The vicious sun baked the earth mercilessly at high noon.
Sweating like a pig, I couldn’t wait to rush into the Taipei Railway Station in an unsightly position, dragging my left leg, which still couldn’t quite bend at the knee. The train station concourse wasn’t crowded at noon on a Thursday, so I found a chair in front of the railroad restaurant and sat down, enjoying the long-suffering air conditioning.
Twelve twenty, this time should be about right. I leisurely observed the pedestrians coming and going, tall and short, fat and thin, men and women, old and young, but all seemed to be in the same hurry. Compared to their pace, I was so relaxed that I felt like I was in a completely different dimension, and the two would never overlap.
The leisurely time didn’t last long. A familiar arm suddenly reached out from behind me and gently wrapped around my neck; thousands of soft strands of hair fell with a familiar scent on my cheeks and shoulders.
“Right on time.” I reached up and ruffled the dark hair that fell in my face that didn’t belong to me.
“You too.” The dark-haired owner chuckled. “Running around before your feet are healed, bad boy.”
“I missed you.” I turned my head sideways and was faced with the smile I had been waiting for.
“There you go again.” Rainbow flicked her backpack at her feet and came around to sit next to me. “How’s the foot?”
“Much better, can probably bend my knees to eighty degrees now.” I scrutinized Rainbow, whom I hadn’t seen in six months, a little darker, his hair a little longer, but his smile still bright.
“Do we have until next year to remove the steel spike?” Rainbow caressed my left leg as if she could feel the steel spike inside through the pants and muscle.
“Well, I’ll have to be hospitalized for another half month.” In fact, through the return of the fish and geese, Rainbow should be very clear about my situation. “Have you eaten?”
“Not yet, I want some Sizzler.” Rainbow seemed to have been hungry for a long time, and her eyes lit up at the mention of eating.
“Miss, where can I get a seat at Sizzler at this hour?” I gently knocked her on the head, “Even the line for the Nanyang Street buffet is as long as Zhongxiao East Road.”
“Then go home first, and we’ll go eat Fangirl.” Rainbow did not insist. “Let’s go, seeing as you’re poor, I’ll commiserate a bit, I’ll just carry my own stuff. Where is your car?”
I pointed to the north gate, and Rainbow picked up her still lightweight bag and took my hand, walking toward the big, scary oven outside the station.
It’s been a month since I traded in this new car, but I’m still very uncomfortable with the little fifty horsepower, especially carrying another person. For one thing, it’s a matter of finances, and for another, I didn’t estimate the speed of recovery of my left foot enough to make that bad decision.
“It’s ugly.” Kazu’s letter to Rainbow and phone call had explained to her what had happened with the replacement car, so she didn’t ask anything more than to give this two-word koan after circling around twice to survey it. “It doesn’t look like it’s worth thirty-six thousand dollars.”
“Can’t help it, inflation.” I shook my head and started the car.
This year’s summer has been particularly hot, with heavy heat waves coming forward and sweltering.
After enduring the heat for forty minutes, I finally made it to the familiar fannish restaurant across the street from Rainbow’s house.
“Let’s eat before we go back.” I made myself stop the car, ignoring Rainbow’s reaction.
“Well, Taipei is just horribly stuffy.” Even Rainbow, who had just come up from Kaohsiung, seemed to be on the verge of being baked out of her mind.
Fang Neighborhood is still the same, the tables, chairs and lighting have not changed. There were not many people in the store, so we picked the seat we were used to. Even the napkins, salt and pepper shakers on the table were the same. The menu is even the same, with just a few extra sheets of paper explaining the additional dishes.
“It’s been a while.” I grabbed a napkin and wiped my sweat as I flipped through the menu.
“Yeah, almost a year now.” Rainbow took a large gulp of water, then gasped for air as she interjected.
We ordered the beef noodle, chicken cutlet, and a full meal of sirloin, and it did seem like Rainbow was hungry. It is said that the hot weather will make people lose their appetite, but this theory seems to be impossible to be proved on us. Rainbow couldn’t wait to devour her entire meal of sirloin and then tore half of the chicken fillet to nibble on it, and I swallowed my beef noodle with soup and then nibbled the other half of the chicken fillet contentedly.
“How are you doing in Kaohsiung?” I finished nibbling on the chicken cutlet, tossed my fork onto the plate with only one bone left, and leaned back in my chair lazily.
“That’s not all.” Rainbow looked up at me before lowering her head back down to struggle with the chicken fillet.
In fact, she had been keeping me posted on what was going on, homework and exams to climb the grid, plus a movie three days and a potluck five days, was probably all that was going on in her daily life, or all that she had told me.
“Still correspond with him?” I asked as if nothing had happened.
“Uh, yes, everything went as you said it would.” Rainbow’s hands shook for a moment, but immediately regained her composure. “Sometimes, though, I wonder what the point of such hypocrisy really is.”
“There’s not much point in it,” I beckoned the waitress to take the plates away, “but since it’s the only thing we can do, let’s do it.”
“I did everything you said, wrote to him as before, visited him as before.” Rainbow stuffed the last little piece of chicken into her mouth and put down her knife and fork. “But what’s the point of doing all this since he and I can’t trust each other at all anymore?”
“You’ve got to give him a reason to live,” I replied gravely, “He’s in there, and you’re the only thing he’s got going for him. Even if he knows what’s going on out there, he’ll still try to fool himself if you give him a little false hope.”
“I should have thought of that.” Rainbow nodded in realization, and the smile came back to her face.
“It’s not that you can’t think about it, it’s just that you don’t mean to think about it.” I’ve rehearsed these lines in my mind countless times.
“You don’t know how to deal with the internal struggle, so you simply don’t want to think about everything about him, it will only upset you, and you know that no amount of thinking will solve the problem.”
“What do you know me so well for?” Rainbow still wore a smile, completely unfazed by my bit of vitriol, and I knew that this bit of carving would be easy for her if she wanted it to be.
“I’d better play dumb then, just like before.” I put away my poker face and smiled.
“No, I still like you the way you are now.” Rainbow took the coffee from the waitress, signaling that she didn’t want creamer or sugar packets, and I did the same. “Why are you envisioning him like this?”
“I was envisioning you.” I stirred the coffee in front of me slightly and took a small sip. “It’s still the same as before, a little tough without being too tough.”
“Let’s go to my place for Expresso later.” Rainbow was obviously anxious to change the subject, which was what I wanted. “There’s no tea right now, so let’s find a day to go to your mom’s and trick her into drinking some.”
“How about tomorrow, do you want me to give you a ride?” Mom loved Rainbow, though she still thought the delightful girl was really called by the odd name of ‘Rainbow’.
“I’ll go by myself, it’s so far,” Rainbow thought a little. “It would be terrible for me if your mom knew you were limping around for me.”
“I’ll sleep at your place tonight,” I also thought for a moment, it was a bit lazy to ask me to go back and forth like that too, “Let’s go back together tomorrow.”
“Yeah, that’s it.” Rainbow agreed without thinking this time. “You’ll have to help me clean up the house though, it’s probably a bit of a mess and maybe it’s been burglarized.”
“What in the world would be such a stupid thief as to seek out such a greaseless place to strike?” I laughed.
