rainbow

A sunny morning. A clear, warm morning after so many cold, windy, cloudy days.

I greeted the long-awaited good weather with a rare early rise. In fact, I woke up hungry, and although I wanted to go back to sleep, my empty stomach pouch was protesting in full force. Lifting the curtains, I realized that the sky was still dim, it must be after five o’clock. But sunrise should be later in this season. What time is it? The alarm clock had been borrowed by my brother, the watch was in my jacket pocket, and the time on the stereo had not been adjusted; the only timekeeping tool left in the room was the computer. After pressing the power switch and waiting about twenty seconds for the boot-up procedure, the big, expensive, power-hungry and impractical clock tells me it’s 5:11 a.m.

It was a little early, the continental breakfast buffet at Fannie’s didn’t start until 7:30am. I took that time to knock out two jokes from the serial, typing in hunger was not a very pleasant thing to do. I managed to make it to 7:20, hurriedly tied up my hair, threw on my jacket, grabbed my half-read Haruki Murakami, and headed out to quell my long-protesting stomach.

I really like the breakfast at Fannie’s, ninety-seven dollars gets you all you can eat and the food is good, but unfortunately the time I get up is usually the time they start serving lunch. Thinking about it, today I was their first customer to open the store. I picked a seat where I could get some sun later, walked up to the bar, and grabbed a big plate of food such as dinner rolls, cream, bacon, hot dogs, scrambled eggs, and other grains. I was really starving.

“Excuse me,” a voice rang in his ear just as he was about to start. “May I sit here?”

The voice was nice and emotional, not like it came from a stranger. I looked up and the speaker was a girl with long hair and a sweet smile. She was wearing jeans, a white sweater and a blazer, I think it was a boy’s blazer. Maybe nineteen or twenty? I wasn’t sure, really having no concept of a woman’s age.

We were the only two customers in the restaurant, and I smiled at her, looking into her eyes with a questioning gaze. Her eyes weren’t big, but she had long eyelashes. She smiled again, squinting her eyes halfway up.

The first thought that came to my head was direct sales. I’ve been in this situation a few times, and it turned out to be either direct marketing or selling encyclopedias. But come to think of it, the person who plays this game probably wouldn’t come to Fang Neighborhood Restaurant, where there aren’t many people, at 7:00 in the morning to look for a hotshot, would she? Maybe she had to work overtime because of the competition?

“If you can guess my name, this meal is on me, is that okay?” She didn’t wait for me to answer and quite automatically sat down across from me.

“Then let me guess… Wong Yun Ling?” Seeing that she was being so nonchalant, I got cheeky with her too. She really did bear a resemblance to the young Wong Yun Ling.

“Stop it la,.” She laughed even more happily, as if she had blurted out my name for a moment.

I froze. She recognized me? I thought of the movie scenario, would she take out my driver’s license and read, “Born on such and such a day in such and such a year, I.D. number…”? I felt in my pocket, my wallet was still there. So she really recognized me? But I don’t remember anything about her… “Wow! You eat so much? Why are you still as skinny as before?” She looked at the dinner plate in front of me and seemed startled. It didn’t seem necessary for me to explain to her that this was my first meal since noon yesterday.

However, her words gave me some hints: she should be a classmate of mine in elementary school or junior high school, because I had gained weight for a period of time after my sophomore year of high school, and my weight had increased to about 65 kilograms. But if she was from elementary school or junior high school, we hadn’t seen each other for at least five or six years, so how could she recognize me at once?

“I’ll get the groceries, and you help me pour the coffee.” The owner’s wife brought our coffee cups, and with increasing automaticity, she pushed both of them in front of me. My head was a little confused, and I dutifully went and poured two cups of coffee and took two creamers. She ate simply, scrambled eggs, porridge, kohlrabi and a few bits and pieces. Compared to her, the pile in front of me was as tall as a mountain, and I knew I’d be carrying another mountain back later.

“You can have mine if you don’t have enough to eat.” She looked at the two dinner trays and found it funny herself. I looked a little fatter in my leather jacket, but in fact I was only about fifty-five kilograms, at most seven or eight kilograms heavier than her. But the mountain in front of me was at least five times the size of her pile.

“When did you start wearing glasses? It’s a little better looking with glasses.” I silently try to fool around while she tries to figure out what makes me different from before.

“Your ponytail should be trimmed to look better.” I’m now sure she’s my elementary school classmate. I only put on my glasses in middle school. It was hard to believe that she recognized me at once, whom she hadn’t seen for eight or nine years.

Assuming that she was a classmate in the 5th or 6th grade of our elementary school, there were about 30 girls in my class at that time, and I compared the faces I could think of with hers one by one, but I couldn’t find a single one that crossed my path. Of course, she could have been from another class. I was quite famous in elementary school, and most of the students knew I was there.

“I give up,” I said, it was a real puzzle, “publish the riddle!”

“I -don’t- want it.” She flashed a mischievous smile. That’s when the owner’s wife put our bill on the table.

She apparently mistook the fact that we were eating together and wrote both breakfasts on top of the same bill. “Here’s the deal,” she said, also realizing the fact that we had to pay the bill together, “if you can figure out who I am before I’m done eating, this meal is on me. If you can’t guess, you’re buying me, and that’s it!”

She didn’t even give me a chance to object. She was mercifully slow to eat her breakfast, though. I tried to get some more clues out of her, but she was pretty tight-lipped and couldn’t get anything out of her. I’m going to lose this one. She ate slowly, but what little food she had was gone in a flash. She poured another cup of coffee and twirled the spoon around, staring mischievously at my food. It wasn’t really comfortable being stared at like that, so I didn’t take a second plate of food, even though I wasn’t completely full.

“Guess what?” She didn’t seem to have enough of screwing with me. I got a little impatient and read out all the names of the girls I remembered, one by one.

“Rascal!” She kept shaking her head: “How can anyone guess like that?”

“What do I care, that’s a guess,” I had to play along in my desperation. “I guessed, didn’t I? It’s Piggy who’s lying whoo.”

“Not at all, you’ve simply got the wrong direction.” She seemed pleased that my duplicity hadn’t worked. “Any other names? Read them out together, it’s not easy to remember the names of so many girls. How about this, if you can pronounce the names of a hundred girls from Koku’s childhood, I’ll lose.” A hundred? Kill me and then knock on my skull and see if you can read my memories from the sound waves forget it.

“I lost.” The minutes ticked by and we seemed to have sat here long enough. “Announce the riddle.”

“I don’t want to…”

“I must have guessed it earlier, you rascal.”

“It’s not! Just don’t tell you.”

“Okay, I’ll count today as a loss, but I’m going to flip,” I don’t know why, but my mouth won’t listen to the command. “I’ll guess next time, you can’t cheat.”

“No problem, by all means.” She was getting smug. “That’s enough for today, we’ll continue tomorrow.”

“Where are you going?” I asked as I exited the restaurant. This place wasn’t very accessible, and I should probably give her a ride.

“Guess.” She stepped onto one of the bicycles in front of the restaurant. Long hair flowed in the wind and hit me in the face.

“Ahh! That hurts!”

“Serves you right.” She tossed her head mischievously again, I had my guard up this time and dodged the blow, “Next time don’t stand behind a girl with long hair.”

“Wait a minute! I have something to say!” Looking at the tips of her hair fading away, I suddenly thought of something. She heard it and stopped the car to look back at me.

“You… you… you…” I ran a few steps to catch up with her, but the words in my mind kept coming out.

“What is it? I’m in a hurry, tell me!”

“How… how do you take care of your hair? My hair is always in knots.” Anyway, I’ve already lost this mess today, so why don’t I just make a mess back tomorrow? You can’t run away, Rainbow.

“I’ll teach you next time.” She’s still wearing that mischievous smile. Looks like I’m really being eaten up by her. Do I really have to get up early in the morning every day from now on? It’s really torture.

Can anyone tell me if this two hundred dollar breakfast is worth it?

She likes to be called Rainbow, even though her name is Rainbow.

“Rainbows are pretty and nice, but too pretty and too nice,” was her reply when asked why. “Simply put, it’s tacky.”

I don’t feel comfortable telling her what I associate with these two words, kind of like Qiong Yao’s name, but Rainbow loves her pen name, stage name and flower name. Whenever she meets new people, she always quickly says: “Hi, call me Rainbow, rain of rain, bow and arrow of bow.” Occasionally, some people with good imagination would think of the word rainbow, but with her insistence, over time, everyone only remembered her name as Rainbow, and forgot about the other girl named Rainbow.

I don’t know if Rainbow is beautiful or not, but her long hair is beautiful and definitely qualified for a shampoo commercial. Her waist-length straight hair is so dark and shiny that it hangs down from her ear. No matter male or female, everyone will have the urge to reach out and caress it. Perhaps when people saw Rainbow, they only noticed her long hair, but ignored her appearance, and when they started to notice her appearance, they realized that at some point, Rainbow’s face had already been deeply embedded in their minds, and there was no difference between beauty and ugliness at all. Rainbow didn’t mind being touched or even played with; in fact, she always flicked her hair around to tantalize her fingers. Her cheerfulness tends to scare some of her newer friends who are not yet afraid to reach out and touch her hair. Sometimes you’d find a tooth mark on your straw that didn’t belong to you, or even a hint of lipstick on the rim of your cup, and it was definitely Rainbow’s doing. The rainbow I see, always striding half walking, half jumping light footsteps, hanging a delightful smile, so that people have to put away all kinds of haze in their hearts, will have long been wet, icy happiness hanging out for the heat of her sunshine.

