Kang Zixian's POV

          "Ken, are you listening?"

          Sitting opposite me, Tina blinked her eyelashes and softly asked me.  I gathered my thoughts, nodded and said.  "I'm listening."

          Frankly speaking, my heart was ill at ease.

          In my mind, when a couple who had gone separate ways and they meet again a year later, they should fall silent rather than have the feeling of warmth.  But this logic is clearly not exhibited by the fashionable sexy California girl sitting opposite me.  She is still like a fiery fire, straight forward and whatever she wanted or whatever she wanted to say, she would not conceal which was something I had admired about her in the past. 

          And this year, with constant training in European show arenas, now she exuded self-confidence from inside out and she is unable to hide her radiance. 

          Looking at the blonde-haired woman sitting opposite me, unconsciously my mouth curved into a smile and my mind drifted to the other end of the Pacific Ocean missing the black, dark eyes of the Oriental girl. 

          I knew she would never tell the truth.  Whatever her heart says, it would be forever different from what comes out from her mouth and in order to thoroughly understand her heart, one only has to look into her eyes.

          Her eyes speak for her.

          When she is thinking of something mischievous or bad, her big eyes would shift, looking from left to right, afraid to meet your eyes. 

          Probably she does not know that when she is telling lies, she would unconsciously talk a lot.  Her lying eyes and coupled with her lying chattering mouth, are so cute that it often makes me want to laugh.  And often I had to pretend to go along with her and show her my trusting expression just to see her fox-like laugh, filled with confidence that she had succeeded in tricking me.  Somewhere in my heart, it feels like …… a feather is tickling me, stirring up my emotions. 

          Like a few days ago, Police Officer Fang had shyly come to the airport to send me off.  Her big eyes darted around for a while and suddenly she held my chin fiercely and said.  "Tell me, will you be picking foreign flowers?"  I certainly knew that the little prickly hedgehog standing in front of me was actually only a cowardly small sheep.  So in the chaotic mess of the airport, I said the most romantic words that I had ever said in my whole life. 

          "Do you know?  From now, you will be the only flower in my world."

          That time, she had a blank expression on her face.  With her small mouth opened, she looked at me in such a way that caused the little feather in my heart stir up my feelings once again.

          So unable to restrain my emotions and like a lot of lovers at the airport, I kissed her deeply and affectionately to let her know that I could never ever leave her.

          And I will wait for the day when she will take the initiative to kiss me and tell me that she also could never ever leave me.

          "Ken, are you still single?"

          Sitting opposite me, Tina who looked like an exquisite doll asked straight to the point.  She would never act like a reserved girl who would normally and politely ask…..'How are you nowadays?'  When she wanted to ask a question, she would never twist and turn and would choose the Westerner's simple and straightforward way. 

          I took a sip of the mellow red wine, smiled and shook my head.  "No, I already have a girlfriend."

          Tina smiled, shrugged her shoulders then raised her glass elegantly and said.  "Oh, I'm glad we both have found our own happiness."

          I smiled and raised my glass to this girl that I had once loved, in memory of the past and for the future that was worth looking forward to, we gently clinked our glasses.

          "Oh, Ken…..what nationality is your girlfriend?"

          Eyes shining with the light of curiosity, Tina put down her knife and fork, thrust her palm-sized face closer to me and looked at me flirtatiously.  "Am I more beautiful or is she more beautiful?"

          The most beautiful woman, even if she is a T-stage dazzling supermodel, she would still grab hold of the 'who is the most beautiful' topic and would not let go.  Even if there is no more love left between us but she still would not like to lose out to the next woman succeeding her.

          Even though I feel displeased with women who possessed this natural psychological competitive feeling, I still laughed and reminded her.  "Tina, in your life, there is no lack of praises."

          When the woman did not get a satisfactory answer, she showed a trace of disappointment in her expression.  Teasing me with her sultry blonde looks, she said.  "Oh no, Ken…..for women, praises from men are never considered too much and especially if it is from the man that I had once loved."

          Suddenly, Tina mysteriously moved closer to me.  "Ken, I remembered I told you before… a woman, because of a man's praise, would become even more beautiful."

          The beautiful girl raised her thin lips, her face showing her dissatisfaction.  "But Ken, you have always been so mean."

          I declined to comment and smiled and felt grateful to her for reminding me of a certain matter.

