Chapter 3 Chapter One

"Shall we go to Cheung Chau this weekend?" Yu Bao asked Zhu Tingkeng beside him while drinking expresso in Starbucks. "A lot of people in Changzhou holiday house committed suicide, aren't you afraid of ghosts?" Zhu Tingkeng threatened her. "But the seafood in Cheung Chau is better." "Have you been paying attention to the staff newsletter lately?" "What's up?" Zhu Tingkeng leaned into her ear and said, "Our bank staff can rent a room at the Holiday Coast Hotel with a 40% discount." "Yes! There is also a free fruit plate and breakfast. Then go to the hotel!"

"Aren't you afraid of meeting colleagues in the company?" "What are you afraid of! This is a normal physiological need." Yu Bao was putting down the coffee cup in his hand, and said, "I'm going to the comic club in North Point, how about you?" "A garment factory in Cheung Sha Wan." "Then let's talk on the phone again." Yu Bao was carrying a briefcase to the comics club, and bumped into a man outside the comics club. "I'm sorry." The man raised his eyelids and smiled, looking apologetic. Yu Bao was looking at the man, he had slightly curly hair tied into a ponytail behind his head, and he was wearing a black leather jacket.Stepping on a pair of camouflage Converse cloth shoes, the smile is very charming.

"It's okay." She was a little fascinated. Walking into the manga club, she accidentally kicked something. It turned out to be a sleeping bag, and there was a person lying in the sleeping bag. "Oh, I'm sorry! Did you stay up all night last night?" Yu Baozheng apologized awkwardly. The man plunged into the sleeping bag and went back to sleep, ignoring her. On a sofa in the corner, there were also two boys sleeping curled up.In the messy office, only a half-conscious boy was still working on the desk. Yu Bao was looking at his watch, it was already four o'clock in the afternoon.

"I'm Yu from the MPF Department of Xinling Bank. I've made an appointment with your boss, Mr. Zeng." "He hasn't come back yet, just wait a while," said the boy with two big bags under his eyes. Yu Bao was walking to the side of the boy, watching him draw cartoons enviously. "It's hard work, isn't it?" she asked. "When rushing to draft, it is very common to not sleep for a few days." the boy said while yawning. "However, drawing manga is very satisfying. I also like drawing." She pulled up a chair and sat down.In addition to the snoring of the man in the sleeping bag, she seemed to hear tick, tick, tick.She looked around and realized that the sound was coming from a cake box on the table.

"Did you hear that?" Yu Baozheng asked the boy with big eyebags. "Hear what?" "The sound of ticking." She pointed to the cake box. "Someone sent it to the boss just now." The boy put his ear on the box and listened carefully. Yu Baozheng also approached the box, the sound of "tick tick tick" became more and more hollow and unusual.She exchanged a look of panic with the big eye bag, and the big eye bag trembled and said, "Could it be a bomb?" "Then why don't you call the police?" Yu Baozheng screamed. A large number of police officers came to the comic book club.After inspection by a munitions expert, it was confirmed that there was a homemade bomb in the box, which was powerful enough to blow up a person to pieces.

"I was almost blown to pieces!" Yu Bao was walking on the street, panting to Zhu Tingkeng on the other end of the phone. "It's fine." "Would you still love me if I got blown up and only half of me was left?" "Only half of it is left, how can I live?" "I mean, there's only half a breast and half a full face left, will you still love me then?" "I haven't thought about it." "Do you know what I was thinking when the bomb was discovered? I was thinking, I haven't become a cartoonist yet, so I'm not willing to die like this. However, I may never become a cartoonist in my life."

Yu Bao was walking by the corner of the street, and saw several oil paintings on the street stall, and a man was selling his paintings.The protagonist of those oil paintings is a very fat woman. "Talk to you again." She hung up the phone. She stood by the side of the road looking at those paintings, and in one of them, the fat woman was lying on the ground looking at the moonlight.She looks to be two hundred pounds, with an afro head burnt, her shoulders and arms are chubby, her thighs and calves are as fat as big harvested radishes, her buttocks are bigger than the moonlight in the sky, but this fat woman has a A pointed nose and a happy face.