No one seems to know about Rainbow’s past, she never mentions it, and the only stories people know are those that have happened since they met her. Occasionally, when someone would mention these topics, she would always brush them off as if they were important, but then she would become a little quieter, a little more absentminded. As a result, her past was gradually buried along with her real name in the tacit understanding of her friends.

Rainbow is like one of Murakami’s girls, a girl with beautiful ears. The real Rainbow is hidden by her beautiful hair, and it is only when she wants to that she lifts the veil and reveals herself. Perhaps then she would say, “Call me Rainbow.”

I didn’t know any of this then. Until we met the next morning, I remembered her as the same little girl called Rainbow with two braids tied in her hair.

God knows how I came up with the idea of a rainbow. A junior high school girl who had worked together for three consecutive years at the science fair, fooling around in the lab classroom every day talking about anything and everything, and rightfully paired up with her bored and good-natured classmates. Of course, the current her and the one I remember are the opposite of each other, but perhaps it’s that unique mischievous expression of hers that brings back distant memories.

The next morning, at 7:45 a.m., I was sitting in the same seat at the Fannie’s restaurant, a large plate of inexplicably assorted food piled up in front of me, a small spoon in my hand mindlessly stirring the cheap coffee that left no desire for a refill, waiting for the sunshine and the rainbow to arrive. Rainbow arrived a little before Sunshine. She unceremoniously plopped her butt into the chair across from her, and I seemed to hear the poor chair wail. As far as physics was concerned, although she wasn’t heavy, the kinetic energy associated with such speed was still considerable; as far as psychology was concerned, it seemed uncommon to find a woman in a narrow skirt who was still this reckless.

“Rainbow.” I didn’t bother to beat around the bush.

“Brilliant,” she didn’t make a show of it either, as if my reaction was expected, “It’s my treat today instead.”

“That’s a pretty hard meal to earn.” A heartfelt laugh, the tacit understanding created in childhood was returning.

“You didn’t guess, though.” She smiled and stood up, extending her right hand to me, “Hello, nice to meet you, call me Rainbow, rain as in rain, bow as in bow and arrow.”

Confused and confused, I followed suit and stood up, gently shaking her hand.

“Don’t be nervous, you’re not mistaken,” my dumbfounded look was probably amusing as she gestured for me to sit down before explaining, “You did think of who I am, it’s just that this codename I use, or name as it’s commonly known, isn’t quite the same as what you remember. “

“Rainbow… Rainbow?” Having regained my ability to think a little, I made this obvious connection.

“Sure is smart enough.” Her smile grew wider, but there seemed to be no thought of further explanation.

Not one to ask questions, I stuck a hot dog in my mouth and took the opportunity to organize my head, even though there really wasn’t much information to organize. That’s how I met Rainbow.

Like rain bow such a girl, of course, will not be no one to chase, and then I learned from the side, often with her group of friends, at least two or three had chased her, but were politely rejected. The strange thing is, the couple can not do, but we are still very good friends. Maybe couples and friends don’t seem to conflict, but usually we see more exceptions.

Truly in love with Rainbow, can’t recall when. Right after the morning we met, we had a series of eleven days of breakfast club newspaper, also forced me to change the habits of night owls. At that time it seemed that there was still nothing special about Rainbow, it was purely like meeting a familiar new friend and finding a strange old one. And it was a joy to talk with her. Our interests didn’t seem to intersect much, she didn’t play computers, didn’t watch baseball or basketball; I had limited interest in show business, and had little contact with art movies.

Fiction is probably the only hobby we share, but we rarely talk about it.

However, whether she is talking and I am listening, or I am talking and she is listening, it is quite an interesting thing. In my eyes, she is better at breaking up movies than Jiao Pingxiong; while in her eyes, I am probably better at playing with computers than Steve Jobs. Of course, without the other party’s introduction, I would have no idea who Jiao Pingxiong was, and she would have no idea who Steve Jobs was.

We seem to have regained those childhood days when we talked about everything, but only about the recent situation and childhood, and Rainbow never talked about the time in between. She now attends a university in the south, and returns to Taipei during winter break to work as an odd-jobber (as she calls herself) at a relative’s company nearby, but what about her junior high school? What about high school? She always smiles but doesn’t answer, and then digresses.

Twelve breakfast club reports in all, I paid the bill seven times, she five. We would always find something boring to bet on the next breakfast bill. For example, what time and hour would the sunlight hit the salt shaker on the table? Will the woman outside in the narrow black dress walk in? Will I be able to finish this smashable source material I have in my hands by tomorrow?

“Let’s bet a little special today.” She said thoughtfully as she played with her hair during the last breakfast meeting chime.

“Wasn’t the previous bet special enough?” I thought back to the day before yesterday, on the eve of the deadline, after the breakfast club had finished reporting, when I’d gone home and pounded the keyboard for four or five hours, and had to pick at the lights to lighten up the perverted peach history of that little white boy, and still ended up losing the next day’s breakfast.

“I’m going back to Kaohsiung tomorrow, is that special enough.” For the first time, I saw her melancholic expression.

“So… what’s the bet?” If she had told me earlier, I could have prepared a gift, but unfortunately it was too late. Looking at her sadness, my mood involuntarily dropped as well.

“Betting… whether you will fall in love with me.” The melancholy on her face instantly cleared away, revealing a smile that was a registered trademark of hers, and I had indeed been tricked again.

“So which side do you want me to bet on? Will, or won’t?” This kind of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it repartee is kinda common when a person doesn’t want to face a pointed question.

“It’s none of my business, is it,” I scrutinized her expression, still the same mindless smile, “The decision is yours, it’s up to you to win or lose, and I’m losing out.”

“Then of course I bet it won’t.” I replied carefully.

“Ugh, what a disappointment.” Not a bit of disappointment could be seen on her face.

“In life, it is a blessing to find a good friend.” I don’t know which book I read the sentence, now available. “If you don’t know how to cherish it, and rashly ask for a closer relationship, you just can’t talk about a couple, and you don’t even get to be friends.”

“I see,” she said, after a minute or two of silence, “that I am lost.”

Doing the math, Rainbow should be done with her exams and on summer vacation. I didn’t call her house to confirm, I just set the timer function of the stereo to 7:00 a.m. before going to bed. Whether I could wait for her or not, I didn’t know and didn’t think it mattered. Anyway, even if I couldn’t wait, it would be nice to get up early and read some books.

On this day, she didn’t come, but I knew she would come tomorrow or the day after; it was our tacit agreement, stronger than any kind of pact.

The next day, she didn’t come; the third day, she didn’t come. By the fourth day, she came, still with a cheerful smile, still at an easy pace.

“Where’s your hair?” We asked each other in unison in surprise. Her waist-length hair was cut off and turned into only semi-long hair that fell to her shoulders. My ponytail was also cut off, turning it into the normal hairstyle that you see everywhere.

“Here it is.” We each pointed to our hair and answered with another laugh in unison. After a second of silence, the two maniacs burst into a pile of laughter, and this kind of question and answer was tacitly understood, I guess. There weren’t any other customers in the restaurant yet, or we probably would’ve gotten dozens of sharp stares. She didn’t ask me why I cut my hair, and I didn’t ask her. We both know that if the other party is willing to say, it is not necessary to ask questions; if the other party is not willing to say, then no matter what means to force the question, can only get “the weather is hot” kind of answer.

I don’t know why, but looking at her with her short hair, I suddenly remembered the bet I made five months ago, and started thinking, did I win? Or did I lose? I guess I won, she hadn’t stuck with me between those five months, and I never recalled her in my mind’s eye when I was occasionally as lustful as every normal boy. She was just a friend, a friend to talk to. It should have been a lost cause, if she was nothing more than a friend, why would I have taken this meeting with her so seriously that I even had to wait for her for four days in a row? In my subconscious, she must have occupied an important position. Maybe it wasn’t quite right from my point of view, it should be from her point of view. Did she win? Or did she lose?

“Sir, may I ask you,” Rainbow didn’t let me think so much about it, and after a few sentences of meaningless chit-chat, she purposely put away her smile and asked in a serious manner, “Who should pay for this stall today?”

“Gong Xi, you lost.” Since I can’t figure out if I’ve lost or won, let’s just say she’s lost… Who says there has to be a winner and a loser in gambling? Maybe if she loses, I lose too?

“I’ve really lost a lot of money, and I’ve lost both people’s money.” Rainbow’s ability to disguise her expression improved again, a picture of pity.

“Unfortunately, I haven’t earned your man yet.” Being used to being lied to by her, I followed suit and put on a sighing expression, but of course, my acting skills were no match for hers.

“Don’t you understand,” her voice grew smaller, barely audible, “that my person, my heart, my everything, belongs to you.”

“Wow, Rainbow,” and that’s tacit agreement, I guess, “I swear I’ll love you with every cell and hair in my body.”

We finally couldn’t help ourselves, so the explosive version of Xiao Shuang and Mu Yao were lying on the table together, laughing maniacally. By this time the store had already seated seven or eight tables of customers, but to us, they didn’t exist.

