The curtain beams of suns.h.i.+ne crawled upon Jiang Youyou"s haggard face. The first thing came into her mind when she opened her eyes was that she could go hanging out today.
She got up from bed but her legs were so feeble that she fell to the ground. Zeng Yuan came in for a routine patrol. She pulled her up to the bed and said, "Should you be so feeble?" Then she went out with the door slamming shut.
It seemed that all her strength had been completely drained. There was a salty taste in the throat. She got up slowly and watched herself in the mirror when was.h.i.+ng her face. Dark circles under the eyes were clearly seen, and she got reddish skin. Even her eyes seemed to be bigger than before.
She was hugged to the waist, and she leaned back rea.s.suringly. He had kept his promise.
It was very hot in Shenzhen in summer. On the street of Huaqiang North Business District, there were traders who bathed in the sun, purchasing and selling mobile phones and fake notebooks.
"I"ll treat you ice cream." Bai Zhehan touched her head and said, drove the car into the garage of a hotel beside.
In her childhood Jiang Youyou only ate ice suckers, and the best was creamy ice sucker. She only read in a foreign children"s tale the description of ice cream—Strawberry Ice Cream, and she went to Fang Ruxiang with the book to ask her what was the stuff in the picture that piled up like a heap of dung.
The same thing happened when she first had a drink of cola. One day when she was in Welfare Home, Fang Ruxiang arranged for her and several other children to sit in front of her and distributed some black drink to the little cups for each child, telling them that was something delicious to drink. At that time Jiang Youyou cried and yelled to refuse, "I won"t drink this herbal soup." Only when she had drunk did she know it really tasted good.
Bai Zhehan chortled, "How lovely."
Jiang Youyou raised her head and squinted at him against the suns.h.i.+ne. From this angle his profile was so blurred that his features were dark. His smile was warm.
They went into an ice-cream house and Bai Zhehan ordered a lot of desserts and ice creams. But he himself didn"t eat any of them. Jiang Youyou doubted that he was afraid of putting on weight, so she devoted herself to the sweet delicious coloured round s...o...b..a.l.l.s.
"Have you missed me these days?" Bai Zhehan stared at her mouth.
Jiang Youyou nodded, having ice cream all around her tongue, "Yes, yes, I have."
Bai Zhehan looked at her jeans, which seemed a bit shabby. He said casually, "After we leave the ice cream house, let"s go shopping and buy some clothes for you."
Fas.h.i.+on stores lined the street one after another. The cool air inside them was in sharp contrast to the high temperature outside. Jiang Youyou allowed Bai Zhehan to deck her out as if she was a Barbie doll.
She couldn"t help asking him, "Why are you so kind to me?"
Bai Zhehan was stunned. "All the guinea pigs we recruited this time have left, and only you stayed bravely. You are so lovely. I like you."
They bought a big heap of clothing, from dresses to shoes. Jiang Youyou felt that she was in a dream, hand in hand with him, going into and out of shops one after another, until she couldn"t carry any more.
When Bai Zhehan went to get his car, he looked up at the tall building, said to Jiang Youyou, "You are tired, let"s have a rest."
It was a star hotel, and in the luxury suit there was a very large and soft bed. Jiang Youyou lay in it like a naked fish.
Bai Zhehan watched the change in her body with great joy, seeing her skin turning from yellowish pink to pink, seeing some part of her body slightly swelling, seeing fluid with sweet and fishy smell continuously oozing out of her v.a.g.i.n.a.
"Tell me what you"re thinking now." Bai Zhenhan separated Jiang Youyou"s legs carefully with his fingers.
He leaned very close to her. Jiang Youyou felt a little ashamed. She felt chilly between her legs, and she didn"t like it very much.
Finally the twenty minutes" questions and answers were finished. Bai Zhehan kissed her cheek tenderly, then he pressed on her.
In his constant movements Jiang Youyou suddenly felt her mind go blank. She was very nervous because she had never had such a feeling—there seemed to be a beast roaring in her body—a feeling beyond words. But she felt a bit guilty when she saw scratches of her fingernails left on Bai Zhehan"s wet back. There were traces of raw places.
They had to be back to the hospital. In the kitchen of the hotel suit, Bai Zhehan was naked making sandwiches for dinner. It was bread sliced into thin pieces of delicate triangles. On the first layer there was fried veal cutlet, sprinkled with fine black pepper powder. In the middle, there was a layer of lettuce with strawberry jam. If the golden fried egg was bitten, the moist yolk would run into the mouth and glide through the throat into the stomach. What a feast of taste! The sliced tomato on the top layer endowed the sandwich with a bright appearance. Only good-looking food could give one a good appet.i.te.
Jiang Youyou had never felt so hungry. She clean devoured the sandwich, then licked her lips like a puppy and said, "I"m full."
When they got out of the hotel elevator, it was already dark. Several stray cats were mewing sadly in the corner of the parking lot, and some were kittens.
A van drove aside and stopped. A person rolled down from it, and the van swiftly drove away.
Immediately some people came up for a look. Jiang Youyou casually took a glance at it. The neon light shone on the person whose hair was scattered in a mess.
An Hua!
It was An Hua!
Her lips were purple black and were st.i.tched together. Her eyes were wide open, with eyelids rolling up forcibly. There were only a thin layer of skin connecting her neck and head, with those straggly linked windpipes.
There was not much blood left on the ground. Perhaps it was drained clean
Someone called 110 to tell the police that an unlicensed van had thrown down a woman"s body on the spot and urged them to come quickly.
Bai Zhehan covered Jiang Youyou"s eyes with his large palm and said, "Don"t look at it, or you"ll have a terrible nightmare. Let"s go back to the hospital now."
With tears in her eyes, Jiang Youyou got into the car.
An Hua was dead.