Chapter 21: The Meaning of a Cockroach

We walked towards Ban Die with Mi Cai, I asked, “Ban Die, why didn’t you call me before coming? The temperature drops a lot at night, you sitting here like this must be very cold!”

“I did call, but your phone was turned off.” Ban Die’s reply was still dull, without any emotional tone.

After Ban Die said that, I suddenly remembered that I had thrown my phone into the moat after getting drunk, my heart ached a bit, I haven’t earned much money, but have only done wasteful things.

Mi Cai greeted Ban Die, “Uncle, hello!”

“Hello to you too. You haven’t eaten yet, right? I bought some vegetables from the supermarket, I’ll cook for you.” Saying that, Ban Die lifted a plastic bag from behind, inside were fish and some vegetables.

“Uncle, the porridge you cooked last time was delicious, so your cooking must be great too.” Mi Cai spoke to Ban Die with a smile she had never shown me before, which made me realize that I indeed was an unlikable person, rather than Mi Cai maintaining a high posture.

In response to Mi Cai’s compliment, Ban Die only smiled, then signaled us to go upstairs.

While going upstairs, Mi Cai walked ahead, while Ban Die and I lagged behind. I asked Ban Die somewhat unexpectedly, “Ban Die, have you been in Suzhou these few days instead of going back home?”

“I went to an exhibition in Guangzhou, and stopped by Suzhou on my way back.” Ban Die’s reply remained brief.

I thought to myself, yes, winter is coming, which is the busiest time for the state-owned enterprise Ban Die worked at to handle heater orders. Around this time every year, Ban Die had to go many places to purchase raw materials.

Back in the house, Ban Die went straight into the kitchen to start cooking. Mi Cai wanted to help Ban Die in the kitchen, but was refused, then went back to her room not knowing what she was busy with, while I sat in the living room spacing out, my heart still bitter. I knew this bitterness would accompany me for a long time, until the day I completely forgot about Jian Wei.

After a while, Mi Cai came out of her room, wearing casual clothes, which made her appear more approachable, yet she remained beautiful, as if beauty was in her bones, making her beautiful no matter how she dressed.

“Sitting there like a statue! Why don’t you go help your dad in the kitchen?” Mi Cai seemed dissatisfied that I was doing nothing while Ban Die was busy.

“You don’t understand, he likes cooking alone.”

“There’s such a thing?”

“Because he sees cooking as fun, when others help, they’re taking his fun away.”

“Oh, so his food should be really delicious then?”

“You’re not a foodie, why ask so much?”

“Does one have to be a foodie to ask? Everyone has the right to be curious.” Mi Cai once again confronted me with dissatisfaction.

“You’ll know soon enough, it won’t hurt to wait a bit.”

Mi Cai didn’t press me further, turned around and went back to her room, then came out carrying a laundry basket heading towards the bathroom, I was a bit surprised, so even the goddess had to do laundry.

The sound of water came from the bathroom, then the washing machine started rolling, listening to its rhythmic motion, I became even more absent-minded, for a moment even feeling like I didn’t exist.

A scream came from the bathroom, naturally from Mi Cai, so loud it instantly woke me from my daze, while Ban Die had already rushed to the bathroom holding a ladle, I followed shortly after.

Although Ban Die and I made a big commotion, enough to kill a wolf, the current Mi Cai was merely facing off against a cockroach perched on the bathtub. The cockroach fearlessly twitched its antennae, while Mi Cai had already turned pale, clearly an asymmetric confrontation. Ironically, the weaker party was a living human being.

Seeing me arrive, Mi Cai instinctively stepped back, hiding behind me, exactly like a cliché scene from a 9 o’clock soap opera, giving me the opportunity to play the hero rescuing the beauty, even though my opponent was just a cockroach.

I walked to the edge of the bathtub, grabbed the cockroach by its antenna, lifting it up. The cockroach was very agitated, struggling violently, Mi Cai screamed again, I found it amusing in my heart, whenever she left me speechless and wanting to spit blood, a cockroach lurking in a dark corner could scare her to death, this was truly a case of one thing subduing another.

Holding the cockroach, I smiled disdainfully at Mi Cai, then threw it out the window, sighing, “Ah! If it didn’t die from the fall, it would become a homeless, disabled cockroach unable to take care of itself. It would have been better off dying from the fall!”

Mi Cai naturally knew I was mocking her behavior of always driving me away through the cockroach, but she hadn’t yet recovered from the cockroach incident, only remaining silent with a terrified expression. Thus, I suddenly had an immature, somewhat amusing thought: if the rich were all as afraid of cockroaches as Mi Cai, I could carry a bag of cockroaches to blackmail and extort, surely becoming rich easily.