“It’s only natural to pay out something special for a bet that dragged on for five months before being revealed.” Not knowing how long he had been laughing, Rainbow raised his head and ruffled his hair while catching his breath. “Let me buy you a drink tonight.”

I agreed, even though the next day was my first day of work. Of course, I didn’t tell her.

I don’t remember exactly what happened that night at all. I only know a few things.

In over a year, it was one of the most painful nights of drinking I’ve had, and it seemed like all my worries were gone.

I probably said a lot to Rainbow, both what to say as well as what not to say, and what she wanted to hear as well as what she didn’t want to hear.

When I woke up the next day, I found myself in a completely new bed at 9:21 AM.

On my first day at work, I was almost an hour late, and my boss certainly looked bad.

However, there’s more I don’t know. Rainbow seems to live alone, where is the family?

The outfit I was wearing, whose was it? The sleeves of the shirt are a little shorter, but the collar is a little bigger, and the waistline of the pants is even wider by about two inches. Why would any man’s clothes be inside Rainbow’s closet?

I can’t believe I didn’t ask Rainbow about it in the morning, I was really madly anxious. However, according to our tacit understanding, if she was willing to tell me, I certainly didn’t have to ask.

More importantly, did the standard plot of a soap opera actually happen last night?

It’s a mess. I took advantage of the noon meal to recall the ridiculous morning from the beginning.

Waking up to the Star Wars theme song at an intimidating volume, reaching sleepily for the remote control, and begrudgingly sitting up and rubbing my eyes after realizing that the nightstand didn’t seem to be in its original position, I was shocked to find myself in an unfamiliar room, sitting on an unfamiliar bed, and covered in an unfamiliar quilt.

The room was quite simple, with a desk, bookshelves, stereo, closet, and a row of movie posters on the wall, of which I recognized only one, “Earth Heroes”. Rainbow’s room reminds me of the soap operas I grew up watching, as well as the plot of “Immortal Sword and Sorcery,” so I hurriedly removed the quilt. Luckily, my jeans were still on, although the belt had been loosened.

“Morning,” Rainbow’s sleepy face stuck out from my feet, which really startled me. Upon closer inspection, it turned out she was sleeping on the floor next to the bed. She reached for the remote to turn off the stereo, “Star Wars as an alarm clock isn’t bad, is it?”

“It’s similar to what I’m used to… wait a minute!” Two words popped into my head, work! “What time is it?”

“Nine… twenty-five, something wrong?” I breathed another sigh of relief as Rainbow staggered to his feet and stretched, wearing shorts and a T-shirt.

“I have to work.” I said not too kindly, even messing with my own work.

“Geez, I’ll see about taking the morning off.” Rainbow yawned.

“But… today is the first day of work.” My voice was getting lower and lower, which was a bit humiliating.

“Where is this? I need to hurry home and change.”

“Shit! Not yesterday,” the first time I’ve heard Rainbow speak in that tone of voice, which is probably her true personality, “you won’t even know what time it is when you get home and go out again. Want a tie? I’ll find you a shirt.”

“No need for a tie, a shirt and suit pants will do.” My head seems to be still awake, and when Rainbow asks a question, I answer casually. “Take this set and wear it, I’ll go out first.” Rainbow opens the closet with amazing speed, finds a set of clothes and throws it to me, jumping out of the room in three or two steps and flinging the door shut.

US Polo’s silk shirts and pants were worn before they were recognizable, but I’m sure they weren’t cheap.

“Bring the comb,” Rainbow stood waiting for me outside the door with a comb, and that’s when I realized this was a suite, not a typical live-in apartment. “Your clothes are staked here, go downstairs and turn right at the end of the alley and keep going, there’s a road you’ll recognize. Good luck.”

I rushed out of the door as if I were running for my life and found an arterial road to hail a taxi. When I got in, I realized that I had forgotten to count the floors of Rainbow’s house.

I worked overtime until 7:30 on my first day of work, probably because my boss gave me a hard time. After work, I found the motorcycle that was parked outside the Pub yesterday, went home, changed my clothes and wrapped them up, and took them to the laundromat. I was already exhausted, but I knew I had to go to Rainbow today. Maybe to apologize, maybe to thank him, maybe to ask for forgiveness, but in any case, I had to go.

I thought it would not be difficult to find Rainbow’s house, but I realized that I had left in a hurry in the morning, and now it looked like every building in the alley looked the same. After a ten-minute detour, I decided to surrender to the builder’s design philosophy, found a public phone, and rang Rainbow’s phone number.

“This is Rainbow, please leave a message.” A simple phone message.

“Rainbow, it’s me, if you’re home, please pick up the phone, I’m lost and can’t find your house.”

Who knows if she’s at home? Anyway, let’s start with a heart battle shout out.

“…” Only the running murmur of the answering machine responded to me.

“Rainbow, what happened this morning…”

“No calling me Rainbow!” Rainbow yelled angrily as she suddenly picked up the phone. I was shocked that casually saying her real name had caused such a reaction. In any case, I found Rainbow’s home, and it turned out that I had circled around in front of her house four or five times without realizing it.

To be honest, Rainbow’s attitude just now nearly scared me to death, and I was beginning to wonder if anything had actually happened last night, and although it seemed as if it hadn’t, no one could confirm it except Rainbow herself. I felt my feet trembling as I walked up the stairs.

“Sorry, not too grumpy about being woken up while sleeping.” Rainbow’s signature smile temporarily dispelled my misgivings. This thousand-faced girl was eluding me more and more.

“The clothes have been sent to the laundromat and will be delivered tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.” Although there were a thousand questions in my mind, I had absolutely no idea how to speak, so I had to report the routine to her first.

“Oh, that’s okay,” Rainbow didn’t seem too concerned about that, “I’m not wearing them anyway. I washed your clothes for you and hung them out to dry yet, so you can come back tomorrow and get them.”

Ten seconds of silence. Routine report complete, then what?

“Come in for a cup of tea, I see you’re still drunk.” Rainbow broke the ice.

“Oh my god, is this magic?” I thought that in this kind of bachelor suite, at best, there would be tea bags and at most a coffee machine, who knew that Rainbow had dragged out a whole set of tea utensils from under the bed, with all kinds of appliances.

“It’s been useless for six months, so I’ll go ahead and wash it.” Rainbow carried the entire set of tea trays into the bathroom and rinsed them carefully.

“Fill up my hot water bottle for me, by the way.”

I found an oversized glass used in bubble tea stores, took it to the bathroom and had Rainbow fill it with water and pour it into the hot water bottle. Shortly afterward, Rainbow came out with the tea tray, and we sat on the floor facing each other, listening to the sound of the hot water coming to a boil and chatting verbally.

Rainbow’s habit of drinking tea is very special, she took out six teacups, a bubble of tea just can be poured full of six cups, she poured six cups one by one, one cup and one cup to pour down the stomach before rushing the water to make the next bubble of tea.

“I use six cups even if I’m drinking alone.” She explained.

Originally we each had three teacups in front of us, and when we reached the second brew, Rainbow drank a little faster and snatched a cup from in front of me. After one or two more infusions, there was only one tea cup left in front of me, and I was quite worried that this last cup would soon return to its owner’s arms.

“Is this bad tea?” She asked with a smile to the sound of ‘Dances with Wolves’ music. As for whether the background music had any special letter meaning, I don’t know.

I smiled bitterly and shook my head. Under the cultivation of the mother, the tea more or less also a little bit of knowledge, rainbow oolong although can not be compared with the mother’s collection, but and the mother often drink is almost the same. Rainbow smiled at me again, I know what she means, casually picked up a cup of tea in front of her, a drink.

“I know you must have a lot of questions you’re afraid to ask,” she nodded at my face with approval, taking the lead in breaking the ice, “and so do I.”

“So here’s the deal, one question for another.” I hesitated for a moment, offering this dangerous trade. Rainbow nodded.

“I’ll ask first, then.” Rainbow replaced the tea and rinsed it full of hot water, and I knew she was taking the opportunity to think.

“Who’s Hoshi?”

It seems I was thoroughly drunk yesterday.

“She was a girl,” I hesitated for some time, deciding to dig up a bit of the past sealed deep inside me to give Rainbow a trophy, “the gentlest girl in the world.”

Rainbow nodded expressionlessly, and I knew I had to say a little more.

“I’m sorry for her, but I don’t have the chance to apologize anymore.” I don’t want to say that word, I just hope Rainbow understands, even though it’s a little difficult.

Rainbow looks at me skeptically and I look upwards, she follows suit suspiciously and after two seconds she pulls her gaze back from the ceiling and opens her eyes wide at me, I nod at her and she sighs and closes her eyes.

“I’m sorry, it seems like I asked something I shouldn’t have.” Rainbow said softly, and I barely managed to squeeze out a smile in response to her.

“It’s my turn to ask questions.” Maybe it’s time to change the subject.

“I know what you’re going to ask.” Rainbow said. “You’re going to ask about what happened last night, right?”

I nodded dispensably, perhaps there was something else I wanted to know more about, but if we let this atmosphere go on much longer, we’d all fall apart.

