The Engineer Falls for His Sweet-Scented Maid - Chapter 28: Drowning His Sorrows in Drink

Chapter 28: Drowning His Sorrows in Drink

Huai Shen neither entered the compound nor went far. He merely pushed his bicycle beneath the locust tree across the street. He put his shirt back on but buttoned it only as far as his chest.

The light over the compound’s back gate did not reach this spot. Operatic singing drifted intermittently from the guard post’s radio, mingling with insects on the summer night until the sound seemed to weigh on his chest.

He should have gone home.

Nianhe Su was safely inside, her dress covered. No matter what Liping Wang asked, she would never trace the matter back to him.

Yet Huai stood in the shadows with one hand on the handlebar, replaying what Nianhe had said in the alley.

*You don’t understand.*

How could he not understand?

No one had ever dared put those words before him. Nor had anyone ever left him unable to offer a single decent rebuttal after hearing them.

A young woman’s laughter came from beyond the back gate.

Huai looked up. Lianhua Li entered through the gateway with a cloth bag over her shoulder, then turned after two steps to wave outside.

“Comrade Li, be careful going home! And don’t be late for work tomorrow.”

Tiejun Li stood beneath the streetlamp outside, his Security Section uniform neat and a broad smile revealing white teeth.

“Don’t worry, I won’t. You watch your own feet going in. You stepped on me three times dancing tonight.”

Heat rose into Lianhua’s face, but she refused to concede. “As though your dancing was any better! You kept steering me into table legs. You’re lucky I didn’t hold it against you.”

“All right, all right. I’m the hopeless one. I’ll buy you a soda another day to make amends.”

“Who wants your soda?”

Despite her words, Lianhua’s steps became noticeably lighter. Even after entering, she leaned half her body back through the gate to wave. Only when the elderly guard laughingly urged her inside did she finally leave.

Tiejun remained where he was until her figure disappeared. When he turned, he was still humming the dance tune from the club. Reaching the locust tree, he spotted Huai standing with his bicycle in the shadows.

“Well, well.”

Tiejun stopped, visibly entertained.

“Shen, are you guarding the gate or waiting for someone?”

Huai turned the bicycle toward the street and ignored him.

Tiejun caught up and moved alongside him, determined to expose the truth.

“The way you charged into the club tonight, I almost thought there’d been an accident in the workshop. Instead, you marched straight to Comrade Xiao Su and didn’t even hear me shouting your name.”

Huai mounted the bicycle and pushed a pedal, gliding several feet forward.

“I’m going home.”

Tiejun caught up in a few quick strides, braced a hand on the rear rack, and shamelessly climbed aboard.

The frame dipped beneath his weight. Huai steadied it with a firm wrist and looked back at him.

“Get off.”

“No.”

Tiejun gripped the iron rack and settled in comfortably. “You dragged that girl’s friend away, so I delivered Lianhua back in your place. That makes me half a hero, doesn’t it? What’s wrong with giving me a ride?”

Huai ignored him and pressed harder on the pedals, sending the wheels rolling down the street.

Perched on the rear rack, Tiejun had to spread his long legs awkwardly to either side, but his mouth never stopped.

“Seriously, what exactly is going on between you and Comrade Xiao Su?”

Huai said nothing.

“When you asked me to investigate her, I thought the Shen family was being cautious about a new hire. After tonight, I can see you weren’t investigating her background. You were diagnosing your own heart trouble.”

Huai pedaled faster.

The jolting forced Tiejun to grip the rack more tightly, but he continued to laugh.

“Hey, don’t take your temper out on the bicycle. It hurts when a man my size falls too.”

A small restaurant at the next intersection was still open. A bare bulb hung outside, illuminating braised bean curd, fried peanuts, and smashed cucumber in a glass case. The smell of hot oil drifted from the kitchen.

Tiejun reached forward and slapped Huai’s back. “Forget going home. Jianguo asked me to have a couple of drinks. His wife threw him out again, and he needs someone to hear his troubles.”

Huai did not slow.

Tiejun continued, “In your state tonight, you won’t sleep even if you go home. Have a drink or two before you pedal that bicycle all the way to Nan Province.”

The bicycle stopped outside the restaurant.

Tiejun jumped off the rack and straightened the uniform the wind had ruffled, grinning obnoxiously. “I knew you wanted a drink.”

Huai locked the bicycle and walked inside.

Only a few tables were occupied. At a wooden table by the wall sat a man in blue work clothes, perhaps twenty-seven or twenty-eight, his hair disheveled. Half a bottle of baijiu stood before him, and he poked gloomily at a plate of peanuts with his chopsticks.

The moment Tiejun entered, he called out, “Jianguo Zhou, didn’t you say you had no one to drink with? I brought you someone.”

Jianguo looked up. “Shen? Now that’s a rare sight.”

Huai said nothing and took the seat nearest the aisle.

Tiejun waved to the proprietress. “Boss, another bottle of Jiangcheng Daqu, two plates of peanuts, a plate of braised bean curd, and some smashed cucumber. Put it on my tab.”

