"Little girl, come back to the hotel with me." The tall man was still pretending to assault Rose. Seeing Alex walk away without looking back, he also called out to him in a loud voice. "Hello, I'm going to take this beautiful girl to my hotel, let her roll on the big bed with me..."
"What's the matter? I performed very well." The tall man looked at Alex's departing figure and asked, "Rose, how come it didn't work?"
He released her from his grasp and Rose slapped him in the face and then beat him up a bit more. Infuriated by her actions, he slapped her back, making her stagger and almost fall to the ground.
"You bitch. I'm just here to help you act out a scene. Do you eat dynamite for lunch? Do you still want to trick that handsome guy? He made it quite clear that he likes a girl named Debbie. You should be ashamed to say he loves you deeply. Aren't you disgraceful. Stupid women like you deserve to be ignored."
After getting that off his chest, the tall man walked away, muttering to himself.
Rose stood rooted to the spot as she realized that the girl in Alex's heart was not her, but a girl called Debbie. When she left Ramsey Lake, it was with dull eyes, like a walking corpse.
Kelly didn't pay attention to what had happened to Rose.
When Alex's figure disappeared in the distance, the tears that she had been holding back finally started rolling down her cheeks. One by one, they dripped down to her chin and onto the grass. Sharon held her tightly.
Watching her shake and cry inconsolably—it seemed that she was about to rupture something inside—Sharon could only pat her on the back and comfort her in a low voice. She could only hope that Kelly would forget all about Alex.
At eleven o'clock, Alex got on the high-speed train to Washington, D.C. Two hours later, he arrived.
Coming out of the bustling railway station, he bought a combined bus and subway pass at the metro subway station. He felt that with so many people taking public transport, he had more opportunities to find Debbie.
With the transport card in hand, Alex immediately started his search. He took the subway according to the route he had designed on the train, from the red line over to the orange line, with a few bus rides built-in, traversing the metropolitan area from Northeast Washington to Fairfax.
It took Alex more than three hours to visit the areas. When he was on the bus, on the subway, or even walking from one bus stop to another, Alex would pay special attention to the people around him for fear that he would brush past Debbie without noticing.
He got off the train again at a subway station in Arlington. After walking for such a long time, he was hungry, and he remembered that he hadn't had lunch.
Standing on a broad central avenue in the bustling suburb, he looked around for a casual place to eat. As he wandered down the street, a fragrant smell reached his nostrils. He saw a food truck with a sign advertising "Burgers, Pancakes and More." Beside the truck was a small cart selling vegetables.
Alex remembered that when he was with Debbie, he often bought them lunch at a food truck. He couldn't help but walk toward it. While he was approaching, he saw a buxom girl standing behind the vehicle arguing with an old man.
The closer Alex got, the more serious the quarrel became.
"I've given you the money. Why don't you go? Are you trying to steal my money?" The girl, who was wearing an apron, cursed the old man.
"No, the eggs are three dollars and five dollars, which is 15 dollars in total. You should give me fifty-two dollars, five dollars. You only gave forty-five dollars, and still owe me seven dollars, five dollars!" The old man was pulling the girl's leg to collect money.
"You ass, I've always paid three dollars and fifteen cents for your eggs. Take the money and go away. Stop disrupting my business," the girl said sharply.
"What, three dollars and fifteen cents? That's what they cost a month ago. And prices go up. If you can't afford it, give me back the eggs, and I'll sell them to somebody else!" The old man tried to snatch back the carton of eggs the girl had taken.
"Go away, these eggs are already mine. Take the money and go!" The girl kept the eggs and refused to be manipulated by him.
"Why are you so unreasonable? Today, I won't let you have them." The old man also seemed to be in a hurry.
By then, Alex had reached the food truck and stood in front of him.
"Hey there, beautiful, don't be so impulsive," Alex said to the girl as he pulled the old man away.
"This little girl is bullying me. I'm going to smash her eggs and do some damage to her food truck. Young man, let me go." The old man was so angry that he was champing at the bit to fight with the girl.
"Who's bullying who? Come back here if you have the courage! If you dare to kick my truck, I'm not responsible for what I'll do to you!" the girl shouted, pointing her finger at the man.