“You were so drunk yesterday, I’ve rarely seen anyone drunk like that. It’s so easy to watch soap operas where they send drunk people home, it’s killing me to try it once myself.” Rainbow turned back into the original girl who didn’t know why she was depressed, smiling cheerfully.

“Going through your wallet, I found three different addresses on your ID, who knows which one is which, why don’t I just drag you back to my place, small as it is, it’s still big enough to squeeze two people in.” It’s a good thing she didn’t send me home, or there’s a two-thirds chance my family would see me in this disheveled state, and that’s no fun.

“Along the way, you’ve been mumbling something inexplicable…” I was in awe; it’s true that when people get drunk, even things they thought they’d long forgotten will come out one by one.

“It was hard to drag you up to the third floor,” Rainbow did not give me a chance to think, continued: “Fortunately, you are relatively thin, I can still drag.”

“Originally wanted to throw you on the floor, who knows that as soon as you touched the bed, like a strong adhesive sticking not to let go, I had to obediently sleep on the floor. The sheets and covers are all messed up by you, they must be washed. Sir, next time please wear shoes that are easier to take off.” Sure enough, there was a shoe print on the powder blue sheets.

“I was pretty much drunk myself, so I changed my clothes, timed the stereo and went to bed. This story tells us that we have to keep track of our own time at work, no one else cares that much.” I shook my head in embarrassment and laughed bitterly.

“Have I… caused you any more trouble?” It seemed a bit abrupt to ask, but I was really uneasy. “Come on, isn’t that enough trouble?” Rainbow spat out her tongue, “You’re asking if you’ve ever been like the male lead in a soap opera, right?”

I felt the blood rush to my face all over my body.

“It’s okay, everyone in soap operas vomits a mess when they get drunk, you probably have a special constitution, you didn’t vomit, otherwise I would really sit on the floor and cry, I’m most afraid of people vomiting.” Rain said as if nothing had happened.

Only now, after getting the confirmation from Rainbow, did I really let go of the hundreds of tons of boulder on my heart, although there was still another thousands of tons of lead hammer dangling, but this one was not easy to unload.

I found an excuse to escape from the tea-scented room. Look at the time, ten o’clock, exhausted, fell into bed, but never sleep, all I can think of is that US Polo silk shirt.

The next morning at the breakfast meeting, Rainbow didn’t show up. I called her two or three times at the office, but the answering machine picked up the phone. I didn’t dare say the word “rainbow” again, but it seemed that she really wasn’t there.

The boss seems to have been a little kinder and got off work at six today. Hastily settled dinner, went home to take a shower and change clothes to read the mail, and made another call to Rainbow, still not there, I have already spent five dollars on Rainbow’s answering machine today, next time I have to suggest that she record the message a little bit more informative, I will pay the phone bill more willingly.

“Sir, is this something for you?” After picking up my clothes at the laundromat, the owner’s wife called out to me as I turned toward the unlit locomotive and handed me something.

The comb, the one Rainbow brought me yesterday morning to use, probably put it in my pocket and forgot to take it out, I nodded my thanks to the boss’s wife, found a brighter streetlight and scrutinized this little, nearly forgotten thing. Very ordinary comb, flat, unknown material, but not like acrylic, brown with a little white fine lines. Suddenly it occurred to me that this should not be used by Rainbow, although Rainbow had cut his hair short, but even at the current length, this small and flat comb should not be very convenient to use.

I felt some engravings on the handle of the comb, and when I looked at it in the light, I could easily recognize the light and faint writing.

“Rainbow.”

I could no longer figure out if the thousand-ton lead hammer was tied to my curiosity or welded to my deadly jealousy. The sharp beeping of the caller interrupted my thoughts, and low and behold, it was the rainbow.

I didn’t return the call and went straight to Rainbow’s house to find her. Rainbow probably saw me from upstairs, and when I went upstairs, she was leaning against the door waiting for me.

“I started work today too.” Rainbow said, wearing clothes that were obviously still the same suit she wore to work and hadn’t changed into yet. “I just got home before I heard the message that you weren’t home, and I was afraid you had something important to do, otherwise I usually don’t like Calling people.”

“This caller doesn’t call very often, please be okay with calling more often so I know if the machine is broken.”

It’s the truth, not many people know my caller ID, but usually nothing good comes out of looking for me.

“I overslept this morning and didn’t make it to the breakfast club report, sorry.” When we entered, we were still sitting on the floor against the bed, and Rainbow was picking out records as we spoke.

“I was left there alone and lonely, drinking boring coffee, so cruel.” I said sadly, “If I had known, I wouldn’t have brought these clothes back to you.”

“Yo, so pitiful Oh, brother good, sister treat you to tea.” Rainbow smoothly took the bag of clothes, not even removing the plastic bag, and directly hung it into the closet. “Splat!” Something fell on the floor, it was a comb. Rainbow examined the comb, seemed to hesitate for a moment, and then casually threw the comb on the nightstand.

Today I drank a packet of seeds. My mom doesn’t drink buns, so I don’t know how good or bad they are, but they are quite pleasant to drink. At my insistence, today I took charge of the pot to make tea, and my mom’s years of training finally came in handy.

“Next time I go home, and mom to ask for a little tea to bring to you.” Think of mom’s cupboard full of tea, usually I don’t even care, now the tea meets the soulmate, the crooked brain actually moved to the mom there.

“Wow, what kind of tea?” Rainbow looked up, her eyes glowing with a look of impatience.

“Depends on what you want, West Lake Longjing, Yunnan Pu’er, or Biluochun, there should be anything you can think of anyway.” To be honest, I can’t praise those mainland teas, first-rate tea meets third-rate baking, it’s just awful.

“They’re all bandits,” said Rainbow, who didn’t seem to have a good feeling about the communists, “The tea that people drink in the mainland is quite different from that in Taiwan.”

“Yes,” I remembered my mom’s famous quote: “We say their tea tastes like dirt, they say our tea…”

“There is a paste flavor!” Rainbow smoothly picked up, it seems that rainbow and mom in the tea aspect is quite compatible.

Before I went home, while Rainbow was putting away the tea set, I peeked at Rainbow’s stereo settings; the timer was set at 7:10 a.m., and I secretly changed it to 6:30 a.m.

“Hurry up and change, I’ll pick you up later and we’ll go to breakfast.” The next morning at six thirty-five, I called Rainbow.

“Damn kid, so you’re the one who messed up.” There was still sleepiness in her voice. I don’t give her a chance to object and immediately hang up the phone, change my clothes and go out.

At 6:50, Rainbow was waiting for me downstairs in her work clothes, a bit unexpected, it’s not often that a girl moves so quickly out of the house. I gestured for her to get in the back seat and started on my impromptu plan from last night.

“Where are you taking me?” Rainbow asked in my ear, seemingly a bit uneasy: “I have to be at work at nine o’clock, don’t go too far.”

“Take you home.” I said, seeing Rainbow’s face full of confusion in the rearview mirror.

This is a newly created road that goes over an entire hill, and for the sake of this road, the original winding mountain road as well as the sparse bungalows on both sides were demolished. This newly opened four-lane boulevard had just been opened to traffic less than a month ago, and when I learned of the opening of this road, I couldn’t wait to make a dozen trips back and forth around this road just to find a particular bungalow that had been forcibly demolished. Of course, I didn’t find it, unless I turned the roadbed over and perhaps found a bit of unrecognizable debris. Childhood memories were thus silently run over by tracks, buried by gravel, and used as stepping stones by whizzing vehicles.

“That’s my house.” Pulling over to the side of the road, I pointed to a street tree on the side of the road and said, “Can you find your house?”

Rainbow’s eyes were red, as I expected. When I first came here, I came close to tears as well.

“In that direction, I think.” Rainbow said in a choked voice, pointing with teary eyes to the hillside on the side of the road. I try not to look back at her, people don’t like to let others see their tears.

“Okay, let’s go home and have a picnic.” I opened the locker under the cushion and took out the picnic box I bought at the bakery in the morning, took Rainbow’s hand and walked in the direction Rainbow said. Although Rainbow was surprised, she didn’t resist, silently wiping away her tears and following me towards a hidden path.

Although Rainbow was wearing flat shoes, the path covered with rubble was not easy to walk, especially her narrow skirt was in the way. I was a bit pained by this, and couldn’t help but feel angry at my own confusion. This path used by construction workers for work was certainly not a problem for me, but what about Rainbow, who was wearing a suit? Rainbow didn’t show any impatience, she struggled to make her way up the path while trying her best to recognize all the sights along the way. I was really impressed with the greatness of technology, until we reached the top of the hill, Rainbow couldn’t find a single blade of grass or a single tree that could match her memory.

“Oh my God!” Rainbow screamed hysterically as we walked up the unending end of the trail in a sweat. This time she reacted in a way that I didn’t expect, and without being prepared for it my right ear was a little ringing from her shock.

What Rainbow saw was the very same mountain road that we had to pass through every day after school. Although it was in a state of disrepair and had become full of holes, we knew at a glance that this was our childhood. This section of the road did not overlap with the newly opened road, so it was not demolished, but while the beginning and end have been demolished, the middle section of the road is still abandoned and cannot be used, and will only be demolished when the developer wants to build a house.

“The bus stop sign is here!” Gone was the calm and cool Rainbow who had been such a great actor, and it was as if I saw a little rainbow with two pigtails tied together, “We used to wait for the bus here!”