“Maybe there really is ooh.” Rainbow smiled mischievously. “Don’t drink this awful coffee, let’s go back and make Expresso.”
“Let’s go then.” I grabbed the bill and walked to the counter, Rainbow following me with her backpack.
Fortunately, the house had accumulated some dust, but it didn’t need much cleaning up. According to Rainbow’s habit, it was impossible not to clean up the house before going south.
“The coffee maker should still work.” Rainbow mumbled to herself as she held out the coffee maker sealed in a cardboard box, and once again I admired her care.
“It’s hot.” I opened the window and turned the fan on full blast.
“It’s really hot, bear with me.” Rainbow skillfully plugged in the refrigerator and stereo, and filled the hot water bottle, which was probably the first and foremost routine she did whenever she came home from vacation.
“You want coffee when it’s this hot?” I uncovered my top and hogged the fan. Strange, why didn’t it feel hot in here last year?
“I was going to ask you the same thing.” Rainbow pulled out another CD and put it on the stereo, not having a moment to spare since she’d walked in the door.
“Hold a dozen beers back and drink them.” The music came on, it was a selection of Elton John’s albums that I had bought. Originally Rainbow wasn’t much of a fan of the old guy, but then I probably got used to listening to him and took this CD out often.
“Don’t, I quit drinking.” Rainbow finally finished her work, threw off her slippers and collapsed on the bed.
“Quit drinking? You?” My eyes widened as I stared back at Rainbow, whose body lay in large fonts on the bed, as if I had heard the most ridiculous joke in the world.
“Doubtful?” Rainbow closed her eyes, tiredly. “Don’t get in front of the electric fan, I can’t blow.”
“Is it something exciting?” I walked over to the bed and sat down, taking Rainbow’s hand in mine.
“No la, quitting drinking is no big deal.” Rainbow rolled over and rested her head on my lap, thankfully it wasn’t her broken left foot. “You can quit if you want to, maybe keep drinking someday if you want to, it’s really nothing, don’t think about it.”
“I don’t believe it.” I played with Rainbow’s hair, growing it out some more, but wondering how long it would take to get back to the length it used to be when we first met.
“Suit yourself, but you better believe it.” Rainbow didn’t bother trying to convince me, in fact I knew there had to be a story in the middle that she didn’t want me to know. “I’m going to take a nap, I’m so tired.”
“You can still sleep in this heat?” I’m actually a little sleepy, I probably just ate too much of that meal.
“If you have nothing better to do go ahead and visit your dad’s house and come back tonight.” Rainbow didn’t even want to use a single extra bit of energy to speak, lazily.
“I don’t want to go over there, and anyway, now that my dad’s in Taiwan, someone will just take care of the house.” I smoothly pulled a pillow from the bed. “I’ll sleep on the floor.”
“No,” Rainbow sat up suddenly, the top of her head nearly hitting my chin, “what if you get rheumatism later? I’ll sleep on the floor, the bed is for you.”
“Let’s squeeze on the bed then.” I suddenly pinned her down on the bed, joking of course, this hellish weather had made one not want to do anything at all.
“Not too hot?” Rainbow asked with a smile.
“A quiet mind is a cool mind.” I actually wondered if the person who said that had any brains at all, but I lay down on my side and closed my eyes.
The electric fan hummed and I silently counted the number of times it turned, and before I knew it, I was headed for the weekly bulletin with a rainbow in tow.
It’s five in the afternoon and the sun is still high in the sky. Today in Taipei, it’s as hot as the equator, as stuffy as the rainforest, and the day grows like the North Pole.
Rainbow was still dead asleep, the slanting sun was gradually creeping up her face and I reached over to pull the window closed. She had no idea what she was so tired about; after all, she never showed her fatigue easily in front of anyone but me.
Gently slipped out of bed, not daring to startle her. I always thought she looked better asleep than awake, and although there was less of that gorgeous smile, I could see a few moments of innocence that was usually almost invisible. Of course, I hadn’t told her that.
I gingerly slipped on my shoes, drew my keys from Rainbow’s purse, and tiptoed out the door. I startled myself by moving a little heavier as I brought the iron door closed, and wondered if I had woken her.
Flipped through a few magazines at the convenience store and bought an evening paper on the way out to compensate. Five thirty-five. Went to the buffet at the end of the alley to pack a box of groceries, a box of rice, and go back to that sleepy little piggy bar.
“I knew it.” By five-fifty, Piggy had made coffee and was waiting for me, with a change of clothes, and by the looks of it, probably a shower.
“Know what?” I pulled out the evening paper, spread the two pages of stock market quotes out on the floor, and opened the bento box.
“Mustn’t have gotten far sneaking out,” Rainbow smiled, handing me a note, “I knew you must be too lazy to ride your bike. It was written half an hour ago, open it and read it.”
“Buffet at the Lane,” I read from the note, “one lunch and dinner, back by six.”
“Awesome, huh?” Rainbow smiled smugly, “Anticipation.”
“Forget it, what’s the point?” I said back, unable to help but admire Rainbow a little. “Just a coincidence.”
“Coincidence? Prophesy too if you dare.” Rainbow said defiantly.
“Easy, give me three notes.” Thinking of a story I’d heard before, a messy shot at a bird always hits one or two.
“There’s note paper on the desk, write it yourself.” Rainbow had already picked up her chopsticks and started eating. “I don’t believe you can break out any prophecies.”
“Wait and see, I know exactly how many… hairs you have.” I don’t know why, but lately I’ve been talking more and more cheaply, and this time I was lucky to stop the car instantly, otherwise I would have been punched in the face again.
There was a stack of recycled note paper on the table, the first one had a phone number written on it, and I flipped up the message, which meant nothing to me, and ripped off three of its brethren. As I picked up my pen and prepared to write, I suddenly realized that the phone number I had just glanced at was somewhat familiar.
One more look, yes, it must be someone I know, but for a moment I couldn’t remember who it was. I memorized the number silently, didn’t move, wrote a few words on each of the three pieces of note paper, and stuffed them in my pocket.
“What prophecy did you make?” Rainbow asked, biting into her ribs.
“Guess.” I picked up my chopsticks and guessed the phone number in my mind.
It was just Pizza Hut, hopefully.
“Put on some music.” I said vaguely to Rainbow as I swallowed a mouthful of rice and reached for my coffee, which was probably no longer warm.
“Wait a minute.” Rainbow reached over to flip through the CDs and had drawn an Enya one when suddenly she thought of what seemed to come to mind, turned back to me and made a face, then grabbed one of the computer game soundtracks I keep here instead, Origin Audio CD Vol. 3. “I’m not going to fall for that.”
“What’s all the tension for? Boring.” I wouldn’t be stupid enough to predict such a thing; after all, there were hundreds of CDs inside this room, and I didn’t have the skill to guess which one she’d put on.
“Where are we going tonight?” Rainbow poured herself a cup of coffee, filling my cup in the process. “I start work next Monday and have five days to fool around.”
“Suit yourself, I’m idle anyway.” It was the truth, as long as I hid and didn’t let anyone find me, of course I would be idle, as for how things would pile up, I would worry about that later.
