Taking Advantage, Then Trying to Run - Chapter 1

When I woke up, my head felt ready to split open.

I could just barely remember Mr. Li from Hailan Biotech plying me with drink after drink the night before.

Clutching my head, I crawled out of bed and staggered into the living room.

The instant I saw it—

“Aaaaaaah!”

We’d been robbed!

With trembling hands, I pulled up the living-room security footage from the night before.

At 12:27 a.m., my front door opened, and a delivery worker in uniform came in carrying me.

I writhed in her arms like a cat refusing a shot. My movements were so wild that I looked exactly like one of those inflatable tube figures outside a shopping mall, flailing defiantly in the wind.

The courier was tall and obviously strong, but I still managed to squirm free.

I flung myself at the floor and landed beside the trash can.

The courier bent to help me, but before she could get me up, I began bowing solemnly to the trash can.

Once. Twice. Three times.

All the while, I muttered things even I couldn’t understand.

The courier stood to one side, utterly lost.

After my third bow, I hugged the trash can and burst into tears.

“Xiao Wang!” I wailed at it, though I didn’t know any Xiao Wang. “Xiao Wang, clients are all bastards! Every last one of them is a piece of shiiiiit—waaaaah…”

The courier finally snapped out of it. She hauled me off the floor and dragged me all the way to the sofa.

I refused to cooperate.

Flailing my arms and legs, I kicked over the vinyl-record rack by the wall.

Crash!

The tremendous noise made the courier whip around. Her hands jerked, and she nearly dropped me.

Once she’d recovered, she put me on the sofa and hurried over to the rack.

Its glass frame had already shattered into smithereens.

Watching the footage, I felt my heart bleed.

It was an artist’s piece I’d gone to enormous trouble to have a friend bring back from overseas! It hadn’t even been on display for two months!

I clutched my chest, devastated.

On-screen, the courier crouched amid the shards and carefully picked up the records that had fallen.

She was trying to rescue whatever she could.

But then—

Bang!

Another enormous crash.

Startled, she set the record on a nearby cabinet and spun around to look at me.

I had flipped the coffee table.

Heaven only knew where I’d found the strength!

The glass table lay shattered across the floor, and the courier panicked even harder because I was crawling straight toward the debris.

She rushed over, wrapped her arms around me, and dragged me back by force.

“Don’t! There’s broken glass over there!”

“Crystal candy! Waaaah, I want crystal candy!”

I clawed at her face. “Meanie! You won’t let me eat the crystal candy… Meanie!”

Caught off guard, she lost her cap. My sharp manicure left two scratches across her face.

“Meanieeeee!”

My feet were dangling off the floor, but that didn’t stop me. I kicked furiously at empty air and thrust myself upward again and again, trying to ram her chin with my head.

She dodged as best she could. With no other choice, she locked an arm around my waist and pinned me tightly against her.

“Stop moving! This is dangerous!”

Without warning, I cupped her face in both hands.

“Hmm…” I stared at her for a long moment, then said something astonishing. “Maomao, what are you doing here?”

Maomao was my cat, who had returned to the kitty stars three years ago.

“Maomao, where’s your fur? Why don’t you have any fur?”

In the footage, I frantically felt all over the courier’s face, genuinely terrified by her lack of fur.

“Maomao, why are you bald? Are you sick? Mommy will take you to the doctor. Don’t be scared. Don’t be scared…”

She had no idea how to respond.

There truly was an unbridgeable gulf between a sane person and a lunatic.

After thinking hard, inspiration struck. She placed my hand on her head.

“See? I do have fur.”

I grabbed her hair with both hands, kneading and ruffling it for ages before finally letting go.

“Maomao!”

My sudden shout made her whole body jolt.

“How did you turn into a shorthair? You’re a long-haired calico princess! You’re Mommy’s precious baby, Maomao!”

“Your fur! Where did all your fur go?”

“Mommy’s heart hurts! Mommy misses you, Maomao! Maomao!”

I screamed so loudly the audio in the security video began to distort.

“Ma’am, please stop shouting. You’re going to wake the neighbors…” Desperate, she looked ready to clamp a hand over my mouth. “I’ll take you to your room. You’ll feel better after some sleep…”

“Blaaargh!”

I suddenly vomited, pouring a huge mess all over her neck.

The thick, sour-smelling sludge ran down inside her collar.

Her entire body went rigid.

But I wasn’t finished.

“Blaaargh! Blaaargh!”

I threw up again and again.

Every time, an astonishing amount came out.

By the end, there was nothing left but water, yet I persevered in “watering” her body.

When I was finally done, I giggled foolishly and collapsed against her again.

And so both of us ended up covered in my vomit.

At that moment, only one expression remained on the courier’s face.

It was called despair.