I stood with a smile on my face as I watched Rainbow go crazy, in fact, wasn’t I just as excited when I first discovered this place? It’s just that no one saw it. Rainbow half-runs, half-jumps up the mountain road along the indiscernible double yellow lines, and thinking of her narrow skirt, I can’t help but break into a cold sweat for her. Luckily, Rainbow’s skills seemed to be good, and although her movements weren’t pretty, she ran quite steadily, and I followed behind her, carrying my picnic box.

Of course, I knew what she was looking for, that her childhood had long since become a pile of broken bricks and mortar, but if I didn’t let her confirm it with her own eyes, who could make her believe it?

Rainbow stood on the side of the road, his face frozen, two tears constantly flowing downward, drop by drop, teardrop by teardrop on his clothes, at his feet, and in my heart.

Rainbow’s home, as well as a small piece of nearby farmland, had been completely filled in with construction waste. I felt that I, who had deliberately concealed the truth, was like a murderer who had murdered the cheerful and lively Rainbow alive.

“Don’t cry, my family is the same way, let bygones be bygones.” I stood behind Rainbow, I really didn’t know how to comfort her, so I had to trot out the most clichéd dialog. Rainbow slowly turned back, wanting to say something, but couldn’t; wanting to lock the tears, but couldn’t lock them in any way.

“Lend me your shoulder.” Rainbow managed to squeeze out those four words, and before I could reply, she fell head over heels on my chest and bawled. I gently wrapped my left hand around her waist and stroked her slightly messy hair with my right hand. For the first time in my life, I hated myself so much for not having thick enough pecs to let her lean more comfortably.

“It’s eight o’clock.” I worried about my white shirt while keeping an eye on the time. Why wouldn’t I want to make Rainbow cry if we didn’t all have to be at the office at nine?

“Wow.” Rainbow sobbed for a while longer, barely lifting her head up and pulling out a Kleenex to dry her tears. “Time for breakfast.”

“Just in time, I don’t think this bread is salty enough, a few tears would be just the thing.” I opened the carton, which had been pinched a little out of shape, and took out the challah bread and canned coffee. Rainbow gave me a vicious glare and suddenly punched me in the chest. It wasn’t a light punch, and for the second time in my life I regretted that my pecs weren’t thick enough.

“It’s a good thing there’s no makeup on, or it would be ruined.” Rainbow managed to stop her tears and barely managed to squeeze out a smile. “You need to put on makeup before you go into the office later, or else this face won’t be seen.”

Found two large rocks and sat on them with Rainbow to fix this mixed breakfast. Neither of us really wanted to eat, it was just routine.

On the way down the mountain, none of us spoke, just silently moving forward. After sending Rainbow to work, desperately racing to the office, although the road is not far, but the traffic jam is a mess, and in the end, it is still five minutes late.

It had always felt like a coworker was whispering behind my back. It wasn’t until shortly before my lunch break that I realized that Rainbow had put on a little makeup after all, a blurry lipstick print on my collar.

So, all afternoon, I had been the subject of ridicule from my coworkers.

I got off work, changed clothes, and made a point of going back to have dinner with my mom, aiming, of course, for the cans and cans of tea in the cupboard.

Mom just finished dinner, is brewing tea, flowers with the aroma of tea to the face, so thick that I was a little breathless. Mom told me, this is a friend just sent incense, called what name can not remember. Half-coaxed and half-cheated with the mother to ask for a small jar of this newly arrived incense, the task is accomplished, I feel that I seem a little unfilial.

“I’m ready for bed.” By the time I reached Rainbow’s doorstep, it was already nine-thirty, and without a computer or television, it seemed normal for her to rest at that hour; whenever I get tired of the electronic world, I also like to draw a random book and lie in bed quietly flipping through it until I fall asleep.

“Tea for you,” I held up the tribute in my hand, “I heard it came yesterday, and my ungrateful son scooped up half a pot in one sitting.”

“Wow, it sounds like it’s some kind of immortal species of famous product, it’s just a shame I don’t have any dewy mountain springs or anything like that to use here, so I’ll just make do with tap water.” Rainbow smiled and pulled me into the room.

“It’s not actually tea.” I said fancifully.

“Fragrant flakes!” Rainbow opened the tea canister with a puzzled expression, “Wait, why does it smell so good?”

“It’s a room fragrance, don’t be fooled,” I laughed, “just steep it and smell it, don’t actually drink it, you’ll get diarrhea.”

“I think it’s poison,” said Rainbow, “you can’t even smell it, it’ll poison you.”

After all was said and done, Rainbow still took a pinch of tea leaves, put them into the pot and filled it with hot water. The brewed tea was truly amazingly powerful, and the room was filled with that rich aroma.

“Sure enough, it smells outrageous.” Rainbow took a small sip and marveled. “Makes you wonder if it’s even tea.”

I already felt this way when I was at my mom’s place, but it was reassuring to think that any artificial flavors probably wouldn’t escape her tongue.

“Actually, I came over today to ask for a favor.” I said slowly as the first brew of tea was quickly finished and Rainbow turned to heat the water.

“Yes ooh, may I ask, when did my little girl offend Your Excellency again?” Rainbow didn’t turn around, as if he already knew which incident I was referring to.

“You defiled my innocence this morning.” I said in all seriousness.

“It’s not that bad, it’s just a shirt.” Rainbow smiled and turned to sit down.

“So you did it on purpose, it really is the most poisonous thing of all.” I shook my head and sighed.

“Hey, get it right, I’m still an innocent and lovely young girl, what woman is not a woman,” Rainbow pouted really a little bit of a bitch, “and I do not mean it, just embarrassed to tell you.”

If there’s anything under the sun that you’re too embarrassed to talk about, it’s probably only the secrets in the closet. I screamed in my mind, doing my best to keep my expression calm.

“What do you think of the tea now?” Rainbow asked after we sipped the tea in silence and rinsed the water twice more.

“Much lighter, time to change the tea.” I said casually.

“It doesn’t seem to smell as good as it did at first, does it?” I could sense Rainbow had something to say.

“In fact, even the best tea is the same, after brewing it for a long time, the flavor naturally becomes bland.” Rainbow put away her smile and said slowly, I stared into her eyes but couldn’t make anything out. “Even if the scent remains, we get used to smelling it and no longer think it smells as good.”

“Maybe when you first drink this fragrant slices, you will find it so fragrant that you don’t want to touch any other tea at all, but after a long time,” Rainbow’s words, word by word, pounded heavily on my heart, “Obviously this fragrant slices has no more flavor, but you only remember how fragrant and good it used to be, and are always unwilling to replace the tea leaves, even if the tea leaves are no longer in the pot at some point, you still slammed in the flavorless plain water, isn’t that stupid?”

My heart was aching, and every word Rainbow said stabbed me in the gut.

“You don’t understand.” After a long moment of silence, I stood up and walked out of the small room that had been filled with the scent of tea, and Rainbow didn’t stop me.

At 8:00 a.m., after a long night of sleeplessness, I was “awakened” by the caller.

It was Rainbow, she was probably waiting for me to report to the breakfast club. I had just turned the caller off and was ready to sleep for another half hour when the phone rang again, and I kicked off the quilt a little annoyed and grabbed the receiver.

“Hey, I know you probably don’t want breakfast today,” or Rainbow, calling from a public phone, she thundered without waiting for me to make a sound, “but I’m afraid you’ll be late for work, so I’ll just be a little bit of a chicken and wake you up. It’s okay, bye.”

The phone hung up before I could say a word, in fact, even if I had been allowed to, I wouldn’t have known what to say. Unable to sleep, I barely managed to prop myself out of bed and wandered into the bathroom to take a cold shower and change my clothes to go out.

The day passed in a trance, and anyway, what I did at work was just some simple Routine, which didn’t use much of my brain. After work, instinctively to the most crowded place to squeeze, the more people, the less I feel my own trembling. Until the night is late, the crowd on the street gradually dispersed, I reluctantly went home, buried myself deeply into the quilt.

I know, I’m afraid to face myself. It wasn’t the rainbow that stabbed me, it was my ego that had been under house arrest for so long.

“Hey, time to get up.” The next morning, it was still Rainbow’s call that dug me out from under the covers.

This time she only said five words and hung up. I remained in a trance for the rest of the day.

At eight o’clock on the third morning, the phone rang again.

“It’s Saturday, my company doesn’t have to work.” I took a breath and picked up the phone, grabbing it before Rainbow, and said calmly.

There was a silence, and I could hear vehicle horns honking at the other end.

“Okay, then I’ll meet you at noon, no running.” Rainbow hung up the phone.

I don’t know how those four hours or so passed. At twelve forty-one, the doorbell rang, and I barely managed to put on an appearance of being okay and opened the door for Rainbow.

“You’re living in three rooms by yourself, huh?” Once inside, Rainbow strolled around and said in surprise. After all, it was Rainbow who had better acting skills and couldn’t smell a single hint of an out-of-place atmosphere.

“This is your room, isn’t it? It’s true that all boys’ rooms are just as messy.” “There’s a kitchen too, what a shame, for a lazy person like you.” “Refrigerator… Wow, so many beers, what a super alcoholic, share one with me!”

