Chapter 228: The Woman

After his shower, he didn’t sleep in the dormitory. He returned to his room, put on a trench coat, and picked up the PHS phone from his desk.

It had been several years since the transmigration. Although the PHS’s call function had not diminished at all, the battery life was almost at its end. More and more PHS batteries were failing. Dr. Zhong had spent a great deal of effort but had not found a way to safely refurbish lithium or Ni-MH batteries under the current conditions. Thus, the PHS phones with dead batteries had become landlines, connected by two wires to an external glass-cased battery as large as a Cihai dictionary.

However, the PHS did not require laying telephone lines, had a dedicated number that did not need to be routed through a switchboard, and offered strong confidentiality. It was still a favored communication tool among the Elders.

Jiang Shan dialed a number.

A woman’s voice answered, clear and bright, but kept low, with a slightly artificial gentleness.

“Are you asleep?”

“I have endless work to do,” the woman replied, then deliberately lowered her voice. “I was waiting for your call.”

“It’s one in the morning. You’re a night owl.”

“I have green eyes,” the woman laughed.

“How beautiful. Do you have time?”

“Anytime. I can get off work right now. Are you coming over, or…”

“Go to the old place. You have the key and the pass.”

“Alright.”

“I have a few calls to make now. There are some things I need to discuss with others. You go ahead. I might be a little late.”

After hanging up, he made a few more calls and then scribbled a few lines in the memo pad on his desk with a pencil. Finally, he pulled the bell cord to summon the orderly.

“Get the car ready. I’m going out.”

Jiang Shan’s carriage was on 24-hour duty and could be summoned at any time without having to go through the General Office’s duty room for registration and dispatch. This was a small privilege of the powerful and essential departments.

“To Lychee Grove No. 3,” Jiang Shan said, putting on his coat and getting into the carriage. “Drive fast.”

“Yes, Director.”

Although some at the Executive Committee meeting had proposed granting military ranks or “internal service ranks” similar to those of the police and the Political Security General Bureau to the personnel of the Foreign Intelligence Bureau, Jiang Shan had firmly resisted. He had no desire to be some “Regional Deputy Commander.” Did the director of the CIA have a military rank?

Lychee Grove No. 3 was the code name for a building in Bairen City. It was a “workplace” of the Foreign Intelligence Bureau. The Foreign Intelligence Bureau, the Political Security Bureau, and the National Police all had offices here. The office of the almost unknown Investigation and Execution Bureau of the Court of Justice was also located in this lychee grove.

With the coachman’s low shout and the crack of the whip, the carriage made a turn, leaving the main road and entering a small cinder path in the woods.

Hundreds of lychee trees, ranging in age from several decades to over a century, formed a thick canopy, making the lychee grove pitch black at midnight. Only the torch baskets burning along the carriage path barely illuminated the way.

Jiang Shan sat in the carriage and opened the rain curtain of the two-wheeled carriage. He watched the coachman and the guard in the front seat. They were both soldiers from the Lin’gao Garrison Battalion, cross-slung with two .45 caliber improved revolvers, which the machinery factory had introduced to compensate for the insufficient power of the 9mm 1632-pattern revolver.

The carriage stopped near a two-story red brick building in the lychee grove. Jiang Shan got out.

“Park the carriage and go back to rest… I’ll be staying here tonight… Come and pick me up at seven tomorrow morning.”

“Yes, Director.”

Jiang Shan did not go into the office here, but passed through the porch and went directly out the back door. There was a room on the first floor of this small building. It was his dormitory here.

He unlocked the door, and the light from inside spilled out.

There was a faint fragrance in the room. It was an essential oil distilled from various plants and flowers by the Zi Cheng Ji, quite popular in the Guangzhou market. The female Elders and the Elders’ maids also commonly used it as perfume.

He closed the door. The room was not large, with only a bed, a desk, and a two-seater sofa. The blinds were closed, and a large block of ice had been placed in the room, making it cool and pleasant. A woman was sitting at the desk, carefully examining herself in a small round mirror. A makeup bag lay on the table, with various bottles and jars scattered about.

It had been almost five years since the transmigration. In 1633 Lin’gao, there were no cosmetics or skincare products brought from the other world. These were “luxury goods” manufactured by the Zi Cheng Ji for export, all of them “all-natural products” with a short shelf life.

“You’re so early. I thought it would be a while longer,” the woman said, putting down the mirror and turning around with a charming smile.

