T

he day after the dinner was a Sat.u.r.day. As was usual,Zhengqing worked at home in his study. While he was working, there was a promptthat an email had come in. He quickly read it; the sender turned out to be MayShen.

Shen Jiaqi.

Zhengqing looked at the message, it really was Shen Jiaqi.She thanked Zhengqing for coming to the banquet and she had been very happychatting with him, and was hoping to be friends. She gave him her social mediaaccount ID, hoping Zhengqing would add her.

Zhengqing immediately added her, not because he wasover-eager to be friends, but because he was one to get things done quickly. Ifhe let things drag on, they were liable to be missed. Once he was done, hereturned to the doc.u.ments he was studying. A chat box pinged.

Zhengqing looked at the computer. It was Shen Jiaqi, ‘You’reactually in?’ she asked.

‘Yes ah,’ Zhengqing replied.

‘Working?’

‘Yes,’

‘You’re really dedicated.’

‘I have to be, ah,’ Zhengqing answered seriously.

Jiaqi replied with a long line of, ‘Ha ha ha ha ha ha,’followed by, ‘you’re really funny.’

Mental black lines hung over Zhengqing, he was confused.Where was the humour? He really was working and he really was dedicated. Sheasked him and he answered. What was so humorous about it? He did not know howto answer so he remained quiet.

Jiaqi then said, ‘When others are boasting for you, youshould be modest.’

He thought of this sentence, he wanted to reply, ‘But youwere praising me, right?’, but that may be considered that he was not modest,instead he said, ‘Alright,’

Jiaqi replied with another line of, ‘Ha ha ha ha ha,’

He frowned, what the h.e.l.l was so funny? Where was thisconversation going?

‘Alright…’ Jiaqi began,

He was still troubled, what was she alright about? He waitedand Jiaqi continued ‘I am really happy to chat with you.’

Zhengqing raised his eyebrows and shrugged, at least one ofthem was happy, ‘Thank you,’ he replied. She said he was funny, he should thankher.

Jiaqi sent a smiling emoticon instead of “ha ha ha.”Zhengqing did not respond. He had to look over his doc.u.ments, but at the sametime he was wondering what she wanted.

Fortunately, Jiaqi had a sense of discretion, ‘Are you busy?’she asked.

‘I’m looking over a few doc.u.ments,’ he wrote. He intended toadd that he would talk to her another day but she was faster than him,

‘Qin Shu is really blessed to have someone conscientious andcapable as you. I will stop bothering you. Talk later.’

Zhengqing deleted the text and wrote, ‘Okay, goodbye.’

 Jiaqi sent a smilingface with ‘Goodbye,

’

Zhengqing breathed a sigh of relief, he could continueworking. He dived into his work and eventually finished. As he tidied up hethought of Yin Ting, she also liked to type out, “ha ha has.”

 He really did notunderstand women.

With nothing on the next day, he went to the gym thatevening.

He lived a regular life; he went to the gym twice a week,the shops for food once a week, and worked seven days a week. It has been thisway for many years.

❀❀❀

The next day, he went to the supermarket to get his weeklyshopping.

When shopping, Zhengqing was very efficient. He did not dally,he had a list of items and he went directly to their shelves to get it. Afterthe supermarket, he went to the local market to get fruit. He rarely cooked athome, so he did not buy much. He picked apples, pears and grapes (Zuben: Soboring).

He was ready to go when he saw grapefruit (Zuben: No don’t do it!),the memory of the nice tasting grapefruit still lingered so he bought one.

Back home, he made dumplings he bought from the supermarket fordinner, and then he turned to the grapefruit and decided eating the fruit whilewatching TV would be a good idea.

As he watched TV, he peeled the fruit slowly, little bylittle until it was clean. It took a while but it was really fun to do. Hehappily took off a few segments to eat and put the rest in the fridge.  

He took his seat and took a bite out of the fruit.

    ...

He screwed his face up and his teeth protested.

There was only one thing: sour.

So very sour.

Zhengqing still swallowed.

Oh s.h.i.t. He swore. This was the same fruit, how can it tasteso differently from one fruit to another. (Zuben: You don’t eat fruit very muchdo you?)

