"Tell your grandson not to bother me."
The old lady sneered. "Little girl, in front of elders, don't say something that your heart does not mean. You will not benefit from it."
I retaliated. "I don't dare but it was your grandson who clung to me in the first place. I speak in honesty."
She glanced at me and thoughtfully said. "You do not like my family Ah Kang?"
"I like him." Without any hesitation, I admitted my feelings for him and had no intention of lying to myself in front of the elderly. I might as well bravely face her provocation.
"That.....you are still not satisfied?" The old lady's sharp eyes looked at me with disapproval, and seemed to criticize me for the contradictions.
I said with confidence. "Like.....does not mean that I am satisfied. For example, others will only look at his wallet, his appearance, and his panache. But when he clung to me, then I realized he likes to plot against people, he has a belly full of bad ideas, he has a strong controlling streak and he is an enemy that is almost hard to defeat."
"What? You treat him as an enemy?" The old lady frowned.
"Sometimes, yes.......that is why getting involved with him does not guarantee any happiness."
The old lady seemed to understand a little of my reasonable explanation and asked. "Then what about his good points? Do you see it?"
"He has a lot of good attributes or else I will not like him." I pondered for a moment and decided to tell the truth. "But I would have preferred.......he is not so handsome, has less money, be straightforward and occasionally let me win over him. He is too strong and hurts my self-esteem."
Unconsciously, I poured out the distress in my heart to the old grandmother, mainly because I had suffered at Kang Zixian's hands and nowhere to complain. Today, I simply poured out my heart for the old grandmother to listen and let her know that her grandson was not all perfect, and without flaws.
It was a pity that my whispers of complaints of Kang Zixian in Wan Taijun's ears turned into words of flattery for him. After all, I had complained that he was too strong, I was always the loser and this became another kind of affirmative which made Wan Taijun smiled and nodded. "I understand."
I refuted. "You don't understand."
The old lady was angry and with a cold expression, she said. "This old lady had eaten more salt than the rice that you have eaten, crossed more bridges than the roads that you have walked on. What else do you think this old lady does not understand?" (The words 'eaten more salt and crossed more bridges' means Wan Taijun is more experienced and had seen more in life than Liang Liang)
The old lady exploded taking the privilege as an elderly and I bowed my head, unwilling to give in and mumbled. "How can there be so many bridges in this world?"
The old lady naturally heard, her face remained calm, overlapped her two rounded hands and sulked like an old turtledove perching on the tree top.
"Disobedient......disregard the elderly when speaking......no discipline." She nagged while she stood up and walked to the door. "I am not pleased with you."
I decided not to hide my rogue personality, followed behind her and said. "Okay. You are not pleased with me and I am not satisfied with you but now I like your grandson. You can throw me a cheque but I will not let him go. If you want to separate the both of us, every day I will go to your house to put up a banner*. If you throw me out and I will abduct your grandson."
(Banner here means a cloth with words put up as a form of protest.)
The old lady turned around with a fierce tiger face and said sternly. "You are very brave, Fang Liang Liang. These ten plus years, nobody dared to threaten me, Wan Qi Hua. You are very brave."
I pouted my lips, raised my chin and with a rogue expression, I said. "If you, Grandmother Flower is allowed to trample on my territory, why can't I, Liang Liang threaten you?"
(Liang Liang called her Grandmother Flower because her last name 'Hua' means flower.)
(This translation belongs to Catmeme6 from Wattpad. If you are reading this from another website, you are reading a copy extracted without permission. Kindly go to Wattpad to read the original.)
Wan Taijun's cold bitter eyes stared fiercely at me and I stared back at her. As a result, two pairs of eyes were deadlocked for a while. Probably the old lady's eyes felt tired, her tight lips let out a sound 'puchi' and then she relaxed. Her muscles shook slightly and her tiger face showed a smile.
My chin dropped. Initially, I had wanted to go all the way without budging but the confrontation between one old and one young began to develop into a funny situation. Actually, fire sparks should be flying around shooting into the sky due to my robust provocation but how could the old lady smile? What was so funny?
I could not help but ask. "Grandmother Flower, why are you smiling? I am very serious."
Wan Taijun wiped off her smile and resumed her stiff face. She stared at me. "When this old lady wants to smile, should I explain to you?" She gave me another label. "No respect for elders."
