I got home. I let out at a giggle as I lifted my head to look at the shiny, brand-new air conditioner. Air conditioner is literally one of the greatest invention by mankind, as well as the computer, the television, the washing machine, the water heater, the car, the airplane……..and so on. In other words, humans are simply amazing.
Jiang Chen was still seething on the couch, watching the television that was cranked up in an unusually very loud volume. It made me wonder whether there was something wrong with the TV’s audio, or that there was something wrong with Jiang Chen’s ears. I guess it’s the latter. When someone is seeing red, they have the tendency to hurt their bodies the most.
After I was done giggling at the air conditioner in the living room, I ran inside the bedroom and giggled at yet another air conditioner. Afterwards, I went out and patted Jiang Chen on the shoulder and said, “I’m sorry for making you spend money, actually, buying one for the bedroom was already enough, you could have left out this one in the living room.”
He continued staring at the television and didn"t even spare me a look. He casually picked up the remote control on the coffee table, and turned on the air conditioner. With a quick eye and a deft hand, I s.n.a.t.c.hed the remote control from him, "Go take a shower, I"ll turn on the air conditioner in my room. Just go inside after you"ve showered."
You see, the s.p.a.ce of the bedroom is a lot smaller than the living room, hence cooling it utilizes a lot less electricity. Even though I didn"t like studying as a kid, however I firmly remember a certain sentence in a certain piece of writing in my grade school literature and language textbook — "A refrigerator is affordable, but we can"t afford the electricity." Alright, I admit that the things which my mind usually chooses to remember are quite weird. Naturally after years of keeping the good and getting rid of the bad, this piece of writing must have already been removed from the grade school textbooks as it doesn"t conform with the harmonious development of society. (T/N: It really does exist in 3rd grade literature and language textbooks, the t.i.tle is "What"s Still Missing In Our House?")
Jiang Chen looked at me with a wooden expression on his face, "I"m not in the mood to take a shower."
I didn"t understand what he was saying, "What mood do you want to have for you to shower?"
He reached out for the remote control, so I hid it behind my back, "Take a shower, take a shower."
He casted me a look, "Is this supposed to be a hint?"
I froze, my subconscious mind was throwing the remote control that I was holding at him, "Who"s hinting at you, you…….you"re shameless!"
Jiang Chen probably has never been called shameless all his life, so he simply grabbed the remote control and threw an unfathomable look my way. I showed him my most beautiful smile and then broke into a run.
I quickly slammed the door shut with a bang, and locked it.
Outside, Jiang Chen was rapping on the door, "If you have the guts, show yourself to me!"
"I don"t have the guts." I flatly declared.
I picked up the remote control on the computer desk and turned on the air conditioner, then in high spirits, threw myself on the bed and pulled out a manga from under the pillow.
Lying down on my stomach, I was reading it while singing a song, and moving my legs about.
Until there was a sound of the door being unlocked, I was alerted and turned my head around, Jiang Chen was leaning against the door frame, a bunch of keys were twirling on his index finger, with a smile plastered on his face which was directed at me, "I"m shameless right?"
I think that when his dimple looks the sweetest, he"s about to bare his fangs…..
I shrieked, "Didn"t you already return the keys to me?"
"I had them duplicated."
"How could you duplicate my keys without my consent!" I was so angry that I suddenly jumped, standing right up on the bed.
He slowly walked towards me, "Because I"m shameless."
I also took a few steps backwards. As I was standing on the bed, and the opportunity to tower over him was hard to come by, I tried a.s.suming an imposing air, only that when I opened my mouth, my voice somehow came out weak, "Don"t come over here……."
Jiang Chen grabbed hold of my ankle, dragging me with a firm grip. I fell head first on the bed, luckily, the mattress was really soft.
His entirety immediately hung all over me. I narrowed my eyes at him, but wore a smile of someone attempting to curry favor, "That, it was just a slip of the tongue, slip of the tongue."
He leaned in closer and closer, until the tip of his nose was already touching mine, "Really?"
Only one word and his breath fanned all over my face, "Really, really! You have face, no one has more face than you." (T/N: you are shameless = you have no face)
He rubbed his nose randomly on my face, this made me think of that pig I saw when I was a kid, digging on a pile of bok choy with its snout.
As we were smilingly, and noisily about to take off our clothes to delve into a business justifying social harmony, my phone suddenly rang.
