When Bright Moon Encounter the Dark Clouds

I never would have thought that people would drive the conversation toward talking about men in such a post.

Quite a few people commented, “The back of that police officer in the background of that photo is so attractive…”

“That is so true. His legs are long, and his waist is slim. Even the back of his head is attractive.”

I looked at the straightened back of the police officer in the blurry photo and thought to myself, He’s not even attractive. I almost got together with a more handsome one, and the only reason I didn’t was that I didn’t want to accept him.

It was a long story. The only time I went on a blind date was with a guy that worked as a police officer.

This happened the month before the last, before the trip. My classmate’s mother introduced that guy to me. He was handsome, and he even had a dimple when he smiled. But after meeting him a few times, I realized there was a difference between reality and ideals.

This cop was unsophisticated and brutally honest. The things he talked about were dull and bland, and he knew absolutely nothing about literature, writings, traveling, or the internet. Most of the time, we sat in silence. I felt extremely awkward, yet he was able to smile bashfully, thinking he did well. Where was his dominance? Confidence? Licentious behavior? The cigarette held between those rough fingers? Absolutely nowhere to be found. He told me that he did not smoke because it was bad for his health.

The straw that broke the camel's back was an SMS he later sent me. He probably did it to get close to me. It was a joke he found online; he even added, “Miss Tan, I saw this joke in the morning. It’s pretty funny; all my colleagues laughed their heads off. I’m sharing it with you.”

When I looked at the unbearably lousy joke with absolutely no punch line, which I had seen three years ago, I felt pushed to the end of my patience. There was no way we could stay together happily if our sense of humor was so drastically different. As such, I immediately called the matchmaker and tactfully told her that our personalities were too unmatched.

The guy was pretty straightforward as well, so we never talked to each other again after that.

Suddenly, I felt a faint ache in my heart at the thought of this.

That was why I think my recent encounters with men were cruel compared to when I had none. Even though I met two handsome men one after the other, our interactions turned sour as soon as we met.

As I was about to shut off my computer after browsing through enough news articles, I had a thought and typed Yunnan Beauty into the search box.

No related information.

That travel route must have stopped working.

I had completed a book recently, so I did not have the motivation to write anymore. But my readers did not think so. Upon checking Weibo, I saw everyone urging for a new book and complaining, “Goddess, we’ve been waiting for so long. Did you disappear from the face of the earth?”

I thought, A month or two isn’t that long, right? Better stay offline to hide under the radar.

Around evening, I drove to get dinner. On the way back, I noticed a new auto repair shop near my neighborhood. The bright red banner in front of the store attracted my attention: Grand opening deal! Sign up for membership to get twelve car washes for one hundred Yuan. I took a look at my dirty car and could not even recall when I last washed it.

I drove my car to the entrance of the auto repair shop.

It was dark, and the sign at the door rattled in the wind. The store was bright and tidy, probably because their new business did not have many customers yet. Several repairmen were sitting in the store. One of them, who seemed cute and likable, came out to meet me. “Hi miss, what can I do for you?”

“Car wash. Also, the paint on the front of the car is a little scratched, so can you fix it? I won’t go to an after-sales shop if you can do a good job.”

“Sure we can,” he hurriedly said; then he turned to the store and yelled, “Brother Yu, come take a look?” Then he said to me, “Miss, you have a good car. I’ll get our number 1 guy to look at your car.”

I replied, “Sure.”