woman wearing irish linen shirt

Miss Pender very graciously removed the long string following my name: "Better?"

I pondered for a moment, then pointed to the front slightly pettishly: "Can't this be removed?"

She looked at me angrily and amusedly: "Okay." Then, she erased the surname, leaving only my name on the phone, "How about it, Yao?"

I felt inappropriate again, and said, "Is there someone with the same name in your phone?"

She blinked: "Only you."

I raised my eyebrows: "Very well. Then pass."

Miss Pender put the phone back in her bag, fingered a few strands of my long hair, and said softly, "What about yours?"

I deleted the company suffix three times and five times.

"'Pande', do I just call 'Pande' on your phone?" She frowned slightly, dissatisfied visibly.

It's "Miss Pender," I thought.But I naturally wouldn't say that, and explained: "This is a very special surname, and there is no one who overlaps with you in my address book. Don't you want to be the special one?"

"It's not because your voice is gentle, this title is gentle." Miss Pan De obviously didn't buy it, "I don't care. You can change it to something else for me."

I laughed: "Okay, okay, I'll change it. May I change your Chinese name for you?"

She moved closer and looked at the phone screen: "What do you mean?"

"Well...it means a very close person."

Miss Pan De narrowed her eyes, she seemed a little suspicious, and asked, "How do you pronounce it?"

"'Old Pan'." I taught her.

"Old Pan."

"Very good!" I was slightly surprised, "Your pronunciation is really good, and you are quite talented in this area."

She pursed her lips: "Generally speaking, I'm good at everything."

I laughed out loud: "Yes. That's what I think of myself, too."

"You can't cook." She retorted immediately.

I took a breath, paused, and said, "You don't know how to write Chinese characters."

Miss Pender raised her eyebrows: "Are you sure you want to compare this?"

I was silent.She has written her name to me in several languages, certainly better than I, if not proficient.Just now, I know that she can speak at least four languages: Although I can also speak Tangshan dialect, Shandong dialect, and a few words of Suzhou dialect, to fool her into saying "multilingual", but I have a guilty conscience; Show timidity.

Thinking of this, I immediately said: "I believe you must be good at everything."

Her eyelashes flickered, and she looked away, hiding a faint smile: "You dote on me too much."

My smile almost never stopped: "Then I saved it?"

"Wait a while." Miss Pan De pressed my hand, "You have a record of dishonesty in this regard, I can't just agree."

I froze for a moment: "What?"

"Wanzhuang." She suddenly uttered a sentence in Mandarin, "The two characters don't read 'petroleum' at all, but 'Wanzhuang'."

I took a breath, couldn't speak, paused again, took another breath, and said: "Yes, you are right, 'oil' is its nickname. It's not a nickname either—my hometown, uh -"

How am I going to explain this to someone who has not been educated in the superiority of socialism?

"Uh——" I held my forehead and decided to try my best to explain clearly, "Have you heard of kibbutz in Israel? It is a kind of collective community, where people live from childhood to adulthood, and they are completely self-sufficient. Hospitals, schools, Everything. My parents worked in the oil fields. Although it was restructured very early, we still have our own community facilities. My neighbors are from all over the country and live a different life from the local residents around. So for me For example, the place is called 'Petroleum', but you won't find that name on any map."

"I know." She said succinctly, "It's Temasek North Edition, but employees and their family members will live in the same community."

Temasek is an enterprise prefixed with "Guo" in Singapore.

I was stunned, looked at her, and made no secret of my surprise: "It seems that some people have done a lot of work behind the scenes."

She blinked and said nothing.

"It should be difficult to find these on the Internet, right?" Especially when she searches in English, it may be difficult to retrieve any useful information.I was inexplicably moved, and said softly, "You hired a detective?"

"I asked for a machine translation." She looked at me tenderly. "Don't coax me again. What does this word mean?"

"These are two words." I pulled her over, "The first syllable of your surname corresponds to 'Pan' in Mandarin; the other word, 'Old', is—is 'Great' mean."

"The great Pender?" Miss Pender frowned, "That...is a bit strange."

I immediately changed my words: "It's the kind of greatness that is intimate, a bit like 'my dear lady' in English."

"Oh. So it's 'Dear Pender'." She looked at me and said tentatively, "...Old, Old Li?"

I laughed so hard that I shrunk to the ground, almost unable to straighten up: "Don't, don't call me that."