Alex couldn't help but sigh, as he frowned at the girl.
"Here, I'll give you the money she owes you." Alex thought it wasn't worth making such a fuss over a few dollars.
"This little girl's attitude really pisses me off. Do I care about the money? If I don't smash her snack truck today, I'll not be able to forgive myself..." The old man seemed to need payback.
"Do you think this is okay? Look, I'll give you a hundred dollars if you forget all this and just go away," Alex said after thinking for a moment about how to best handle the situation.
"Let go of me. It's no use saying anything. Wait a minute. How much did you say?"
"One hundred dollars," Alex repeated with a smile.
"You're not teasing me, are you?" The old man's attention was no longer on the girl. When Alex let go of him, he looked at Alex in disbelief.
With a faint smile, Alex took out his mobile phone and pointed to a QR code sign on the old man's vegetable cart. "Is this your payment code? I'll transfer it to you," he said, scanning the code and sending him the money.
"Thank you, thank you. You're so bright." The old man bowed to Alex and took some carrots and lettuce from the cart and pressed them into his arms. "Take these. They're all from my own farm."
After Alex declined, the old man happily pushed his cart over to a beat-up car, hooked it up, and drove away.
"Why did you help me?" The girl asked, staring at Alex.
"For no reason in particular. You shouldn't bully him, you know," Alex replied with a trace of solemnity.
For the first time, he got a good look at the girl's face. Her short hair was scorched, her skin was discoloured, and there were scars on her face. It looked like she might have been in a fire. There was also some inflammation and a few open sores. In other words, she was really ugly.
"You seemed to enjoy bullying him. What's wrong with you?" Alex said to her, making the girl angry. "Okay, forget it," he added, sighing. It seemed that the girl had a bad temper.
I'd better stop talking to her, he thought. "Make me a pancake with ham and shredded potatoes on the side," he said.
"I won't!" The girl flatly refused.
"Why won't you make it for me? I didn't provoke you." Alex was really angry. He had helped her out, and now he just wanted her to make him a pancake. Her attitude was atrocious.
"You cared about me, I love what you did, but I won't do anything I don't want to do." She seemed to think there was nothing wrong with her reaction.
"Okay, okay." Alex didn't want to talk to her anymore. He was tired from walking. He tore a piece of paper from a notebook in his backpack and put it on the curb, where he sat down in a huff to have a rest.
He sat on the curb for 20 minutes. During that period, five or six passers-by came to buy food from the girl. He observed that when she took the eggs, her eyes flashed. It seemed that she thought that she had the eggs thanks to his help.
He felt that she might have repented a little.
By then, he had rested enough and was ready to take the bus to other places to continue his search, but his stomach was still growling. He stood up, went over to the girl, and said politely, "please, could you make me a pancake now?"
"Go away!" she acted like a cat whose tail had been trampled on. "Why are you so shameless? Get out of here and don't let me see you again. I'd feed the pancakes to a dog before giving you any!"
"I just want to eat a pancake. What have you got against me?"
"What's wrong with you? I know I'm not good-looking. Do you want to continue poking fun at me? Believe it or not, if you call me 'beautiful' again, I'll take this pan and hit you over the head!" she said angrily.
Alex was stunned. In school, no matter how beautiful or ugly the girls were, or how old they were, they called them all "beautiful." Alex had just said that earlier out of habit. But realizing that the girl mistakenly thought that he had been mocking her, he felt very ashamed.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to mock you. I'm a college student. In school, it's a term we use for everybody. Anyway, I'm obviously not what you think..." Alex said as an apology.
"Really?" The girl saw his sincerity and felt less angry.
"Okay, I believe you. But I hate it when people comment on others' looks. People are born with their appearance. You're good-looking. All I can say to you is that you're lucky and have no right to laugh at others."
Alex had been ridiculed as a loser many times, and he could understand the girl's mood.
"Well, as you can see, I'm not qualified to laugh at you when I dress like this..." Alex wore a very ordinary outfit. He didn't own many good clothes. In addition, he had been walking at top speed for more than three hours, so he was sweaty and covered in dust. He looked like a poor little loser.