Nyoi-Bo Studio

  Nyoi-Bo Studio

  Most tourists in Beijing would go to The Great Wall and Forbidden Palace. The Great Wall was over 10,000 miles long. It was a miracle from the past. The scene was spectacular when looking over from the top of it.

  Wang Yao and Su Xiaoxue had lunch in a nice and clean small restaurant before continuing with their journey. They went to Prince Gong’s Mansion in the afternoon.

  It was the largest mansion in Beijing. People said the mansion contained half of Qing Dynasty’s history. Although the mansion was still smaller than the Forbidden Palace, it had its own characters.

  There were not many people in the mansion since it was not weekend or holiday. They walked for a while before bumping into other people, most of whom were elders.

  “Do you think the residents here in the past would get lost living in such a big place?” Wang Yao asked.

  “Probably,” Su Xiaoxue said.

  “I think they should set up some signs with arrows to indicate where the kitchen is and where the toilets are,” Wang Yao said.

  “No way. What if someone wanted to assassinate the prince?” Su Xiaoxue asked.

  “You are right,” Wang Yao said.

  “I heard this place is haunted,” Su Xiaoxue said.

  “Isn’t Forbidden Palace haunted, too?” Wang Yao asked.

  “Do you think ghosts really exist in the world?” Su Xiaoxue asked.

  “I don’t know. At least, I’ve seen a ghost in my life,” Wang Yao said.

  Suddenly, they felt a gust of wind, matching exactly what they were talking about.

  “Oh!” Su Xiaoxue exclaimed.

  “Is the ghost coming?” Wang Yao joked.

  “What!” Su Xiaoxue pretended to scream.

  “Haha!” Their laughter echoed in the yard.

  They took time to walk around the mansion because there were not many people inside. It was 4 p.m. by the time they left Prince Gong’s Mansion.

  “Would you like to visit any other places?” Su Xiaoxue asked.

  “No, we’ve been out for a whole day. Let’s take a break,” Wang Yao said.

  “OK,” Su Xiaoxue said.

  “Please recommend a restaurant to have dinner tonight, but it will be my treat,” Wang Yao said.

  “No problem,” Su Xiaoxue said. “I’ll ask Auntie Lian to join us.”


  Wang Yao was curious about Chu Lian, who was a very responsible employee of the Su Family. He wondered why Su Xiaoxue called her auntie since she was just in her 30s.

  Chu Lian picked the restaurant, a private kitchen located in an old folk house. It was a bit far from the city center, but it was apparently very popular.

  “The chef here is really good, although he is a weird person,” Chu Lian said.

  “How weird?” Wang Yao asked.

  “He decides what to cook for the customers. So, the customers don’t make orders here, they just eat,” Chu Lian said.

  “He is weird,” Wang Yao said.

  They waited nearly 20 minutes before the dishes were served. The chef apparently took his time to cook. It took nearly an hour to have all the eight dishes served. The dishes were delicious. The chef used a lot of ingredients.

  “Hmm?” Wang Yao was a bit surprised after tasting one of the dishes. The dish contained licorice and peppermint. He tried another dish, which also contained very small amount of herbs.

  “Is everything alright?” Su Xiaoxue asked as Wang Yao was trying each dish.

  “Yeah, I’m just curious of the taste of each dish. I want to try them all. The chef is truly weird,” Wang Yao said with a smile.

  “How do you find the dishes?” Su Xiaoxue asked.

  “He put herbs in those dishes,” Wang Yao said.

  “Really?” Su Xiaoxue asked.

  “This one contains peppermint and licorice. This one contains ginseng and lycium Chinense miller. And, this one contains poria and fritillary……” Wang Yao pointed at the different dishes as he told Su Xiaoxue the herbs each dish contained.

  “Is it OK to eat them?” Su Xiaoxue asked.

  “It should be fine,” Wang Yao said.

  The dishes were similar to an herbal diet. However, some herbs in one dish actually had conflicted nature. It could cause mild gas and diarrhea.

  “I’m curious where he got those recipes,” Wang Yao said.

  “Do you want to speak to him? I don’t want to have a diarrhea later on,” Su Xiaoxue said.

  “No, never mind,” Wang Yao said.

  The dishes were delicious. The three of them finished dinner at about 7 p.m.

  “Would you like to watch a movie?” Su Xiaoxue asked.

  “OK,” Wang Yao said. He hadn’t been to the cinema for many years.

  They picked a drama with a pleasant story. The two of them sat together watching the movie quietly.

  Su Xiaoxue was eating popcorn while watching the movie. Her mood was as sweet as the popcorn.

  The movie was not impressive. Most of the audience was couples. They just wanted to find a suitable place to be together. Some of the couples were in each other’s arms.