Rainbow wandered around and rummaged around like she was on a treasure hunt, and looking at her with a forced smile sent another stab of pain through me.

“Rainbow,” I called out to her as she strolled into the master bedroom, and she turned her head a little surprised. “Sorry.”

“What’s wrong?” She was still doing her best to keep the happiness on her face, but the smile had stiffened a bit.

“It’s not your fault, it’s my own problem.” I try to keep my voice calm as well. “I’m sorry.”

“What the hell is going on?” Rainbow was still trying to hide her emotions when all of a sudden, Rainbow’s smile instantly collapsed and two tears slowly flowed out. I couldn’t hold back any longer and reached out to hug Rainbow tightly into my arms.

“Asshole!” Rainbow choked in my arms, “Do you know how hard I waited for you to say that?”

“Starting today,” feeling the quivering of the rainbow, feeling as if the shackles that had been on my heart for years were leaving me, “I will tell myself to get up every morning and breathe for an hour, and maybe a month, maybe a year from now, I won’t have to remind myself that it’s time to get up and breathe anymore. “

“I’m not going to chase you all the way to the Empire State Building,” Rainbow said softly, still burying her head in my arms, “You better keep a close eye on me, you hear me?”

I made no promises to Rainbow, and I still fear that my promises will only invite bad luck.

Maybe we made the wrong decision. From that day on, I gained half of an enviable couple, but lost a good friend that everyone could only dream of. It should be a similar situation for Rainbow, though she probably got a little less than half a couple.

When we were friends, based on a tacit agreement, we could hide our unpleasant past a little bit, and the other person would not ask questions; but when we were lovers, this tacit agreement could not be established, although we still tried to comply with it. The first month of summer vacation passed. We went to work during the day, but at night we were always getting close to each other in an attempt to cover up our uneasiness with more intimate actions.

“Do you believe there is such a thing as romantic love in the world?” Rainbow, who had watched ‘Madison Bridge’ that night, asked, lying on his bed watching me type.

“Maybe,” after the exercise of the rainbow, my typing speed didn’t drop as I spoke, “it’s only romantic if Merry Streep really did go off with Clingythwait.”

“Whoa? Is tragedy the only way to be romantic?” Rainbow asked noncommittally.

“Think about it, if they did leave together,” I was probably cool by nature and a bit cruel in my words, “Meryl Streep would be thinking about everything in the town all the time, and no amount of book-hanging by Clint Eastwood would keep her from thinking back, and Meryl Streep, for the sake of the relationship between the two of them Merry Streep, for the sake of the relationship between the two, of course, will not tell Clint Eastwood exactly what she was thinking. After a while, maybe three or five years, they finally couldn’t stand the idea of being wrapped in a layer of separation, but so what? They’re too old to have the chance to pursue another happiness, and it certainly doesn’t end romantically.”

Rainbow didn’t reply. I looked back and realized that Rainbow was staring blankly at me.

“Go to sleep.” I shut down the computer, the easiest and most effective way to solve a problem, or rather, to delay it. “Good night.”

Rainbow smoothly pulls back the quilt and lies down, I turn off the light and leave the room. Whenever Rainbow comes here to drink beer and chat with me, he always takes over my room as a matter of course, so I have to sleep in my oldest brother’s bed about four or five days a week, since he’s been exiled by the Republic of China to Matsu anyway.

“Do you think it’s okay for us to go on like this?” Rainbow said softly in the darkness as I brought the door to my room.

“Tomorrow’s for tomorrow.” I really hope tomorrow never comes.

My oldest brother, who was a soldier in Matsu, took a two-week vacation back to Taiwan, and although I rarely saw him, I was too embarrassed to let Rainbow spend the night at home again, so during these two weeks, Rainbow and I had a much simpler program in the evenings, and if there were no special arrangements, we usually spent the evenings in Rainbow’s small suite, sampling the various types of tea that I kept moving from my mother’s place.

In fact, such a calm day, there is nothing wrong, just hard mom. I feel that recently my mother began to avoid me to make tea, but I can always count on my mom to make tea time, three days or two unsuspecting to go back to “visit” mom.

“You oooh,” Rainbow sipped the alpine oolong I’d just gotten back one evening while shaking his head and sighing, “Saying you’re going home to see your mom, but in reality you’re just a weasel paying homage to a chicken.”

“I’m doing a good job of filial piety as a child,” I said boldly, “Mom’s tea there is too much, even if she found a bunch of people every day to open the tea party can not drink it all, I help my mom digest digestion, so as to avoid too much pressure on the inventory, resulting in an imbalance between supply and demand.”

“So great,” Rainbow said, still seeming to enjoy the brew of high mountain oolong, “so why don’t you pick the old ones to take and always take the newest good tea?”

“People can’t treat themselves too badly,” I replied with a smile, “On the contrary, it’s you who drank so much tea, when to show it to others. Mom is very smart, I can’t drink so much tea alone, and I can’t give gifts for the tea I’ve bottled, so she’s probably already figured out that you’re the one who exists.”

“Yeah wow,” Rainbow poured the teapot dry and handed me heated water, “What’s that got to do with me? You just deal with it on your own, girl I’m not good at socializing and entertaining.”

“What kind of socializing and socializing is this?” I put the teapot filled with hot water back into the tea tray, I wasn’t actually going to let Rainbow meet with her family, I just couldn’t figure out why myself.

“I hate this kind of scene.” Rainbow said with a bit of disgust, ever since our relationship had shifted, Rainbow rarely showed off her acting skills in front of me. “Everyone puts on an ambiguous smile, their eyes staring dead at others not knowing what they’re looking at, no matter what they want to do, in that kind of atmosphere it’s guaranteed that you’ll just dare to obediently sit in your chair, not daring to say or glance at anything, and it’ll really suffocate you.”

“Oh, it looks like you have a lot of experience.” I chuckled.

Rainbow didn’t answer. I was suddenly startled to realize that an unintentional remark seemed to violate the unwritten tacit agreement between us again.

If coincidences do exist in the world, then I’m sure this Mr. Coincidence has a pervasive eye.

Theres a time when a woman has to say whats on her mind, even though she knowshow much its gonna hurt.

A familiar old English song came on. This record is a mishmash of old English songs from the 1970s, and it’s certainly right to include this song, but it’s a bit too much of a coincidence that it’s being released now.

Before I say another word, let me tell you, I love you, and then Let me say these wordsas gently as I can.

We listened to the song in silence.

There has been another man that Ive needed and loved but it doesnt mean I love you less.

Although he cant process me and he knows he never will, theres some where of me deep insideonly he can fill.

Torn between two lovers, feeling like a fool, loving both of you is breaking all the rules.

Torn between two lovers, feeling like a fool, loving you both is breaking all of the rules.

“What to do?” I mentally tortured myself. “What to do?”

We still didn’t say anything, each struggling in our own minds. The whole record played and it started again from the first Elton Strong song.

“Tonight,” Rainbow finally broke the silence, “you don’t go back, okay?”

I didn’t go home. That night, we possessed each other of everything except our minds.

“I’m sorry, I just can’t be honest with you.” Rainbow leaned in close to me, and in Rainbow’s single bed, we couldn’t, and had no reason to, keep our distance.

“I understand,” I stroked Rainbow’s hair that was strewn across the pillow, “and so do I.”

“At this rate, we’re going to have to separate sooner or later,” I could feel Rainbow’s soft body trembling in the darkness, “but I can’t let go.”

I thought of the principle of anesthesia written by Hou Wen-wing in one of his books: never give a patient a stronger dose of anesthesia until the last moment. However, Rainbow and I had already used up our last trump card, but the problem between us remained unresolved. When the effect of the last dose of anesthetic wore off, what else could we use to resist the unknown pain?

We stopped talking and each looked up at the ceiling above us in the darkness in silence.

“Last month.” We experienced a terribly long silence before Rainbow spoke. I can’t help but think back to the first time I rode a train through a dark and long tunnel on the Northern Return Railway when I was a child, and how fragile and helpless I was when I was convinced that the train was on its way to hell. “I have a month before I have to go back to Kaohsiung, and by then, it’s time for us to part ways.”

“If we break up,” I seemed to have foreseen the end, “can we still be friends?”

“I guess it’s okay,” said Rainbow, hesitating for a moment, not quite sure, “As long as I’m back in Taipei, we can still go to the Breakfast Club newspaper together.”

“Can I still bring tea to brew here?” I asked.

“It could be,” Rainbow replied slowly, “if I still lived here alone.”

I didn’t pursue this any further. As much as Rainbow knew about Xiaohui, it was enough for me to know that, and for a relationship that could only last for a month, there was no need for me to ask Rainbow for more.

“Will you keep me company when I want a drink?” I asked in a robotic manner, which, as far as soap opera plots go as well as literary novels, should be the heroine’s line.

“Will do,” said Rainbow, “I’ll take you home when you’re drunk.”

“What if you’re the one who gets drunk first?” A boring question, but the only way to keep the head working in a less unpleasant direction is to keep talking. The truth is that although I consider myself to be a pretty good drinker, Rainbow’s drinking ability is definitely not inferior to mine.

“Then of course you’ll take me home.” Rainbow replied without thinking or bothering.

“What if we’re all drunk?” I asked. “Then we’ll sleep on the side of the road together,” Rainbow replied, “like the Japanese.”