“Let’s go to the night market then.” Rainbow’s eyes rolled twice, then ghosted. She probably thought I wouldn’t have guessed the offer, and indeed we did rarely go to the night market.
“Congratulations, see for yourself.” I pulled a note from my pocket and handed it to her.
“Shopping at the night market.” Rainbow looked at it and couldn’t help but laugh. “How about two more? Take them out together.”
“No, the time is not right.” I said in a pretentious manner. In fact the other two notes went through the roof as soon as I took them out, these two sacrificed prophecies had ‘Zhongxiao East Road’ and ‘Go out for a night swim’ written on them respectively. This trick was learned from the Dugu Nine Swords, Zhongxiao East Road can break all kinds of short weapons such as movies, Pubs, bookstores, etc., and Night Tour is the nemesis of long weapons such as the seaside, Yangmingshan, and Bishan.
We settled for this simple meal with Wing Commander 3 and Privateer’s soundtrack under our belts. The trivial conversations and the unspoken dialogues made it clear that our relationship was still based on the tacit understanding of not violating each other’s hearts, and that we had made no progress compared to a year ago.
“I’m going to take a shower and go out afterward.” I said to Rainbow as I cleaned up the after dinner mess.
“Eh, you wash first, I’ll bring you a towel later.” Rainbow was cleaning up the coffee residue.
I walked into the bathroom, stripped off my sweaty smelling clothes, and twisted on the electric water heater and faucet. Soon after, the water coming out of the faucet gradually warmed up, and I grabbed the rosette head and let the water start at the top of my head and run down my body. After a day in the heat, taking a shower was a real treat.
However, that phone number was always weighing on my mind and I had a bad feeling about it.
After strolling back to the night market, it was already ten o’clock in the evening. I really can not figure out, a small night market, how can you stroll for so long? But without realizing it, we stayed for more than two hours in this night market which can be finished in twenty minutes.
“Exhausted.” Rainbow tossed some of the bits and pieces she’d just bought onto the table and plopped down on the bed. “Help me turn the fan on.”
“Those with broken legs didn’t call it tired, what do you call it?” I flicked the fan switch and chuckled. The leg was really quite sore, not unrelated to the lack of exercise after the injury.
“When do you have to go back to the doctor?” Rainbow rolled over and lay back on the bed closing her eyes.
“Next week.” I adjusted the direction of the fan, then sat on the edge of the bed, and Rainbow immediately glued herself to it.
“Didn’t you used to have some doctor clients when you were at the computer company?” Rainbow leaned back on my lap and let me play with her hair. “Wouldn’t it be nice to go talk to them when you’re not doing anything and just drop by to give them a look, save a trip to the hospital.”
“I’d like to, but I don’t know any orthopedic surgeons, at most a few medical students.” Speaking of which, suddenly a face flashed through my mind like a bolt of lightning in the dark. It was him, that was his phone number.
Rainbow didn’t say anything, it seemed to be comfortable to lay still like this. I know she’s waiting for me, but I’m not in the mood right now. How did Xiao Zhao get involved with her? Why didn’t she let me know?
Thinking back, Xiao Zhao is the medical school, because of the relationship between computer games let us meet in the BBS, and later party twice. Just after the New Year, I was really bored out of my mind, rainbow all the way to help me to take me to the shopping mall in Guanghua, that time I ran into him. That’s right, he and Rainbow did not know each other at that time, but how could Rainbow have his phone number?
“I need to make a phone call.” I gently moved Rainbow’s head up and placed it on the pillow, then picked up the phone and dialed the seven numbers. Rainbow opened her eyes and looked a little upset.
“Hey, XX Zhao please.” I surreptitiously watched Rainbow’s expression, unchanged. “Oh, yeah, I have a game set, the big six-piece pack, yeah, Wing Commander 4. I forgot who I lent it to, I need it for writing a piece right now, do you have it? Wow, no ooh, sorry, that’s okay then.
What? You mean the novel? It’s a long story…”
The six CDs were of course still lying nicely in my drawer, and the rainbow was back in my arms.
She wasn’t as peaceful as the CD-ROM, and her naughty hands were already undoing my belt.
“I’m kind of in the middle of something right now, no, I’m not at home, we’ll be in touch, bye.” Deeply afraid that I wouldn’t be able to control my voice, I hung up the phone in a hurry. Rainbow’s cheeks were so red and cute, a mischievous smile creeping up the corners of her mouth, I shook my head and laughed bitterly, turning off the lights.
Was I thinking too much? I questioned myself in the darkness, but there was no answer.
This unfilial son of mine often does not stay at home overnight, the mother has long been accustomed to, so when she saw me come home the next morning, the mother did not intend to say anything; but when the mother saw the rainbow that slipped into the door hiding behind me, but she was so happy that she even spoke in a different voice. A son is no match for a future daughter-in-law, a daughter is no match for a future son-in-law, and a lovely mom.
The theory that a son is no match for a daughter-in-law is once again proven by the White Hair Oolong that mom brought out. Normally mom never brew these teas for her son and daughter to drink, saying that turtles don’t deserve to eat barley; now I see rainbow, mom hurriedly empty the teapot still filled with Jin Xuan, and put in the White Hair Oolong in a decent manner. Rainbow is of course the knowledge of the goods, she secretly pinched my hand, give me a smug face.
I accompanied two cups of tea, excused myself to say that I want to catch the letter, slipped into the room, and left the two of them in the living room to go to the three nuns. Wednesday morning BBS, no one with me to grab on line, less than ten minutes to catch three letter package down. Accidentally glanced at the list of users on line today, Xiao Zhao had been on the station only ten minutes ago, I decided to dial him again, of course in the absence of rainbows to mess up the situation.
“Hey, it’s me, I’ve been a little bored lately, do you have any novels to read there?” I lowered my voice slightly, smoothly letting the computer execute Tony Larussas Baseball 3 and letting the voice announcements mix with my voice. “I’ve got, ah, a copy of Tom Clancy’s What’s Going On Around the World. Si, and Deadly Operating Room, Michael Crichton’s first novel? Never read it, deal. Meet me at the main entrance of Kwong Wah Mall at 1:30 p.m. OK, everything else is fine, Bye.”
Poking around a bit, the two women were still going east and west, and the plan they had just undertaken seemed to have gone unnoticed. After spending half an hour looking through the mail, it was still a pile of junk mail, but instead it was E-mail, which had piled up seventeen in just one day, with a couple of non-responsive, most-quick pieces. I sighed and resigned myself to the fact that I had to start typing, and by the time this routine was over, it was just about time for my mom to rush me to lunch, and Rainbow stiffly dragged me out of the room. Luckily, she hadn’t noticed the screen, which showed none other than the finished novel I’d adapted from the various stories of our relationship last summer, and had thrown up on the station just before leaving the house yesterday.
“Let’s go to the movies this afternoon, Mission Impossible.” I suggested to Rainbow, and of course she, who was addicted to movies, wouldn’t say no.
“Yeah, which one?” Rainbow looked like she liked her mom’s bamboo shoot casserole and chucked in half a bowl.
“Let’s do the two to three o’clock one, I have to drop something off to someone else first, so I’ll be out at about one.” I proceeded with the plan, the only way I could find out the truth was to have Showa and Rainbow meet.
