After living a new life for my neighbor's grandmother, I traveled through the book again

Just after Tong Jia taught all the makeup techniques she knew to plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum and other flowers, grass, trees and wood, a month and a half had passed and it was February 10, 1931, which happened to be the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the Little New Year in the north.

Tong Jia originally wanted to take Tao Junle away immediately after the course ended, but the eight cheongsam beauties, plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum, flowers, grass, trees and wood, tried their best to invite her to wait until after the New Year's Eve.

The Little New Year in the south is on the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month. People leave after the Little New Year, which is on the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month.

Tong Jia could accept it if the trip was delayed by two days at most.

In addition, in the past month and a half, she got along well with plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum and other flowers, grass, trees and wood, so she agreed.

In fact, plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum and flowers, grass, trees and wood are not the real names of the eight cheongsam beauties, but just their code names.

Plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum are fine, but Tong Jia once asked, with so many nice-sounding words and characters, why did the other four people choose such common flowers, grasses, trees and wood as their code names?

The answer she got was: The other codes are too complicated to draw, these ones are easy to draw.

As long as they can distinguish plum, chrysanthemum and other flowers, and orchid and grass, there will be no problem.

Although Tong Jia still didn't quite understand, she had no right to express any opinions. After diligently teaching the eight people how to put on old age makeup, scar makeup and many other special effects makeup, she was ready to leave the villa at any time.

During the first month that she and Tao Junle arrived at the villa, there were always guards outside. The eight beauties were able to go out, but only she and Tao Junle could not leave.

In the second month, although she and Tao Junle could not go out at the same time, it was still possible for one of them to go out alone with one of the Eight Beauties.

So, in the next half month, Tong Jia took the opportunity to go out and buy some Shanghai specialty foods.

Most of it was placed in the RV, and a small portion was brought back to the villa to share with everyone.

Although Tao Junle couldn't put the delicious food he bought in the RV, he didn't eat any of it. He took them all back to the villa and gave them to Tong Jia. He ate as much as Tong Jia gave him.

After Pan Meiying discovered that Tong Jia and Tao Junle only bought food every time they went out, she relaxed her surveillance on the two.

Just when the two of them were able to go out at the same time, Tong Jia's teaching of Bamei also ended.

Even though Bamei wanted to keep Tong Jia out of gratitude, Pan Meiying had not yet made a good decision on whether Tong Jia should stay or go.

If we let Tong Jia go now, we are worried that Pan Meiying will punish them when she comes back.

Yes, just the day after Pan Meiying felt that Tong Jia and Tao Junle, the two foodies, really couldn't cause any trouble and allowed them to leave the villa at the same time, she received a new task and needed to return to the northwest to carry out the mission, with an uncertain return date.

Because he left in a hurry, he didn't have time to explain to Bamei the final arrangements for Tong Jia and Tao Junle.

When Bamei tried to keep her, Tong Jia noticed something was wrong from the eye contact between them.

Therefore, she immediately agreed to stay in Shanghai and celebrate the New Year before leaving.

But in fact, she began to pay close attention to the situation of these eight beauties.

During the past month and a half, Tong Jia not only taught the eight beauties how to put on makeup, but also watched them take other courses.

Tong Jia and Tao Junle studied Morse code, secret code translation, secret photography and developing of photos very seriously, which they had not had the opportunity to learn before in the mountains due to the poor conditions.

So, early in the morning on the 24th day of the 12th lunar month, Tong Jia went shopping for New Year's goods with Mei, Lan, Zhu, and Ju. Tao Junle stayed in the villa, helping with the flowers, grass, trees, and wood, and preparing the evening's New Year's Eve dinner.

Mei, Lan, Zhu and Ju were on guard against Tong Jia, and nothing unusual happened during their absence. In order to lower Tong Jia's guard, they even took the initiative to buy a lot of things for her and Tao Junle, such as clothes and shoes, which they loaded into the car as if they were free of charge, and even called it a thank-you gift for the teacher.

After Tong Jia declined several times, she saw that the four people would not listen, so she stopped refusing and said with tears in her eyes: "It is my honor to be able to spend this time with you. I hope everyone can be safe and sound in the future."

Regardless of whether these people's intentions in giving her things were true or false, they were currently undergoing training and were dealing with Japanese people, so Tong Jia hoped that they would be safe. In the future...

Let’s talk about the future matters later.

Unlike Yu Tongjia's sentimentality, the four people in the villa didn't care much about Tao Junle.

The main reason was that during this period, Tao Junle behaved too much like a child in front of them, and a child who was extremely attached to his sister.

