I looked over this woman again. She sat upright, with slightly curly long hair draped over her shoulders. Her skin was fair, her figure slender. The upturned corners of her mouth gave off an air of confident sharpness. In short, she was a downright beauty. Just one look at her, and I felt as if there was nothing in this world that could not be forgiven!
Lao Li beckoned to me, "Zhaoyang, come over, I need to talk to you about something."
"It's about the rent right? I'll pay it all next month when I get my salary, okay?" I said with an ingratiating smile. After all, I had dragged out paying Lao Li for so long.
"It's about the house...uh...this house has been bought by this young lady already."
"You sold the house?! Which dumbass was willing to buy your rickety old place that would collapse with a little shaking!" I exclaimed at the woman. Facing the crisis of homelessness, I had no mood to care about her elegance and beauty. Getting angry came first!
Lao Li looked awkwardly at the frowning woman. After a long pause he said to me, "You move out tonight. I won't ask for the past months' rent either."
"Lao Li, how come you act more and more like a wimp as you get older? ...Even if you wanted to sell the place, you could've given me advance notice. Where do you expect me to find a new place on a rainy night like this?"
"Just stay at a hotel for now." Lao Li was completely indifferent to how I felt.
"You've lost the property rights, don't talk to me!" I snapped at Lao Li, then turned to the unfamiliar woman, "The house is yours now, so can I keep renting from you?"
The woman shook her head. "I bought it to live in myself, I don't plan on renting it out."
I immediately lost my cool. "Miss, are you okay? You drive a million-dollar luxury car yet you come to live in this dump? ...You're deliberately trying to piss me off, aren't you?"
The woman ignored my anger and calmly said, "You have an hour to move out..."
Before she could finish, I cut her off. "I'm not moving...Have you ever seen someone get kicked out without any advance notice?" Having said that, I plopped down right next to the woman on the sofa. She reflexively inched away.
I lit a cigarette and looked around the shabby apartment, feeling a swell of sadness. I had lived here since first arriving in Suzhou two years ago. In this apartment, I had weathered the most difficult period of my life.
Here, I had poured out my troubles to the clock in the living room, and talked through many a night with the old floor lamp in the bedroom. Every object here was like a bosom friend who shared my hardships! Leaving meant abandoning my will to live.
The smoke drifting from my mouth made the woman get up from the sofa in irritation and move to the other side.
I felt even more unfortunate. It was as if misfortunes had conspired to crash into me all in one day. Finding fault with me from all directions.
After a while, Lao Li said to our standoff, "I still have some things to take care of at home. You two slowly figure out the housing situation yourselves..." With that, he left without waiting for a response, as if dropping a piece of hot potato. His feet couldn't flee fast enough, zipping out the door with his bag.
Only the woman and I remained in the apartment.
...
Outside, the wind joined forces with the cold rain to wreak havoc once more. This awful weather made me even less willing to move. I decided to drag this out with the woman until the bitter end. After all, being poor, time was all I had left.
I spoke to her, "Miss, may I ask your noble name?"
She responded humorlessly, "Does it matter?"
"Of course it matters. I have to know which deity has reduced me to homelessness on a cold rainy night like this!"
She ignored my sarcasm and continued answering coldly, "You only have 40 minutes left. If you don't move after 40 minutes, I'm calling the police."
I was about to flare up when my phone suddenly rang. I wrinkled my brows at the woman before taking out my phone from my pocket. The call was from Leyao, yet another annoying woman.
I impatiently answered, "What is it now? Didn't I give you money already?"
Leyao was silent for a bit before saying, "Zhaoyang, tomorrow's the weekend...could you go with me to the hospital for a checkup...?"
"Is the child in your belly mine? Can't you ask your friends to go with you? Do you think I'm that free?" I rapid-fired, trying to intimidate her into abandoning this unreasonable idea.
"In this city, you're my only friend."
"Leyao, you're mistaken. We're fuck buddies, not friends...Do you know what a fuck buddy is?"
I was met with the beeping sound of her hanging up.
...
"Damn troubles!" I lit a cigarette and gave my forehead a few solid slaps. In two years, I had never met a fuck buddy as annoying as Leyao. No matter how adamantly she swore otherwise, I could swear just as adamantly - the child wasn't mine! She said I was her only friend in this city, which made me even more certain she was scamming me. Just last week, I had seen her post photos of partying wildly at a bar with a bunch of people on Weibo.
"Scumbag!"
I looked up to find the woman watching me with an extremely disgusted expression. With just the two of us in the room, she undoubtedly meant me.
"You were listening to my call?" I asked flatly, also unbothered by her calling me a scumbag. Even I couldn't discern whether I was one or not.
"You have 30 minutes left now." The woman's tone was even icier than before.
It really was a vexing rainy night. After giving Leyao all my cash today, I was penniless. Where could I move to now? The world was so vast, yet there was no place left for me, Zhaoyang.
After a period of silence, I said to the woman, "Miss, look at the wind and rain outside. It's late now, of course I can't move tonight!"
The woman glanced outside the window, finally leaving some leeway. "When will you move?"
"Tomorrow."
"What time?"
"Before 1pm tomorrow." I switched to a gentle tone, because I was about to ask her for a favor.
She nodded. "Leave first then. Remember to move your things on time tomorrow."
I sat motionless, then subtly leaned towards her side, deliberately hemmed and hawed, "Miss...could you lend me some money?"
She looked somewhat surprised but firmly said, "I have no obligation to lend you money."
"Not lending me huh? Then don't expect me to leave tonight. Penniless, I can't exactly go sleep on the streets!" I slanted to one side, sprawling out on the sofa. Then I added, "Don't even think of calling the police. This whole matter was wrong on you and Lao Li's part to begin with. You should've notified me in advance, at least to give me some time to prepare."
She looked at me as if I was the plague, which further confirmed her eagerness to be rid of my pestering. But unexpectedly, she said, "I don't have cash."
I goggled at her. With that one line of 'no cash', she exuded luxury, extravagance, high-end poshness. Of course the bit of cash the rich might stash in their wallets could hardly meet their needs when they casually spent tens of thousands.
"Miss, this is fate! I also don't like carrying cash in my wallet!" I shamelessly told the truth. There really hadn't been much cash in my wallet before.
She ignored me.
I went on, "How about this - lend me your card for a bit and I'll just charge 1,000 yuan. I'll return it when I move tomorrow, or there's an ATM 200 meters downstairs. If you don't trust me, come with me to withdraw it..."
She pulled a bank card out of her wallet, cutting me off, "The password is six zeroes. Get everything done that you need to by 1pm tomorrow."
I took the card she handed over. "No problem!"
In fact, I wasn't surprised she trustingly gave me her card. Lao Li knew all my contact details and work unit clearly. Or perhaps there wasn't much balance left in the card.
...
She sat quietly on the sofa. I looked her over again. To be honest, in my over twenty years of life, I had never seen such a beautiful woman before. She seemed to possess an air unattainable by other women. Unfortunately, we didn't seem to get along very well!
As I left, I said half-teasingly, half-seriously, "Miss, have you considered living together with me? I can cook, give massages - when you come home tired from work, I can give you full service to help you relax...guaranteed to make you feel good..."
"Get lost!" She finally lost her temper. A pillow flew at me with guided missile-like accuracy.