Sophie in the Time of Secrets Chapter 9

Before my sister-in-law married my eldest brother, she often wore a fashionable men's suit and carried a gun on her waist. She could fly a plane and ride a horse. Sometimes she would write an article or compose a poem when she felt like it.

She often said that Adrian Zhou was a dream of hers. When she said this, her sister-in-law looked like a young girl. This dream came to her without her realizing it, and she was immersed in it. When she first met her brother, he was wearing a white robe and talking to someone else. I don't know what he was talking about, but he just laughed. When the sister-in-law came back to her senses, the cigarette in her mouth had been lost by the brother's smile.

My sister-in-law was quite absurd at the time. She smoked and fought. She was so wild that no one in the family could control her. Everyone thought that my sister-in-law's future husband would be extremely powerful and could shock her. No one expected that this person would be Adrian Zhou.

He looked weak and bookish. His sister-in-law pursued him for three years before she succeeded. Now he occasionally cooks soup, but it tastes terrible. The first time Caleb Zhou drank it, he almost spit it out. He glanced at his elder brother and found that he swallowed it mouthful by mouthful with a calm face.

It was not until he noticed his sister-in-law's expectant eyes that the elder brother replied, "It tastes good." Caleb Zhou thought that he had to stay tonight to drink the soup, and he always felt that his elder brother was punishing him in disguise. It was not until the soup was served that he realized that it tasted good.

It turns out that love not only changes people, but also improves cooking skills. After dinner, he took a box of perfume to honor his sister-in-law. His sister-in-law was sitting and reading a book. She was wearing a hibiscus embroidered with gold silk cheongsam. Her wrists were like white lotus roots, and she wore green jade bracelets. She pinched the pages of the book with her fingers and turned them one by one.

A servant was collecting incense. Caleb Zhou always thought of his sister-in-law as a sister. He did not regard his sister-in-law as a woman. After all, this sister-in-law was very powerful and fierce when she was not in front of her eldest brother.

Look, the sister-in-law reached out her hand gently and grabbed his ear. Caleb Zhou begged for mercy in pain. The sister-in-law said softly: "Your elder brother is worried again. I told you to keep your tail between your legs. You are causing trouble again. Your brother didn't sleep well last night."

Caleb Zhou held his ears and decided to sue Adrian Zhou to save himself, so he said: "Don't scold me first, my brother is using Furong cream, do you know?"

My sister-in-law let go of my hand, and her delicately drawn eyebrows knitted into small knots. She pinched the pages of the book in her hand, crumpling the paper with ink stains. She sighed, "Your eldest brother wants to do business with the British. He said that smoking opium is just like eating and drinking, and it's no problem, and he won't let me interfere."

Caleb Zhou deliberately asked: "British?" After thinking for a while, he asked: "Does Big Brother have any contact with Major General Yong?" Perhaps because she didn't follow his train of thought, his sister-in-law looked at him strangely and said: "Major General Yong?" Then she suddenly said: "Ah~! That Major General Yong."

Before he could ask more, his sister-in-law laughed softly: "Isn't Major General Yong very handsome?" Caleb Zhou inexplicably felt that something was wrong. Sure enough, his sister-in-law said with a gossipy look on her face: "When I was playing mahjong a few days ago, the young lady of the Du family was still arguing about marrying Major General Yong." After she started gossiping, Caleb Zhou couldn't leave.

Not only did he fail to find out whether his elder brother and Ethan Yong had any contact, but his head was filled with romantic gossip. The protagonist of the gossip was Ethan Yong, who flirted with him with cakes at noon. Even Caleb Zhou was inferior to him in his brilliant achievements.

Zhou's house was not far from his small apartment. Caleb Zhou took a shower, his hair was still wet, and he pulled out a civilized car from the warehouse. It was a German brand, a gift from his father for his coming of age. He should have used it on weekdays, the tires were inflated, and the chain was rust-free.

He changed into a shirt and trousers that made it easier to move around, pedaled his bike, crossed the tram road, passed the rickshaws, followed the street lights at night, and drove around in this old city, returning home.

