Golden Scale [EN]: Chapter 80

105. The Allure of the Foreign

Although Ru Yan was still weak, she managed to get up to brush her teeth and wash her face. But as soon as she finished, her lover ushered her back to bed. “I’m fine,” she protested.
“You look terrible. You were just crying a while ago. Just stay in bed for a couple of days.” Hou Longtao playfully stroked her high nose. “Are you hungry?”
“A little.”
“Dad made a big pot of porridge. I’ll go get you a bowl.”

“Okay, okay,” Ru Yan said, shaking his hand. “I don’t want porridge.”
“What do you want when you’re sick? Meat and fish?” Hou Longtao chuckled as he left. He soon returned with a steaming bowl of rice porridge and a plate of pickled vegetables. He placed the pickles on the bedside table, sat down next to her on the bed, turned towards her, scooped up a spoonful of porridge, blew on it, touched the spoon to his chin to make sure it wasn’t too hot, and then slowly brought it to his wife’s lips. “Ah…”

Ru Yan opened her cherry-like mouth, revealing two rows of neat, pearly white teeth. She swallowed the porridge. “It’s bland.”
“Hmm.” The man picked up a piece of pickled cabbage, bit it in half, and held it out with his tongue. Ru Yan leaned forward, her lips gently taking his tongue, pulling it back. Hou Longtao fed his wife lunch this way, going out twice to refill the bowl. He ate quite a bit himself.

All afternoon, Hou Longtao sat by his wife’s side, whispering sweet nothings and telling her jokes, making her giggle. With her lover’s company, Ru Yan’s mood was excellent, and since it wasn’t a serious illness, her complexion quickly regained its original radiance. After dinner, they both showered and snuggled together in Ru Yan’s bed to watch TV.

Having obtained his in-laws’ permission, Hou Longtao didn’t plan to leave tonight. Ru Yan nestled close in her lover’s arms, and even the TV programs seemed more interesting than usual. Hou Longtao, however, wasn’t focused on the TV. He was busy savoring the fragrance of her long hair. After an hour, he began to gently kiss her forehead, lingering for a long time. He didn’t even touch her lips, content with just her sweet face.

“Baby, let’s sleep,” he said.
“Okay.” Ru Yan turned off the TV and the lights, returning to lie down to her lover’s right. Hou Longtao turned over and finally kissed her lips. Their tongues slowly danced around each other. His right arm embraced her shoulders, while his left hand slipped inside the waistband of her light green silk pajamas, gently caressing her round bottom through her smooth underwear.

“Mmm… mmm…” Ru Yan moaned softly, her eyelids fluttering. She ran her hands through his hair. Although she had never kissed another man, she was certain that this man’s kiss was the sweetest and gentlest in the world. Hou Longtao began to lick her cheeks and chin, his three fingers sliding shallowly into her underwear, the backs of his fingers tracing her tender flesh, slowly moving towards her thighs.

Ru Yan felt her soft pubic hair being gently tugged, then her clitoris being pressed. “Ah… Brother…” A pleasurable current ran through her body, but she resisted her desire to be caressed by her beloved man, resisted her desire to be held under him. She gently pushed his shoulder. “Don’t… don’t do that, Brother. Mom and Dad will hear us… mmm…”

Hou Longtao knew that unless she screamed, they wouldn’t be heard in the next room, but he also understood that his wife was shy. With her parents just a wall away, she was too embarrassed to be intimate with him. Besides, she had just recovered from her illness and might not have enough energy for him. He rolled off her, lying on his side, and removed his hand from her pajamas, placing it on her thigh.

Ru Yan also turned to face her lover, reaching out to touch his cheek. “Brother, you’re not mad at me, are you? I’ll make it up to you another day… I’ll take good care of you, okay?”
“Silly baby, I should be taking care of you.” Hou Longtao pulled her into his arms. She was so lovable. “Let me kiss those two beautiful sisters on your chest, and I won’t be mad.”