After the incident, Ban Die continued to be busy in the kitchen, while Mi Cai wouldn’t let me leave the bathroom, making me accompany her while she finished washing clothes, fearing another cockroach might jump out from some corner, maybe even a group, definitely relatives of that cockroach.

After a while, we finally finished washing. Mi Cai took the clothes out of the washing machine, while I sat on the edge of the bathtub watching her.

After a silence, I said to her, “I’m moving out tomorrow.”

“I know.”

“You must be pretty lonely living alone, right?”

“Why would I be lonely?”

I pretended to be disappointed and said, “Right, how could you be lonely? There are cockroaches ABCD here to keep you company, playing hide and seek with you, it’s really lively!”

Mi Cai was stunned, then looked at me with anger, while I calmly said, “Hurry up and hang the clothes, we’re going to eat soon.”

…

At the dinner table, the three of us—me, Ban Die, and Mi Cai—each sat on one side. Surprisingly, the usually dull Ban Die actively asked Mi Cai, “Is the food to your taste, girl?”

Mi Cai nodded and replied, “Uncle’s cooking is really delicious!”

I knew this was not flattery, Ban Die’s cooking was indeed amazing, especially the sweet and sour fish, which was second to none. Mi Cai also had a good taste, picking only the sweet and sour fish to eat.

After Mi Cai’s praise, Ban Die nodded with a smile, then looked at me, as if telling me, “Son, your old man can only help you this far, the rest is up to you!”

I rather preferred to think I had misinterpreted the meaning behind Ban Die’s gaze, because there was absolutely no possibility for Mi Cai and me to develop into a couple. Firstly, she extremely disliked me; secondly, I hadn’t yet recovered from the shadow cast by Jian Wei and Xiang Chen; thirdly, and most importantly, I wasn’t worthy of her. Tell me, who has ever seen a beautiful girl driving a luxury car fall in love with an unreliable scoundrel!

Our meeting was not some wonderful arrangement, but merely a way for heaven to make me realize how great the gap between people can be, then let me die in shame. What a damn mean-spirited heaven!

While daydreaming, Ban Die spoke to me again, “Zhaoyang, after dinner, fix the water pipe, the joint is leaking a bit. If it gets colder, the pipe might burst.”

“Okay.” I replied.

Ban Die nodded, and shortly after added, “Next time I come, I’ll bring more rice and flour from home. You get off work early, cook at home more often. Eating out is wasteful and unhygienic.” After a while, he added, “You two are living together, you should take better care of this girl. You know how to cook, do more chores in daily life.”

According to my agreement with Mi Cai, I was supposed to move out tomorrow, yet Ban Die still used his imagination to forcibly bind my and Mi Cai’s future life together. I felt helpless but couldn’t explain, like telling him I was moving out, he would surely be disappointed.

I nodded again, then looked at Mi Cai, her expression didn’t change much, she was just focused on eating.

Finally, Ban Die’s attention shifted from me to Mi Cai, he asked her, “Girl, is our Zhaoyang living with you causing you any trouble?”

I was afraid Mi Cai would expose my many misdeeds, so I kicked her under the table, signaling her not to speak recklessly, but she took the opportunity to stomp heavily on my toes, causing me to almost drop my chopsticks in pain.

“Uncle, he’s actually quite nice… he just always likes to smoke indoors and won’t stop even after being told.” Mi Cai first praised then criticized me, exposing my misdeeds to Ban Die.

Ban Die looked at me with a stern face, I pretended not to see, but Ban Die’s gaze remained sharp and relentless. Mi Cai wore a face of schadenfreude.

“I’ll change, I will.” I reluctantly compromised, yet felt this compromise was meaningless. Mi Cai was being so petty, I was moving out soon, was it even worth arguing over whether I smoked indoors or not?

After this small incident, Ban Die seemed to be in a good mood, he asked me to bring the sticky rice wine he had previously brought from the kitchen. I poured a glass for Ban Die, then asked Mi Cai, “Do you want a little?”

Mi Cai pushed her empty cup forward slightly and said, “A little.”

I poured a small amount for Mi Cai, and also poured a little for myself. Thus, the three of us, around a not-so-big table, on this night filled with lights in ten thousand homes, had a dinner filled with a sense of family.

Don’t misunderstand, the sense of family I mentioned merely refers to the difference from dining out, because Mi Cai was not part of our family. Probably, after I move out, in this huge city, it would be difficult for us to even meet again!