Trivialities About Me and Myself by Yeng Pway Ngon

Author:Yeng Pway Ngon
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789814615112
Publisher: Epigram Books
Published: 2016-09-16T00:00:00+00:00

13

LET’S GO TO Shanghai, Li Ying pleaded coquettishly when I arrived in Beijing. You haven’t taken me there in a long time. I was sure she noticed my declining health. Shanghai is a money pit, but I took her there anyway, because I didn’t want her to be aware of my financial state, which was worse than my health. Yet as I spent money on her, she could probably tell that her sugar daddy’s wallet was getting thinner. She was clearly disappointed at the mid-price hotel I chose on Zhongxing Road, but did not complain, except to say, This place is kind of out of the way, not very convenient. Then she joked about the name of the hotel: It’s called Starway Sage Inn, so you can be a sage here. If it had been Lily, she would not have been joking; she would surely have pulled a long face and insisted on changing hotels.

I took Li Ying all around the city, where we gazed at the high-rises on both banks of the Huangpu River, strolled and shopped on Huaihai Road, lined up to buy crab roe dumplings at the City God Temple, cruised the canal in Zhou Town, and sampled the famed Wansan stewed pig’s feet. The greasy pig’s feet weren’t as tasty as people said, and could be lethal to someone like me, with poor health and in low spirits, but I didn’t want to disappoint her. She had already noticed that I was a little short on money, so, unwilling to appear too shabby, I dug in.

We were walking down Nanjing Road one day, me holding bags of various sizes containing clothes and shoes, following her like an attendant through the bustling crowd. I guess I was getting old, for I was having no fun going from store to store with a young woman my daughter’s age. Li Ying had a different shopping style from Lily, who chose only fashionable items and never looked at price tags. Li Ying, by contrast, did not always buy such things, and she liked to bargain, which, in the past, had tried my patience. I’m trying to save you money. I don’t want them to think we’re a couple of suckers. But now that I was financially strapped, I began to appreciate her habit. My little pet was such a sweet thing, and I was hoping I could turn things around, or this could be my last trip to come and see her. We walked into a clothing shop, where she bargained over a scarf, and, as I looked wearily at the busy street outside, I spotted a fleeting figure in the distant crowd: Myself! Putting down the bags, I ran out the door. Yes, it was him. He looked the same as when I was a reporter at the newspaper: a white shirt over a pair of blue jeans, with a green canvas backpack. Even from a distance, I could see the look of resentment in his eyes. It really was him, separate from me and walking around.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.