The beer roils in my gut, and I feel like I’m going to puke. I grab my pack, turn without a word, and I walk out of the room. No one tries to stop me.
Chapter Twenty Five
★
I keep walking, down the seemingly endless hall, into the entranceway, and out the front door. I walk outside onto the driveway, past the fancy-ass sports car parked there, until I get to a stone retaining wall that overlooks the long drive and the surrounding grounds. I stop there.
The sky’s pretty blue out here, with only a little haze in the distance. I realize I don’t know what the fuck I’m going to do now.
I just want to keep walking, but to where? It’s a couple of miles into Xingfu Cun proper, such as it is, and I can walk that, gimpy leg and all, but what do I do when I get there? Are there buses out of Xingfu Cun? Taxis? Any cars for hire at all?
Will Sidney even let me leave?
I’m not there all that long before I hear slow footsteps on the flagstones behind me.
Sidney.
He looks apologetic. I hope that’s a good sign.
“Is that enough?” I ask.
He nods.
“Can I go now?”
“Soon.”
Soon. I don’t know if I like the sound of that.
Sidney sighs. “Tiantian is my first child. My first son. He should be the best. But… he has this jealous nature. Always. I think maybe because I am not rich when he is a boy. I work very hard… His mother…” He shakes his head. “She works, too. The relationship between us… is not very good. No one pays Tiantian very much attention.”
“So he beats up on girls?” I snort, even though I shouldn’t. “Not a great excuse.”
“No. It is not.”
He doesn’t look mad. He looks like he’s thinking it all over. “Meimei and Gugu have more gentle natures. I think because their mother is more gentle.”
So there are two Mrs. Caos. Neither of whom seems to be around. At this point I’m not sure I care what that story is. Unless Sidney killed them and buried them in the backyard. That might be relevant.
“But Dao Ming, she is not good for Tiantian.”
“You think? She’s batshit.”
“Bat… shit?”
“Sorry. Fengkuangde.”
“Yes. She is… not happy.” He shakes his head. “I want to… to fenkai… to…”
“Separate?”
“Yes. Separate my family from Yang Junmin’s family. But this is… a little complicated.”
“Yeah,” I say. “I kind of get that.”
“I help give him power. He help make me rich. But… I do not like him. He does not like me.”
“Then why…?” I ask, before I can stop myself. Because really, do I need to know? But it’s like there’s a part of me that does need to. Like if I can make things make sense, then it means something. It’s not all just some kind of sick joke.
“Do you know Wenhua Da Geming?” he asks.
“Cultural Revolution. Yeah.” I know something about it anyway. Ten years in the sixties and seventies, when Mao decided to stir shit up, promote a “revolution” that was part idealistic crusade, part power struggle among the leadership, part score settling among ordinary people with generations of resentments. It got crazy bad. Almost a civil war in places. Most of the younger generations here hardly know a thing about it. Just like they don’t know about the Great Leap or Tiananmen.
But how many people in the US know why we went to war in Iraq?
I’m getting lost in my own thoughts again, something I shouldn’t do when I’m at a house containing at least several people with homicidal tendencies and in the presence of one who outsources.
“What about it? About the Wenhua Da Geming?” I ask.
“My family and Yang Junmin’s family. We grow up in same place. Same town, very close to here. Our families… we are not friends. Then Mao start Cultural Revolution. Yang Junmin and I are Red Guards. We smash the Olds.”
He smiles a little. “Making revolution is… fun. When you are young.”
I get a shiver, right across my shoulders and the back of my neck.
“My Red Guards split from Yang Junmin’s Red Guards. We are enemies. We hate each other, very much,” Sidney continues. “But later, when all of that is over, we are still two young men from Anhui. It is time to rebuild China. So we work together. Now…” Sidney spreads his hands. “Here we are.”
Here we are.
He starts to pace. “I try to build something. Something big. Something beautiful. Why? My children, they all are… terrible.”
“Meimei and Gugu are… okay.”
“They do not care, about what I build. They do not start families. They do not work. They simply want to… play.” He’s pacing harder now. Building up to something. I’ve never seen him lose it before. But I’m wondering if I’m about to.
“There is nothing left but to buy beautiful things,” Sidney says. “Enjoy them in this life.”
He stops suddenly. “Do you know something?” He jabs a finger at me. “You.”
My heart jumps.
“Me?”
“You. Are. Right.”
He whirls around, stretches out his arms toward his fake French château. “I can spend it all. When I die, I can leave it to the people. We can build this museum. Make it… great. Beautiful. For the people. I want everyone to see these things and learn about them. Let this art bring them some joy and good feelings.” He drops his hands. “It is all I can offer.”
“It’s… a good thing,” I manage.
“Thank you, Ellie.” He bobs his head a few times. “Thank you, for helping me understand this.”
Then, “Please stay for dinner. I can send you home after.”
“Okay,” I say. “Sure.”
What else can I say? I’m all out of words right now.
I decide to take a walk. If I’m stuck out here for dinner, I don’t want to spend any more time than I have to with the people in that house.
I head around to the back of the mansion. There’s a fancy garden, with trimmed hedgerows, flowers, and fountains. Beyond that, another low retaining wall and a gently sloping hill.
I walk out to the retaining wall. Unsling my pack. Take a look at more of Sidney’s domain.
Off to the left, rows of what might be grapes. A vineyard, I’m guessing, given Sidney. To the right, I’m not sure what that is. Some tall hedges, some structures I can’t quite figure out. Sheds? Another garden maybe.
I can’t tell how big the grounds are. They seem to go on as far as I can see, but who can tell where Sidney ends and Xingfu Cun begins, right?
“Hey.”
I jump. Turn. It’s Marsh.
“We need to talk,” he says.
“Oh. We do?” I’m looking for the quickest route out of here.
His hands are balled into fists, arms dangling at his sides. Pissed as hell, but not quite ready to beat the shit out of me.
“What the fuck, Ellie? Seriously, what the fuck?”
“What.” I say it that way where it’s not a question.
“You told the Caos I fucking killed Celine?” His cheeks are red. He’s standing close enough where I can catch a whiff of scotch.
Can I walk away?
“No. I said she died right after Gugu left the gallery. It’s not my fault you were still there.”
He’s breathing hard. Like he’s trying to calm himself down. “Look, we need to help each other. You think Yang is going to trust either of us with knowing all this shit?”
I shrug. “Hey. I don’t actually know anything. Do you?”
He paces a step or two in a tight little circle, clenching and unclenching his fists, running a hand through his hair, like he’s trying to figure something out. I’m watching him, and I can’t decide if he’s dangerous or not.
I don’t think I can get past him.
“Okay,” he says. “You want to know what happened to Celine? I’ll tell you.”