“Okay.” Ru Yan moved her upper body back, her eyelids lowered, her long eyelashes trembling slightly. Her upper teeth bit her lower lip, a shy expression on her face. Although her complexion couldn’t be seen in the dark, it must have been flushed. Her slender fingers moved to her chest, slowly unbuttoning her pajamas. Her full breasts pushed the silk fabric apart, revealing a deep cleavage.

“Baby…” Hou Longtao slipped his right arm under her, embracing her slender waist, pulling her closer. His left hand parted the right side of her pajamas, gently cupping her right breast from below. He lowered his head, burying his face in Ru Yan’s breasts, shaking his head from side to side, rubbing his face against her soft flesh, his tongue darting out to press and knead her nipples. Finally, he latched onto a tender nipple, sucking and licking.

“Ah… ah… ah…” Ru Yan’s moans trembled. She held his head tightly, rubbing her cheek against his hair, hooking her right leg around his left, rubbing up and down. Although the physical pleasure she received was significant, what she felt more strongly was the boundless love of her beloved. She only wanted it to continue forever, to experience her lover’s tenderness and the sincere affection between them.

Hou Longtao’s hand left her breast, and with her cooperation, he pulled off her pajamas, allowing their legs to rub against each other. After that, Hou Longtao didn’t make any further moves. As if he had a telepathic connection with Ru Yan, he also hoped it could last forever…

The next morning, Ru Yan wanted to go to work, but Hou Longtao refused, insisting that she rest for another day and that he would stay with her. Another morning of sweet nothings passed quickly. After lunch, Hou Longtao took a large apple from the refrigerator and sat down next to his wife. “I haven’t peeled an apple in years. If I peel it, there’ll only be half left.”

“Then I’ll peel it,” Ru Yan offered.
“No, you’re sick. Of course, I’ll take care of you.”
“I’m all better. It was just a stomachache. Why are you so nervous?”
“Hehe.” Hou Longtao just smiled and continued peeling the apple. Suddenly, he exclaimed, “Ah!” The apple in his left hand fell into the plate. He stuck his index finger in his mouth, a look of pain on his face.

Seeing her lover’s expression, Ru Yan knew he had cut himself. She quickly knelt beside him, grabbing his wrist. “Let me see!” Hou Longtao, seeing his beauty’s anxious expression, was truly in love. He smiled and took his finger out of his mouth. “Where is it?” Ru Yan searched for a long time but couldn’t find the wound. She realized her lover was teasing her and punched him on the shoulder. “You’re so bad!” She leaned back against the headboard, crossed her arms, and pouted.

“What’s wrong?” Hou Longtao nudged her.
“Hmph!” Ru Yan ignored him, turning her head to the side, not even looking at him.
“Are you angry?”
“Hmph!”
“I was just teasing you.”
“Hmph!”
“Don’t be mad at me.” This time, Hou Longtao didn’t wait for his wife to “hmph” again. He leaned over and kissed her lips, his tongue entering her warm mouth without any resistance.

“Mmm…” Ru Yan’s tongue immediately responded to her lover’s teasing, her hands cupping his cheeks. When they separated, her cherry lips were still slightly moving, as if reluctant to let him go. Hou Longtao kissed his wife’s nose and pleaded in a childish voice, “Don’t be mad at Brother, okay? If you’re still mad, Brother will cry, wah… wah…”

“You’re annoying.” Ru Yan laughed and kissed her lover’s face. “Don’t scare me like that again.”
“Yes, yes, my wife has spoken. How dare I disobey?” Hou Longtao picked up the apple, finished peeling it, and cut it into pieces, using a toothpick to offer a piece to his long-legged beauty.

Ru Yan had been drinking bland white porridge for two days. After eating an apple, she wanted another one. Hou Longtao peeled another one for her, still cutting it into pieces. “Brother, you’re going to spoil me.”
“I want to spoil you, indulge you,” Hou Longtao said, looking up at her with infinite affection. “You are my princess.”

