Chapter 1 (2/2)

Uncle Three had never been on good terms with the others in the family so he would never show up at these parties. I, on the other hand, was so grateful for the first time in my life from hearing my uncle’s voice that I could weep.

I was wrong. I have a potty mouth, calling you a sly old fox all the time. I’ll slap myself ten times as punishment.

Forgive me and just rescue me from this h.e.l.l hole, please. I will even jump between you and azongzi when we are underground next time.

Uncle Three seemed to have read my mind through the phone. After some chattering, he told me that he and some robber pals got a table at Full Moon House. Fats and Panzi are both there, he said, and the moon cakes and booze are all ready to go. They were just waiting for me.

I rejoiced for the ready-to-use scapegoat that lay before me. I couldn’t let it go to waste so I immediately brought Uncle Three up, saying some business-related things came up and he wanted to discuss them with me. This couldn’t have fooled Uncle Two—fortunately he didn’t attend. Obviously, my old lady and old man weren’t thrilled so I grabbed a few of the pictures of the matches my enthusiastic relatives found for me and stuffed them in my pant pocket. I laughed along with them, saying that I would seriously consider settling down, while secretly crossing my fingers behind my back. No matter what, getting out of that room was of utmost importance.

Maybe I tripped on a step later and hit my head or something, but there seemed to be a large blank s.p.a.ce in my memory. At least, I had no idea how I had gotten back home and how I was lying on my own bed now.

The first sensation I experienced when I opened my eyes was: Owww. I mean my head hurt. I had wanted to lift my head up but it was as if my head was filled with lead. I had only managed to move half an inch before dropping back on the bed.

Let me rewind. It didn’t seem like my bed. My head was turned to the side as I started evaluating my current situation. I was lying face down so logically it should be the mattress under me, but the sound that I had made just now from my jaw hitting it was quite sharp. The thing that my cheek and ear was pressed against was actually slowly rising and falling, too. I didn’t remember buying a ma.s.sage table though.

This woke me up eight-tenths of the way, although my head still hurt a lot. I squeezed my arms and thighs together and it became apparent that I was hugging a cylinder-shaped object. Naturally, I thought of the beanbag that I usually held when I slept.

I let out a sigh of relief from touching the familiar object. I squinted at the scene to my left. It was my room all right: the windows I had closed before leaving; the light beige curtains that were letting in a bit of light; the wooden floor boards glowing gold from the suns.h.i.+ne; the human-length beanbag cus.h.i.+on on the floor—

Hold it right there! My beanbag is there! Then what’s this in my arms?!

I lifted my head up so abruptly that I could almost hear my brain hitting the crown of my head and then falling back down. Consequently, I lost my vision for a few seconds. After my optic nerves reattached themselves, I saw a pair of eyes mere inches away in the 12 o’clock direction watching me.

Bangs, black bangs, hung in front of those eyes. Below them were one nose and one mouth (No f.u.c.king duh! As if there would be two noses and three mouths?).

Due to the severity of the impact, I momentarily could not match the facial features to a person I recognized—kind of like how you can’t identify the actor when you are too close to the TV screen. The only thought going through my head was: ‘I never bought no ma.s.sage table! And I bought a beanbag, not some blow-up doll. So what the h.e.l.l is this?!’

The person whom I suspected to be a blow-up doll sighed, “Wu Xie.”

I jerked like a machine that had just been plugged in. His voice and the way he had said my name along with his face suddenly became three-dimensional to me.

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