He stared at the rest, he’d completely lost interest ineating. They were placed so neatly. More annoyingly, he was a child of a poorfamily, his creed was never to waste food. (Zuben: You need to let go of the shacklesof poverty, cla.s.sily of course)

Although this unruly grapefruit is not really food, he couldnot bring himself to throw it away.

So with a heavy heart, Zhengqing ate each piece ofgrapefruit. But it was unbearable. So he threw the rest in the fridge. He shouldcall Yin Ting to come and eat it, he thought annoyed.  He would never have bought grape fruit if it hadn’tbeen for her giving him a nice one.

❀❀❀

Monday was a very happy day for Zhengqing, unusually, notthis Monday.

That morning a colleague brought grapefruit to the office,to give their colleagues a taste (Zuben: Evil person). They were cut up in thetea room. Zhengqing being the highest office on the floor got given threepieces, how unlucky.

Zhengqing smiled courteously with thanks as his colleaguegave him the fruit but he refused claiming he did not like grapefruit. In hisheart, he could imagine his colleague cleaning the grapefruit, not thinking hewould lose face. Well he had already lost face when he brought those grapefruitto work. He’s secretly mixed the bag tasting grapefruit to give to others.(Zuben: Despicable, it is! It’s a grapefruit conspiracy!)

Back home, was his distasteful ones lying in his refrigeratorwaiting for him to come and solve it. (Zuben: Throw it away.)

Zhengqings solution to the current problem was to surrept.i.tiouslyplace his grapefruit on another colleagues table.

When he went by again, the victim was eating the fruit. Hefelt greatly relieved. Alas, there were still the ones at home. The thoughtmade him sad.

The next day, Zhengqing felt like he was suffused with grapefruitacid. He remained in low spirits till the afternoon. He should not be sowasteful, but he really wanted to throw them away.

His desk phone rang an internal call tone, it was his secretaryannouncing an arrival at the front desk. There was a Miss Shen Jiaqi visiting,she had no appointment. Would he like to see her?

Shen Jiaqi was not Yin Ting? He tried not to bedisappointed. If it was Yin Ting, he would get her to eat the grapefruit, ordestroy it. Whichever! She needed to take responsibility for what she’d caused.(Zuben: Bros, you’re an adult no one sent you to buy grapefruit. The sweet onesare rare as hen’s teeth)

‘Ask her to wait in the reception room for a bit, and makeher a drink,’ Zhengqing ordered - his mind still on Yin Ting. He could rememberher expression like it was just yesterday as she said, ‘It may be sweet.’ But itwas sour, he forgot to quickly.

He put it out of his mind and went to the reception room tosee Jiaqi. She gave him a smile when she saw him, ‘I did not disturb you, did I?’

‘Not at all, the esteemed Miss Shen decided to visit, howcan I be disturbed?’ Zhengqing said courteously.

‘I was just pa.s.sing through and I decided to come and showyou our company’s new products.’ She said as she picked up a paper gift bag withher company’s logo from the floor at her side and handed it to Zhengqing. Thesewere high quality Chinese food items, which not only were sold in the domesticmarket but exported too.

‘Thank you,’ he said graciously, as long as there was nograpefruit in there, it was all good.

‘There are some business things I would like to ask QiuZong, but now might not be a good time.’ 

She said sweetly, ‘How about we make adate that is convenient for you?’

Zhengqing was about to answer, when Qin Yufei walked in.

‘Yo, who’s this?’ she asked leaning against the doornonchalantly.

Zhengqing turned quietly to her. Qin Yufei looked like she’deaten a package of explosives. She seemed really angry.

‘How have you been Yufei? I came to see Qiu Zing for a chat,’Jiaqi said gracefully, but there was an undercurrent of bite.

‘Oh, excuse me? You’re trying to win a popular employee withpromises of higher pay and better benefits,’ Yufei said, ever straightforward,she did not lose to anyone.

‘Well I want to but I have not been successful,’ Jiaqi said,her expression and tone seemed to Zhengqing that she was trying not toantagonise Yufei.

‘Well you do have thick skin, you recovered well,’ Yufei saidprovocatively.