“Brother…” Ru Yan’s heart warmed. She leaned over and hugged his neck, rubbing their cheeks together. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” Hou Longtao gently caressed her back. “Brother, I… I really like being sick.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“When I’m sick, you stay here with me all day. I’m so happy. I want to see you every day, to have you hold me while we watch TV. Brother, I miss you so much.”

“Baby…” Hou Longtao knew what his wife meant. Besides work, he often had to shuttle between the women, spending time with this one today and that one tomorrow. Sometimes it would be three or four days before he could truly hold Ru Yan in his arms. Not only her, but the other women felt the same way. This situation couldn’t continue.

“Baby, I’ll go buy a big house right now, okay? Everyone can move in, so you can be in my arms watching TV every day, okay?”
“Ah, Brother, that’s not what I meant. I’m not complaining that you don’t spend enough time with me. I was just saying…”
“Baby, baby,” Hou Longtao said, cupping his wife’s face and kissing her again and again. “I’ll be with you every day.” He finished speaking, grabbed his suit jacket, and rushed out…

Hou Longtao ran downstairs, got into his SL500 [Mercedes-Benz sports car], and headed straight for Oriental Plaza. He remembered seeing a large billboard when he accompanied Chen Qian and Chen Xi to Silver Street a few days ago, advertising that Oriental Plaza would begin selling the last batch of high-end apartments starting May 7th. It wasn’t that he had to buy a house there, but it was the only place he could think of at the moment.

At the sales office, the saleswomen at Oriental Plaza didn’t have the same fawning smiles as those in other places. They were, after all, representing a prestigious location and had to maintain their image. Hou Longtao looked at several floor plans but wasn’t satisfied. “Miss, what’s the largest unit you have here?”
“The largest usable area is 138 square meters [approximately 1485 square feet].”
“That’s it? How can Oriental Plaza not have a larger apartment?”

Hou Longtao didn’t mean anything by this. He just didn’t like comparing prices and always hoped to find what he wanted in one place. Now, hearing that they didn’t have what he wanted, he was extremely disappointed and added a sentence. “How many people will be living there, sir?” Actually, the saleswoman was already a little annoyed with this man, but seeing that he was well-dressed and not unpleasant-looking, she patiently attended to him.

“140 is definitely not enough,” Hou Longtao didn’t answer directly. “If I bought all six units above, below, left, and right, would you allow me to combine them?”
“Are you kidding? This is Oriental Plaza.”
“So what if it’s Oriental Plaza?” Hou Longtao detected a hint of arrogance in her tone. “Aren’t you selling apartments? I buy, you sell. What does it have to do with where it is?”

The saleswoman immediately sensed the provocation in the man’s words. She had never seen anyone who didn’t take Oriental Plaza seriously. “First of all, Oriental Plaza has a specific architectural structure that cannot be easily modified. The people who buy houses here are all people of status and position, mostly big bosses of foreign companies stationed in Beijing, and even diplomatic officials. If you’re banging and hammering here, what if it affects their work and life? Who knows what kind of background your renovation workers have? Who will be responsible if there’s an accident?”

“Hehehe,” Hou Longtao chuckled instead of getting angry. “I asked a simple question. You could have just told me you couldn’t do it, instead of laboriously bringing out a bunch of foreigners to intimidate me. Your work attitude is really something. But I don’t dare trouble you anymore. Go get your manager for me.”
“You want to see the manager? Fine.” The saleswoman rolled her eyes and turned to enter the office.

After a while, a short, fat middle-aged man came out with the saleswoman. “This is Mr. Yi, the Hong Kong manager of the sales department.”
“Hello.” Hou Longtao stood up and extended his hand. He was angry, so his tone wasn’t very polite, but it wasn’t rude either. “Please sit down, sir. Is there anything I can help you with?”
“Didn’t this lady tell you?”
“I think there must be some misunderstanding.”
“There’s no misunderstanding. Her service attitude is terrible.”

