Chapter 34
The golden retriever, A Bao, had its pink tongue sticking out, its eyes slightly squinted as if smiling at the person outside the painting.
Qi Baizi noticed two white brushstrokes, slightly smudged and grayish, on its forehead and near its whiskers. It seemed the dog was already quite old when this painting was made.
The brushwork was realistic, capturing both form and spirit. From a distance, it looked like a still photograph.
Qi Baizi couldn’t help but marvel; this was probably what talent looked like. When she was young, she used to read some Japanese manga and would occasionally try to draw them when she was really into it. However, the reality was that she lacked the knack for it, and she could never persist past the halfway point because what she drew hardly looked human.
Auntie Qin led Qi Baizi further inside. After they had walked around nearly half the study, Qi Baizi saw another portrait of a golden retriever.
The painting was propped up on the floor between two bookshelves, leaning against the wall. The background of the painting itself was vibrant, with bright, eye-catching colors. It was hard not to notice.
Auntie Qin realized Qi Baizi hadn’t followed and turned back to find her standing still, observing from a distance.
“This one… is this also A Bao?” Qi Baizi asked.
Auntie Qin noticed the painting she was pointing at, fell silent for a moment, and then walked over to pick it up.
Qi Baizi moved behind her to observe it closely with her. It was obvious that the golden retriever in this painting was not the same dog as the one in the other, nor did it seem to be painted by the same person.
Ignoring the differences in painting technique, this golden retriever had a deeper coat color than A Bao, deeper-set eyes, and many differences in the texture of its nose.
“Is this what A Bao looked like when he was young?” Qi Baizi guessed.
Auntie Qin, however, seemed to have a lump in her throat. After a long hesitation, she finally voiced her thoughts. “Her name was Beibei. She was a dog Yuetong had when she was a child…”
Qi Baizi noticed Auntie Qin’s grave expression. After a moment’s hesitation, she asked softly, “Did something happen?”
Auntie Qin didn’t answer immediately. She carried the painting out and placed it steadily on the desk. Then she said to Qi Baizi, “Sit for a while. I’ll go get some tea.”
The windows in the study were kept closed year-round, and staying in for too long felt a bit stuffy. Qi Baizi quietly looked at the painting, occasionally glancing at the portrait of A Bao hanging on the wall. A few minutes later, Auntie Qin returned with two cans of iced Coke and a stack of photo albums in her arms.
“Yuetong doesn’t like soft drinks, so I’m usually the only one who drinks them. Come on, help me out.” After a trip downstairs, Auntie Qin had adjusted her mood, and her face was once again wreathed in smiles.
Qi Baizi took the Coke, opened it, and took a sip. The stuffy feeling vanished.
“What’s this?” She looked at the photo albums Auntie Qin had spread out on the table, her curiosity piqued.
“Hold on a second.” From a pocket Qi Baizi hadn’t noticed, Auntie Qin pulled out a small hammer, along with a few nails.
As she spoke, Auntie Qin had already picked up the painting that was originally on the floor. But the nails in her hand accidentally rolled onto the ground. Auntie Qin struggled to free a hand to pick them up.
“Let me help you.”
Seeing this, Qi Baizi quickly handed the nails to Auntie Qin and took the painting from her. She watched as Auntie Qin used her arm to measure a spot on the wall and finally understood what she was about to do.
“Is it good here?”
Qi Baizi nodded. “A little more to the left.”
“Alright.” Auntie Qin hammered away with a series of bangs, and a two-nail picture hanger was complete.
Qi Baizi hung the painting. The nails fit perfectly on the frame, right next to the one of A Bao.
Qi Baizi clapped her hands. Auntie Qin was already sitting on the sofa by the desk. Qi Baizi sat down as well and took another sip of Coke.
After finishing her drink, her gaze once again fell on the photo albums on the table.
Seeing this, Auntie Qin let out a loud burp and asked, “Want to see? They’re all pictures of your President Gu when she was a child.”