The street painter is very thin. He wears an earth-colored long-sleeved cotton coat, jeans and a pair of white cloth shoes.His hair was tied into a small ponytail at the back of his head.He looks a bit like the man she met outside the comic book club today.But the man's smile is more gloomy, and the artist's smile is more innocent. "Why are all your heroines super fat?" Yu Baozheng asked the painter. "I think fat women are cute." "It's not like this in the real world. But your painting is really beautiful, so I'll just buy one." She picked the one of the fat woman looking at the moonlight. The name of the painting is "Clairde Lune", and the artist's signature is Zoe.

"It's a girl's name." Yu Baozheng said. "It's the name my mother gave me." "Are you from Hong Kong?" "I was born in France." "How much does this painting cost?" "Well, three hundred yuan." "Three hundred? Two hundred." "Isn't it too cruel to lower the price of a poor painter?" The painter said with a smile. "This is called Tiger Falling in Pingyang. Can you sell it?" "Ok." "I really like her afro. I almost got it today." "Really? Are you going to the hair salon today?"

"It's a long story." Sitting on a small stool, she told about the discovery of the bomb today, and the painter listened with great interest. It was getting dark, she didn't know why she talked so much with a stranger, she was even reluctant to leave.She just rested her head on her hands, like a little girl in love, listening to his stories about wandering around in the past few years. The ringing of the mobile phone woke her up, and on the other end of the phone was Zhu Tingkeng's voice. "Aren't you home yet?" "Oh, I'm doing some shopping on the street and I'll be back soon."