“I heard you want to buy six of the largest units and combine them?”
“Yes.”
“But each unit costs almost 3 million.”
“Money is not a problem.”
“I mean US dollars.”
“3 million US dollars?” Hou Longtao hadn’t bought a house himself and hadn’t paid attention to housing prices. Although 18 million wasn’t unaffordable for him, he was still a little surprised. “Are the walls made of gold?”

“Sir, are you here to cause trouble?” Manager Yi had heard the saleswoman’s embellished account in the office and felt something was amiss, but it was possible that this was a wealthy man who wanted to buy six units at once, which would be a big deal. Although he couldn’t allow him to combine the units, he didn’t want to offend him. Now, seeing Hou Longtao’s behavior, he concluded that he was just being unreasonable. “Who comes to buy a house without even asking the price?”

“Cause trouble?” Hou Longtao frowned, his tone unfriendly. “Even if I can’t afford it, asking can’t be considered causing trouble, right? What law says I can’t ask the price on-site?” He took out an American bank card from his wallet and threw it on the table. “Round it up. If you let me combine them, I’ll give you 2 million [extra, as a bribe].”

“Okay, give me your documents, and I’ll help you with the procedures.” Manager Yi thought that the other party was only daring to talk big because he knew he wouldn’t agree to combine the units. He would play along with him. Once the contract was signed, if he couldn’t come up with the money, he would see how he humiliated him. Hou Longtao took out a photocopy of his passport from his wallet. He had a green card [permanent resident card for the US], and his ID card had been canceled before he went abroad. Now, he had been using a photocopy of his passport in China.

The man surnamed Yi took it and looked at it, a look of arrogance suddenly appearing on his face. He threw the bank card and the photocopy back. “Chinese?” These three words, combined with that contemptuous tone, ignited Hou Longtao’s anger. “What’s wrong with being Chinese?”
“Hmph, here, as long as you use a Chinese passport, no matter how much money you have, it’s useless. These apartments are not sold to Chinese people. Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan are okay, but not mainland Chinese.”

“What the hell do you mean!?” Hou Longtao’s most sensitive nerve had been touched. He jumped up from his chair. “Say that again!?”
“You… what are you going to do?” The man surnamed Yi saw that the other party had suddenly become murderous and couldn’t help but feel a little scared. “It’s no use getting angry at me. The rules are set by the head office. This phase of apartments is only sold to foreigners.”
“Manager, is everything okay?” Four sales staff, two men and two women, gathered around.

“What kind of bullshit rules are those? How can there be things on Chinese soil that only foreigners are allowed to buy and Chinese people aren’t?” Hou Longtao’s eyes were about to pop out. “Don’t cause trouble here, leave quickly,” a male employee spoke up for their manager. “If you keep loitering, I’ll call security.”
“You better call the police too. Which level of government approved this traitorous rule?”

“Hey, watch your mouth. Do you know who our head office is? Be careful what you say. Our business strategy doesn’t need the approval of any government department.”
“Isn’t it ‘Yellow River Industries’ Huo Jiacheng?” Hou Longtao was almost driven mad. He turned to the five “Chinese people” opposite him. “The entire Oriental Plaza is only worth a few billion US dollars. Remember my face. One day, I will make this place change its name and owner.”

Hou Longtao left Oriental Plaza amidst the laughter of the crowd. This representative building complex of modern Beijing, the birthplace of this contemporary “Chinese and dogs not allowed” story, he knew that the “vow” he had made in the heat of the moment was unlikely to be realized, but he would definitely work towards that direction. Life never stops, the struggle never ends…

“Hello?”
“Third Brother?” Hou Longtao remembered that he had dialed Gu Quanzhi’s phone.
“I’m in my uncle’s office. What’s up?”
“I’m coming over now. Tell Uncle Gu to wait for me.”
“What’s the matter?”
“I want to buy a house.”
“What kind of house? Found a place you like?”
“Don’t ask so many questions. I’ll tell you in detail when we meet.”

