and she also knew she was the "feudal remnant," a part of the "working class" once she left the Yu family. But now he was reading English books that she still couldn’t understand.

The first time they argued was because he made decisions without her. Now, he still didn’t include her. In the end, she, Yu Manyi, was still an outsider, an outsider to the city, an anomaly among these progressive students.

This time, Song Qi didn’t come to apologize. Yu Manyi packed her things in the bedroom, and when she stepped out, she saw the messy room with only a freshly washed cup placed on the table with clear water inside. Song Qi had placed the flowers she bought into the cup for her, but he had already left.

The house was still Yu Manyi’s responsibility to tidy up. Song Qi said everyone else had flowers, but he didn’t. So, in defiance, she cleaned the house thoroughly before she left. She didn’t know what she owed him less for; he had done so much for her, but why did she still feel so wronged?

As evening approached, Song Qi returned from work with a paper bag. Yu Manyi had decided not to ask him anything anymore. She particularly hated those moments when Song Qi silently stared at her. When they left, Song Qi told her to bring the packed luggage along. Yu Manyi felt like he was about to kick her out tonight, and that thought made her even more irritated.

The two of them didn’t speak as they took the rickshaw to join Fang Qian for dinner.

It was such a bland, tasteless meal. It seemed that one’s taste buds were controlled by their mood. The only person truly happy was Lu Xiangcang, who was holding a wine glass and gesturing grandly to Yu Manyi:

“A big company, your first job is with a big company, it’s such a great platform, a high starting point. But compared to these empty titles, the three-year training course is what I really envy! I heard that Principal Jiang Yu, who is currently so popular in Shanghai, also started out as a trainee at the Commercial Publishing House. Miss Yu, ah...”

“I’m not Miss Yu.” Yu Manyi’s mood was bad, and both her face and tone were cold.Song Qi was lowering his head to eat, but upon hearing her, he raised his eyes to look at her. Yu Manyi did not notice his gaze, but stubbornly corrected Lu Xiangcang, “I am Yu Manyi.”

“Yes, yes,” Lu Xiangcang, still somewhat sober despite his drunken state, quickly corrected himself. “Of course, you are yourself. I just got used to calling you ‘Second Miss’… Anyway!”

“Miss Yu, when prosperity comes, don’t forget us! The Commercial Publishing House has its own world!”

As soon as Lu Xiangcang finished speaking, he suddenly slumped back onto the table with a "thud," knocking the wine over. Fang Qian was quick to catch the wine bottle, offering a wry smile as he said to the other two:

“Really pathetic. Why don’t you two head home first, and I’ll wait for his friends to pick him up? I really don’t want him puking in my car.”

Head home? Where exactly was Yu Manyi’s home? She had already burned hers down, and Song Qi’s home was not hers either. She suddenly lifted her head, drained the remaining wine in her glass, then stood up and grabbed her luggage.

There were plenty of hotels near the school. Yu Manyi planned to find one nearby to stay the night and look for a more suitable one tomorrow. She didn’t want to speak to Song Qi, and he didn’t make any effort to talk to her either. He just carried the paper bag and silently followed behind her.

As the night deepened and the alley grew quieter, Yu Manyi could still hear his footsteps and breathing, never fading away. She suddenly stopped, turned around, and asked, “Why are you always following me? Didn’t you want me to move out tonight?”

“I didn’t say you should move out tonight.”

“You told me to bring my luggage, isn’t that what you meant...”

Before she could finish the word “meant,” Yu Manyi suddenly saw Song Qi take out a metal bottle of alcohol from his pocket. They were at an empty intersection, where a pile of ginkgo leaves had gathered at the side of the road. It turned out that when the weather was too hot, the ginkgo leaves also fell, and they had a faded yellow look, different from autumn’s dried leaves.

Song Qi opened the bottle and poured the alcohol over the fallen leaves. The strong liquor instantly soaked into the dried leaves. Yu Manyi was confused, and she raised her voice to question, “Song Qi, what exactly do you—ah!”

