Her na was Zhou Xufang. Every three to four days, she would co to the store to buy a pack of cotton candy with pink packaging.
The girl behind the counter shook her head and handed over a note: "It's sold out."
Zhou Xufang stood in front of the shelf for a while, picked up a few bags of similar cotton candy, and always kept her head down. Her face under the hat was small, overly quiet.
The girl scanned the codes and wrote on the paper: "Thirty-six yuan."
Zhou Xufang handed over a red banknote. The sleeves of her sweatshirt were very long, covering her hands, with only her slender, cold white fingers—neatly trimd nails—visible.
The girl accepted the money and gave the change.
"Thanks," Zhou Xufang muttered, stuffing the change into the transparent bag that held the cotton candy. She subconsciously pulled her hat down and left with her head lowered.
Behind her, the girl chased after her, opening her palm and gesturing with her other hand.
Zhou Xufang turned back, looked at the girl. The wariness in her eyes took a mont to fade. She extended her hand, and the girl placed the soft candy into her palm.
"Thanks."
After speaking, Zhou Xufang entered her community. She kept holding the candy until she reached ho. Only then did she unwrap the candy and put it in her mouth. She squinted her eyes and changed into the pair of pink fluffy bunny slippers.
So soft and sweet.
Zhou Xufang had excellent eyesight. From twenty ters away, she could see the notebook on the cashier's counter with a na written on it.
Her na was Wen Baiyang, the supermarket's cashier. She couldn't speak and was deaf-mute. She knew sign language and lip-reading, always carrying paper and a pen. Her face was round, like a bun, with big, dark eyes, and her cheeks had two persistent red patches. She was a little silly, not conventionally pretty, but her features were delicate, and she looked very well-behaved.
"Beep—beep—beep—"
The computer suddenly emitted a sharp sound. Zhou Xufang had just opened the packaging of the cotton candy, looked up at the screen. First, a skull appeared, then SpongeBob erged.
Finally, a line of text rolled out at the bottom of the screen: "That man is investigating you."
"Okay," Zhou Xufang continued to unpack the cotton candy.
The text on the screen was in red, very conspicuous: "I've hacked the surveillance."
Zhou Xufang said, "Thanks."
The newly bought cotton candy was also colorful. She opened one bag after another, poured them into the glass box beside the computer desk. After filling it up, she tried one.
A bit hard, not sweet enough.
Hmm, not as tasty as the one with the pink packaging. She tasted one only, then closed the box.
On the computer screen, Shuangjiang sent over a smiley face emoji, followed by three words: "You're welco."
Shuangjiang was the partner 'Sir' had found for her, they had been working together for almost a year. She didn't know much about her. Shuangjiang never showed her face or spoke, mostly typing. Sotis, she used special voice synthesis software or voice recording to text conversion. Zhou Xufang thought Shuangjiang should be a very skilled hacker.
All she knew was that Shuangjiang was a girl.
"I've looked into him, sent the information to you." Shuangjiang typed, and a new email popped up at the bottom of the screen.
"Okay."
Zhou Xufang opened the email. Inside was the man's information. It seed he had his eyes on her because she had kidnapped him.
His na was Jiang Zhi, the youngest of the Jiang Family, one of the top four families in the Imperial City. He had many tags but Zhou Xufang only focused on the photo.
He was very handso.
"I need to go to work," Zhou Xufang said.
Shuangjiang asked her, "Are you short on money?"
The commission from the client was split seventy-thirty between Zhou Xufang and her, a substantial sum.
"Not short," Zhou Xufang said, "But I need more money."
As the sky darkened, turning from orange to indigo, she got up and went to the garage. Inside were two motorcycles, a sedan, an off-road vehicle, and a small pedal tricycle. The tricycle had a rain cover, inside there was a small stool, a folding portable table, and a square wooden box.
She pedaled the tricycle out of the community.
By seven o'clock, under the Ba Yi Bridge, the vendors had set up their stalls all along the way, selling food, toys, and like Zhou Xufang, phone protectors.