"And another thing, you are not allowed to call me Grandmother Flower."
I pursed my lips, smiled at the old lady in front of me and said. "If I am not allowed to call you Grandmother Flower, then should I call you Flower Fairy, ah?"
As soon as my voice faded, I felt a pain on my forehead. "Aiyo!" I screamed. What was it that came into close contact with my forehead? It was Wan Taijun's Hermes platinum bag that hit me. Although she did not hit me very hard I guessed a swollen lump would appear soon as I massaged that slightly painful spot. I looked at the old lady's somewhat angry face and my heart was also confused. Like a child, I clamored. "You hit me! I will tell Kang Zixian, you hit me!"
"Who said you can call me Flower Fairy?" The old lady pulled her face, a smile was jumping in her eyes and her clear eyes reflected my foolish face looking at her. "You dare to tell him about me? You dare?"
"No, dare not." I rolled my eyes, waved my hand, looked at the energetic old lady who was quarreling with me. Clearly she was not as terrible as it was rumored and clearly, she was somewhat cute. Other than putting on a stiff face like an elder, actually she did not act like a pretentious wealthy old lady.
My heart relaxed and I laughed lightly at her, swaying my head like a rogue. "But I will still call you Flower Fairy, Flower Fairy, Flower Fairy......... You are Flower Fairy."
I guessed the old lady had never seen such a shameless female before. She angrily stared at me. Seeing that the expensive bag was making its way towards me and to save my own life, I slipped my right hand onto the shoulders of the old lady affectionately and quickly changed the topic. "He, he,.......Grandmother, I am just joking. I say, how much is the value of the cheque you brought with you, today?"
"Aiyo....." The heavy bag was still smashed onto my head. I shouted miserably, could not help but complain. "Why do you like to hit people? What is in your bag, iron ingots? Ah....so painful.....aiyo."
I yelled 'aiyo, aiyo' but the old lady did not throw off my hand that was resting on her shoulders. She turned her head and gave me a sidelong glance. "Open your mouth and talk about cheques only. Do you love money so much? I tell you, I didn't bring anything with me. You have thought wrongly. Nowadays, these young people really......."
I could not help but kicked myself. "Then it is your fault. Why didn't you follow the rules when you come? A cheque is the basic essential item for you to break up a pair of mandarin ducks. I am cooperating with you and I suffered your blows, you think it is easy for me?" I ripped off my thick skin and gave a cheeky smile. "I just wanted to know my worth only.......he,he,he....... How much is it? Ten million?"
Wan Taijun's serious look faded and smiled faintly. She impolitely poked on my forehead and spoke in a strong voice tone. "How much? One dollar!"
"What? One dollar?! ! !......now a stick of popsicle costs two dollars, I am not even worth a stick of........."
I felt incredulous, holding my head in my hands, I completely collapsed and the old lady beside me gave a hearty laugh. Her face showed a chrysanthemum of wrinkles and the initial coldness that she carried when she walked in, had disappeared.
With her laugh, we became inexplicably familiar and suddenly we were pulled closer.
At night, with my hand on the old lady's shoulder, we went to dinner in the restaurant that I and Fei Ge usually frequent. The old lady was actually a very funny old lady. She loved to tell cold jokes but only that she loved to use her stiff face to deceive people. Probably because when she was young, she had to be deeply prepared and as she aged, it had become a habit. She likes to wear a mask and it was not easy to force out her real self but under my endless pestering, the old lady finally exposed her true personality.
She sighed. "My husband who died early, that is Ah Kang's grandfather, when he was young his mouth was very sweet. No matter how angry I was, he would be able to coax me until I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Now I am old already, children and grandchildren have their own lives to lead. Every day I will only reminisce his sweet words and the days will slowly pass."
I said. "Flower Fairy, don't worry. When you are lonely, you can look for me and I will come to you with my melon seeds. Do you know why my mother married so far away? Because she wanted to stay far away from me, ah. I can be annoying. When my mother thinks of my father, she will have insomnia and I will begin to talk. From the rain to the stray dogs on the road, from dog's excrement to the public bus, from the public bus to the neighbor auntie who sells boiled tofu soup. You don't know, when I talk, it is better than sleeping pills. When my mother listens to my voice, it would be like listening to a hypnotic song and immediately she will fall asleep. You must try it next time."