Miss Pan De was annoyed: "Why are you laughing like this! I don't want to be called 'Old Pan'!"

"No, no! I'm not..." I hurriedly stood up, but couldn't help it, and smiled while holding her shoulders, "That's not a strange name, really, it's very common among Chinese people. It's just me I've never been called that before, it feels like someone is calling me dad. I'm sorry. Don't you like 'Old Pan'? I kind of like it."

Seeing me laughing like this, she gave me a serious explanation. She seemed a little at a loss, and whispered hesitantly, "Of course you like 'Old Pan'...Okay. Then use this name."

"Okay." I smiled at her.Now Miss Pan De has officially become "Old Pan" in my phone.

I didn't keep her long, and she left my house before lunchtime.Miss Pender reluctantly gave me a kiss: "I'll come over to pick up the clothes later. Or you can bring them to me... See when you're free and drop by my house?"

"Of course." I rubbed her nose, loosened my arms around her waist, took out a mask from the side drawer and handed it to Miss Pender.

In this way, I can't bear to keep her even more: What if she really agrees to come down?

I'm afraid she'll agree with anything I say.

The dress she had given me earlier hung in its original form on the wall opposite the sofa in the living room.The soft furnishing of the house has been basically completed, and the two gifts she gave me fit together as if they were picked out together.Except for the second bedroom, I am very satisfied with this new home. The curtains may need to be changed. After changing, the traces from her will definitely become the finishing touch of the whole room.

I half reclined on the couch, looking at my perfect fridge, feeling a little more secure.

It felt like there was an invisible thread hanging from me, taking care of me, protecting me, as if someone had loved me from beginning to end.

It seems that atheists should not have such an illusion.I laughed for no reason.

My home is being built step by step.

After lunch, I started working on her battered penny shoes: suede shoes are the worst water-resistant shoes, and hers needed to be repaired.

My pair is useless.When I realized this, my heart ached a little. Fortunately, they were not expensive, just ordinary machine-made Italian shoes.

For Miss Pender.

I took good care of her suit.Originally, I had the habit of taking care of my clothes on weekends, and I didn't have many more sets than her.The trousers had been slightly ironed earlier, and the jacket was hung in the shade to dry in the shade.The touch of this brown suit is really amazing. I turned it over and saw that the fabric was indeed as expensive as I imagined. It was wool silk linen from a certain British fabric brand with the prefix D.There is a suit shop logo on the top of the fabric logo, and a line below the machine embroidery reads:

"Specially made for Sonia Pender"

I couldn't help moving my eyebrows.The name of the owner is hand-embroidered near the inner breast pocket. This operation is not uncommon for custom-made suits. After all, previous guests often have the need to undress and store clothes indoors. This is a tradition that is often preserved by advanced customization.

But the woven label requires a separate copyright fee. What does she spend money on this kind of thing?

I found it a bit strange, I searched the name of the store, but there was no useful result; after thinking about it, I found the store on the photo wall software, but I didn’t see this, whether it was the details of the suit used for promotion, or the customer’s return picture set up.Maybe for a special guest?I swiped back and forth on the software, and suddenly saw a close-up of D's fabric, with the text saying: "Self-produced fabric, new pattern in 2019."

Is this a custom shop under that brand?

My doubts deepened. It is very common for Italian fabric manufacturers to be acquired by foreign capital, but it is rare for British brands to sell the entire brand together with the production line because they are backed by solid textile technology.India's textile level is indeed good, but the acquisitions of well-known European companies are very limited, and most of them revolve around more basic and extensive fields, such as tooling fabrics.

When did a veteran fabric manufacturer like D's change its surname to "Yin", I have never heard of it.

My curiosity was alive again.This kind of behind-the-scenes story is the best way for the flamboyant elites to open up the chatter box. It is not my style to be so inexplicable.

The official website of the manufacturer is vague about the acquisition.As an old brand, it is common to twitch and maintain a style. I have my own way to search for acquisition news with the company's keywords.

This fabric brand, together with its full product line, now belongs to a high-end textile group in Mumbai. The name of the group is quite familiar. I became more interested and read their entrepreneurial history.The current president and chairman is very young, less than 40 years old, with a typical Aryan appearance, and the suit lapels in the promotional photos are very beautiful and tasteful.

But the entrepreneur's name throws me off: Rajiv Pande.

It can't be a coincidence, can it?