I took another look at the woman. She sat upright, her long, slightly wavy hair falling to her shoulders. Her skin was fair, her figure slim, and her lips curved upward in a confident, sharp manner. In short, she was undeniably beautiful. From the moment I saw her, I felt as though there was nothing in this world that couldn’t be forgiven.
Old Li waved at me, “Zhaoyang, come over here. I need to talk to you.”
“Is it about the rent? I’ll pay it all together next month when I get my salary, okay?” I said with an exaggerated smile, knowing I had already delayed paying Old Li for quite some time.
“It’s about the house… uh… this house has already been bought by this young lady.”
“You sold the house?! Who in their right mind would buy your rundown house that couldn’t even withstand a minor earthquake!” I exclaimed at the woman, not caring about her elegance or beauty at this moment of impending homelessness. I was furious first.
Old Li looked awkwardly at the frowning woman and finally said to me, “You need to move out tonight. I won’t ask you for the rent for the past few months.”
“Old Li, how come the older you get, the more you act like a pushover? Even if you were going to sell the house, you could have at least given me a heads-up! It’s pouring outside—where am I supposed to find a new place tonight?”
“Just stay in a hotel for now,” Old Li replied indifferently.
“You no longer own this house, so don’t talk to me!” I snapped at Old Li, then turned to the unfamiliar woman and asked, “The house now belongs to you. Can I continue renting from you?”
The woman shook her head, “I bought it to live in myself. I have no intention of renting it out.”
I immediately became agitated, “Miss, are you okay? You drive a luxury car worth over a million, yet you come to live in this rundown house! Are you deliberately trying to mess with me?”
The woman didn’t respond to my anger and calmly said, “You have one hour to move out…”
Before she could finish, I interrupted, “I’m not moving. Have you ever heard of someone being told to move out without any prior notice?!” I sat down on the sofa right next to her. Instinctively, she shifted to the other side.
I lit a cigarette, scanning the old room with my eyes, feeling a sense of loss. Two years ago, I had come to Suzhou and lived here ever since. In this room, I had gone through the most difficult period of my life.
In this house, I had poured out my sorrows to the old clock in the living room and had long conversations with the outdated floor lamp in the bedroom. Every object here seemed like a close friend who had shared my hardships. Leaving meant losing a source of emotional support.
The smoke from my cigarette made the woman visibly uncomfortable, and she stood up and moved to the other side of the room.
I felt even more unlucky, as if all the bad things had conspired to hit me today, determined to make my life miserable.
After a while, Old Li addressed us both, who were still at an impasse, “I have some things to attend to at home. You two can discuss the house situation yourselves.” Without waiting for a response, he quickly left, like someone discarding a hot potato, clutching his bag and slipping out the door as if on roller skates.
Now only the woman and I remained in the house.
…
Outside the window, the wind and cold rain began to rage again. This kind of weather made me even more unwilling to move out. I decided to stay put and stubbornly endure this standoff with the woman. After all, I was poor and had nothing but time.
I tried to strike up a conversation with her, “Miss, may I ask for your honorable name?”
She replied without smiling, “Does it matter?”
“Of course it does. I need to know which celestial being has caused me to become homeless on this cold, rainy night!”
She ignored the sarcasm in my tone and coldly replied, “You now have only 40 minutes left. If you haven’t moved out in 40 minutes, I will call the police.”
Just as I was about to get angry, the phone rang. I frowned at the woman, took out my phone from my pocket, and saw that it was Leyao calling—an even more annoying woman.
I answered impatiently, “What now? Didn’t I already give you money?”
Leyao paused before speaking softly, “Zhaoyang, tomorrow is the weekend… could you accompany me to the hospital for a follow-up check-up?”
“Is the baby even mine? Can’t you ask a friend to come? Do you think I have nothing else to do?”
“You’re the only friend I have in this city.”
“You’ve got it wrong, Leyao. We’re just fuck buddies, not friends… Do you even know what ‘fuck buddies’ means?”