She was about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, with a petite figure. Because of the hot weather, few female Elders kept their hair long, but she had a head of thick, black, long hair. Her looks were not stunning, but she could be described as having delicate features. Combined with her exquisite makeup and girlish smile, she looked much younger than her actual age.

“I said I was just making a few calls. How long could that take?” Jiang Shan took off his trench coat and hung it on the back of the door. He sat down on the sofa with a thud and smiled wearily. “I didn’t expect the work at the Grand Library to be so busy.”

“Look at you,” the woman said, standing up and pulling a chair to sit opposite Jiang Shan, resting her chin on the back of the chair and looking down at him. “Our Grand Library is the busiest department in the Senate. Just compiling those propaganda pamphlets, revising books, translating ancient texts and English… the work is endless.”

She wore a nightgown in a modified Hanfu style, made of fine silk, which accentuated her charming figure and showed off a pair of beautiful long legs. She sat sideways, her legs crossed, the hem of her nightgown riding up to her thighs, revealing a hint of the smooth curve of her buttocks.

Jiang Shan freely admired the curves the woman displayed for him. The faint scent of carnations reached his nose, stirring something in his heart.

As if sensing his thoughts, the woman touched her earlobe and sniffed it. “The scent has faded. You don’t like the smell of carnations?”

“No, I like it very much,” Jiang Shan said lazily, leaning back against the sofa. “You didn’t use this perfume before.”

“I saw that there are always carnations in your office and apartment. You must like this flower very much. Perhaps this flower is related to a certain woman.”

“You are a very observant woman.”

“A girl’s heart is always delicate,” the woman smiled, then suddenly her smile faded, and she stared into Jiang Shan’s eyes. “Especially when it comes to the man she likes. The slightest trace will turn her into Sherlock Holmes. Would you like a drink?”

“Of course,” Jiang Shan replied casually. “So you like me.”

“Why else would I be here?” She brought him a drink and got herself a bottle of kombucha. She knelt on the chair, her legs tucked under her, her smooth and delicate thighs fully exposed to Jiang Shan’s gaze. “But I know you don’t plan to marry me.”

“What are you talking about?” Jiang Shan asked, drinking a glass of rum and lime juice with a strange sense of pleasure.

“Let’s put it this way. I’m not bad looking, and I’m a ‘modern’ woman. I’ve seen porn, read erotic novels, have some sexual experience, and I know how to dress to appeal to a modern man’s ‘sexual interests.’ Compared to a life secretary who, besides silently offering her body, offers no communication and is utterly bland, I obviously fit your aesthetic taste better.”

“And then?”

“But a beautiful rose, after all, cannot compare to a whole garden of various flowers that you can pick at will,” the woman said with a smile. “You’re not picking now simply because there are no flowers in the General Office’s flower garden that you find suitable yet. You are a perfectionist.”

“So I, the perfectionist, have given up on the rose?”

“If there is only one rose in the rose garden, wouldn’t it be too lonely?”

“Yes, it would be too lonely indeed.” Jiang Shan had no intention of discussing this issue with her. He certainly would not talk about marriage with her. There was no need to delve into a matter that had already been decided.

“Men are a fickle species,” the woman said, brushing aside a strand of her hair and taking a sip of kombucha. “Perhaps it’s because the cost of spreading their genes is very low for men.”

“I don’t know biology, let alone sociobiology.”

The woman smiled sweetly. “I just like your aloof and cold demeanor.”

“Some people say it’s being detached from the masses, unapproachable.”

“Don’t you know that women subconsciously hate good men?”

“You’re making a sweeping generalization. Many men in the Senate are good men.”

“That’s why they are so keen on creatures like maids.”

Jiang Shan did not answer. He actually quite agreed with this view, but the topic was too dangerous. It was a super-troll, top-tier at attracting hatred. Not only could he not agree, but it was best not to even touch upon the topic.

He never believed in the saying that only heaven, earth, you, and I know. Some things, two people knowing is already too many. Besides, the woman in front of him was not someone who could keep a secret.

“Look, when someone is talking to you, not saying a word or giving an irrelevant answer is not very polite.”

“Yes, it’s impolite. You are right. But I don’t like this topic. In my opinion, saying nothing is much better than casually joining a topic.”

“Your slickness is really annoying. I thought a man from a high-society, elite family like you would disdain to do so,” she pouted cutely.

“I’m not a member of high society. Nor am I from an elite family.” “You all have this tendency to deny your own excellence and belittle yourselves. I really don’t know what you’re afraid of. According to Director Xiao, you are an out-and-out elite.”