Because Tong Jia had a habit of tearing up the page after communicating with Tao Junle, when they saw only some scribbles on Tao Junle's notebook, they naturally assumed that the child was not very good at writing, or was just learning to write.

Even if Tao Junle took the Morse code course with them, they didn't think Tao Junle could learn it.

So, while they were preparing the New Year's Eve dinner, they used Morse code to communicate their plans for the evening.

Tao Junle watched the whole process without saying a word, but still helped them very obediently. He even ran in front of the four of them and acted cute, just to be able to taste a glutinous rice ball before Tong Jia came back.

When Tong Jia came back, Tao Junle acted as if he hadn't seen his sister for a day and was very dependent on her. He leaned on Tong Jia and refused to get down no matter how anyone called him.

Everyone laughed at him for having a childish mentality. Mei, the eldest sister among the eight children, said: "It's normal for this child to not see his sister for a whole day.

We just bought a lot of new clothes and shoes today. Teacher Tong, please take Lele upstairs to try them on first.

Leave the cleaning up to us. There isn't much work left anyway. When it's time to eat, I'll go upstairs and ask you to come down to eat."

The other seven people also agreed and urged Tong Jia to take Tao Junle upstairs first.

Tong Jia readily followed suit and picked up most of the shopping bags around her, letting Tao Junle pull her coat sleeve upstairs.

As soon as he entered the room, Tao Junle immediately took out a notebook and pen and began to write: [Sister, because they don’t know what the higher-ups are going to do with you in the end, they put sleeping pills in all the dishes tonight.

Only alcohol is not a problem. Even if you don't drink, you can't escape it.

Moreover, they will drink and eat normally. Even if they find out tomorrow that there is medicine in the food, they will eat it, and you will definitely not suspect them.

Those drugs are not ordinary drugs, their effects are particularly long-lasting.

If you don't take the antidote, you'll be drowsy for at least a week after taking it, and it will take at least a month for the full effect of the drug to wear off.

Tong Jia asked quietly, "Do they have an antidote?"

Tao Junle nodded and continued writing: [They have the antidote, but to make their deception more convincing, they won't take it today. They'll wait until tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, when everyone wakes up and feels unwell, and they've ruled out any suspicion of drugging you. Only then will they take the antidote.]

Tong Jia nodded and said, "Le Le, you will know... now, right?"

Tao Junle nodded. Tong Jia tore up the paper on which he had just written, thought about it, and felt uneasy, so he put the notebook back into the RV and replaced it with a new one for Tao Junle.

Afterwards, the two of them spread out all the clothes that Mei, Lan, Zhu and Ju bought for them today and placed them on the bed.

Tong Jia chose a bright red velvet cheongsam with red frayed edges, paired with red sky-high heels, which perfectly fits the atmosphere of today's New Year's Eve.

Tao Junle chose a three-piece tuxedo suit with black leather shoes, looking like a little gentleman.

When the two of them walked down the stairs hand in hand, the eight people downstairs were obviously a little panicked.

Mei said, "Why did you come down so suddenly? I was just about to go up to call you."

In reality, they had just evenly distributed the medicine into the various dishes, and some of the powder hadn't fully dissolved yet. They were worried Tong Jia would notice it when she came down. So, aside from Shu and Mu, who used a spoon to speed up the dissolution of the powder under the pretext of seasoning it, everyone else gathered around Tong Jia and Tao Junle, praising their beautiful clothes.

Tao Junle was obviously very excited, especially after the sound of firecrackers outside, he pointed outside and wanted to go out and play.

Tong Jia tried to stop them, but Mei thought it would be a good idea to let Tao Junle take Tong Jia out for a while.

He said, "Shanghai will set off fireworks on both Little New Year's Eve and New Year's Eve. We still need to prepare dinner a little longer. Teacher Tong can take Lele out to watch first."

Children all like to watch the fun.

When I was Lele's age, if I put on a new set of clothes that I liked, even if I didn't have any good friends to show off to, I would still want to go out and show off.

As adults, we shouldn't spoil the fun for the kids."

Tong Jia heard this and said embarrassedly: "I originally wanted to come down to help cook dinner. What's the matter with taking the children out to play?"

Others also said, "Hey, Teacher Tong, just go. You're leaving tomorrow and won't have the chance to watch the New Year's Eve fireworks. Shouldn't we let Lele have a good look at the Little New Year's Eve fireworks?"

"Okay then. I'll trouble you to prepare dinner." Tong Jia agreed reluctantly.

When she and Tao Junle walked to the door, Mei said, "Teacher Tong, Shanghai is not very safe at night. It's better to let the bodyguard outside follow you.

You guys are dressed so brightly and beautifully, but if you get targeted by human traffickers, we won’t have a good time this New Year.”