It was a hilarious acting contest, and Xiao Zhao was the first to lose. When he saw me and Rainbow appear together, that look of surprise was obvious even to an idiot that something unusual must be going on.
Rainbow was of course unblemished and calm, with a smile brighter than the afternoon sun. I found an excuse to drag Zhaos to sit at the bubble tea store, and he couldn’t find any good reason to refuse.
“This is Rainbow, you’ve met,” I nosily introduced them to each other, “and this is Shao.”
I had long since stopped expecting to find any clues at Rainbow, and my attention was all focused on Xiao Zhao.
He kept his head down as he studied the names of the various odd drinks, then selecting the Earl Grey tea in a predictable manner. I realized he hadn’t been able to look at the rainbow. If he’d just read the novel I’d left on the station, there was no way he’d react like that; there had to be some story going on in between that I didn’t know about.
After half an hour of meaningless conversation, I put Xiao Zhao home, and Rainbow went to the movie theater to line up for tickets according to the plan, which was unlikely to go anywhere at the moment anyway. After the movie, I refused Rainbow’s temptation with the excuse that I was in a hurry, sent her back to Neihu, and then called Xiao Zhao on the side of the road.
“Can we come out and talk alone now?” I said, opening the door.
“Okay, I’ll see you at that bubble tea this afternoon.” After a moment’s hesitation, he resigned himself to agreeing.
When I jammed all the way there, he was sitting in the corner waiting for me, a picture of nervousness.
“Sorry about the traffic.” I pulled out my chair and sat down.
“That’s okay, I just got here too.” He looked up and smiled at me.
“Sorry to keep you running around.” I added an order for a mandarin.
“…” He didn’t seem very inclined to speak.
“It’s come to this,” I said with a sigh and a false sense of humor, though in truth I didn’t know anything yet, “and you don’t have to hide anything from me.”
“I guess so.” Xiao Zhao seemed to be prepared for this. “Where do I start with the story?”
“I’ve turned in all the manuscripts I’m supposed to this month,” I found the most comfortable position I could and leaned against the wall, “and Rainbow isn’t here, and this store doesn’t close until eleven at night, so you can take your time.”
“Is it okay to start with Jianlong?” Xiao Zhao thought for a moment, then asked me.
“OK,” I shook in my heart, the novel hadn’t yet mentioned Jianlong’s name, but Xiaozhao even knew it, he probably also knew how to write the word Jianlong, which I hadn’t known until now.
Xiao Zhao spoke for a whole hour and a half, he obviously had prepared and organized his story, otherwise it would be impossible to give such an organized account. The story started from the time he met Jianlong, all the way to the night with Rainbow, and even the time they had sex, Xiao Zhao told me everything without reservation. My face was probably a bit scary, the more Xiao Zhao talked, the more he didn’t dare to look me in the eye.
“Sorry.” Zhaos finally finished his story and lowered his head as if he was ready to be punished.
“Bye.” I put a hundred dollars on the table and walked out of the bubble tea store that was so stuffy it made me want to kill myself.
I’m not angry, or heartbroken, or jealous, purely tired of the hypocrisy of it all.
Human emotion, originally, is one of the most hypocritical things, and to get away from hypocrisy, perhaps giving up emotion is the most basic requirement, which I am trying. However, people have long regarded hypocritical emotions as proper manners, and once they give them up, they are bound to be immediately labeled as ignorant of manners.
It’s exhausting to be human.
After everything was clear, I didn’t know what to do. When I got home, my mom asked me about the rainbow, but I didn’t answer. I shut myself in my room with no expression and turned on my computer screen.
Reviewing twenty-two novels, and a handful of letters from station members offering encouragement. Hypocrisy. Unbeknownst to me, I found myself typing about the aftermath of a car accident and hospitalization, and it consisted of speculating about the inner workings of a rainbow.
There is probably no one in the world who knows more about rainbows than I do, but even I can only peek into a small part of her heart from that little gap when she is off guard. Moreover, in principle, for what she does not mean to tell me voluntarily, I do not like to pursue the root of the matter.
I don’t know why, but I began to envision everything, speculate on everything, and weave everything from the perspective of a rainbow.
In one night, I actually knocked out six thousand words, six times my usual output and seven times my usual working hours. Whereas I used to get bored just knocking away for an hour, today I was like a gold-topped battery, not knowing what fatigue was.
“I dont think Rainbow would think like this, you should pay more in playing herrole. “Shortly after Sunshine’s first piece was sent up to the station, Xiaozhao replied with an open letter. On the surface it appeared that he was advising me on my writing style, but in reality I knew he was accusing me of being one-sided and twisting the facts.
I pretended to be sincere and replied with an irrelevant letter. Damn, why am I being hypocritical again?
Rainbow called me and I vetoed her plan to get me to make tea at Cat Hollow, still using the excuse of catching up on my manuscript.
Still inseparable from hypocrisy, this month’s manuscript was written and handed in long ago, but lies are told so often that sometimes even I come close to believing them.
Pick up the microphone and put it next to the phone, in the future if anyone complains that they can’t get through, just tell them that I’m using Internet to transfer files, excuses will always be there, right now I just want to be alone.
Not long after I sent Sunshine’s second piece up to the station, Xiao Zhao surprisingly started writing his Starburst as well. That preface, which was full of gunpowder, angered me. What was an outsider doing stirring up this kind of thing where right and wrong were hard to distinguish?
That said, I really admire him, by rainbow under such a spell, he still have the courage to put a foot between us. Of course, I wouldn’t be so stupid as to question Rainbow about the drunken sex incident, according to my guess, that was in Rainbow’s plan, the purpose was to tell Xiao Zhao, an outsider, to shut up. If you put a spell like this on Xiao Zhao, he should feel ashamed to see Jianlong. For Rainbow, I’m not surprised that she’s absolutely capable of doing such things, and it doesn’t hurt her standing in my heart.
Writing a letter and deciding to blatantly turn his back on Xiao Zhao was not something he should be in charge of.
“What kind of person rushes a manuscript for so long?” Rainbow complained over the phone, “May I ask Master are you composing some superb masterpiece?”
“I’m sorry, I haven’t finished this game in hand to put pen to paper.” I said sheepishly.
“I only have three days of vacation left oooh, when I start working, it’ll probably turn out that I won’t have time for you.” Rainbow wasn’t very happy. I could only imagine how bored she was after being avoided by me for two days.
“When I finish catching up with the manuscript, I’ll definitely accompany you up and down the mountains and into the Yellow Springs.” I said in all seriousness, and as for when I’ll ‘finish catching up’? Probably tomorrow.
“All you do is talk,” Rainbow laughed out loud, “move faster oooo, we’re going to the beach.”
Hangs up the phone and goes off to catch up on her manuscript, a novel manuscript, not a magazine manuscript as she thought.
Crazy Dog Zhao really went off on me, accusing me at length in his letter of being treacherous and behaving in a disgraceful manner. Who the hell does he think he is? A synonym for justice? I cursed back viciously.