I added a little bit of tofu to the old lady's bowl and she could not conceal her smile. "Is it so magical?"
"That is, Liang Liang's brand of sleeping pills and I guarantee you will sleep until morning."
During the conversation, the old lady's phone sounded, then she looked at me and said. "It is that boy."
The old lady's face with a healthy pink smiled broadly, her voice lighted up, said. "Wei, Ah Kang, ah......grandmother is with One Dollar eating dinner....."
My mouth twitched. On the way, I had joked with the grandmother. In private, I would call her 'Flower Fairy' and she would call me 'One Dollar' but did not expect the old lady now, in front of Kang Zixian would make me lose face.
"Who is she? I will let her talk to you then you will know who she is." Grandmother winked at me, handed over the phone and I threw a 'No loyalty' look back at her.
"Hello." The other end, Kang Zixian's low, rich, magnetic voice sounded. Now listening to his voice, it was especially attractive. Fortunately these two days, he was not in city and he would just call at night to check on me. If he knew that I had ventured into the monster's cave and almost lost my little life, he would have cut me up into minced meat.
Anyway, the old grandmother had just lectured me and I did not want him to give me another lecture. So mischievously I pinned my nose, raised my voice higher and spoke in a delicate voice. "Hello, Brother Zixian, remember me? I am your childhood friend, One Dollar."
The man on the other end paused for a while, then in a smiling tone, said. "Certainly I remember you......Liang Liang, sister."
Defeated, I put down the hand holding my nose and in a dejected tone, I said. "This is no fun. Why is it, every time you don't cooperate with me and play a little stupid?"
"Okay, next time. You are with grandmother, why did she call you One Dollar?"
Thinking of the humiliation of the 'one dollar' tag, I almost burst into tears. Suddenly I shouted. "Ah, ah,.....Kang Zixian, Kang Zixian, your family's Flower Fairy said I am only worth a dollar. It hurts my heart and your family Flower Fairy bullied me. You have to get justice for me and when you come back, you must solemnly tell her that I am at least worth two dollars."
I shouted, making a lot of noise and grandmother sitting opposite me was laughing. Kang Zixian's hearty laugh came over through the phone and he said. "Okay, when I come back, I will tell my family's Flower Fairy that you are my precious baby and you are priceless......."
This guy's rare sweet words warmed my heart and I did not know how to answer. I could only bow my head and stammer. "Come back early.....that......I miss you."
I really missed him. When my life was hanging by a thread, I thought I would never see him again. In the middle of the night, I longed to hide in his arms and smell the soothing fragrance of his body which made me feel at ease. This man made me calm down and thought of the future, our future. I realized that I had to protect myself and not allow myself to be injured and bleed. I think I would not like to repeat my father's mistakes, going off alone and leaving his lover in the world, sighing for him for so many years.
When I thought back a few days ago, I could have left him forever divided between yin and yang* (Parted by death. The one dead will be in yin and the other alive will be in yang), my heart started to hurt. So this love, like wildfire was so unforgettable.
On Monday, I did not go to school and hid at home. This time, I had gotten into trouble and at the same time exposed my identity which made Lao Tan terribly angry. Although I was not a full-time undercover, later I would not be able to carry out any more undercover jobs. Recently Lao Tan was even more furious. With the information gathered from Jiang Li's home, it could be deduced that Jiang Yuan Loong's suspicion basically could be ruled out. His wife recently sold a piece of land that they had kept to solve the company's dilemma and their financing had smoothened, erasing any doubt about his business.
Lao Tan's meticulous arrangements were like a rattan basket gathering water, nothing was accomplished and the trail of clues was broken once again. No wonder he cursed me and instructed me to report back to the Bureau on Tuesday. Actually, I did not dare to go against him and with a bitter face, I hung up the phone.
Monday afternoon, I sent Ye Sha to take a train back to her hometown. She wanted to leave city and start her life afresh in her little hometown. I warmly hugged her and wished her the best in her new life.
At night, I just stuffed something into my stomach to stamp my hunger. Kang Zixian was very busy and could only talk to me for five minutes before he hurriedly hung up his phone. I laid down on the sofa, surrounded by silence, felt uneasy as if something big was going to happen. But I did not know what was going to happen and was unable to quiet down my heart.