Dreaming With My Dragon Lover

Standing on the three-storey high roof terrace, Rong Qiuchen was able to get a full view of the Moonlight Villa. The residential area was backed by the Western Hills and bordered by the West Lake to the east. The houses were not densely packed, mostly built around the water, with a classical architecture style that complemented the beautiful scenery. Seeing this, he could not help but exclaim, "Childe Yuan's residence is located between the mountains and water. The feng shui is very good!"

"And you say you're not a little nerd? You can even read feng shui! Tell me, why is the feng shui of this house very good?" Yuan Ge did admire Rong Qiuchen's knowledge of traditional culture and could not resist his curiosity to find out how far the boy could go in pretending to be an ancient man.

"This is a sacred place for gathering wealth, as it is surrounded by mountains and water. This pool of water in front of your house must be water from the West Lake, which has been an excellent feng shui site in the imperial capital for thousands of years - 'the dragon locking the pearl into a longevity peach and the bat spreading its wings to add to the blessings'. It has always been considered a place of blessing and longevity for future generations".

"Gee, you're good! You sound like a pro! If Professor Fu hears you, she will definitely make you her confidant!" Yuan Ge couldn't help but laugh at Qiuchen's words, and continued, "I grew up listening to my mum talk about these feng shui theories of yours. Whenever people came to visit, they would always praise the feng shui of our house, which made my mum very proud. She would brag to me and my dad, whenever she thought of it, that choosing this house was one of her genius moves."

Rong Qiuchen smiled slightly and said, "The social elite in the imperial capital are very particular about feng shui. Qiuchen often goes to the houses of the nobles to sing opera. If I didn't know a little about their preferences, I'm afraid it would be difficult for me to socialise in that circle. Your parents must have spent a lot of money purchasing this house?"

"Ha! Even if I don't tell this story, my mum will definitely tell it when she sees you. Twenty years ago, she wrote a dissertation called 'The Eighty-One Mansions in the Imperial City', which was about the historical origins and urban legends of the major haunted mansions in Beijing. But because her writing style was so sensational and her story so vivid, this academic work of hers was published as a series of popular novels by a cunning publisher, and was a huge hit in those days. You could find it on the stalls in front of all the train and bus stations at the time, and it is an absolute classic of the 'stall literature' genre. Because of the success of my mother's books, my family was able to buy this house. Back then, not many people were keen to buy their own home in Beijing, and a flat would only cost a few hundred thousand yuan, which translates to about five or six thousand taels of silver in the Guangxu period. Now it's different and property prices can easily exceed 10 million yuan."

"Five or six thousand taels… in this suburban place… It is indeed a lot of money. Even when I was in my prime, I had to work hard for a whole year before I could earn this amount."

"Hey, Rong Qiuchen, I noticed that you look quite low-key, but your words are not. You're secretly showing off! Do you mean to say that your annual income is enough to buy such a house? You know, my mother has been bragging about this achievement for half her life! Actually, my dad is the main earner in the family, but his income is fixed. My mother always says that a horse can't get fat without eating extra grass at night, so my family had to rely on her to have unplanned income like this to build up wealth quickly. The two of them were always arguing about who should be in charge of the family finances and who deserved more credit for building up the family fortune. I'm just a film-making spendthrift, unlike you, whose annual income is enough to buy a house!"

Rong Qiuchen did not seem to notice the small mockery in Yuan Ge's tone, and explained seriously, "I am grateful for the kindness of the two masters of the Jinyu Troupe, so I hadn't thought of leaving the Jinyu Troupe and setting up my own troupe. Therefore, most of my earnings had been given to the masters to cover the daily expenses of the troupe, and I only kept some to redeem my own indenture."

Yuan Ge thought to himself, "Didn't you give all the money you had saved for redeeming your indenture to that ungrateful man Liang Zitang to study for his imperial exams?" But on second thought, he suddenly realised that he had somehow applied his film plot to this "Rong Qiuchen". He almost took the boy's lies seriously again! This guy was such a good actor!

Rong Qiuchen could see the doubt in Yuan Ge's eyes, "Childe Yuan, you don't believe my words?"

Yuan Ge said perfunctorily, "Whatever you say, since you say you are Rong Qiuchen."

Rong Qiuchen did not seem to be bothered. He looked at the lake view around the roof terrace and said eagerly, "Childe Yuan, you like to get up late, but I am used to getting up early. In future, can I use this place for my morning exercises?"

Yuan Ge checked the time and saw that it was almost noon, "I'm up late because it's holiday time. Please make yourself at home, do whatever you like, and I'm going to make breakfast - no, brunch."