Qi Baizi nodded like a garlic-pounding pestle. “Yes.”
Auntie Qin stopped keeping her in suspense, flipped open the first page of the album, and pointed to one of the photos. “This is Yuetong.”
In the photo, a young Gu Yuetong was wearing a white dress, looking to be about four or five years old. Qi Baizi examined it closely and couldn’t help but exclaim, “So beautiful.”
A natural beauty was evident from a young age—thick eyebrows, large eyes, a high-bridged nose, and that subtle dimple. The little beauty in the photo was almost identical to her present self.
“This was when Yuetong was five. We were at the Cloride State airport. It was so hot that summer, and so crowded. We were waiting for our flight outside, and I kept wiping sweat off her.”
“A friendly backpacker passed by, saw Yuetong, and praised her for being a classic beauty. He insisted on taking her picture and even took down our address. I never expected him to actually develop the photo and mail it to us.”
As she spoke, Auntie Qin flipped through the album. The second page was even more packed with photos of Gu Yuetong of all different sizes.
Auntie Qin introduced them one by one. “This was taken on her fifth birthday. This one on her sixth. Oh, and this one when she was seven, with Beibei.”
Qi Baizi saw the photo of the seven-year-old Gu Yuetong. She was a tiny little thing, sprawled on top of a golden retriever. The dog was lying on its back, showing its belly, its tongue lolling out at the camera, looking friendly and approachable.
“Looking at the background, it seems like you were abroad?” Qi Baizi asked.
Auntie Qin hummed in agreement, pursed her lips, and explained, “That was Yuetong’s happiest year when we were abroad. Her birthday present was this two-year-old golden retriever, a gift from the community staff. Yuetong named her Beibei. When Beibei came home, she brought a lot of joy to her otherwise dull life.”
Qi Baizi nodded. “She must have cared a lot about Beibei, then?”
“Of course,” Auntie Qin smiled. “She did everything for Beibei herself. She wasn’t even fully grown yet, but she was already holding Beibei to give her baths. When Beibei got sick, she was more anxious than when she herself was sick, calling the vet in the middle of the night, learning to mix medicine on her own…”
“It’s just a pity that we returned to the country later, and Beibei…” Auntie Qin hesitated for a moment and glanced at Qi Baizi.
Qi Baizi smiled. “You don’t have to say it if you don’t want to. I’ll only listen to what I’m allowed to hear.”
“…You little adult.” Auntie Qin was taken aback for a second, then pointed at her teasingly. “You’re all so serious at such a young age. I don’t think you were like this before. You’ve picked up bad habits from being around Yuetong for too long.”
Qi Baizi just kept smiling. She was actually happy to hear Auntie Qin talk about Gu Yuetong’s childhood. It would help her understand Gu Yuetong better, and no matter what their relationship became in the future, this understanding would be beneficial, not harmful.
“Auntie Qin, if I know all this, will President Gu mind?”
“She… would mind with others, but probably not with you,” Auntie Qin said seriously.
“Oh…” Qi Baizi tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and smiled. “That’s good, as long as she doesn’t mind.”
Auntie Qin was stunned for a moment, then realized she had fallen into a trap. She let out a playful complaint, “I never said I was going to tell you!”
Qi Baizi blinked, putting on an innocent expression.
Auntie Qin sighed. The little joke had eased some of her gloom. She took another sip of Coke and began to tell Qi Baizi the story. “Later, when we returned to the country, Beibei happened to be sick and had surgery, so she was temporarily left behind. We had planned to go back and get her after the surgery, but… someone didn’t give us that chance.”
Twenty years ago, Gu Yuetong lost her first friend in life, a pet golden retriever named Beibei. It was thanks to her mother, Gu Hezhu.
At the end of her seventh year, a heavy snow fell in Jingzhou City.