Zhengqing frowned, it seemed like the two elders want tohave an ugly quarrel.

But Jiaqi laughed, ‘Xiao-Ting said that she was so annoyedshe wanted to choke me, but she hasn’t come to see me.’

 Zhengqing frowned, what was this about Yin Ting?

‘You’re very troublesome,’ Yufei snapped.

Jiaqi laughed more, ‘Who told her to be so funny. She can beso slow, choked to speechlessness. Does not want to endure but can’t think ofwhat to say and tries to put on a smile.’

‘You’re too much,’ Yufei growled.

‘Fine, fine, next time I’ll try not to bully her,’ Jiaqisaid laughing. (Zuben: Jiaqi, you"ve spoiled the game here)

Zhengqing’s brows did not relax; he was confused; what wasthis weird change from enmity to sisterly friendliness?

‘Leave quickly, you’re not allowed to dig in our Yong Kai’spatch, or I’ll come digging in yours,’ Yufei said in a vicious tone.

Jiaqi did not look bothered but said, ‘I’m afraid ah,’ in amock fearful tone, and she laughed and continued, ‘I can’t play with you toomuch today, I have you go.’

She rose and turned to Zhengqing, ‘Qiu Zong, I will see yousoon.’

‘Ah see you,’ Yufei said waving at Jiaqi’s departing figure.

Yufei turned back to Zhengqing,

‘Don’t you get along?’ he asked.

‘We’re friends,’

‘Oh,’ he replied. The way these women displayed theirfriendship was quite special. Zhengqing wasn’t interested in gossip, so he wentback to his office. As he settled back into his chair, he thought of Yin Ting,what was that about Xiao-Ting choking and not able to speak?

Ah forget it, he thought, he did not want to know.

That evening, Zhengqing got a call from Yin Ting; gossip wasdelivering itself.

‘I did tell you she was interested in you,’ Yin Ting said.

Zhengqing remained silent but he admitted that that might bethe case. Perhaps it was male vanity, he was affected by Yin Ting’s suspicions,he was also sensitive to the situation. He was still not sure if Jiaqi wastrying to win him over for her father’s company or for herself.

As he was preparing to leave work, he received an emoticonof a lovable ugly face that Jiaqi sent. It spoke of intimacy that was a bit overt.

‘I told you she would start a fierce attack, but you mustact with restraint.’ She said to him, ‘ she went to your company to look foryou. Next step is to ask you for a meal, you must find an excuse to not go, youcan’t comply easily.’

‘How did you know she came to see me?’ he asked, incredulousthat she had found out.

‘Yufei told me.’

These women were really gossips.

‘Why shouldn’t I reply her easily?’ he asked.

 ‘Because whenever I try to go for a guy, she makes funof me and says. “Being born with thick skin is advanced genetics, you recoververy well.”’ Yin Ting said mimicking Jiaqi.

So it was originally a joke, ah.

‘You shouldn’t be too eager to go on a date with her or Iwill be sad,’

He was going to reply but then he remembered something, butfor a moment it was gone from his mind, his mind turned to another thing, hesaid to Yin Ting, ‘People who are born with thick skin recover well.’

‘What?’ Yin Ting said at a loss.

‘You don’t have thick skin if you’re looking for revenge.’

‘Hey, right?! Say it again,’ Yin Ting said suddenly excited.

He sighed inwardly and repeated himself. Yin Ting laughedand said, ‘I will call her immediately, you don’t have to pretend to be modestand hold back, you can go out with her. Thank you!’ she said and she hung up,not waiting for Zhengqing to reply.

 Zhengqing stared at the phone flabbergasted, what was this pretend modesty? He did nothave this idea or plan. Moreover, other people cannot tell him what to do! Thiswas his business; he did not need her permission!

Right? Right!

Then Zhengqing remembered the grapefruit left in his fridge,he groaned.

d.a.m.ned grapefruit.

Would sending a courier with the rest of the grapefruit toYin Ting be too much? He also helped her thing of a reply to her foe.

Zhengqing sighed in resignation and ate two pieced of thesour acidic fruit.

He was rather sad.

Zuben: d.a.m.ned grapefruit!

 ❀ Chapter 9