The whole morning, I was helplessly forced by Jiang Li to watch The Curse 3.  In the end, I could even see ghost floating provocatively at me almost sucking out my soul.  The grievances from the film were too heavy and I was affected.

          Originally, I wanted to go to the toilet as an excuse to slip away but Jiang Li knew of my ruse, shook his index finger at me and refused to let me go.

          Obviously, I did not dare to watch the film but due to curiosity, my eyes were inadvertently drawn to the screen.  When a part was scary, I would scream in a low voice and just like grabbing to a life-saving straw, I would grab Jiang Li's arm and cry.  "Oh mother, Oh mother......ah, ah………"

          "Fool."  Jiang Li turned sideways and gave me a disgusted look.  His eyes were full of disdain like Kang Zixian's but he was kind enough not to pull away from my claws that was clinging to his arm.

          After watching the film until the end, I actually did not dare to go to the toilet.

          I followed Jiang Li and walked out of the library after the show.  Slowly walking in the golden sunshine, I felt the grievances in my body began to scatter a little and my heartbeat had become steadier.  Japanese filmmakers were regarded as the best even though basically their styles were the same.  After seeing more of it, there was nothing surprising but only gave a feeling of frustration.  I used to think that being in the police force, one had to be brave and the heartbeat was a necessity and in all aspects, I did not lose to men.

          I realized that I am a coward.

          I am afraid of spiders, afraid of snakes, afraid of Lao Tan, afraid of love and also now realize I am afraid of horror films.

          That kind of powerful force of death that people cannot escape from, even the sun cannot drive away the haze.

          In fact, the shooting technique used in The Curse was nothing new and the plot was also old-fashioned.  What was really terrible was people could actually feel the breathlessness when the God of Death strangled one's neck.

          Waiting at the traffic light, I looked at the traffic police standing on the opposite side of the road directing traffic and suddenly I thought of my father who was in heaven.

          "Hey, what are you doing?"  Jiang Li who had walked two to three steps ahead of me turned around and shouted at me.  I was still dreaming and standing in my original position.  I gathered my thoughts and answered "Oh......" 

          Seeing the green light for the pedestrian was still blinking, I quickly caught up with him as I laughed and lied to him.  "He, he……I was just thinking about what to eat for lunch."

          Not waiting for him to answer, I talked to myself whilst shaking my head and sighed.  "My father had gone on a business trip these two days.  My mother doesn't know how to cook and so we had instant noodles.  The day before yesterday evening, we had duck flavor, yesterday afternoon, we had braised beef flavor and last night was the pickled vegetable flavor."

          When I lied, my face did not blush nor did my heart missed a beat.  Leaning towards him, I pretended to be depressed and asked.  "Jiang Li, take a sniff, take a sniff…..do I smell like instant noodles?"

          Jiang Li, with his hands in his pockets, coldly looked sideways at me.  "Stay away from me, I hate instant noodles."

          Then he speeded up his pace and walked off alone indifferently, revealing a cruel fact:  I was not pleasing to his eyes.

          I looked helplessly at the young man in front of me with mixed feelings.  One word could only describe my feeling……defeated.

          Even if I had not lost confidence in my charms completely, I was also skeptical whether I could complete the task given to me by the Bureau.  But in my heart, there was another me that was unwilling to admit defeat and was shouting and waving a flag:  Fang Liang Liang, you must win for glory, you cannot give up halfway!

          I could not give up.  I would not beg him.  As long as I could step into his house, complete Lao Tan's task given to me, I would be able to say goodbye to this little bunny who speaks with sharp, cutting words.

          In order to win for glory, I caught up with him to pester him and said cheekily.  "Jiang Li, you don’t like to eat instant noodles?  Who usually cooks in your family?  In my family, my father cooks but his food is not nice, what about your family?"

          "Nanny."  He said through his nose, his eyes looking blankly ahead.

          "Nanny?  Then is her cooking good?  I heard there are a lot of nannies who are very good and they are also well trained.  They are even comparable to chef level.  But my mother wants to save money, so we don’t have a nanny, ai……."

          I looked at Jiang Li and sadly said.  "Jiang Li, you're so blessed, I envy you."

          Usually, I eat takeaway food and really envy the young man beside me.  Born with a golden key in his mouth* and brought up in the palms of his parents, he must not have experienced failure before.  So he acts arrogantly, does everything his own way and ignores other people's feelings.

          (Born with a golden key in his mouth means born into a wealthy family.  The English version is born with a golden spoon in his mouth but the Chinese version is a golden key.),

          "Jiang Li, can your family's nanny bake cakes?  What about pudding?"

          "Well, she will definitely know how to cook dumplings."

          "Oh, is she an ethnic Korean?  Does she make kimchi?  Cabbage kimchi?  Radish kimchi?"