I peeled off Jiang Chen from me, and crawled towards the bedside table enough to reach out for my phone. Jiang Chen dragged me back by my ankle. I was begging at the same time stretching my hand further to grab my phone. When I managed to take hold of it, I put it right before my eyes to read, and said in a hurry, "Quit messing around, it"s Hu Ranran."
Jiang Chen"s hands stopped, and I quickly picked up the call, my voice also sounded very perky, "h.e.l.lo."
It was silent on the other end of the line, and then someone spoke, "It"s me, Hu Ranran."
"En, I know." I replied in a calm voice.
Silence. If the enemy doesn"t move, I would also not move.
After a long while, she said, begging me, "Would you please not tell him about that thing?"
Actually, I really wanted to tell her with a freezing irony and a scorching satire, "About what? Tell what to whom?" But in the end, I still wasn"t able to say it. Jiang Chen had taught me very well, I shouldn"t be a mean person, and at the very least, I should not be mean in front of others, hence I just said, "He and I are good friends."
She said, "I know, I…….."
She fell into silence, she probably didn’t know where to start.
I was holding the phone and glanced at Jiang Chen. He was using my thighs as a pillow, flipping through the manga I was reading just now.
A deep sigh came from the other end, "I was only 15 when I became their housekeeper, just a child from the countryside going to the city to work. The people in that residence were very nice to me, I was also contented with what I have. But as I slowly grew up, I did not expect that the more I grew, the more beautiful I became, I didn"t expect to get the attention of that d.a.m.n old man………"
There was a pregnant pause, and then she laughed hysterically to herself, "Hahaha, the more I grew, the more beautiful I became…..haha………"
Her laughter, it sounded very miserable to me.
I swallowed past the lump in my throat and said, "Uhm, you finish the story first."
"What I told you wasn"t really what happened. That time, there was no one at home. I was mopping the floor when the old man came back. He sat on the couch, reading a newspaper. He made me pour a gla.s.s of water for him, afterwards he pressed me on the couch. After that event, he told me that he would be nice to me if I would be well-behaved and do what I was told. If I won"t obey him, he would just have someone deal with my parents, he"d also make sure that I wouldn"t find a job. What could I possibly do? I was only a 16-year old then."
I was holding my phone, and had no idea what to give to her as a reply. My hand that was on my hip was suddenly gripped by Jiang Chen. I looked down at him, he covered his face with the book, and looked like he was already sleeping.
I tried to pull my hand free from his grip and said, "I can promise you I won"t tell him, but I hope that you would handle it well. Don"t let him get hurt, he is a very important friend."
"Thank you."
I gave it another thought, and threatened her again, "If you hurt him, I will not let you get away with it."
After I was done saying it, I immediately regretted it, what line from which TV drama was I talking about ah…..
Luckily, Hu Ranran didn"t jump on the opportunity to laugh at me, she just said, "I know, don"t worry."
She"s relatively kind on one hand.
After I hung up the phone, I was just about to look at Jiang Chen to have a chat with him, only to find out that he already let go of my hand without me knowing. He was curled up in a ball and have rolled to one corner of the bed, looking sullen.
I crawled over to him and tapped him, "What are you doing?"
"Don"t mind me." He jerked his shoulders, shaking my hand off.
I was confused, "What"s wrong with you?"
He didn"t say anything, I froze there for a long time. As I felt that I couldn"t make head or tail with his actions, I just turned around to prepare my change of clothes.
When I was rummaging through my drawers to look for a nicer-looking and newer underwear, my mind has also been continuously calculating how costly it is to have a boyfriend. For instance, if I were to be thick-skinned, I think I honestly need to get a new set of underwear. And for another instance, I have a premonition that my electricity bill this month will go up and up……
"If he is your most important friend, then what am I?" Jiang Chen asked.
"Underwear." I replied.
Ah! I have to explain this. Just now, I was calculating in my head the maximum amount of electricity an air conditioner can consume in an entire night — how much electricity would it cost if it"s used once, how much would it cost if it"s the entire night, how much is the equivalent of one month, because I suck in Math, hence I got into a trance when I was calculating. It reached to an extent that when Jiang Chen spoke, I only caught the word "what" and subconsciously transformed this "what" into the most plausible, "what are you looking for?", that"s why the dialogue above happened.
A quiet and strange atmosphere permeated the room, I had no choice but to arduously rewind back to the sentence he was asking, after which, I wanted to strangle myself using the straps of my bra.