She picked an empty spot, moved down the wooden box, then spread out the phone cases and screen films inside.
Beside her, the stall owner selling roasted sweet potatoes greeted Zhou Xufang warmly, "You're here."
Zhou Xufang nodded. She ca half an hour earlier than usual, got a better spot. However, her business was bad today, very bad. Half an hour had passed, only one custor ca, looked at the phone cases for a bit, then left without buying anything.
The weather was stuffy, like it was going to rain. Not far from the riverbank, there was a square that was usually lively at this ti of day, but today it had few people. A distant child, separated from their parents, was crying.
Because of the bad weather, many people were packing up and leaving. No one paid attention to the crying child who looked pitiful.
Zhou Xufang walked over, "Don't cry."
She wasn't good at comforting children.
The child, four or five years old, teary-eyed, hiccuped, "My hat," he sniffled, "the wind blew it into the river."
Zhou Xufang looked at the river. There was wind under the bridge, the hat had been blown to the other side, where a few elderly anglers were fishing. She stared for a long ti, took off her shoes, and stepped into the water.
The wind blew in gusts, the water surface sparkled, and the moon hid behind the clouds. Only the street lights reflected in a patchy pattern on the water.
"Old Qian, it's going to rain. Let's call it a day," said one of the elderly anglers wearing a fisherman's hat.
Nearby, his companion said, "All right." He stood up, reeled in his fishing line, and called out to his mates, "Let's go drink!"
"Okay."
The old man in the fisherman's hat just stood up when a head erged from the water, startling him. He stamred, "Are-are-are you a person or a ghost?"
The streetlight wasn't bright enough to see clearly, just the head, with only the forehead visible, not the eyes.
The head in the water didn't answer.
After exchanging bewildered glances, the elderly n dashed off without taking their fishing rods... scared to death!
The wet head finally erged from the water entirely. The twilight made her pupils appear especially bright, blood-red. Her eyes turned red after being in the water for a long ti or when she got angry.
That's why she didn't like getting angry.
She put on the pair of sunglasses she carried in her hoodie pocket, went ashore, and returned the hat to the boy. He stopped crying, sniffed, and asked, "Sister, are you a rmaid?"
Zhou Xufang shook her head.
She didn't know which species she belonged to either. She couldn't understand fish but could sleep with them underwater.
The woman on the opposite square anxiously called out, "Ningning."
The boy put on the wet hat, smiled at Zhou Xufang, then ran towards the woman, not watching the road and darting straight into the lane.
From the right, a bright red sports car ca, screeching to a halt.
"Screech—"
The car stopped. The boy was already petrified and was scooped up by Zhou Xufang. Reflexively, she lifted her head. Seeing no one around, she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Sister," the boy stamred, still frightened, "you run so fast. Are you a Powerpuff Girl?"
Zhou Xufang said no, put him down. His mother rushed over, expressing her gratitude. The driver of the car also got out, checked the road, then looked at Zhou Xufang: "You," his starry eyes surveyed her up and down, "a scamr?"
Zhou Xufang raised her head, still wearing sunglasses. She pushed them up, "Sir, need a screen protector?" Her voice was cool, flat-toned, "Twenty yuan each."
"..."
The man was a handso young guy with a buzz cut, dressed in a red motorcycle jacket paired with blue pants.
So flamboyantly dressed, who else could he be but Xue Baoyi.
Xue Baoyi stared at the girl who wore sunglasses at night and was soaked wet. After a long look, he decisively refused, "No!" He nearly got a heart attack.
Zhou Xufang wrung out the water from her sleeves, returned to her stall, and put on a long shirt.
Xue Baoyi stared for a mont before returning to his car, complaining to the person in the back seat, "That girl popped out of nowhere, freaked out."
The person in the back half-opened his eyes, lazily, "Xue Baoyi."
Xue Baoyi felt a shiver down his spine, "Wh-wh-what is it?"
When Jiang called him by his full na, he panicked.
The man stated concisely, "Get out."
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