A burst of flame suddenly erupted from his fingers, and Yu Manyi didn’t know when he had pulled out a lighter. He used the lighter to ignite a leaf and then threw it directly into the pile of leaves.

With a muffled sound, a fire erupted from the dry leaves, shooting up to about half her height. Yu Manyi took two steps back in shock. However, the explosion was brief, and the flame quickly shrank to the height of her ankles, a bright, steady fire glowing in the night.He stood on one side of the fire, while she stood on the other. In that instant, Yu Manyi suddenly realized that Song Qi already knew what she had done to her family.

He had painstakingly gathered information about Liu Fengyan for her, and had connections at the police station in the concession. He couldn’t possibly be unaware of the tactics used by those searching for Yu Manyi. He just never clarified things for her. He must have known much earlier than she had guessed. Yu Manyi suddenly recalled his playful remark when he saw her using the alcohol burner: “I can’t believe you didn’t burn down my house,” and that had been only the third day she spent at Song Qi’s place.

She raised her head to look at Song Qi, her eyes once again reflecting the burning fire. What did he mean by this? What exactly was he trying to do?

“You didn’t kill anyone,” this was actually Song Qi’s first statement. “The fire was extinguished. It only burned down the front hall where the Yu family ate. Four people were knocked unconscious by the beams, some left dazed, others crippled, but that might be no better than death. But you don’t have to have nightmares anymore.”

The dry leaves crackled as they burned. The fire rolled like the smoldering embers of the great fire at the Yu family’s house, still haunting her heart. She closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them again, she saw Song Qi throw something from the paper bag over the fire towards her.

The item was large, and Yu Manyi hurriedly caught it, the impact causing a dull thud in her arms. She tore off the wrapping and saw a work bag—nothing particularly gendered in its design, just a simple work bag.

“Put what you bought in Shanghai into it. Everything else should be burned,” Song Qi said.

The pile of dry leaves burned for quite a while, yet the fire only seemed to grow stronger. Yu Manyi took the burden off her back and shoved it, along with her luggage, into the work bag that Song Qi had just tossed her.

She didn’t have much to burn. She had brought very little from Shaoxing. But the flickering flames were so mesmerizing, they seemed to stir her, making it hard for her to resist pulling out the coat and skirt.

The purple outfit, the one Song Qi had called a "masterpiece" when it was altered, the mandarin-collared coat and skirt. It was the most decent outfit she had worn since turning fifteen. Yu Manyi tightly gripped the worn fabric, pulling the outfit out piece by piece from the bag.

The flame flashed in her eyes, the fire tongue rose, and in an instant, it consumed the coat and skirt. The red fire touched a hint of purple before quickly rising in a black smoke, accompanied by a stinging smell.

“The fabric isn’t that great,” Song Qi remarked.

Then came the student uniform, the one that had been altered from an old skirt, not completely transformed into a proper student uniform—much like Yu Manyi herself, somewhat advanced but not entirely so. She hesitated for a moment, but without much thought, she threw this half-baked outfit into the fire as well.

Thankfully, she was wearing the new dress she had bought today. Yu Manyi knew she would need to buy another one soon. She didn’t feel sorry at all for the two pieces of clothing she had brought from the Yu family being burned. They had always been meant to be destroyed with the other things in the fire.On the third lift of her hand, she burned even the last bundle tucked away at the bottom.

The handbag felt much lighter now. She held onto the embroidered purse for a moment, thinking. It was a gift from the fabric shop owner, not from the Yu family, and she didn’t want to burn it.

There should be nothing else.

With these burdens gone, the handbag easily closed. Yu Manyi fumbled for the two metal clasps, which made two satisfying "click" sounds as they locked together. She wore a white dress, holding the handbag with one hand, and looked at Song Qi through the fire.

All the things were gone, the thick smoke had lightened, but the fire hadn’t been extinguished. It stubbornly tangled with the night. Song Qi’s voice came from the other side of the fire, piercing through the smoke and night, reaching her ears.

He said, “Welcome to the new world, Yu Manyi.”