          Now to think of it, it seems I have never praised her in front of her.  From the beginning when I first met her, I had always been picking on her faults.  Initially, I was telling the truth and later, I just wanted to tease her to see her angry reactions.  Her vivid eyes could not hide her anger just like a powerless, offended little small lioness.

          I had never told her that actually, she has a pair of charming big eyes, black and bright.  Occasionally that pair of eyes would be lost in thought, exposing a moment of confusion.  Like a lost puppy, cute and pure, she makes people want to take a bite of her and also want to stroke and firmly hold her in an embrace not allowing her to wander around.

          Her big eyes, her palm-size face, her nose, and her mouth are all so likable and if her hair is longer, curtailing her crudeness, then she would be a very sweet little woman.

          Unfortunately, she is not…… and deep down, she is the free and unruly Fang Liang Liang.  Occasionally she would show her little woman temper but that could not represent anything.  She would never be willing to hide behind a man but it did not impede her sweetness. 

          No wonder her boss had sent her into the campus as an undercover agent with her two braids.   Then using her sweet voice to call me 'Uncle', that crisp sound of her voice shot straight into my heart.

          I often feel helpless.  What should I do with such a naughty and indecisive woman?

          She is a contradictory person with many shortcomings, such as she loves to tell lies, loves to swear, loves to say things that contradict with her heart.  She is sensitive, her heart is too soft, too impulsive and she regarded herself as clever, aggressive in fights but…..in feelings of love, she is too timid.  She is the most contradictory and most wonderful woman I had ever met.

          She is wonderful.

          I extremely love her to the bones for her kindness, her innocence, her impulsiveness, and her cowardliness.  Even when she could not win me in an argument and fly into a rage out of humiliation and uttered that word 'fuck'…….listening to her would always give me a wonderful feeling.

          I am a hunter and I love prey that dodges.  I do not know whether there is such a law in the forest…..that is……there will be a day when the hunter will fall in love with his prey, and even if I die, I will never hand over the prey to other hunters.

          I think I cannot let go.

          My beloved prey, though a little confused but in fact, she is very cautious.  I wanted to chase after her, make her use up almost all of her energy and then make her obediently ask me for food. 

          I wanted her to take the initiative to come over to me.

          "Ken, you have changed.  In the past, you don’t like to smile."  Tina elegantly tapped her index finger with red nail polish on the tabletop.  She looked incredibly at me.  "Ken, before this, you were a cold man and it's the truth.  Your coldness made me love and hate you at the same time.  Come on, tell me, who is the girl."

          Tina's interested look made me smiled.  Maybe when we broke up, we did not love each other too deeply, so today it is possible to naturally and openly discuss love.  Thinking of this, my heart sank when I remembered the frightened look in her eyes when she saw her old love.  I felt unhappy.

          "She is Chinese......just an ordinary Oriental girl."

          "Oh, an Oriental girl?  Then she must have elongated eyes like Mulan?"

          "No, her eyes are very big and very beautiful.  The first thing that attracted me was her eyes."

          Tina waved her hand.  "Ken, stop it! Stop it!  I can’t stand my ex-boyfriend praising his current girlfriend.  I am a petty woman!"

          Unconcerned, I laughed and said.  "Tina, you are still as lovely as ever."

          The woman sitting opposite shrugged her shoulders, her fan-like eyelashes fluttered, and she looked pitifully at me.  "But you have fallen in love with someone else."

          I smiled and clinked our glasses.  "Every man will love you, charming lady."

          Tina raised her proud beautiful head and laughed heartily which attracted the attention of a few men within sight.  Laughingly she said.  "Oh Ken, you have always loved to give people surprises.  It's such a pity……at one time you had been mine.  I'm really jealous of that Chinese girl."

          "I am also jealous of the man who will always have you."

          "Ken, are you feeling nostalgic for me?"

          "No, Tina, I'm giving you my blessings."

          "Okay, thank you for your blessings."  The girl smiled gracefully.  She blinked her big eyes.  "Ken, I am still very curious.  Tell me how did you get to meet the girl?  Do you know that recently I collected 100 men and women love stories, and I even took a bachelor's degree from Yale University?"  The girl made a neat gesture with her index finger, beautiful and confident.  "Recently a newspaper approached me to write a column for them."

          I did not speak.

          "Tell me, Ken.  You already knew at that time, how much I had done just to have a beautiful chance encounter with you.  Tell me how did the girl conquer you, this iceberg?  Was it a beautiful chance encounter?  Huh?"

