Chapter 41: You’re shameless

In the darkness of night, I returned to the community where I had lived for over two years. Parked downstairs was Mi Cai’s purplish-red Q7. She had already arrived before me.

I whistled as I walked upstairs, the motion-sensor lights flickering on one after another. Under the illumination, the hallway looked even more shabby. This decay made me increasingly puzzled—I always wondered why Mi Cai insisted on living here, forcing me to have nowhere else to go, and leaving me no choice but to stay at Luo Ben’s den.

I knocked on the door, and Mi Cai, fully dressed, opened it for me. I immediately complained, “I’m exhausted!”

“Then hurry up and take a rest. Go back and get some sleep,” Mi Cai replied in a tone full of concern.

I gave her a dissatisfied look and said, “You look really pretty, but your emotional intelligence is seriously lacking. When I say I’m tired, I mean I want you to pour me a cup of hot water.”

“I haven’t stayed here for several days already. Where would I get hot water?”

“There’s an electric kettle and a gas stove at home. If there’s no hot water, just boil some. Oh, by the way, I like goji lemon tea. During the last move, I didn’t take the goji berries or the lemon slices with me. Now go make me some.”

With that, I sat down on the sofa, crossed my legs, and started peeling a tangerine from the fruit tray.

Mi Cai looked displeased but still went to the kitchen to fill the electric kettle with water and plugged it in. Standing across from the sofa, she gazed at me with a resentful expression.

I felt secretly pleased. If I didn’t take advantage of her a little at a moment like this, after she finished using me, she would surely say something cruel again to make me feel terrible.

“This tangerine is really good. Where did you buy it?” I said while peeling another one.

“If you like it, just take it home with you. But could you please help me with the main thing first?”

I replied calmly, “Last time I thought your cherries were great and you let me take them home. Now I think these tangerines are good, so I’ll take them too. Is it that everything in this house becomes mine the moment I say I like it?”

“In principle, I don’t argue with people like you, because your skin is surprisingly thick,” Mi Cai said with patience.

I continued smiling as I said, “Then I really like you. Why don’t you come home with me tonight?”

Mi Cai’s expression suddenly darkened like a thunderstorm. She glared at me and said angrily, “Please don’t say to me the kind of words you probably say to every woman. I’d think you were shameless!”

Remaining calm, I replied, “I was just following your logic. How am I being shameless? If you don’t like it, I won’t say I like you anymore.”

Mi Cai glanced toward the kettle, now nearly boiling, as if she wanted to shove me inside it.

I felt delighted. In all our verbal battles, this was the first time I had the upper hand. The feeling of reclaiming lost territory was amazing, so much that I couldn’t help but hum Wang Fei’s song “New Tenant.”

“Waiting for the night, welcoming the day. Cleaning in the day, praying at night. Leaving the noise behind, searching for troubles. Across the world, on a sudden whim. Is anyone home? Who came to visit? I say hello, you say it’s a bother. Not too late, not too early, coming from afar…”

Mi Cai glared at me as I finished singing, but she was helpless—because she couldn’t be as shameless as me.

I then asked Mi Cai, “Do you know what song I just sang?”

Without waiting for her answer, I immediately answered myself, “It’s Wang Fei’s ‘New Tenant.’ Don’t you think the lyrics describe our relationship perfectly?”

Before she could respond, I continued analyzing, “Every day I waited for the night and welcomed the day in this house, cleaning during the day and praying at night. One day, on a sudden whim, you moved in here. I, the landlord, said hello to you, the new tenant, but you told me I was a bother… and then you kicked me out of the house!”

Mi Cai sighed after a while and said, “You really have a wild imagination!”

“This isn’t imagination—it’s a real, tragic story that happened not long ago!” I said indignantly, rising from the sofa and glaring at Mi Cai.

Mi Cai didn’t respond. She glanced at the boiling water and said, “I’ll go get the water. Where did you put the lemon slices and goji berries?”

“Beside the toilet in the bathroom,” I replied grumpily, intentionally trying to disgust Mi Cai. After my own analysis, I had convinced myself that I had indeed suffered a great injustice.

Mi Cai’s face indeed showed disgust, but she knew it was intentional. With a stern expression, she said, “If you won’t tell me, forget it. Make the tea yourself.”

“You’re so principled. You promised to make me tea, so you definitely will,” I mocked her again for her principles.

Finally, Mi Cai snapped, “But did you really put the lemon and goji berries beside the toilet in the bathroom?”

“You can ask the cockroaches in the bathroom—they live there. They must know clearly whether they’re there or not.”

Mi Cai was furious and said, “Fine, don’t drink then!” Then she walked into her room, refusing to say another word to me.

Like a petty person who had won a small victory, I sang “New Tenant” again toward her room.

…

Finally, I found the lemon slices and goji berries in my old room, brewed a cup with boiling water, and sat comfortably on the sofa drinking it. Life suddenly felt so good.

After finishing the cup of tea, I was just about to go to the bathroom to help Mi Cai clean up the cockroach bodies when my phone suddenly rang. I looked at the caller ID—it was Luo Ben calling me.

I answered the call, but it was a woman’s voice on the line. She said to me, “Are you Zhaoyang?”

“Who are you? Why are you using Luo Ben’s phone?” I asked in confusion.

“Lili. Remember Lili from last time?”

“Oh, what’s up?”

Lili spoke in a tone of discussion, “Luo Ben went downstairs to buy cigarettes. I’m calling you to ask you not to come back tonight. I want to spend the night here with Luo Ben.”

I felt a bit reluctant, but I had already ruined Lili’s plans once before. To do it again would be hard to justify. After a pause, I finally said to Lili, “Alright then, I won’t come back tonight.”

Lili immediately sounded happy. She reminded me, “Then you should call Luo Ben later and tell him you won’t be coming back.”

“No problem.”

“And remember, don’t tell Luo Ben it was me who called you and told you not to come back,” Lili added.

“Sure, I’ll just say I have something to do tonight.”

“Zhaoyang, you’re really great. I’ll treat you to dinner another day,” Lili said joyfully before hanging up. I had forgotten to remind her to return the hundred yuan she had borrowed from me last time.

After ending the call with Lili, I was once again faced with a dilemma—if I couldn’t go back to Luo Ben’s place tonight, where else could I spend the night?

…

With the worry of having nowhere to stay, I went to the bathroom to help Mi Cai clean up the cockroach bodies. There weren’t many, actually, because the pesticide we used last time had barely worked. After searching for a while, I finally found one barely alive cockroach behind the toilet tank. But even just this one was enough for me to feel justified in reporting back to Mi Cai.

I wrapped the cockroach in toilet paper, adding a few cigarette butts to pretend they were other cockroach bodies. Then I went to Mi Cai’s door, knocked, and said, “I’ve cleaned up all the cockroach bodies. I wrapped them in toilet paper. Do you want to come out and check? The pesticide really works, no kidding.”