She said to the painter, "I'm leaving." "I'm going to close the file too." She looked at the painting in her hand and said, "When you become famous in the future, maybe you will lead me to become a rich man." The painter just smiled and cleaned up the oil paintings on the ground. After leaving that stall, Yu Baozheng walked a long way to catch a bus.Sitting in the empty carriage, she didn't know how many stations she had passed, she stood up suddenly, got out of the car in a hurry, holding the briefcase and oil painting, ran desperately, and went back to the stall. At the corner of the dimly lit street, she saw the painter standing there with a painting box. "Haven't you left yet?" She asked out of breath. He shrugged and smiled. "Are you coming tomorrow?" she asked. The painter nodded. "What about tomorrow's tomorrow?" The painter also nodded. "That's good. If I have money, I will buy your paintings again. You have to wait for me." Her face flushed. When he left the street corner again, Yu Bao felt that he was the buttocks of the fat woman in the painting, round like a balloon, which had already floated up into the night sky, flying around the silvery white moon.When I fell in love with Zhu Tingkeng, why didn't I have such a fiery feeling?When passing by a fashion store, she saw in the window mirror that her face was flushed, and her whole body seemed to be burning.Today's bomb was dropped on her heart.Tick, tick, is her loud heartbeat. The next day, Yu Bao was reading the news about the bomb case in the newspaper in his office, and the police arrested a suspect at night.Seeing the photo of the suspect being handcuffed and taken to the police car, Yu Baozheng was stunned.Although the suspect's head was covered with a black cloth bag, she recognized his clothes and the pair of camouflage Converse cloth shoes on his feet.Didn't he just bump into a man full of arms with her outside the comic book club?It turned out that he was the one who planted the bomb, and he seemed very calm at the time.The case revealed that the suspect's girlfriend recently broke up with the suspect and dated the boss of the comic book agency.The suspect learned how to make a bomb on the Internet, made a bomb and sent it to his rival in order to kill him. She walked up to Zhu Tingkeng with the newspaper and asked him; "If I fell in love with someone else, would you send him a bomb?" Zhu Tingkeng said: "I don't know how to make bombs at all." "You can still kill him in other ways." "I think, I dare not kill." She patted his head, sighed, and said, "But a woman would want a man to love her like this." Zhu Tingkeng whispered in her ear, "I've booked a hotel room for this weekend." "En." Yu Baozheng responded.She was suddenly less enthusiastic about going to the hotel. After get off work, she hurried to find the street painter with her briefcase in her arms. "Asu, I brought some pictures I drew, can you give me some advice?" She took the exercise book out of her briefcase.These are the pictures she usually draws.She has loved drawing pictures since she was a child, and her grades in art are also the best.She dreamed of being a cartoonist, but after graduating from middle school, she joined a bank as a salesperson, working hard every day to make a living. "Have you ever learned to draw?" Asu asked. "I only learned sketching in middle school." "Why don't you go learn it?" "I originally wanted to go to the Fine Arts Department of Teachers College, but my grades in the National High School Examination were not very good." "You are very talented." "Really? You didn't lie to me, did you?" "You seem to be particularly fond of drawing suitcases. The boys and girls in your paintings are all dragging different suitcases, and even cats and dogs have their own suitcases." "Well, I love beautiful trunks." "But isn't it strange that even a crocodile has a beautiful trunk?" Yu Baozheng smiled shyly.She never showed these cartoons to others, including Zhu Tingkeng.She loves to draw suitcases, and it has become a habit. She didn't think about why this is so, but Asu noticed it. "Maybe it's because I always long to wander in my heart," she said. "Is your pen name Bubble Fish?" Asu saw her signature on each painting. "Yes, my surname is Yu, and there is P in the English translation. This word is simply called Bubble Fish." "Thought you liked soaking in baths and eating fish." "I like both. I like cod, chicken, beef...in fact, I like everything." "real?" "Ok." Asu took out a plastic bag from the back of the painting box, which contained a piece of steak, a fish and a few chicken legs. "Why do you have these?" "It's dinner today. I'm going home to cook, do you want to come?" Asu stood up and cleaned up the oil paintings on the floor. "Hmm. I didn't expect you to cook." "I was a restaurant apprentice in Italy. Come on." "Got it." Yu Baozheng followed behind with his comic book. Aso lives in an old house, the landlord is an Irish couple, they went out to watch a movie today. Asu made five dishes: vegetable salad, fried cod in butter, roast tender beef, noodles with clams in tomato sauce, and chicken drumsticks braised with mushrooms. "The two of us eat so much?" Yu Baozheng asked. "you're too thin." "No way! I'm five foot four and weigh a hundred and eight pounds. Losing weight." "You are not fat at all, and eating is a very happy thing." "I wouldn't be happy if I became that fat woman in your picture." Yu Baozheng took a bite of the chicken drumstick and said in admiration, "It's delicious!" "Eat more. I sold five paintings today." "If one day I become