Sunshine was still in the middle of publishing at the rate of one a day, but keyboarding was much faster than that, and the next morning when the sunlight came into my room, I was surprised to find that I had already finished typing more than twenty-one twenty-five thousand words.
What am I so bored for? I promised myself I’d write a thousand words a day to practice, but now this thing has taken up three whole days of my time, and I’ve done nothing but type for the last three days. I’ve done nothing but type. The book manuscript I picked up for typesetting is still stacked up on my hard drive, and the copy that’s been delayed for two weeks hasn’t been submitted yet, and I haven’t revised it yet.
Mad Dog Zhao reply to the letter speed is really fast, immediately and a large series of long-winded, the content of course, or charge me with taking advantage of the danger of others and so on, to be honest, these cliches let me look a little boring.
Ignore you. I sketched a few words back, told him I was too lazy to argue, and dialed Rainbow.
“Who?” The phone rang six times before Rainbow picked it up, in a sleepy voice.
“I’ll be there… at 8:30… wait for me at the McDonald’s on Pavilion Road and we’ll go to Danshui.” I slowed down and said it word by word so that she, who was still awake, could hear me clearly.
“It’s… come on, it’s not even six o’clock, do you always get up this early?” Rainbow’s voice managed to burrow out of her sleep.
“Eh, who’s like you, sleeping like a pig.” I wasn’t going to tell her that I hadn’t just gotten up, but that I hadn’t slept at all. If I told her, she would have forced me back to sleep, but right now what I needed most wasn’t sleep, but a rainbow.
Should the rainbow’s bright smiling face belong to me? My subconscious was questioning my conscience.
Nitta had just finished its exams and the beach was immediately stuffed to the brim.
“It’s so crowded, I don’t even have the desire to change clothes and get in the water.” Rainbow said with a shake of her head. It was the first time I’d seen her wear sunglasses, and her expression was mostly hidden under the blue and purple ones for sports. Very few girls wore these sunglasses, but when I had just taken her to pick them out, this was the pair she liked. Let her be, they were two hundred and ninety nine dollars a pair anyway.
“So what now?” I shrugged and turned back to Rainbow.
“I don’t know, whatever you want to arrange.” Rainbow took her sunglasses off and hung them on her lapel.
“I’ll make a phone call first.” I gestured behind my back to Rainbow and she handed me her purse, which I handed back to her after finding the calling card and the coin.
Done, I was given a positive answer on the other end of the phone.
“Where are we going?” She asked uneasily as she held Rainbow’s hand for the bus stop sign.
“To eat at Miaokou.” I answered honestly, it was almost time for lunch when we arrived in Keelung, it was a bit of a bummer to be on a bus all morning, I should have known to just take the train to Keelung.
Rainbow didn’t press the issue. Of course she wanted to get the temple entrance just as the beginning of the plan, but she also knew that if I didn’t want to tell her the next plan yet, then of course I had my intentions. Having been with me for a while now, she should have gotten used to my style a long time ago and was happy to accept my arrangements.
Even in the middle of the day, Temple Pass is still much more crowded than the beach, but crowding is supposed to be one of the great joys of Temple Pass.
We enjoyed a variety of expensive snacks in the midst of the crowd, really expensive, and it’s only been a year since we’ve been here and the prices have climbed a whole lot higher. I remember eating rice noodle soup here for five dollars when I was a kid, and nutritional sandwiches in high school were only fifteen dollars.
“Excuse me, where am I going to be taken to sell now?” I was asked by Rainbow, who was still clueless about this afternoon, after finishing the last of the sweet and spicy and bubble ice.
“Take your time guessing.” I made a face, stopped, and got two nutritious sandwiches and two tempura.
“What are you buying this for?” Rainbow asked, greatly confused.
“We’ll put you on a boat to stow away on the mainland later, and these are for you to eat on the way.” I took Rainbow and squeezed out of the crowded alleyway, casually stopping a taxi and gesturing for her to get in. Doubtful, she still didn’t forget to punch me in the back.
The more the car went, the more remote it got; the Runner seemed to know where I was going, and although it was a bit out of the way, it still didn’t need me to point it out at all. Twenty minutes later, the car crossed a small section of the mountain road, and in front of me appeared row after row of newly completed white apartments. I asked the Runner to pull up to the third row of apartments, then paid and pulled Rainbow out of the car.
“What are you doing here?” Rainbow hid her confusion with a smile.
“Take a nutritional sandwich to catch bad kids who don’t listen.” I winked and pulled her toward one of the many white apartments. This time she seemed to understand, and even her footsteps became extra happy.
“Coming, huh?” The one who opened the door for us was my second sister’s husband. He had heard about Rainbow, but never had the chance to see her, so when I told him on the phone that I was bringing Rainbow to play with the kids, he and my second sister thought that they would certainly welcome her, and anyway, during the summer vacation, these two elementary school teachers had nothing to do at home.
“This is my second sister’s husband,” I introduced briefly as I took off my shoes, “and this is Rainbow.”
“Uncle!” A little girl staggered out from inside the room.
“Go give your auntie a kiss, go.” I told my niece, who is less than three years old. This is the age when children have the most fun; they can and can’t do anything; they learn everything quickly and forget everything.
“I don’t want it.” This was the mantra of my niece, who was obviously still a little scared of life.
“Alright, give auntie a hug.” Rainbow crouched down and seduced her niece with a smile and tempura as her second sister in law stood smiling and watching. “Auntie here has sweet and sour ooh, want some?”
“Want.” The niece, hiding behind her old man, poked her head out.
“Come here yourself, or you won’t get it.” Rainbow stabbed a piece of tempura with a bamboo skewer and slowly shook it as if she were seducing a puppy, but the tactics for dealing with children and puppies were supposed to be much the same.
After a moment’s hesitation, my niece walked up to Rainbow, who grabbed my niece and lifted her so high in the air that my niece squealed loudly with joy. Rainbow was pretty good with kids too.
“Who’s here?” The second sister came out holding a one year old boy, “It’s you, pig!”
“The sow is here too.” I laughed as Rainbow was having a good time and just glared at me, not bothering to whack me.
She was more than happy to find that there were two children to play with, and her smile was a little wider than its usual splendor.
“Help me with the computer,” my second sister’s husband didn’t let me idle, dragging me into the room, “I still don’t know how to choose between going into DOS or Win95 when you turned on the computer last time.”
So I helped my brother-in-law with Win95, a datacom and a bunch of application software, and incidentally helped him with a three and a half hour Internet practice course. Anyway, Rainbow had two big cuddly toys in his hands and was too lazy to pay attention to me. When my brother-in-law finally received the test e-mail he sent out, the course was over and the class was dismissed.
“Expresso? I want it too.” The two little kids have long since been caught napping, and Second Sister and Rainbow are making coffee and chatting in the living room. The second sister is also a big fan of Expresso, it seems that our family is quite easy to get rid of, a can of coffee powder can solve all the problems, even save the creamer and sugar.
“I’m going to go cook dinner, so you guys can drink it yourselves.” My second sister grabbed a mug in her hand and gave it to me before heading to the kitchen, my sister in law also went to help, leaving just Rainbow and I in the living room.
“Those two are so cute!” Rainbow sat down next to me and whispered in my ear.