          I reluctantly smiled and really did not know how to tell the woman sitting opposite me and explain to her our beginning.

          In fact, it was not a beautiful encounter. 

          It was like I was feeling upset with myself for helping such an incoherent nightclub hostess.  She was actually good……she could simply forget my name after she woke up. 

          I always took for granted that in places like Meise where the male dominated the female, any nightclub hostess would hope to climb up the high branches* (social ladder).  In general, in an establishment like Meise, the social rules would be to use soft voice tones to treat the gentlemen and urban men and women would then get to satisfy their individual needs. 

           So when I first saw a drunken woman walking unsteadily towards me, I instinctively felt a burst of resentment. 

          But her behavior compared to the enchanting nightclub hostesses that I usually encountered was different.  That kind of rude, weird, erratic thoughts of hers and even with her heavy makeup on, I could see her big eyes turning chaotically which were impressive. 

          It was because of her pair of big deceptive eyes…..so when she said her name was Hu You Ni, I believed her.

          A drunken insane nightclub hostess……it was my later evaluation of her.

          Perhaps it was because she was drunk and the words she said were a bit weird and her behavior was out of the ordinary.  Before I went to sleep, the image of a crazy girl accidentally jumped into my mind.  I felt it was incredible and I hardly let anyone make me so dumbfounded.

          In fact, that night I should have gone on a blind date that my grandmother had arranged for me.  I refused to go and used the excuse of meeting Martin for some work to avoid the appointment but my grandmother still would not accept the excuse that I made up and insisted that I must go. 

          I hung up the phone, turned around and saw her coming out of the toilet.  Now to think of it, if my grandmother had not made that phone call to me, both of us would have passed each other, not knowing each other in the vast sea of people.

          After returning from overseas, my grandmother was committed and keen to arrange for my marriage.  The elder was getting on in years and being able to find something to do, she happily busied herself with the marriage plans.  I opened one eye and closed the other eye to let her be.  In my heart, I knew that whatever she does, it would not end with a satisfactory result because I stubbornly think that with the woman in my life, our first meeting should not be at a table conducted in a blind-date manner. 

          When I do things, I emphasized on efficiency but never agreed that marriage should also be so efficient.

          We were completely strangers, a man and a woman, plus with a little catalysis of alcohol.  She came towards me with her heavy makeup covering her original facial features and her pair of beautiful eyes looked at me up and down then she said.  "Hey, take your coat off!  I'm cold!"

          She had the appearance of a charming little lady but with the tone of a rogue.

          I had already walked away but I did not know why……after hearing her say.  "Give me your coat and I'll tell you my name."……I stopped in my tracks.

          I told her........I will remember you.

          The second meeting immediately came.  She instantly sprouted tears, acted pitiful and occasionally showed sadness.  And her lies that could not withstand the tests which faintly made me feel that she was not just a simple nightclub hostess.

          She was like a plain box, rich in contents and every content in the box would not disappoint me.  I was anxious to know what was inside the box and she had successfully aroused my curiosity.

          That night she was really angry and was even too lazy to quarrel with me.  I guessed she really did not care about me.

          She called me the first time as I had expected….then the next two days, she let me down. 

          She did not look for me and I could not find her.

          So when she inexplicably resigned and also she claimed that she has leukemia, I unexpectedly stood in front of her house.  While cursing myself for acting like a juvenile with spring heart sprouting buds* (Feelings of love beginning to fester), I was actually affected by a nightclub hostess.  As I pressed the doorbell, I told myself that I would only press five times then I would leave immediately and forget about her completely.

          The first time, the door did not move.

          The second time, the door did not move.

          The third time, the door did not move.

          The fourth time, the door did not move.

          The fifth time, the door did not move.

          And when I turned away, the door opened.......

          Inside the door, the big-eyed girl was stunned for a while and then she casually blinked her eyes.  It was the pure appearance that I had imagined.  It was the first time I saw her without makeup and at that moment, I knew I could not tear myself away.

          And so, our story, which started with such an incredible and unimaginable meeting, began……

          Once friends of my cousin had sung a song impromptu in a Pub and the name of the song was called 'Conquer'.

          I had to admit that there was a girl who conquered me in only three nights.

          And I am grateful that I did not go against my heart's desire and thus began the process of conquering her.

          I could not help but curved the corners of my mouth.  I smiled at Tina and said.  "It is a very long and beautiful story."