          On the street with the endless stream of pedestrians, I was like a crow which kept making a ruckus near his ear.  My words were implicit suggestions and Jiang Li was smart enough to understand and abruptly stopped walking.  His beautiful eyes lazily glanced at me and his mouth lifted into a slight smile as he casually asked.  "Would you like to try my nanny's cooking?"

          After spending such a long time talking endlessly, eventually, I heard what I had hoped to hear.  I could hardly wait to nod but pretended to be shy and looked at him.  Twisting the hem of my clothes, my mouth spewed words that I did not truly mean.  "That……is not very nice."

          I was waiting for him to invite me.

          He said.  "Ah, it's actually not very nice.  A fool like you……"  His evil speech trailed off then brazenly looked at me from head to toe.  "You are more suited to eat instant noodles."

          I felt a pail of cold water was splashed onto my head, completely dousing the small slowly burning flames in my heart……I was furious.

          I gritted my teeth and the anger in my heart rose three meters high like a volcano waiting to erupt.

          Despite my continuous patience, at this moment, my hot temper was almost going to explode.  I reined in the anger in my heart with a big smile and lowered my head to hastily glanced at my Hello Kitty wristwatch.  I blinked and said.  "Ah, it's already so late in the afternoon. Jiang Li, I'll go first, my mother will be waiting for me to go home and eat noodles."

          "What?  A wristwatch that was soaked in water can still be used?"  Jiang Li suddenly said some strange words.

          "What?"  I was stunned for a few seconds.  Suddenly I realized that this watch had really been soaked in water.  That day, Kang Zixian had chased me and I had run like crazy in the rain disregarding everything.

          So, he had seen us?

          No way……..

          My reaction could be considered as fast and the alarm in my head rang.  As I anxiously blinked my eye to think of a way to lie through this when Jiang Li opened his mouth to speak.

          "Hey, you mentioned in your letter that you wanted to be friends with me, right?"  Jiang Li's facial expression finally began to look serious actually giving me an illusion like I was talking to an adult.

          I nodded as my smile stiffened and my palm began to sweat.  "Yes, yes."

          "You know I'm very picky about my friends."  He said arrogantly and looked at me.  "I despise people who lie especially those who lie easily like taking their meals."

          He glanced at me then turned his gaze to the busy road.  "That type of people…..cannot even compare to trash."  He laughed arrogantly.  "I will not be associated with this type of people."

          My cheeks were hot and I only felt that the words that flew out from the young man's thin lips were as hard as stones being thrown at me.

          It felt like I had been slapped……slapped in the face by a young and vigorous 18-year-old boy.

          The more ridiculous thing was that I think he is right and I could not find any reason on the contrary because, at the age of eighteen, I was also so radical when I looked at the world.  My eyes could not stand having a grain of sand and I could not bear to see the slightest betrayal or lies.

          But unconsciously, the cruel time had polished me into a pebble.  A pebble that is full of lies and the lies are of my own making in order to work and if the lies are not harmful it is still acceptable.

          After I reached adulthood, I understood the meaning of self-deception and assumed it was inevitable and right but a few words from the boy had destroyed everything.

          Sadly, the lie that I had weaved still had to continue.

          I was not even comparable to trash.

          I scratched my head foolishly and earnestly and sincerely I said.  "Jiang Li, I really want to be friends with you.  I will work hard.  I……..can I be your friend?"

          Waiting for his answer for the next few seconds, my heart continued to beat like a drum.

          He glanced lazily at me, leisurely put his hands in his pockets and looked at the hawkers on the opposite and said. "Want to be my friend?  Then you should take a look at your watch and recall.  Try to remember whether you have forgotten anything, then I'll make a decision."

          My heart tightened.  This little bastard is really sharp, young and accomplished.  In future, he should be a powerful figure.

          Some things cannot deceive him.

          I was certain Jiang Li had witnessed that chaotic chase on that rainy day and the problem was…..how much had he seen …..my heart began to grow cold.  I remembered that in the end, I had been led by Kang Zixian back to his car.  At that time I had bickered and tussled with him.  I felt ashamed and bowed my head without looking at the faces of the passers-by.

          I was too careless.

          This explained Jiang Li's strange actions and although it seems childish, in fact, he wanted to vent his anger.

          Jiang Li leisurely waited for my answer.  I quickly weighed the options and decisively gambled for once.  "The……the watch was really soaked in water and it was all because of that bad guy, surnamed Kang………"

          Jiang Li slightly lifted his beautiful eyebrows, indicating that he was listening carefully.

          The most critical moment had arrived.  I lied with my heart bursting with palpitations and my whole back was sweating.