“What if we get picked up by the police?” I asked.

“Then there’s a place to sleep.” Rainbow replied.

The pointless quiz went on and on, and at least it was a slightly more interesting game than counting sheep.

“What if I can’t find clean clothes?” After hundreds of boring questions, I don’t know when it started to become a case of Rainbow asking questions and me answering them, and of course being even more confused as to how I pulled the clothes off.

“Find a woman to marry and tell her to wash.” Growing weary, we quizzed slower and slower. My eyelids felt as heavy as lead weights, but the nerves that had been twisted into a knot seemed to loosen a bit.

“If I get married,” Rainbow asked in a sleepy voice, “will you come to the wedding reception?”

I pretended to be asleep and didn’t answer.

“Ugh, man.” Those were the last words I heard Rainbow say before I actually fell asleep.

When I was a child, I wrote an essay entitled “If I had only thirty days to live”.

You could say that the teacher who wrote the question had the foresight to realize the importance of death education, but when I grew up, I just thought the question was a load of shit. Even though I wrote something very grandiose at the time, such as seizing every second, helping everyone in need, and leaving a legacy that will be remembered for generations to come, in retrospect, I think it can only be described as childish and ignorant.

There is only one real answer: “to accomplish what I most want to do”. As for the contribution of this thing to mankind, I think the person concerned will not give much thought to it, if he really wants to sacrifice his contribution to mankind so much, he should simply sell himself to a laboratory to do living experiments.

At a time when Rainbow’s relationship with me also had only thirty days of life left, there was only one thing I wanted to do, and that was to make a complete break with Rainbow, preferably making her hate me for the rest of her life. I know very well that a ruptured relationship is at best a few wounds stabbed in the heart, while a complete relationship can often completely guillotine a person in half. After all, compared to the regrets, remorse, and guilt that are hard to appease, hatred is quite merciful, and since Rainbow has made other choices, how can I spare hanging a heavy burden on her heart?

The thing is, I can’t do it.

It was as if we didn’t remember that night at all, enjoying every night, every holiday, and every bit of time we could get together. Whenever I turned my back to Rainbow, I always cursed myself inwardly; but as soon as I turned my head to face Rainbow, the resolve I had just made disappeared in an instant.

Even if it’s done in good faith, it still takes a lot of courage to deliberately hurt a loved one, and I don’t have it.

Besides, I’m more worried that if we don’t handle this properly, Rainbow will blame herself for the mistakes between us.

“Tomorrow morning,” Rainbow, who was lying on my bed looking at ‘If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler’, suggested out of the blue on a Saturday night, as I was pounding away on the keyboard for a manuscript that had already dragged on for two more days.” Let’s go back to our hometown and have a look, okay?”

“If I can finish the manuscript today.” I said to the screen.

“Okay, you’re not allowed to go to bed until you finish knocking.” Rainbow said into his book.

Rainbow literally waited for me until 2:30 a.m. I don’t know how much she read, but the new pile of books that appeared next to her bed was surprisingly interspersed with a couple of military novels that she had no interest in.

“Finished fighting?” Rainbow asked, hardening his heavy eyelids.

“Finished fighting.” There’s actually about a third of the job still to be struggled with, but I hate to disappoint Rainbow, so I’ll just find time to finish it tomorrow.

“Finally, I can sleep.” Rainbow put down her books and moved her body towards the bed to make room for me. Although my bed is a Queen Size double bed, after the lazy me put a row of combination cabinets on the bed to act as bookshelves, the remaining space is not much bigger than Rainbow’s single bed.

“Hey, I’ve been rushing around so hard,” I grinned impishly, “there should be some kind of reward, right?”

“I don’t care about you, I have to be up at six-thirty tomorrow,” Rainbow said wearily, “figure it out yourself if you want it.”

I sighed mischievously and deliberately for Rainbow, then turned off the lamp and threw my equally tired, equally having to get up at six-thirty self under the covers.

I lollygagged until 6:45 a.m., having been beaten up by Rainbow with a pillow.

We ate a simple breakfast at Merry-Go-Round and then headed for the unseen ruins. Twenty minutes later, out of breath, we climbed the hidden path. The ruins remained unchanged, even the two large boulders we sat on last time were still in their original position.

It is hard to imagine that this road was once the only arterial road in the region that was traveled by the first-tier buses. Pieces of masonry and concrete were scattered all over the cracked tarmac, the few surviving poles lay on the ground, and only a few sparse bamboo trees remained from the thick roadside forests that used to be the only ones that hadn’t yet fallen; instead, weeds exerted their strong vitality, burrowing their way out of every gap that might have led to the dirt.

“Cheaper clothes to wear today,” I said, taking Rainbow’s hand, “cry all you want.”

As originally expected, the reply was a punch.

“Do you know why I wanted to come?” Rainbow said as he leaned against my side and gazed at the filled-in valley.

“Eh, go ahead.” I replied dispensably.

“Because I want to know why you brought me that day.” Rainbow said, looking up at me.

“Because I want to see you cry.” I did my best to control the muscles in my face and not show any expression, but to Rainbow, a great insider, it was no less than a class act.

“Liar,” another punch to the shoulder, “you tell me the truth.”

“Are you sure you want to hear it?” I asked superfluously.

“To.” Rainbow replied briefly.

“Long or short?” I asked.

“Long story.” It was similar to Rainbow’s habit of reading novels; the larger the book, the more she liked it.

“Okay, listen up.” For a moment, I didn’t know where to start. “Say, since Pangu opened the heavens and the earth…”

“Here we go again,” said the third punch received today, “You’ll be damned if you can sell a long story like that.”

“The long one isn’t finished yet, so it’s good to hear the short one first.” I said.

“Suit yourself,” said Rainbow, “better make it clear or you won’t be let off the mountain.”

“Well,” I said, “I’ll give you one last chance to back out.”

Rainbow shook his head impatiently, his light hair rubbing against the side of my neck and tickling a little.

“Hoshi’s here,” I felt Rainbow’s body jolt, “I wanted to bring you to show her.”

Rainbow didn’t say anything and leaned against me a little tighter.

“I don’t know exactly where she is,” I said slowly, my eyes pointing to the large filled-in valley in front of me, “Anyway, it’s under there.”

“Why are you telling me?” Rainbow clearly didn’t expect the answer she got.

“Because you wanted to know,” I said, “and I thought I should let you know.”

“What about the long one?” Rainbow asked.

“Do you want to hear it?” I asked rhetorically.

“I don’t want to right now,” Rainbow replied, “I don’t think I’m qualified to hear it.”

I know what that means. With only ten days left, there was no need for us to get to know each other so thoroughly; it would only add to the thoughts of parting. Of course, Rainbow was also implying to me that for that incident, she didn’t want me to know.

“Go downhill.” I don’t know how much time passed in the silence of each thinking, but I remembered that I hadn’t finished the manuscript yet.

“Eh.” Rainbow nodded obediently.

I know that my personality often stabs people unintentionally, but when I really wanted to stab Rainbow a little too hard, but not too hard, that disobedient spike refused to stick out. After a few days, I finally gave up on the idea, and since I knew I couldn’t do it, I simply forgot about it altogether.

“Hello, Rita please,” I dialed to Rainbow in her office on Monday afternoon. Rainbow uses the name Rita in her office, which she says is short for Rainbow In The Aspiration, but for afternoon tea it becomes Rainbow In The Afternoon, and for the view from the top floor it becomes Rainbow In TheAir. anyway, there are plenty of single words beginning with A, so she can make them up.

“Hello, this is Rita,” Rainbow’s unemotional yet vibrant office timbre rang out ten seconds later.

“Hello, is this Rita?” I also purposely put on the voice I use to contact my clients. “It’s like this, I thought we’d have dinner together tonight, okay?”

“Wow, isn’t it usually like this?” Rainbow said, and I knew her boss’s seat wasn’t far from her, so she still feigned an emotionless voice.

“We’re cooking it ourselves today,” I lowered my voice so that my nosy coworkers wouldn’t overhear, “I haven’t eaten any of your cooking yet.”

“I don’t think that’s a problem, but we’ll have to prepare some information first.” Rainbow said.

“We’ll go grocery shopping together after work and I’ll meet you at the convenience store across the street from your office.” I said.

“Okay, we’ll be in touch.” Rainbow hung up the phone.

I don’t know why this thought suddenly came to me; in fact, one is often blissfully unaware of one’s motives for doing something. Anyway, after I stood in the convenience store for ten minutes flipping through various gossip magazines, Rainbow in a white one-piece dress appeared in front of me.

“Let’s go,” Rainbow took my hand affectionately, “I’ll tell you first, Missy, you’ll have to eat anything I burn, no matter how bad it is.”

“Let’s get some stomach medicine first then.” Thinking for sure, he received another punch on the shoulder from Rainbow.

We wandered around the grocery store for half an hour and carried home a mess that made me wonder if the pile of food was going to last a week.

Luckily, I can still cook some dumplings and noodles, so the kitchen isn’t so abandoned that I can’t use it. Rainbow is really a girl who doesn’t spend much time in the kitchen. Of course, from what I saw, she didn’t really have much chance to do so. It was interesting to see her messing around in the kitchen, but I wasn’t the one who gloated, she was the one who kicked me out of the kitchen.