Leyao ignored me and whispered, “I’m really scared to go alone… If you won’t come, I’ll just give up and not go for the check-up at all.”
I tried to stay calm and said, “Didn’t you go by yourself today? Tomorrow should be even easier for you, right?”
“Exactly because I went alone yesterday, I realized how terrifying it was!”
Her persistence made me frustrated, and I instinctively cursed, “F*** you!”
“F*** away then! The baby is the result of your f***ing. I should’ve just given birth to it and raised it, then told the child: ‘Your dad is a monster!'”
The line went dead with a ‘beep’ as she hung up.
…
“What a mess!” I lit another cigarette and slapped my forehead in frustration. It had been two years, and I had never met a more troublesome fuck buddy than Leyao. Even though she swore it was mine, I could swear just as confidently that the baby wasn’t mine. She said I was her only friend in the city, which made me even more convinced she was trying to trap me. Just last week, I saw her post a photo on Weibo of herself partying with a group of people at a bar.
“Scumbag!”
I looked up and noticed that the woman had been watching me with an expression of extreme disgust. Since it was just the two of us in the house, it was definitely her who had insulted me.
“You were listening to my phone call?” I asked neutrally, not really minding that she had called me a scumbag. Even I wasn’t sure whether I truly was one.
“You now have 30 minutes left,” the woman said, her tone even colder than before.
What a troublesome rainy night. After giving all my cash to Leyao today, I was completely broke. Where could I possibly go now? The world was vast, yet there was no place for Zhaoyang to call home.
After a brief silence, I said to the woman, “Miss, look at the weather outside—it’s stormy and late already. There’s no way I can move out tonight!”
She glanced out the window and, to my surprise, showed a bit of leniency by asking, “Then when will you move?”
“Tomorrow.”
“What time?”
“Before 1 p.m.” I softened my tone, because I had a favor to ask of her next.
She nodded, “Go ahead and leave now. Remember to pack up and move out on time tomorrow.”
I remained seated without moving. After a while, I leaned slightly toward her and awkwardly said, “Miss… could you lend me some money?”
She looked slightly surprised but firmly replied, “I have no obligation to lend you money.”
“So you won’t lend it to me? Then don’t expect me to leave tonight. I’m broke—I can’t just go sleep on a bridge!” I said, then leaned back on the sofa and added, “And don’t even think about calling the cops. You and Old Li were the ones being unreasonable here. Be honest, shouldn’t you have at least given me a heads-up so I could prepare?”
She looked at me like I was a pest, which only confirmed her eagerness to get rid of me. But to my surprise, she said, “I don’t have cash.”
I stared at her in disbelief. Saying she had no cash was classy, elegant, and high-end. These days, rich people rarely carry cash in their wallets. With their expensive spending habits, the small amount of cash a wallet could hold was clearly insufficient.
“Miss, this must be fate. I don’t like carrying cash either!” I shamelessly said a truth—my wallet had rarely held cash.
She ignored me again.
I continued, “How about this then? Lend me your bank card. I’ll just withdraw a thousand. I’ll return it tomorrow when I move out. Or there’s an ATM downstairs 200 meters away. If you’re not comfortable with that, you can come with me…”
She interrupted me by pulling out a bank card from her wallet, “The password is six zeros. By 1 p.m. tomorrow, finish whatever you need to do.”
I took the bank card from her hand and said, “No problem!”
Actually, I wasn’t surprised that she trusted me enough to hand over her bank card. My phone number, workplace, and social connections were all well-known to Old Li. Perhaps this card didn’t even have much money on it.
…
She sat quietly on the sofa, and I took another look at her. Truthfully, in my more than twenty years of life, I had never seen such a beautiful woman. There seemed to be something about her—an aura that other women lacked. But unfortunately, we didn’t seem to get along very well.
As I was leaving, I half-jokingly and half-seriously said, “Miss, how about considering moving in with me? I can cook and give massages. After a hard day’s work, I can offer you a full range of services to make sure you feel comfortable when you get home…”
“Get out!” she finally exploded in anger, hurling a pillow at me with guided-missile precision.
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