The Fisherwoman - Chapter 6

Most of my treatment sessions with Zhuang Jinyu were harmonious.

At first, when we barely knew each other, I took a professional attitude because I was accepting his money. During treatment, I avoided touching his body as much as possible.

After only a few sessions, he complained.

“Am I paying you to treat me like an electric toy?”

“You ride me a few times and leave. How is that supposed to cure anything?”

He demanded the complete service. Kissing and caressing could not be omitted.

Since he paid me, naturally I followed his instructions.

But such things were like opening a floodgate. He had never tasted them before, and after his first sweetness, he couldn’t stop.

Zhuang Jinyu was in his early thirties, the age when fruit grew fully ripe and red. His needs were naturally greater than a young man’s. The harder I tried to satisfy him, the more bottomless his appetite became.

For a long period, he clung to me almost every day. Even when his schedule left no room to breathe, he found gaps between meetings and ordered me to come.

I would arrive, climb expertly into the back of his business van, secure him with the leather handle on the ceiling, and begin his treatment.

Time was short and the task demanding. Sometimes I failed to control my strength.

“Don’t rush,” I warned him. “What if you hurt yourself?”

Zhuang Jinyu refused to believe me. He ignored the warning and kept moaning in my arms.

By the end, he had strained his back.

I had to hold him while dressing him again in the van.

Being dressed in another person’s arms seemed to injure the domineering CEO’s fragile pride. After hurting his back, he didn’t contact me for days.

Under our contract, I had nothing to do when he didn’t summon me. I could sit at home and wait to be paid.

But as an honest person, I couldn’t accept money for no work.

Before dawn, I went to the market and chose a fat live crucian carp. I stewed it with tofu and radish until the broth turned milky white, then carried the fish soup to Zhuang Jinyu’s home.

In our fishing village, choosing the finest live fish and turning it into a nourishing soup was the highest courtesy one could show an invalid.

I had absolute confidence in both my eye for fish and my cooking. Everyone in the village praised my soup as divine.

It never occurred to me that anyone might dislike my treasure.

I lovingly unzipped the jacket around the new insulated container and presented it to Zhuang Jinyu.

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “You know my back hurts, yet you came here to provoke me. Was this deliberate?”

I patted the container. “I brought soup because you hurt your back.”

“You’re getting old and your bones aren’t strong. Of course you need fish soup to build them up.”

At the words getting old, his relaxed expression abruptly darkened.

“Don’t underestimate my crucian carp soup.” Oblivious, I continued my serious introduction. “Everyone praises it.”

He laughed in anger. “You’ve cooked soup for many people?”

I nodded as if it were obvious. Every household in our village was close. People delivered bowls of soup to one another all the time.

Zhuang Jinyu inhaled deeply and pointed toward the kitchen.

Inside stood an array of expensive tonics.

“I am not like other people. I lack neither money nor cheap concern.”

I looked at the wild ginseng and fish maw in his kitchen, then at my carp, which had cost ten yuan a half kilo.

I laughed dryly. “The fish isn’t expensive, but I cooked it myself…”

“Plenty of people want to cook for me,” he interrupted. “If I ate everything they brought, I would have died from overeating.”

“What makes you different from any of them? Why should I drink your soup?”

I rubbed my nose. Now I understood.

He had no use for my fish soup.

“All right. Sorry to disturb you.” I reached awkwardly for the container. “If you don’t need it, I’ll take it home and drink it with my little brother.”

His temper flared higher.

“You’ve grown bold. Now you dare threaten me?”

I stared at him.

He had strained his back, not injured his brain. Why could I not understand a single thing he said?