          "Oh, that man surnamed Kang was actually the uncle who talked to Teacher Ye the other day.  You have seen him before.  He……he is my cousin sister's boyfriend…...ex-boyfriend to be exact.  He is a playboy and my cousin sister is true to him.  He is carrying on with other girls behind my cousin sister's back and he is really bad."

          My whole back was sweating and did not know whether Kang Zixian would sneeze when I said bad things about him.  Now, I only prayed that this lie would quickly dupe Jiang Li.

          I reminded myself to be calm and continue to weave a beautiful story.  "I and my cousin sister are very close and my cousin sister nearly committed suicide because of him.  That day when I saw him with Teacher Ye, I was very angry…..so angry that my lungs almost exploded.  So….."  I slowly tapered off.  Actually, I did not know how to continue from there.

          "So......what happened?"  Jiang Li asked with an unforgiving tone, trying to get to the bottom of the matter.

          "So the next day when he went out on a date with another girl, I stalked them."  I rolled my eyes and hurriedly added.  "The girl was not Teacher Ye, it was someone else.  When he left the girl alone for a while, I took the opportunity to tell the girl about his bad deeds and also secretly scratched his car.  He found out and so that day he came to school to teach me a lesson."

          Pretending to be angry, I puffed up my cheeks and put my hands on my waist.  "Huh….I'm not afraid of him.  Such a bad guy and he is a bully!……really, really bad."

          I scolded Kang Zixian and my heart wondered whether he was having a severe bout of sneezing.  Anyway, it was all his fault.

          Jiang Li was quietly taking in my performance and his face was blank like he was speculating on something and he finally muttered.  "Hitting a stone with an egg*.  Next time stay far away from that person." (Hitting a stone with an egg is overestimate one's own strength when doing something impossible)

          "Come, I'll take you someplace to freeload food.  It's nearby."  Lazily he moved and walked off leisurely.

          Following behind him, I felt relieved.  My shoulder suddenly relaxed and felt fatigued which was similar to the feeling of fatigue after a hard-fought battle.

          Fei Ge is right.  Men are difficult to handle and the young man in front of me is not an exception.

          The skinny pale-faced brat had actually refined his set of old rabbit skills.

          Nowadays the youngsters had really consumed too much Kentucky Fried Chicken….... they have become too precocious…..

          Along the way, I was on guard and tried to strike up a conversation with Jiang Li to butter him up.  Every word was filtered in my mind before uttering them and his attitude began to warm up.  Although he still maintained his cold expression, at least I was not kept at a distance of thousands of miles away. 

          He led me around, turning and twisting and finally stopped in an old courtyard.  The courtyard was simple and low-key but from the high tiled walls, it can be seen that this place was originally owned by someone of remarkable wealth, presumably a large wealthy family.  But times had changed too rapidly and it was unknown whether the owner and his descendants' incense are still burning or whether they are still prosperous.

          Later I found out that Jiang Li grandparents were staying in the house.  The two elderly people were still strong and healthy.  Maybe the deserted courtyard gave a feeling of loneliness but as to our visit, they showed happiness and laughing faces displaying their chrysanthemum wrinkles.

          My maternal grandparents had passed away a long time ago and my paternal grandparents did not stay in A-city.  Only during New Year, I would visit them but we were not that close.  Today, looking at the two old folks, my heart had a very warm feeling.

          The two elderly were happy to prepare lunch for us and Jiang Li's grandfather also reminded his grandmother by directly shouting at her.  "Old woman, this is the first time Jiang Li brought a girl over!  Cook a few more dishes!"

          Suddenly I blushed and awkwardly peeked at Jiang Li.  He was reading the newspaper with his head bowed with no changes to his expression.

          I did not know why……but facing the youthful young boy, I suddenly felt as if I was sitting on a bed of pins and needles.

          Obviously, I was working in the name of justice but I felt like I was committing a crime and it was a crime that was sinful and unforgivable.

          "Jiang Li, your grandparents are good people, no wonder you are so good."

          "Hey, are you speaking the opposite trying to be sarcastic?"

          "I…..I didn’t."

          "A fool like you telling lies......  Do you think I don’t know?  You're obviously saying the opposite."

          "Okay, okay.  You have changed, will that be okay?"

          "You…..you have the courage to say so?"

          He narrowed his beautiful eyebrows and his face showed a faint threat.

          I could only reply.  "You said so……to be your friend, one has to be honest."

          Suddenly he opened his mouth and laughed.  The sunshine broke through and his eyes showed gentleness.

          I did not feel confident and I rubbed my eyes but I had to admit the pupils in his eyes reflected a silly girl's face.  She was playing the role of Jian Mei Da, a little girl that was non-existent and seemed a bit silly who used lies to cover a cruel purpose.

          My sense of guilt had deepened for no reason like the burden of a heavy cross torturing my moral and my conscience.