A young Gu Yuetong held Auntie Qin’s hand as they walked out of Jingzhou Airport. The snow had just started to fall. Before she could even touch a snowflake, she was lifted into a black commercial van.
Auntie Qin pointed to a woman in a double-layered cashmere coat with a stand-up collar and told her that was her mother. Amidst fear and anticipation, Gu Yuetong met Gu Hezhu.
Later, Auntie Qin told her that it wasn’t their first meeting. A long time ago, perhaps when Gu Yuetong had just learned to walk, Gu Hezhu had flown abroad to take care of her for a while.
But Gu Yuetong had no memory of it at all.
The most profound memory she retained, aside from that meeting, was a few months later when Auntie Qin brought her the devastating news about Beibei: she was dead.
Although Auntie Qin didn’t explain it at the time, Gu Yuetong was already eight years old. She could easily understand the things adults said or didn’t say. So, from Auntie Qin’s expression, she read the hidden story behind Beibei’s death.
That day, eight-year-old Gu Yuetong experienced what it felt like to have her heart torn to shreds.
Everything happened just as she had feared and vaguely predicted. First, Gu Hezhu refused to let them bring Beibei back to the country. Then, she sent someone to take the dog away, and finally, she casually gave her away to an extremely irresponsible family.
Beibei was weak after her surgery, and without proper and timely care, her old illness relapsed. She eventually left this world in agony.
After wheedling the truth out of Auntie Qin, Gu Yuetong climbed into Gu Hezhu’s bed late at night and pointed a pair of craft scissors at Gu Hezhu’s eyes, childishly wanting to avenge Beibei.
But the craft scissors weren’t sharp, and Gu Hezhu hadn’t been asleep.
The next day, Gu Yuetong was put in solitary confinement. Auntie Qin was taken to the police station and interrogated for a week on suspicion of inciting a minor to commit murder. Gu Hezhu had originally planned to fire her, but Gu Yuetong exchanged her freedom for Auntie Qin’s job by admitting her mistake and copying the family rules.
That was the first time Gu Yuetong had done something against her will, said something she didn’t mean. At least when she was living alone with Auntie Qin abroad, Gu Yuetong had never been so miserable.
As Auntie Qin spoke, her voice grew choked with tears. Qi Baizi, without even realizing it, had furrowed her brow. Seeing Auntie Qin’s distress, she wanted to comfort her but didn’t know how to begin.
Instead, it was Auntie Qin who started comforting her. “It’s okay, it’s all in the past. I just feel so bad for Yuetong. She’s such a good child…”
“President Gu doesn’t deserve to be treated like that. Gu Hezhu is not a qualified mother.” Qi Baizi lowered her eyes and let out a breath. “But I didn’t expect the Gu family to have something like family rules. You’d think we were living a hundred years ago.”
“What family rules,” Auntie Qin spat with disgust. “Those are just shackles to restrain Yuetong. In the whole family, only Yuetong has to follow them. Things like reading dozens of pages a day, practicing children’s yoga, hours of calligraphy, piano… She even has to be out of sight in her bedroom after eight at night. How come Gu Hezhu can come home in the middle of the night every day, while Yuetong has to wash up and go to bed on time?”
The mention of Gu Hezhu reignited Auntie Qin’s anger. Back then, Gu Yuetong was bound by more than a dozen rules. She hadn’t even seen the stars since returning to the country.
Auntie Qin had always followed the Western educational philosophy, so watching this was both heartbreaking and helpless. She had thought of resigning several times, but the thought of Gu Yuetong suffering even more without her made her unable to go through with it.
Fortunately, after the Gu Corporation went public, Gu Hezhu became busy, often not coming home for days or even weeks at a time. Sometimes she would be gone for half a month. Gu Yuetong could finally relax and slack off occasionally.
“I’ve gotten sidetracked…” Auntie Qin let out a long sigh and pointed to the painting on the wall. “Anyway, Beibei became a sore spot for your President Gu, until she went to study abroad and got A Bao.”