  Chu Lian looked at them quietly in the corner. Miss Su is more and more in love with Dr. Wang.

  Wang Yao and Su Xiaoxue sat very close to each other. They whispered in each other’s ears from time to time. Their heads were very close together. However, they didn’t do anything more intimate.

  After they finished watching the movie, Chu Lian drove Wang Yao to the hotel first and went home with Su Xiaoxue.

  After being out for the whole day, Su Xiaoxue was tired. She showered and went to bed. She didn’t fall asleep right away. Instead, she was thinking about the sweet moments she spent with Wang Yao and where the two of them would visit the next day.

  In the living room downstairs, Chu Lian was quietly telling Song Ruiping what happened during the day.

  “Ma’am, I feel like I’m a spy,” Chu Lian said with a smile.

  “Xiaoxue is an innocent girl. Keep an eye on her. I’m always worried about her,” Song Ruiping said.

  Meanwhile, Wang Yao was standing in front of the window in the hotel. He had a full day. He was happy. He had a feeling that he couldn’t really describe.

  Knock! Knock! Knock! Someone was knocking at the door.

  “Who is it?” Wang Yao asked.

  He went to open the door and found a slim pretty woman wearing heavy makeup standing at the door.

  “Sorry, you are?” Wang Yao asked.

  “Hello, do you need special service?” the woman asked.

  “What?” Wang Yao was surprised. “No, thanks.”


  He immediately closed the door.

  “What the hell! Such kind of services do exist in the hotels,” Wang Yao anxiously murmured.

  “Humph,” the woman coldly said as she turned to a different room.

  The door was opened by an overweight middle-aged man. He took a look at the woman before inviting her into the room.

  As Wang Yao was about to sleep, he heard someone screaming. It was really loud.

  “Oh, no!”


  What’s going on? he wondered.

  A moment later, he heard hurried footsteps. He didn’t want to get into trouble, so he stayed in his room.

  “What’s going on?” a hotel employee asked.

  “I, I don’t what’s going on. He was fine at the beginning. He just suddenly passed out,” a woman He suddenly heard someone screaming. It was really loud……

  Sudden cardiac death when having sex? Or, Yang depletion? Wang Yao thought.

  The overweight middle-aged man had been very unfortunate. He planned to have a good time during his business trip in Beijing. Since his bossy wife was not around, he took the chance to call five escort girls for three consecutive days. He was bored again tonight, and the call girl happened to knock at his door. He took several Viagra pills before having sex with the call girl. In the end, he died of cardiac rest.

  “Take him to the hospital now,” the employee said.

  The ambulance arrived a moment later.

  It was true that alcohol was the poison that could pierce through ones stomach, and sex was a sharp blade that could scrape the bones.

  The death of the man had nothing to do with Wang Yao. He just went to sleep a bit later than he had planned.

  Meanwhile, a plane landed in the airport in Beijing.

  “Good evening, Mr. Guo,” said a man who went to pick up Guo Zhenghe.

  “He came to Beijing?” Guo Zhenghe asked.

  “Yes, we saw him and Su Xiaoxue were together,” the man said.

  “I see,” Guo Zhenghe said.

  He got into a car with an unpleasant looking on his face. His shiny smile was no longer there. Instead, his facial expression was full of anger.

  How dare he come to Beijing! How dare he spend time with Xiaoxue!

  He didn’t expect that Wang Yao would visit Beijing. As soon as he heard the news, he angrily returned to Beijing.

  He always made a plan before taking action. It was his principal. However, he took action before making any plans this time.

  He had been thinking about what he could do and should do on the plane. He didn’t go home. He stayed somewhere else. He didn’t want his family to know that he was back.

  It was nice and sunny the next day.

  “Take enough water with you. The temperature will go over 30 degree today according to the weather forecast,” Song Ruiping said before Su Xiaoxue left home.

  “I see, Mom,” Su Xiaoxue said.

  “Where are you going today?” Song Ruiping asked.

  “Xiangshan park,” Su Xiaoxue said.

  “OK, off you go. Have a good time,” Song Ruiping said.

  “Thanks, Mom, see you later,” Su Xiaoxue said.

  Chu Lian drove Su Xiaoxue to pick up Wang Yao. They headed to Xiangshan park.

  It was Saturday, so there were a lot of visitors around.

  Xiangshan park was very big. There were many places in the park worth seeing. The trees were everywhere on Xiangshan Hill. Although it was sunny and the temperature went up quickly, it was not too hot on the hill.

  They visited Zhao Temple, Xianglu Peak, and Jianxin House. All those places were very famous. They had a good look at each one. While they were walking around the hill, Wang Yao paid extra attention to the trees.

  He heard that 90 percent of Xiangshan Hill was covered by trees. A lot of the trees were very old.