Leave Me Alone Read Online Free

gradually widened. Sucking in a deep breath, he sighed, ‘The world has such wonders!’
    Ye Mei called while we were eating and Li Liang sat in a corner cooing nauseatingly while continuing to put the beers away. After a while though he came over and said that Ye Mei wanted to talk to me for a minute. It was noisy in the bar — Bighead was watching football and refused to turn the TV down — so I had to go out to the passageway.
    It wasn’t much quieter there. I heard Ye Mei say something like, ‘She’s late.’
    I said, ‘Who’s late?’
    ‘Not who,
what
.’
    ‘What are you talking about?’
    Ye Mei was suddenly furious. ‘Fuck you. I mean my period didn’t come.’
    Long silence. ‘Couldn’t this be Li Liang’s problem?’ I said eventually.
    Ye Mei let fly a barrage of invective, claiming that she’d never even touched Li Liang’s hand. I was angry too because no one had sworn at me like that for a long time.
    I said, ‘So what are you going to do?’
    She was tearful. ‘If I knew that, why would I be talking to you?’
    My brain calculated at lightning speed. I realised this couldn’t be done in Chengdu and so I said, ‘On Saturday we’ll go to Leshan. Think of something to tell Li Liang.’

CHAPTER FOUR
    On the streets of Chengdu any face can seem familiar, any casual look can contain a deeper meaning. A flash of the eyes, a casual turn of the head, can jemmy open the gates of memory and cause the past to flood out. Once, when I was buying cigarettes at the kiosk outside the entrance to Du Fu’s cottage, the old vendor addressed me by my childhood name: ‘Rabbit, you’ve grown so big.’
    She said that years ago she’d been my neighbour, but although I racked my brain for ages I couldn’t remember ever having a neighbour like her.
    Then there was the time I crawled drunk into a three-wheeled cab and the driver said, ‘When did it all go wrong, brother?’
    I said, ‘Who the hell are you? I don’t know you.’
    ‘I’m your primary school classmate Chen Three! We stolea girl’s bag together once. Have you completely forgotten?’
    I thought there had to be something wrong with my memory because from a certain point in time, the record of my life was being erased section by section. Whose bag had this impudent driver and I stolen? Who had I walked with hand in hand by the banks of the Funan River? Whose smile had driven me crazy all that time ago?
    I couldn’t remember.
    Then what did I remember?
    The events of my colourful past were vague, blurred like birds flying by. I could picture myself in countless drinking establishments, glass in hand. I could recall the smiles of people I’d once known, and see girls of every shape and size lying with me, awaiting dawn in the curve of my arm. A few details were still vivid — me in a smart suit sitting in the Diamond Entertainment City with my arms around a gaudily made-up hostess, getting her to guess how many of my fingers were tucked inside her skirt.
    ‘Three,’ she’d said.
    ‘Wrong!’ I’d said, making a fanfare and lifting her skirt. ‘It’s four.’

    Fatty Dong rapped on my office door. Since becoming general manager, Fatty was an even more magnificent sight, walking around very proudly just as a top official should.
    I said, ‘Boss Dong your graciousness, what words of wisdom do you have for me?’
    ‘Shut it, you prick. I’ll tell you some good news: Head Officehas approved the raise for the sales team, but we can’t give it to everyone. At most, twenty per cent. Make a list of who should get the raise and have it on my desk by tomorrow.’
    I cursed as I watched his ungainly behind retreating. Fatty might be a pig but I’d forgotten that pigs have high IQs. Now it didn’t matter who got the raise, the rest of the sales team would naturally resent me. If Fatty Dong wanted to stir things up, he could put it about that those who got the increase were my mates, while those who didn’t were my enemies. The loyalty that