Arriving at the headquarters of “Evergreen,” Hou Longtao entered the president’s office and recounted the anger he had suffered at Oriental Plaza. “Is there any justice left in this world?”
“Hehehe, of course there is justice, but justice can’t reach them.” Gu Quanzhi handed the young man a cigarette. “The business belongs to them, how they do it is their freedom, who they do business with and who they don’t is also their freedom.”

“That’s fucking racial discrimination.”
“They don’t recognize race, only nationality. It can’t be considered racial discrimination.”
“That’s still discrimination. Any type of discrimination is illegal.”
“Don’t worry, you can’t sue them successfully.”
“I didn’t want to sue. Huo Jiacheng, I’m not powerful enough to fight him.”
“Actually, even if it wasn’t Huo Jiacheng, there would be no legal basis to forcibly stop their business practices.”

“How so?”
“Have you seen the report about the bar in Guangzhou that put up a sign saying ‘No Japanese allowed’?”
“I saw it. It was quite satisfying.”
“The owner of that bar eventually ‘removed the sign under the persuasion of relevant departments.’ If there were really relevant laws, it wouldn’t have been ‘persuasion.'”
“Damn.” Hou Longtao shook his head. He knew that no matter what, he could only swallow his anger.

“Okay, don’t waste your energy on this matter. Six apartments, and you want to combine them. What are you going to do with them?”
“Keep my mistresses.”
“Hehe, then buy a villa.” Liu Nan chimed in.
“At least eight people will be living there. Those villas aren’t big enough.”
“Then build one. Isn’t there plenty of empty land in Yizhuang [suburban district of Beijing]? Buy a few dozen acres and build an American-style mansion.” Liu Nan also joined in.

“The main thing is, I want to be in the city, I don’t want to go to the suburbs. I hate sparsely populated places, so I wanted to buy a few ordinary apartments and renovate them myself.” Hou Longtao didn’t reveal another deeper reason. He remembered Gu Quanzhi’s “teachings.” If he really built a large mansion occupying dozens of acres like Liu Nan suggested, it would be like sending an invitation to government agencies to investigate him.

“That’s easy to solve. If this can stump you, you’re not worthy of being a major shareholder of ‘Evergreen.'”
“Uncle Gu, if you have a good idea, just say it. This shareholder only cares about getting money. You know I don’t know anything about real estate.” Hou Longtao wasn’t satisfied with Gu Quanzhi’s roundabout way of speaking, but he himself sometimes made the same mistake.

“How about Dabeiyao [area in Beijing’s central business district]?”
“Isn’t that near the China World Trade Center? Of course, it’s good.”
“‘Evergreen’ just took on a project there, a high-end residential area. The foundation has already been laid. If you’re willing, I’ll reserve the top three floors of one of the buildings for you.”
“Three floors? Isn’t that too big?”

“Are you complaining that it’s too big? The left side is a swimming pool with artificial mountains, the right side is a sports field, and then seal it with tempered glass. The interior is built entirely like a villa. I’ll have someone design it right away. The drawings should be out in about half a month, and then send them to the construction committee for approval. It won’t affect the construction period at all. It’ll be completed within a year. How about it?”

“Of course, that’s good. Is it technically possible?”
“Nothing is impossible.”
“What about the price?”
“Hmm…” Gu Quanzhi pressed on the calculator for a while. “No more than 80 million [Chinese Yuan, approximately $11 million USD]. If it’s more, that part is on me, payable in fifteen years.”
“It’s settled then.”
“Okay, I’ll have someone send you the contract in a couple of days.”
“Okay.” Hou Longtao was happy this time. By this time next year, he could bring his beloved wives together to live…(Golden scales are not things in the pool)