famous, I will also treat you to a rich meal." "Painting doesn't have to be famous." "Don't you want to be famous?" "I didn't think about it at all. I just like to draw. For me, drawing is a need and enjoyment, just like I love cooking and eating." "Your thinking is too simple." "Isn't it simple?" Asu scratched his head and said. She looked at him and asked, "How old are you?" "Thirty-two." "Same as me." Then, she asked again: "Are all your girlfriends fat?" "Not that fat." The two laughed at the same time.Looking at him, she suddenly realized how complicated and superficial she thought.The man in front of her who was the same age as her was able to live innocently and freely.He is like the fat women he paints, happy and unique.Compared with him, Zhu Tingkeng's world seems too small. She looked at the plates on the table, they were all empty, and she had eaten everything into her stomach. She protested: "You killed me! I was going to lose weight." "And dessert." "I really can't do it." She surrendered. "You must try it one day. It's my German cake." "Don't Germans only like to eat sausages?" "They love cake too." "Why do you know how to make German cakes?" "I stayed in Germany for a while and learned how to make this plum cake." Asu brought out a cake from the kitchen, covered with slices of plums, sprinkled with cinnamon, and served with whipped cream . "I made the cake yesterday. It's good to eat hot, but after sitting for a day, it's another flavor when you eat it cold with fresh cream." Asu cut a slice of cake and put it on Yu Baozheng's plate. "Mm. The smell of cinnamon and plums is very fragrant." Yu Bao was taking a bite of the cake. "How about it?" "It's not too sweet, it's good." “German cakes just aren’t too sweet.” "When the plums are harvested in autumn, German housewives love to make this cake at home, so it is the most German cake." "How long do you usually stay in one place?" she asked. "Maybe." "But, it's bound to go, right?" She was a little sad. "You can come back after leaving. Maybe one day, we will meet in another place." "Maybe." She looked up at Asu, his innocent face was the bomb that dropped on her heart, and it blew her whole body to pieces. "Another slice of cake?" he asked. "No. I'm going home." She stood up with her briefcase in her arms. She clutched her briefcase to her chest and hurried out of his house.Instead of going home, she ran to the radio station. "Why did you come here suddenly?" Xia Xinju asked. "Cousin, I think I'm in a relationship," she gasped. "Aren't you just dating Zhu Tingkeng?" "It's not him, it's a painter who sells paintings on the street." "painter?" "The first time I met him, I already wanted to abandon Zhu Tingkeng. The second time I saw him, I wanted to abandon everything. That's how it feels!" "How many times have you seen him?" "Tonight is the second time. I just had dinner at his house." "Then why did you come here?" "If you don't leave, I will lose my virginity. I think if I want to lose my virginity, I should wait until the third meeting, which is a bit more reserved. Don't worry! The third meeting, I will definitely be full of animal desires before leaving." Xia Xinju smiled: "Is this considered reserved?" The next day, Yu Baozheng was going to look for Asu.However, when she woke up, she had a severe headache. She didn't know whether it was a bad cold or too much love, but she just couldn't get out of bed. After lying in bed for three days, I finally got better.At dusk, she got up, changed her clothes, and went to look for Asu. However, when he arrived at the place where he usually set up his stalls, he was nowhere to be seen. She came to the house where he lived.The landlady said that Asu had already left yesterday. She cried, why didn't he tell her?He suddenly appeared in her life as if by magic, and suddenly left.Who the hell is he? On the weekend, in the room of the Holiday Coast Hotel, she said to Zhu Tingkeng, "Let's break up." Zhu Tingkeng was stunned: "Why?" "I don't know how to put it. Anyway, I don't think that's the case anymore." Zhu Tingkeng cried and asked, "Is there a third party?" "He's gone." "Who is he?" "Maybe it's me." In the Italian restaurant, Yu Bao was happily eating chicken drumsticks with mushrooms. "You ate a lot today! Don't you always say you want to lose weight?" Xia Xinju asked. "No weight loss. A woman needs to be fatter to look good. Food is the greatest enjoyment." "Did the painter say that?" Yu Baozheng said with a smile, "I have applied for the two-year course of the Fine Arts Department." "What about the bank job?" "I resigned and went to work as an assistant in the comic book club. The one with the bomb may be grateful that I saved their life, so even though I have no experience, they are willing to let me try." "Is the salary enough?" "Not enough, but I have savings." She was full of longing. "That's great! Not everyone can give up what they have to pursue their dreams." "Cousin, have you ever had German plum cake?" Xia Xinju shook her head and asked, "How is it? Is it delicious?" Yu Bao was biting his fork, and said with a smile: "It depends on who made it." On the night of the first day of class at the art college, Yu Bao bought a glass of expresso at Starbucks, and she turned back into a student again. What Xia Xinju said was wrong, she didn't give up anything, she never owned anything at all.Everything that starts now is what she owns.She weighed one hundred and fifteen pounds now, solid and round.One day, when she and Asu meet again in a certain country, he will never want to leave her behind.