I smiled at her and didn’t reply. Rainbow was obviously a little tired, but she couldn’t seem to close her eyes and rest. Maybe it’s a bit strange to say this, but in this moment, I could really feel that happiness was surrounding us, and Rainbow probably felt similarly. So, to the music of I don’t know how many symphonies of so-and-so, we quietly leaned against each other, enjoying the happiness and not thinking about anything.
“Why don’t you sleep with us tonight, so you can sleep with the kids?” After dinner, Rainbow was still having fun with the two kids, when her sister’s husband looked at the time, it was past nine o’clock, so he suggested this.
“Sorry, we should go, we have things to do tomorrow.” Rainbow looked at me expectantly, but cruelly I vetoed her expectations with my eyes, so she had to put down those unknown toys in her hands and said reluctantly.
“Then I’ll send you guys to Taipei.” Sister-in-law was too embarrassed to force us to stay.
“Just send us to the train, Taipei is too far.” I said to my sister-in-law while checking my body for anything missing.
I walked out of the house and realized that the night, tonight, was so beautiful.
“I’m so sad to see them both go.” Rainbow said as we waved goodbye to my sister in law’s car and walked into the train station, gripping my arm tightly.
I can’t let you go either, Rainbow.
“Why don’t you sleep at my place today, it’s so late.” It’s eleven-thirty by the time I drop Rainbow off, and tired as she is, she rightfully suggests it to an even more tired me.
“I still have to get back, got some work to get done.” I forced my eyelids open, putting what little energy I had into my face, and forced a smile at her. “I’m going to sleep in until noon tomorrow, and I’ll give you the afternoon program.”
“I was afraid I’d sleep until late afternoon,” Rainbow said as she found her keys in her purse by the light of the headlights, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Bye.” I waved at Rainbow and watched her go up the stairs before turning around on my bike and leaving.
The thought of having to run through the entire Taipei City to get home made me regret a little bit that I had just rejected Rainbow’s offer.
However, I knew I had to think some things through, and tonight was the perfect time to do it, and if I put it off any longer, I’d just get deeper and deeper into confusion.
Once again, I remembered the stories Mad Dog Akira had told. The guy was nosy, but what he said wasn’t unreasonable.
No matter what has happened in the past, Jianlong is indeed a better match for Rainbow than I am. Can I promise Rainbow forever? Can I stay with her for the rest of my life? Can I give her happiness? A man overwhelmed by love tends to promise all these things faithfully, but everyone knows how reliable such vows really are. I don’t dare to lie to Rainbow or anyone else with this kind of oath, not to mention myself.
Koo and regardless of ability, Jianlong intends to give rainbow these, and he has been giving without complaint. Maybe he is a little out of his depth, but since he has this determination, I believe he can do it.
Can I do it? Once again, I questioned myself.
A hundred useless is a scholar, let alone a student like me who can’t even read well. A flying squirrel with five skills is probably someone like me who learned a little something without a teacher and thinks he’s a good person because of it.
After I leave society, what can I live on? What can I give Rainbow that she needs, other than unrealistic love?
It was so tiring to have a series of question marks hanging over my mind. It’s kind of funny that a student who hasn’t even been in the military yet would be worrying about this kind of problem for a girl who is also still in school. Why is it that while others can enjoy the pleasures of the present without worry, we have to take great pains to envision things for the future?
Thinking about these unanswered questions along the way, but also returned home, really a bit magical. Mom went to bed early, I hid in the room, shaking open the quilt to lie down. Tired to death, thirty hours without sleep, and with the rainbow running around all day, a bit of physical exhaustion feeling.
But I can’t sleep, I have to make a decision tonight before I do. Besides, I can’t sleep.
I woke up and turned on my computer, unconsciously flipping through the two novels I’ve written in the past month or so. Adapted from the diary, these two things have no chapter structure, and the narrative technique is also bad, but I am like a magic, in the radiation ray exposure, word by word, chewing carefully. So bitter.
“Now, I don’t have the power to decide anything anymore.” Suddenly, a paragraph of text in the sunlight was reflected in my retina: “Everything is for you to decide, if you still like me as a cowardly, useless and broken leg, anyway, I can’t run fast, I don’t bother to run for you to chase. If anything happens again in the future, there’s nothing to put off, just go against the grain. If you think you ought to go home and wait for Jianlong, you have my blessing.”
I started to think back on everything. Yes, this was the promise I made to Rainbow at that time. Later, Rainbow chose me; she chose me and I accepted her under the brilliant sunrise on that first morning of the year.
There is nothing to say, I can not fail the rainbow, no matter what, only try my best. As long as Rainbow intends to stay by my side for one more day, I am obliged to love her for one more day and fight for her for one more day. If, after a year, she realizes that Jianlong there is where she should go, I will leave silently and bless them. This is the promise I made.
Good night, Rainbow.
After figuring everything out, I slept exceptionally well, and surprisingly, I slept until 1pm. If it wasn’t for that phone call, I probably would have slept even later.
“Hey, Chico oooh, I just woke up, it’s okay, what’s up?” Brother Qi is the webmaster of the BBS where I’m currently serializing Sunshine. “You’re talking about the Rainbow thing, it’s clearly written in the novel, I don’t want to say more.
In fact, I originally wanted to write it as a novel, so everyone could just look at it, but who knew that crazy dog Zhaoshi would run out and bite the dust, shaking the whole thing out.”
“Shit, you respect him a little bit too la, don’t call something shit crazy dog wild dog, shit, he has a name too.” Qi’s mantra is ‘mom’s’, once when chatting with him on the phone in passing, he calculated that he could mention his mother twenty times in a minute, not bad for a filial son. “He’s embarrassed about this too, and wants to get you out to apologize, are you free this afternoon?”
“Afternoon… it’s fine if it’s earlier.” Thinking about Rainbow, I had arranged to go out with her in the afternoon, so I couldn’t bring her to meet with Chok again, could I? But she shouldn’t be up yet, so let’s go and hear what Xiao Zhao wants to say first, and then take Rainbow out for a little bit in the evening. After he figured it out last night, his hostility towards Xiao Zhao is much lower now, in fact, he can not need to ask Brother Qi to come out.
“Then it’ll be two o’clock in the fucking afternoon, at the same bubble tea where you guys last fucking met, OK, see you then.” Ki probably had to return the news to Zhaoshi, and quickly hung up the phone.
At the bubble tea store, I ate the not-so-eatable spicy diced chicken risotto on one side while listening to Xiao Zhao silently reading the speech he had prepared long ago. Eating was important, I didn’t even listen to what he said. Chieh was in a rare position of not bringing his girlfriend out today, probably because he didn’t want too many people getting involved in this shit.
“I’m sorry about this too.” I wolfed down the late lunch before taking a big gulp of the red sugary water that seemed to be called bubble tea. “It was a little too exciting, and it messed up the station so much that a lot of people were probably afraid to come out and write letters.”
“Then this matter ends here, and no one should mention it again? We’ll still be friends from now on, is that okay?” Kee finally began to perform his mediation.
“OK,” I said.
“Good.” Xiao Zhao held out his right hand to me and I shook it.