The nightlife was not over yet. The music from the dance hall and the people's happy dancing almost knocked on the door. The sweet and soft singing occasionally came out from the two heavy sliding doors. Two doormen stood next to them. They wore black uniforms with silver buttons all the way to their chins.

He also wore gloves, but that man's gloves seemed whiter and less worldly. He didn't have to pull the door himself, nor did he have to drive. Whenever he smoked, someone would light a cigarette for him. He went in and out of celebrity clubs, and the people dancing with him were all famous ladies and rich girls. Such a person... Such a person.

Before he could think of the next words, the man flashed past him. In the small window, there was a pale line, a profile. Ethan Yong was sitting in the car, and the car slid past him like a fish.

When he came to his senses, Caleb Zhou had been chasing the car for a while. He pedaled hard, with an excitement that he didn't know why. He was chasing the car like a fool in love. When he realized that he was doing something stupid, he braked. He was so embarrassed that he wiped the sweat from his forehead and cursed himself for being stupid.

Ethan Yong was also blind. He didn't even bother to look at the big man chasing after his car. He got out of the car and pushed it away. He was sweating all over from the chase, so his shower was in vain. He thought about the entertainment venue he just passed by and wanted to go in and have a drink.

However, he was not dressed decently, so he had to give up. While pushing the cart, he bought a bottle of soda and a pack of cigarettes at the grocery store. When the sweat subsided, he felt the coldness of the night. In the past, at this time of year, he was always drunk, drunk to the point of burning hot, and never thought that the night wind would be cold, always felt that it was not cold enough, not cold enough to keep his high body temperature.

He rode his bike back to his apartment, stopping and starting. But he saw the fish-like bike on the street next to him. It was a black fish, with a shiny and slippery body, as if it was impossible to catch it, but now it was quietly parked there. Caleb Zhou thought to himself, no way. No way, Ethan Yong is not that free.

He kept denying it in his heart, but his steps quickened. The wheels of the car were spinning rapidly, making a silver circle. The closer he got to the car, the faster he walked. However, the door opened first, and it was Adjutant Chen who got out.

Adjutant Chen handed over a movie ticket for the evening of five days later. Caleb Zhou held onto the car and looked at the back seat. There was no one there, and the encounter on the street seemed to be an illusion. The back was empty, and in front of him was the movie ticket handed over respectfully. Caleb Zhou picked up the ticket and took a look at it. Before Adjutant Chen could withdraw his hand, the ticket fell back to its original position.

Caleb Zhou smiled brightly: "I'm really sorry, I had to go to the dentist that day. I ate too many sweet cakes and my teeth hurt." After that, he pushed the cart to the elevator and ignored the adjutant behind him.

The elevator door was pulled up and the elevator went up. He thought that he seemed to have heard Miss Wen say that she wanted to watch the movie, so why not make an appointment with Miss Wen. Thinking of Miss Wen, he inevitably thought of Miss Du and Shirley Chen. Shirley Chen was so beautiful, but Ethan Yong didn't seem to care much.

What kind of women does he like? Probably any woman around him is a lady that Caleb Zhou would admire. The elevator swayed and stopped. He locked the car at the end of the corridor, picked up the key himself, and walked home absentmindedly.

Perhaps he was too distracted to notice someone following him. It was not until he was grabbed by the shoulder that he was frightened and punched back. Three punches and two kicks seemed to make the follower laugh. The man said, "Your kung fu is not good enough. If you were my soldier..."

Caleb Zhou grabbed the man's wrist with his backhand and dragged him out of the darkness. He was still smiling, with a hateful smile on his face. The side profile walked out of the window, now fully exposed, and appeared in front of him, looking at him.

Caleb Zhou also smiled, this time with a sincere heart. He said, "What would happen if it was your soldier?" Ethan Yong didn't say anything, but raised his hand to button up his shirt that had been undone due to the heat, exposing his chest: "Please let me in and sit down." It was not a request, but a demand.