mijobooks Chapter 13: The Twin Sisters
Chapter 13: The Twin Sisters
Sure enough, the two Singaporeans disappeared without a trace. Huang Xiaochuan firmly refused to allow Zeng Jiahua to contact them. It's just a matter of keeping the hawks alive; let's see who can outlast whom. In the end, we'll see who the hawk-keeper really is.
Zeng Jiahua was initially quite anxious, running around like a cat on a hot tin roof all day. However, with Huang Xiaochuan's encouragement, he gradually adjusted his mindset and became less impatient.
On Monday, July 23, Huang Xiaochuan's two older cousins returned from Hangzhou, a day when they were competing to see who could endure more.
In the morning, Huang Xiaochuan sat in the living room with his back to the door, enjoying the breeze while helping his grandmother shell edamame. The two chatted idly.
"Grandma, once I buy a house in Shanghai, I'll bring you over."
"Can houses be bought and sold again now?" Grandma knew that at this time, most houses were public housing and generally could not be traded or sold.
Huang Xiaochuan tossed a handful of shelled edamame into the bowl: "It should be soon, but I heard that old private villas in Shanghai can be traded."
Grandma asked with a smile, "Those kinds of houses are incredibly expensive, can you afford them?"
Huang Xiaochuan confidently raised his head: "Grandma, just you wait and see. In less than three years, I'll be able to buy you an old Shanghai-style house so you can live there and enjoy your retirement."
Grandma was amused by Huang Xiaochuan's serious boasting: "Okay, I'll wait for you to buy me a villa to live in."
Suddenly, Grandma stopped shelling edamame and looked toward the door.
Before Huang Xiaochuan could even turn around to see who it was, four arms wrapped around his neck, followed by a fragrant breeze.
Then Huang Xiaochuan suffered a great deal. His hair was tangled up like a bird's nest, and his face was covered with red lipstick marks.
Grandma sat beside him, watching her two granddaughters tease Huang Xiaochuan without interfering, just sitting there happily.
Huang Xiaochuan's heart sank. "It's over. My good days are over!"
After the two sisters let go, Huang Xiaochuan turned around and was almost scared to death.
The two older sisters have now realized the importance of beauty and have even started to apply makeup to themselves. However, their makeup is so bad that it's almost unbearable to look at, and the two sisters haven't realized it yet.
The sisters' appearances were somewhat affected by their uncle Zeng Jiahua when they were young. Fortunately, girls change a lot as they grow up, but since they have their father's genes, their looks can only be rated 70 out of 100 at most.
Normally, without makeup, their fair skin and shapely figures are passable; as the saying goes, fair skin covers a hundred flaws. But what's going on with these two today? Their makeup makes them look like ghosts. Are they playing a pair of monstrous sisters? Or are they cosplaying?
What kind of powder did she use on her face? It's like she's been plastered with putty, making her face snow-white. Didn't she know she should have paired it with some blush? Couldn't she have chosen a more suitable shade of lipstick? It's a blood-red color, making her lips look like a gaping maw of blood, plus a huge white face. Luckily it was daytime; I would have been terrified if it were nighttime.
Huang Xiaochuan looked utterly dejected, which made the two sisters laugh non-stop. After ruffling Huang Xiaochuan's hair again, they said to their grandmother, "Grandma, we're back."
Grandma then started to shoo them away: "Oh my, what happened to your faces? Did you just finish performing? Go wash your faces right now."
Before leaving, Zeng Xia, the second sister, teased Huang Xiaochuan, "Little brother, why don't you sleep with us tonight? Okay?"
Huang Xiaochuan felt a chill run down his spine and shivered. He thought to himself, "Thank you, but forget it. I opened my eyes to see a ghostly face. Even if I don't have a nightmare, you'll scare me to death."
This is a joke from Huang Xiaochuan's childhood. When he was little, he would always insist on sleeping with his two older sisters every night, so his second sister would always tease him about it.
Huang Xiaochuan touched his face, his hands covered in red marks. He sighed and got up to wash his face too, as he knew he couldn't go out in public looking like this.
After washing their faces, the two sisters gave up their spot to Huang Xiaochuan and went back to their room with their luggage.
Huang Xiaochuan looked at his miserable state in the mirror, shook his head, and sighed helplessly, "Sigh...!"
Although the two sisters look similar, the second sister, Zeng Xia, has a more outgoing and shrewish personality and usually comes up with the ideas. The eldest sister, Zeng Hong, is the kind of person who is ruthless, doesn't talk much, and is very capable. When the two of them team up, Huang Xiaochuan can only bow down and accept his bad luck.
To avoid further frightening his own eyes, Huang Xiaochuan decided to teach his two older sisters how to properly apply makeup. This was a special skill that Elder Huang had learned in his previous life after dealing with numerous female demons.
Makeup can be divided into nude makeup, everyday makeup, Korean-style makeup, Japanese-style fresh makeup, and European-style elegant makeup. Huang Xiaochuan is actually most skilled at Chinese classical makeup, which can make girls instantly have the temperament of Chinese classical beauty with just a little bit of makeup.
After dinner, Huang Xiaochuan asked his two older sisters to bring out their cosmetics for him to see.
The two quickly brought out a bunch of things. Huang Xiaochuan looked at them, clicked his teeth, and shook his head.
The cosmetics were quite complete, but the makeup skills were really terrible.
It just so happened that the two sisters, one of them, acted as a model while the other watched and learned from Huang Xiaochuan. After teaching one of them, the other would take her place.