After listening to Xiao Zhao tell some jokes from medical school, we went back to Kwong Wah Mall to talk to one of our friends, flipped through a few magazines from the issue, looked at Magic solitaire, and then ended the mediation session.
“Can I have a drink today?” Rainbow is such a good sleeper, it was 5:30 when I got to her house and she was just getting up.
“No, not unless I’m given a reason.” Looking at Rainbow’s messy hair and clothes, I estimated that it would take her at least another half hour to get herself organized enough to go out. But remembering that Rainbow wasn’t your average girl, such an estimate could be way off.
“Celebrate.” I lay on her bed, flipping through the few magazines she had piled up on the bedside, World Cinema, United Literature, Fiction Nation…
“Celebrate what?” Rainbow, who had just stepped into the shower, poked her head back out to ask.
“Celebrate everything.” I turned my head to look out the window, the clouds were light, a fiery red sunset hung in the sky, and the clear blue sky was filled with a golden evening glow. Such a beautiful world, everything was worth celebrating.
“That’s not a good reason, give a clearer one.” Rainbow shook her head and protested with a smile.
“Let’s celebrate the evening sun then.” I replied casually as I looked out the window at the sky full of color.
I’d like to let this story end there, but someone won’t allow it, and he certainly has the power to do so.
One afternoon, about a month or so later, I had just been let out of the bird by my teacher at school and was stepping into my room to catch up on some sleep when the phone rang. I lay down with my quilt spread out nicely before picking up the phone.
“Can you come over here now? I’m at home.” Rainbow’s voice, unusually anxious, hadn’t encountered a few scenes in her memory that could make her this anxious.
“What is it?” I couldn’t help but get a little nervous too, “Tell me first.”
“You hurry up and come over la, come over first.” Rainbow was so anxious that she was about to cry.
“Okay, I’ll be out the door in a minute, don’t wander off and be a good girl and wait for me.” I tried to stay as calm as I could, yet if it really was a situation where even Rainbow couldn’t be calmed, I doubt I could do much about it.
Rainbow was really crying, her red eyes, pale cheeks and disheveled hair made my nose sore. I subconsciously took her into my arms, but she gently broke away from me.
“He’s out on parole.” Rainbow choked up and told me, “Yesterday a letter addressed to him was returned, and this morning I called to ask about it, and they looked into it for a long time, and it took four or five phone transfers before they told me he was out of jail.”
“How are you going to face him?” Rainbow and I had both thought we had another year to give us to think about this, but who knew it would happen so suddenly, and it was no wonder she was in such a hurry.
“It’s no longer a question of how I’m going to face him,” Rainbow picked up a letter from her desk, “I found this letter in the mailbox after I came home from work at lunch, from him.”
I took the letter with a guilty conscience. The rigid handwriting was hard for me to forget, yet what made it even harder to forget were the words in the letter, each of which was etched deeply and painfully into my heart.
“What’s worse, he came by and took all his stuff with him.” Rainbow opened the closet to me, it was half empty. “He’s going to leave me and all this.”
“Does he have any relatives or friends?” I asked as a matter of course.
“With his personality, he would never go to join those who have taunted him before.” Rainbow shook her head, and although she was anxious, her brain was clearly clearer than mine. “Wait, maybe…”
I fixed her red, swollen eyes with a questioning look, and she hesitated for a moment, nodding vainly.
“Hello, Xiaozhao?” This is not the moment to play dumb with each other, I immediately grabbed the phone and dialed the seven numbers that used to keep me on the edge of my seat. “It’s like this, I don’t know if you’ve been in contact with him, yes, Jianlong, lately?”
“No, I’ve sworn not to get involved in what’s going on between you two.” Xiao Zhao said in disgust. If anything happens to you guys again, promise that it has nothing to do with me and don’t bring it to my head.”
“That’s fine then, sorry.” I hung up the phone and shook my head at Rainbow. Rainbow sat down weakly on the bed.
“I think it’s better if I leave first.” After considering it for a long time, I finally said those words out loud. Rainbow certainly needed someone to comfort her now, but if I stayed here, it would only make things worse.
“No, you’re not leaving.” Rainbow said to me as she lifted her head. “Stay here with me.”
“I can’t stay here,” I shook my head, “I’ll find a girl to keep you company later. If he comes back and finds a man here, there could be consequences.”
Rainbow stared at me with teary eyes, and this time I couldn’t tell what she was thinking at all. Suddenly, she reached out and slapped me, striking me really hard, knocking my glasses to the floor.
“Damn, don’t you realize by now, who I really love?” She shouted at me in anger.
I slowly bent down to pick up my glasses, my face feeling spicy. I deliberately slowed my movements down, checking to see if the lenses were broken and the frames weren’t crooked, in fact thinking about what to do next. Decision made, Rainbow, sorry.
I put my glasses back on and then slapped Rainbow on her left cheek. It seemed too hard, and it also seemed a little light; for the first time in my life, I reached out and hit a girl, and I really didn’t know how hard to use.
“Damn how many times have I told you? Even if it’s just an act, give him some hope.” I held back as much guilt as I could, creating a volume loud enough to scare people to death with anger that wasn’t even there. “Would you stop being so selfish? Think of him sometimes and help create a little reason for him to live. Even if you have to show your cards, don’t do it all at once, find a chance to explain slowly, don’t we have time for that?”
Rainbow covered her left cheek and looked at me with a dull expression. I couldn’t wait to turn around and throw the metal door shut as hard as I could, hoping that the shocking clash of metal would mask the sobs I was hiding in my footsteps.
Damn, I’d like to chop off my right hand.
It was a week before I heard the sound of the rainbow again. It had been an agonizing week, as long as a whole century.
At this point, I could never show up in front of Rainbow again, it would only make things worse. However, I still almost shed a tear when I heard Rainbow’s voice on the phone late that night.
“Still mad at me?” I don’t know if it was the quality of the line, but Rainbow’s voice sounded particularly weak.
“No, I’ve never been angry,” I hesitated for a moment, then said slowly, “and even if I had been, it would have been me I was angry with.”
“Then why are you doing this to me?” Rainbow finally cried out helplessly, sobs reaching my ears through the phone line and piercing deep into my heart.
“I’m sorry.” I really didn’t know what to say other than those three words. “Can you forgive me?”
“I went to look for Xiaozhao today.” Rainbow didn’t answer my question. “I ran straight to his house to find him unannounced, but I didn’t find anything.”
“How do you know where he lives?” After saying this sentence without thinking, I realized that I had asked a stupid question. Rainbow always has a way, even the four caves of cunning rabbits that I thought were absolutely safe in the first place were turned out by her one by one, not to mention Xiao Zhao who only had one cave and was defenseless.
“Kenryuu has already counted on all this, nothing can be found out from him.” Rainbow still said in reply.
I sighed, Rainbow, even with her powers, was still only considered a ring god, and was still a ways away from being a lamp god. If Jianlong really wanted to avoid her at all costs, there was still nothing she could do.
“The day after tomorrow is Tanabata, I beg you not to punish me anymore, can you?” After a while of silence, Rainbow said in a pleading tone.
“It’s not a punishment, I just want you to calm down and think things through.” I said softly to Rainbow, holding back my tears.