Tong Jia nodded and said, "Mei, you are really thoughtful."

Therefore, this time when Tong Jia and Tao Junle went out, they took the initiative to bring bodyguards with them.

About ten minutes later, Mei went out to look for someone.

But Tao Junle had just seen the fireworks and didn't want to go back at all.

So Tong Jia asked her bodyguard to accompany Tao Junle to watch the fireworks on the street, while she followed Mei back to the villa.

Mei originally wanted to keep Tong Jia, thinking that as long as Tong Jia was knocked unconscious, she would not be able to leave. Even if Tao Junle was still awake, he would not be able to defeat the bodyguards outside the villa and take Tong Jia away. So she did not stop Tao Junle from continuing to watch the fireworks.

After Tong Jia followed Mei back to the villa, she saw the dining table filled with all kinds of delicious dishes.

The chair in the middle where Pan Meiying sat last time was reserved for her by Bamei.

Tong Jia didn't refuse and sat down directly.

As soon as I sat down, I saw a bottle of red wine next to me.

She frowned and asked, "Are you going to drink tonight? I can't hold my liquor very well. I'm afraid I'll make a fool of myself if I drink too much."

Mei said very considerately: "If you can't drink much, don't drink it. Just pour it into the glass and it will look good. We are family, so we just need to eat the food.

The reason for preparing the wine is to bring good luck and longevity, right?"

Tong Jia nodded. After the eight people put different dishes into the bowls in front of her, she picked up a piece of braised pork with chopsticks. Just as she was about to put it in her mouth, she suddenly thought of something and put her chopsticks down.

He took the initiative to pick up the bottle of red wine in front of him and poured himself two-thirds of the glass.

She stood up with the cup in her hand and said, "Actually, when I was first sent to this villa, I was full of resistance to it.

I clearly did nothing wrong, but my freedom was restricted. This feeling of being inexplicably imprisoned is really bad.

But I couldn't resist and was forced to accept it.

At that time, I was in a bad mood every day. It was the meticulous care you eight people gave me in daily life that helped me gradually get out of that mood and start to get used to, adapt to and enjoy life here.

I can't drink much, but as we are about to part, I really can't think of any other way to express my feelings.

After much thought, it seems that the only way to express it is with wine.

There is nothing more to say. All my words are contained in this glass of wine.

Regardless of whether we will have the chance to meet again in the future, I hope that our future life will be smooth and peaceful.

I'll do it first out of respect! "

When the other eight people saw Tong Jia finish the drink, they could only follow suit, pouring wine into their own glasses and drinking it one by one.

After a glass of wine, Mei suggested that everyone eat some food.

But before they could even raise their chopsticks, eight people's heads fell onto the dining table.

They didn't put drugs in the wine, but when Tong Jia opened the wine, she put the drugs in the RV that had no effect on her.

Although this drug is not as effective as the one given to those eight people, it works quickly.

Tong Jia tested them one by one and confirmed that all eight people had fainted.

She quickly put the food and plates on the table into the RV. Such a good drug could not be wasted. She could use it as an emergency measure when she had enough drugs in the future.

By the way, with these drugs, it would be better to have an antidote.

So she went upstairs again and found the antidote and half a packet of remaining drugs in Mei's room.

Because she didn't want these people to know that she had discovered their conspiracy, she exchanged the sleeping pills in her RV for the small half packet of medicine, and exchanged the anti-inflammatory and antipyretic drugs in the RV for the antidote.

Afterwards, she returned to her and Tao Junle's room, quickly put all their belongings into the RV, and began to walk around the villa to see if there was anything else she could take.

It's not that she is obsessed with money, it's mainly because Pan Meiying had promised her to pay her eighty silver dollars a day.

But since she accepted the mission and left, she hasn't been paid for a week.

Although he had plenty of money in his RV and didn't need the 560 silver dollars, it was still immoral to withhold wages.

In order not to affect Pan Meiying's character, she could only try to find items of similar value in the villa to pay for it.

Just as she put the two landscape paintings by Walter Frederick Osborne in the third-floor corridor into the RV, the bodyguard returned with Tao Junle.

Tong Jia thanked the bodyguard as if nothing had happened, closed the door, and pulled Tao Junle upstairs.

After Tao Junle confirmed that nothing was left behind, the two of them began to rest in bed with peace of mind.

At three in the morning, the alarm clock rang.

It was the time for the bodyguards downstairs to change shifts. Tong Jia brought Tao Junle into the RV, and took advantage of this opportunity to wear pajamas, wrapped in a coat, and swaggered out of the villa where he had been imprisoned for more than a month.