Finally, amidst the deafening drumming of the exhaust hood, the choking fumes, and enough heat to cook a man, a fragrant and sweaty Rainbow served up a four-course meal that was probably a little less well-done than I could have done, but a lot better than my worst-case scenario.

“Are these… charcoal-braised ribs?” I asked deliberately.

“Braised ribs.” An exhausted Rainbow said as he poured a cold beer.

“So this is… charcoal-grilled fish floss?” To be honest, if I hadn’t seen a small piece of fish bone, I wouldn’t have been able to tell that the pile was fish.

” cod,” he said, a little impatiently, “I’m going to get mad at you.”

“Alright, I’ll try this pot-stickered tofu first.” Actually, I knew she was making braised tofu.

“I’m really going to flip out.” Rainbow said word for word.

“Sorry about that, I just didn’t realize you were so virtuous.” I said holding back a laugh.

“Don’t be prickly in your speech, I never said I was virtuous.” Rainbow said.

“It’s very virtuous, to be idle at home and do nothing.” I said.

Rainbow suddenly stood up and splashed half a glass of beer in my face with a snap. I was really startled and reached up to wipe the foam off my face to see the anger that was burning in her eyes.

“Is it my fault that I can’t cook?” Rainbow said calmly, it was obvious she was suppressing her anger, “Don’t think that everyone has a kitchen to use in their home, let alone that everyone is like your family, one home broken down doesn’t necessarily become two, there may be none left.”

After finishing her sentence, Rainbow went back to her room, picked up her purse, and headed out. I’ve never seen such an angry Rainbow before, and I was so dumbfounded that I let her leave just like that, not thinking at all about stopping her.

Rainbow left, a feeling of disappointment hit my heart. I never thought that it would be so difficult to stab someone deliberately, but so easy to do so unintentionally.

“Be happy,” I said to myself, “isn’t that what you wanted? Isn’t it wonderful that now she can pursue her happiness without a care in the world?”

Let’s wish Rainbow happiness. Cheers.

Ruthlessly, put the rainbow’s stuff into two packages, bring it to send parcels tomorrow. Accidentally wrapped a tear in it, alas, what the heck, by tomorrow, who will recognize that tear?

Two days after sending the package, I also received a package from Rainbow Bow containing four cans of tea as if there was a teardrop.

We’re so fucking cheap, we know we can’t afford to play the game of love, but we can’t help but be tempted. Maybe destiny is such a thing, like Adam and Eve are destined to eat the forbidden fruit, even without the temptation of the serpent, one day, they will still be guilty of cheap to steal the mouth-watering fruit.

Rainbow never contacted me, and I certainly didn’t look for her. It was so hard to have such a happy ending, why ruin it again? A clean break would be better for me and for her.

“It’s over,” I told myself after two days of walking dead, “forget her.” So I distilled a dying element in my body, called happiness, and injected it all into my emaciated face; and tried my best to recall a soon to be forgotten expression, called a smile, which hung on the edge of my bloodless lips. I forced myself to sleep eight hours a day, I forced myself to play computer games for three hours a day, I forced myself not to touch books about bananas, I forced myself to eat twice as much as I wanted at each meal, I forced myself to stop drinking… Life seemed to be a lot more regular, a lot healthier, and a lot less boring.

Starting to realize that Rainbow’s signature smile was probably trained after experiencing countless such pains. Damn it, what’s the point of thinking about Rainbow again when there’s nothing to think about?

Before I knew it, summer vacation was over and school was about to start. The days of Shizumi may not have gone by particularly fast, but they must have been particularly bewildering, and I can’t remember anything about those days at all, except for the one I deliberately pretended to forget, Rainbow.

“I’ve gotten over all that.” I really almost fooled myself like that until that day, the day I saw Rainbow again.

In the fiery sunset, a figure stood alone at the edge of the filled-in valley, and I knew that it was Rainbow.

I froze. I couldn’t really find anything to do in the last few days of my poor, boring vacation, and I was surprised to wander back onto this abandoned mountain road, and I was surprised to encounter Rainbow.

Rainbow had her back to me, and I had a choice before she turned her head.

Single choice (a) turn away (b) hug her from behind (c) greet her (d) pretend not to see her, walk to the other side, and see her reaction

A lousy question with no standard answer. No matter what the choice, I will always regret it.

Rainbow didn’t let me choose, she somehow turned her head just in time to see a bewildered me. We were each confronted with our own single choice question, but neither of us knew how to answer it, so we could only stare at each other in disbelief.

“There you are.” Rainbow said after the sun had sunk a few more centimeters.

“Um, you’re here too.” I said.

I walked over to Rainbow, two meters away from her, and watched as the setting sun was gradually swallowed up by that mountain peak in the distance. Soon after, the setting sun finally fell into the embrace of the mountain peak, leaving behind a sky full of dazzling clouds.

“It’s almost dark.” I said.

“Eh.” Rainbow nodded.

“It’s time to go.” I said.

“I’m leaving tomorrow.” Rainbow said, and I froze for a moment before it occurred to me that she meant back to Kaohsiung.

“Are we still friends?” I asked.

“Yes,” Rainbow hesitated for a few seconds, “a very close friend, but just a friend.”

“So can I ask you a few questions that a friend should probably know?” I asked.

“You can ask,” Rainbow replied, “I won’t necessarily answer.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“Watching the sunset,” Rainbow replied, “the old home, and her.”

“Those are gone.” I said.

“She’s gone,” Rainbow said, “Did you just say she’s gone?”

“She’s not.” I hesitated for a moment, then said firmly.

“Say that again.” Rainbow said.

“She’s not.” I said.

“Speak up and tell the world.” Rainbow said.

“She’s -not- there anymore!” I yelled to the valley that had long since filled in, “She’s not there!”

Rainbow turned his head and we smiled at each other, it was getting dark, but it seemed to me that Rainbow could light up everything.

“And now it is time for me to tell you,” said Rainbow, turning his head to the distant peaks with their golden edges, “that he has two years before he can come out, and I wait for him, I must wait for him.”

“He gave up going to college to support me,” Rainbow’s voice became a little hoarse and I knew she was crying, “He was sentenced to three years in prison for injuring someone to protect me, I can’t betray him.”

“If it hadn’t been for him,” the sobbing Rainbow continued, and I wanted to tell her not to go on, but I knew that as soon as I opened my mouth, the tears that I was barely holding back from the frames of my eyes would instantly break out, “I would have been forced by snobby relatives to work as a seamstress or find a rich old man to marry. “

As the sky darkened, a few brighter stars had surfaced in the sky, but with our hearts in turmoil we still stood on the hillside, not knowing where to go from here.

“Come on,” I said when the sixteenth star appeared by the treetops, “slip away while you can still see the way, it would be a disaster to get lost.”

Rainbow reached up her sleeve to dry her tears as we slowly felt our way down the mountain, step by step, the damn string moon providing no illumination at all. Mosquitoes, darkness, and inexplicable fear assailed us, and all I could do was hold Rainbow’s hand tightly and let her step in the steps I had taken.

Sorry, Rainbow, that’s all I can give you.

“Happy birthday.” I said to Rainbow the next afternoon after I dropped her off at the station.

“How do you know?” Rainbow asked, his eyes widening in disbelief.

“For you.” I pulled a Polygon box out of the biker locker and gave it to her. There are three thousand ways in the world to find out a person’s birthday, so I’ll let Rainbow take her time guessing which one I used.

“Thanks.” Rainbow took the Polygon box with a number one smile, but his hands were shaking. “What’s this? A chocolate candy man?”

“It’s not well done.” I said, “It’s a twenty-centimeter tall, chocolate-molded human statue. I worked on it all night yesterday, and went to the trouble of processing it with layers of ice and plastic bags and plastic wrap to bring it here, but of course, I won’t tell Rainbow about that.

“Is this yourself?” Rainbow smiled happily.

“Think of it as that,” I said slowly, “Listen, I want you to think of this sugar man as me, and when it melts away, that’s the moment you’ll forget me.”

“Wait,” I once again saw Rainbow’s smile stiffen, freeze, and then crack into pieces on her face, “Let’s… let’s still be friends, we can still be friends…”

“No, don’t leave ourselves any more excuses.” Looking at the anxious Rainbow, I doubted how I could reject her so calmly and cruelly. “It’s all in the past.”

“But…” Yu Gong cried out, holding the candy man, “we…”

“Here’s the car,” neither I nor TAIC gave Rainbow a chance to retort, “Get in, I don’t want to knock you out and mail you to Kaohsiung.”

Rainbow stopped talking and just choked silently. I had a heart of gold and shoved Rainbow’s luggage into her hands, pushing her toward the door of the car. Under the watchful eyes of the surrounding travelers, Rainbow finally pulled out her ticket and walked toward the giant beast that symbolized parting.

“Can I call you Rainbow?” I shouted to Rainbow as her left foot hit the car door step.

“Yes.” Rainbow stopped and yelled back, drawing many more sideways glances from the travelers.

“Rainbow,” I cried, “send me wedding invitations when you get married, and I’ll be there for the reception.”

Rainbow forced a smile from her pale face and nodded vigorously before turning and walking into the carriage.

The sky is still blue on an early fall afternoon.