“Haven’t I suffered enough over the years? And you’re saying I’m not cool enough?” Rainbow shouted as if she had broken down, and I hastily took the microphone away ten centimeters.
“Call me back if you think you’ve got it all figured out.” I wondered how I could change my voice to be so calm, much less remember how I hung up the phone.
I hid under the quilt and cried bitterly.
Tanabata.
In the afternoon, I carried my laptop and ran to the publisher to turn in my manuscript, and on my way back, I passed by Guanghua Mall and found a pit full of Kinshasa chocolate flowers on clearance sale.
It’s only fifty bucks for a bunch of three.
No way. I left those sweet, beautiful and cheap temptations in a hurry and headed for the baseball field. A group of friends had made plans to go to a baseball game tonight, and I had turned them down because I didn’t feel in the mood for such a thing, but now I realized again that I had to find something to do or I wouldn’t be able to repress the urge for the rainbow to ignite inside me.
“What’s with the run?” My friends asked in surprise when they saw me.
“Dumped, no place to go.” I replied with a smile.
Flavorful versus Three Merchants, nine to four, Flavorful won. I drank two cans of lukewarm beer and tried my best to act happy, but that little bit of alcohol didn’t help at all. Still thinking about rainbows.
The ball game is over, go home, maybe things will get better when you get up from a nap. It’s not a crime to cheat yourself once in a while.
I had just stepped into the room when the phone rang again, and my instincts told me it was Rainbow. Should I pick it up? Or let it ring?
I turned the ringer on the telephone down to its lowest setting and bundled up the call of the rainbow in a quilt, but the ringing was still vaguely audible in the silence of the night. The softer the ringing, the more seductive it was to me instead.
“Hello.” The phone rang seventy-five times before I finally decided to pick it up.
“I know you are.” Yes, it was a rainbow, a long-lost laugh.
“I knew it was you too.” I laughed along with her unconsciously inside, but still did my best to put on my coldest voice.
“Happy Valentine’s Day,” Rainbow said happily, “Two hours to go, spend this Valentine’s Day with me on the phone.”
“No.” I replied categorically.
“So stingy?” Rainbow said petulantly, “Can’t you lend me two hours?”
“I can only lend you half an hour today.” I looked at the time and made this reply.
“Your time is quite valuable, never mind, it’s better than nothing.” Rainbow’s voice was still so cheerful that one couldn’t refuse her. “Do we start the clock from now?”
“Start the clock at eleven-thirty.” Shit, whatever. “I’ll steal a bottle of Chivas over there later, be good and wait for me at home, no wandering.”
“But I quit drinking.” Rainbow was stunned at first, but immediately understood everything and smiled at me.
“Wow, forget it then, bye.” I pretended to hang up the phone.
“Wait… we can find a reason… let’s call it a celebration.” Of course Rainbow knew that I was deliberately teasing her, but she still put on a picture of urgency in her voice.
“Celebrate what?” I asked her, pretending to be serious.
“Celebrate… the evening sun,” Rainbow said with a smile, “a particularly late evening sun.”
August 20, Eve, 11:55 p.m.
“Valentine’s Day is almost over.” Rainbow said, leaning over me, a little reluctantly.
“Then I should go too,” I looked at the time, “If I don’t, the wagon will turn back into a pumpkin, and I don’t want to walk back one step at a time.”
“Leave me a shoe,” a slightly drunken rainbow kissed me on the cheek, “so I can take it to you.”
“There are men in size nine sneakers all over the streets,” I said, also six or seven percent drunk, my speech already a little slow, “and you have to pick them up in a tour bus, and it’s a couple hundred tour buses.”
“Do you have to go?” Rainbow looked up, “All drunk like this, let’s go tomorrow.”
“Don’t you regret it?” I asked this inexplicably, but I knew Rainbow would understand what I meant.
“No.” Rainbow shook her head, looking grim. “I’ve been looking for him for ten whole days, I’ve asked everyone I could contact, and there’s no news at all. This time he really wants to ditch me and everything in the past. Since that’s the case, even if I can dig him out, what’s the point? He will still find a chance to escape, not to mention that as long as he doesn t want to, I can t find him at all.”
I didn’t know what to say, guilt stuffed my entire chest and I couldn’t breathe.
“A lawyer came to me a few days ago and said he wanted to transfer the house to me, and that I didn’t have to worry about the paperwork or the taxes.” Rainbow suddenly stood up, put away all the wine glasses and bottles in front of her, I looked at the alarm clock on the table, twelve o’clock sharp. “I told him to sell the house and find a way to give the money to Jianlong. I’ll probably have to move when summer vacation is over. How about coffee instead, after Valentine’s Day?”
I give a dispensable nod.
“Do you have any place there for this crap?” Rainbow started to make the coffee, Valentine’s Day had just passed and she had immediately moved from the flirtation of words to the real world of firewood and salt. “I don’t really know what I’m going to do with all this stuff, it’s just not convenient to bring it down to Kaohsiung.”
“My big sister moved away, and no one lives on the top floor now.” I surveyed Rainbow’s household goods, said not much, said little but not much. “If you want to, just move there, seeing as you can accompany my mom to make tea, she probably won’t charge you rent, maybe even waive the utility bills.”
“It really counts, too bad I live less than four months a year.” Rainbow added two spoons of ground coffee to the coffee maker.
“And, in case I try to dump you in the future, won’t I have to find a place to move again?”
“It’s just as well, there’s so much to hold as collateral, there’s no fear of you running away.” I stood up and shook my head hard, trying to shake the drunkenness out of my head.
“How cruel,” Rainbow said with a smile, “what a treacherous tactic.”
“That’s not so bad, would you rather I bolted you in another way?” I realized that the exercise I’d just done only spread the alcohol through my system faster, so I had to sit back down on the floor obediently.
“Wow, is this a proposal?” Rainbow froze for a moment, then turned her head to look at me.
“Think of it as a dress rehearsal for the official action in five years.” Now I could feel that the rotation of the earth turned out to be so drastic. “It’s your turn to answer.”
“I’ll tell you the answer in five years.” Rainbow poured the brewed coffee into a cup and held one out to me.
“That’s okay, I can prophesy first.” I staggered to my feet, walked over to my desk and clumsily tore off a piece of note paper, scribbled something on it crookedly, then folded it in half fussily and found a blank envelope to stuff it in.
Rainbow stared at me with unblinking eyes.
“Okay, sign on the seam of the envelope.” I glued the seal shut and handed it to Rainbow.
“No, I trust you.” Rainbow took a small sip of her piping hot coffee and smiled at me.
It was as if I saw some flash of reluctance in her eyes.
There’s nothing to say. When a story has to end, it has to be allowed to end. I swear there will be no sequel, no matter what happens again. Those of you who are annoyed by my noise can take a breather.
A lot of soap novel authors like to use “ the world’s lovers, finally married” as a conclusion, I do not want to be exempted, but recently around me something happened, let me start to wonder if there is something wrong with this sentence. Don’t be shy, really, I’m not talking about you or you, and it won’t be you or him or her you know.
So, I decided to add a downbeat to this sentence as my closing statement.
I hope that people who are not destined for each other in the world will get together and leave each other.