The proprietress leaned out from behind the counter. “Section Chief Li, you still haven’t paid your last tab.”

Laughing, Tiejun pulled out money and slapped it on the table. “I’ll pay cash tonight. Don’t embarrass me in front of Engineer Shen.”

She took the money, tossed back a laughing insult, and turned toward the kitchen.

Jianguo reached to pour Huai a drink, but Huai took the bottle first and filled half his own cup.

Tiejun stared in fascination. “Shen, aren’t you always saying alcohol gets in the way of work?”

Huai raised the cup. The liquor burned from his throat all the way down, yet his brows did not move.

“I have nothing to do tonight.”

Tiejun and Jianguo exchanged a glance.

Jianguo sighed first. “Nothing to do—that’s good. Men with no troubles are blessed. These days, my head starts aching the moment I go home.”

Tiejun tossed a peanut into his mouth.

“Your wife threw you out again?”

“She’s angry because I didn’t deliver the coal ration coupons to her mother’s house before coming home from work.”

The more Jianguo spoke, the more aggrieved he became. He set his cup down with a heavy thump.

“I worked in the repair unit until dark without a bite of hot food. The moment I got home, she accused me of being heartless and not caring about her family.”

Tiejun laughed. “Before the wedding, weren’t you always saying city girls had standards? That they were clean, educated, and refined when they spoke?”

“Refined, my ass.”

Jianguo took a drink, his flush spreading down his neck. “Her family has rules for everything. Everyone needs separate bowls and chopsticks at meals. You can’t throw foot-washing water into the courtyard. When my mother came from the village for two days, my wife complained the old woman smelled of soil and needled her at every turn.”

Huai’s chopsticks paused.

*Smelled of soil.*

The words brought back the image of Nianhe lowering her head beside the sofa and saying she was not worthy of the other family.

Tiejun did not notice and continued teasing Jianguo. “You insisted on marrying a city wife and ignored everyone who advised you otherwise. Regretting it now?”

Jianguo gave a bitter smile. “Too late for regret. We have the certificate, and the baby’s almost here.”

He drained his cup and tapped his chopsticks twice against the plate. “In my opinion, village girls make better wives. They can endure hardship, know how to care for a man, and speak honestly. Not like mine—two out of every three sentences have thorns.”

Tiejun immediately perked up. “Now that I like hearing.”

Jianguo glanced at him. “Didn’t you go to a mixer tonight? Find anyone you liked?”

Tiejun made no attempt to hide it, smiling openly. “A girl who helps at a household in the Municipal Party Committee Compound. Her name is Lianhua Li. Sharp tongue, straightforward nature.”

“From the countryside?”

“What’s wrong with that?”

Tiejun set his cup on the table. His voice still held a smile, but his words had turned serious. “She earns her food through her own labor. She neither steals nor robs. That doesn’t make her lesser than anyone.”

Jianguo nodded. “That’s true.”

Tiejun turned to Huai and deliberately offered him the question. “Don’t you agree, Shen?”

Huai did not answer. He merely emptied his cup.

The baijiu burned hot in his stomach, but the weight in his chest did not disperse.

Seeing him like this, Tiejun set aside some of his teasing and placed a piece of braised bean curd on Huai’s saucer. “Don’t drink on an empty stomach. There’s still a meeting at the factory tomorrow.”

Huai picked up his chopsticks but did not touch the bean curd.

Now thoroughly loosened by drink, Jianguo spoke more and more. “I don’t dislike city women. What I can’t stand is a life spent being looked down on. She wears that superior expression every day, as though even the village accent in my mother’s voice needs correcting.”

Tiejun replied, “Don’t condemn everyone because of one person. There are good city women and bad village women. What matters is the individual.”

“Exactly—the individual.”

Jianguo slapped the table. “But how can you judge someone accurately before marriage? The matchmaker only told me her father worked at the Supply and Marketing Cooperative and her mother taught primary school. I was so busy thinking her family had good circumstances that I never imagined living with her would mean both families tying me up in their rules.”

Huai raised his head. “Good circumstances don’t mean two people are suited.”

Tiejun arched a brow. “Well, Engineer Shen has finally deigned to speak tonight.”

Jianguo nodded quickly. “Exactly. That’s exactly it.”

Huai put down his chopsticks, his voice lowering. “Marriage isn’t trading one person for household registration and a livelihood.”

Tiejun heard the weight behind the words, and his smile faded a little.

Jianguo assumed Huai was speaking about him and answered miserably, “I lost my head back then. I thought only of starting a family, never of whether the two of us could actually build a life together.”

Tiejun tapped his cup against Jianguo’s. “All right, drink less. Go home and talk to your wife properly tomorrow. She’s pregnant. It’s normal for her temper to be sharp.”

“Will she listen if I talk?”

“You can’t hide forever either.”

Jianguo fell silent for a moment, then shoveled a handful of peanuts into his mouth.