By Cai Zhizhong

Translation by Zhu Yaguang

12 Mysterious Roses

By Cai Zhizhong

Translation by Zhu Yaguang

I was born an introverted person, exactly as the famous writer Li Bihua once described in her literary work, “He looks unimaginably shy to me, as if he needs legal protection like those endangered animal species.” However, there is something that she doesn’t know. Although I look shy and dull on the outside, I am extremely confident and passionate on the inside.

A few years back, I was sharing an apartment with Li Longdong, my junior high school classmate,who was attending night school to study economics at Chinese Culture University and working at Aurora Corporation during the day.

It was a Saturday afternoon when Li Longdong was off duty, and he told me, “Today we got a new colleague named Li Ziding. She is incredibly pretty.”

I said, “Then you should go after her before she is taken.”

“No way, she has the same family name as me.”

“What’s the problem? I’ve seen a lot of couples with the same surname.”

“My grandma warned me against marrying someone like that.”

“Fine, then I’ll go after her,” I said.

“You’re such a shy person. How are you going to do that?”

“Don’t worry about it. I don’t need to do it myself. A few tricks will help me win her over.”

When I was sixteen or seventeen, I shared a dorm with three other friends. At that time, I was aware of the fact that although women and men were both human beings, they were in fact two different species.

Unlike with a man, it is difficult to understand a woman. Women can never be judged from the standpoint of men and vice-versa.

At that time, we cartoonists never regarded our job as extraordinary. Whenever the laundromat had a new, beautiful countergirl, or the grocer had a new, pretty lady selling fruit, and one of us proclaimed we were pursuing the girl, we would suggest he send laundry to the shop or buy fruit from her.

We’d also make a pitch for him, saying things like, “See how incredibly he draws,” and “He is more loaded than any of us.”

Sometimes, I think that women are really stubborn. If a woman has someone else in mind and doesn’t like the man who is after her, no matter how hard he tries to sweet-talk her, she won’t fall for him. However, when it comes to men, the whole situation changes. If a girl is chasing after a boy, he will eventually accept her, even if he is actually into another girl.

我生性害羞，有如作家李碧华文中所说：腼腆、害羞得匪夷所思，像是濒临绝迹的稀有动物，需要立法保护。其实，李碧华不知道，我外表非常羞涩，内心自信强大得无与伦比。

那时，有一位跟我合租房子的初中同学李隆东，上文化大学经济系夜间部，白天在震旦行上班。

有一次，星期六下班，李隆东说：“今天，我们公司来了一位名叫李紫锭的新同事，长得非常漂亮。”

我说：“你赶快追啊。”

“不行，她跟我同姓。”

“我看过同姓结婚呢，有什么关系。”

“我奶奶有交代，不能跟同姓交往。”

“好吧，我来追。”

你那么害羞，怎么追？”

“放心，我不必亲自出马，略施手段，一定能追到手。”

我十六七岁时，跟范万楠等四个人同租房子，一起画漫画。那时，我便看得很清楚，女人跟男人，虽然都是人，其实是不同物种。

女人跟男人不一样，难以了解，不能站在男人的立场思考女人，同样也不能站在女人的立场思考男人。

当时，我们虽然是漫画家，却没有觉得漫画家身份有多么了不起，洗衣店新来一个美丽的柜台小姐，或菜市场新来一个漂亮的水果妹，四个人中，有人宣称要追，我们便让他去送要洗的衣服或买水果。

大家在旁边替他说好话：“他漫画画得最棒，赚钱最多啦。”

我发现女人死心眼，如果女人不太喜欢正在追她的那位男生，喜欢另一位时，好话说尽都不行。

男生的情况则不同，四位女生中，一位女生倒追一个男生，时间久了，男生会接受，虽然他其实喜欢另一位女生。

当时我知道一个事实：

一群男生要追一群女生中的其中一位，证明自己是这群男生中最厉害的，没有用，女人不吃这一套。……