And so it went, starting after dinner and continuing until 11 p.m. The two sisters were still not done and kept pestering Huang Xiaochuan to stay up.
Huang Xiaochuan yawned repeatedly, clearly exhausted.
Fortunately, the two sisters' makeup skills have improved significantly, at least they no longer make themselves look like ghosts.
Then, the older sister, Zeng Hongcai, remembered to ask, "Little brother, when did you, a boy, learn to wear makeup?"
The second sister, Zeng Xia, also realized what was happening and grabbed Huang Xiaochuan's ear, questioning, "You've really gone too far! You're so young and you've already learned how to please girls, and you've even learned to do makeup. You're such a bad influence!"
Huang Xiaochuan was filled with regret, hating himself for being so bored and looking for trouble.
There was no other way but to make up a story to cover it up!
"Ouch...ouch...Second sister, be gentle, you're going to tear my ear off! Let go right now, listen to me!" Huang Xiaochuan hurriedly begged for mercy.
Zeng Xia then released her grip, put her hands on her hips, stared at Huang Xiaochuan, and said, "Fine, I'd like to see how you make this up."
"Uncle Tang's wife, Aunt Sun, is a makeup artist at the TV station. Uncle Tang is also my dad's apprentice. When I went to his house to play, I learned a few tricks from Aunt Sun. I'm so smart, I can learn them in no time! I tried to teach you with good intentions, but I didn't get any appreciation in return." Huang Xiaochuan said while rubbing his ears with a feigned aggrieved expression.
"When my aunt comes back for the New Year, I'll ask her if this is true. If you dare to lie to me, I'll settle all the old and new scores with you." Zeng Xia wasn't going to be fooled by Huang Xiaochuan so easily, and she didn't forget to threaten him.
Since the two sisters returned, Huang Xiaochuan has been living in misery every day, as the two sisters torment him daily.
Huang Xiaochuan was really scared, so he simply went to work at the factory with Zeng Jiahua early every morning. If he couldn't afford to offend him, he could at least avoid him. At least there were plenty of newspapers to read at the factory, and he could also get a free meal at the factory canteen at noon. And let me tell you, the braised pork made by the canteen auntie was really delicious.
After reading the newspaper enough, I would grab a pack of Zeng Jiahua's complimentary cigarettes and go to the workshop to chat with the masters, and then enjoy the industrial electric fans that were even more violent than a Category 12 typhoon, which would blow my hair all over the place each time.
Huang Xiaochuan reminisced about the days when smartphones, tablets, and Wi-Fi were readily available.
Humans! They don't really miss anything, but they don't value what they have when they have it.
However, Huang Xiaochuan didn't just read the newspapers; he also made many phone calls, and even went to Suzhou to make some international calls. International calls were really expensive at that time, and a few calls cost Huang Xiaochuan more than 300 yuan.
Unfortunately, you can't hide forever. Early in the morning of July 27, Huang Xiaochuan's two older sisters cornered him in his grandmother's room and demanded that he accompany them to go shopping in Suzhou.
Huang Xiaochuan, of course, didn't want to go. Going to the city to shop in this sweltering heat? Was he crazy? He stayed in his grandmother's room and refused to go out no matter what.
Grandma smiled and advised, "Go play outside with your sisters, don't always go to the factory with your uncle."
Well! Now I can't hide anymore, the old lady isn't helping me.
On the bus to the city, Huang Xiaochuan grumbled, "You guys are so unreasonable. If you want to go shopping, why do you insist that I come with you?"
The eldest sister, Zeng Hong, said, "You're our bodyguard. Aren't you afraid someone might try to harm your older sisters?"
Upon hearing this, Huang Xiaochuan couldn't help but show a surprised expression. He looked his two older sisters up and down for a long time before finally uttering a cheeky remark: "What kind of person is so blind that they dare to make a move on you two?"
The consequence of saying the wrong thing was that Huang Xiaochuan had two bruises on his waist, one on each side, very evenly spaced. Huang Xiaochuan grimaced in pain and decided that he would never say anything carelessly again for the rest of the trip.
The sisters brought Huang Xiaochuan along to ask him for advice on buying suitable cosmetics. Since learning makeup skills, they have found that some of the cosmetics they bought earlier were not very suitable for them, so this trip was to buy new cosmetics.
After entering the Suzhou No. 100 store, the two sisters didn't go anywhere else but looked around the cosmetics counter, asking Huang Xiaochuan for advice, such as what kind of foundation, what kind of setting powder, or what color blush to choose.
The two sisters would buy any cosmetics that Huang Xiaochuan approved without hesitation. Huang Xiaochuan couldn't help but sigh, "It seems my uncle has really made money these past few years."
Otherwise, I really couldn't afford to raise these two spendthrift daughters.
It took the two sisters nearly two hours in the morning to finally buy all the cosmetics they needed. Huang Xiaochuan calculated for them that the combined salaries of Lao Huang and Zeng Lijuan for two months were not enough to cover today's expenses.
The two sisters didn't treat their younger brother Huang Xiaochuan unfairly. They bought him several new outfits and shoes, and at noon they took him to Tongdexing to eat a bowl of Fengzhen braised pork noodles, plus an extra serving of fried fish.
When Huang Xiaochuan got home in the afternoon, it was almost three o'clock. He put his things down and was so tired that he lay down on the bench in the living room and didn't want to get up.
Just then, Zeng Jiahua rushed back. Upon seeing Huang Xiaochuan, he breathed a sigh of relief and said, "You're finally back! The Singaporeans sent a document listing the specifications and quantities of flanges they need to purchase, and they want us to provide a quote."