“Fine, as long as you are happy.”
“You’ve no idea how happy I am when I can fi nally do things that I like. Having the chance to do whatever one truly likes is the happiest thing in the world.” I felt the need of a sudden escape from Mei. For what I wanted, in fact, was not a double cliche but just being alone. “ Take good care of yourself. We’d better leave now.”
I couldn’t recall which words were said in our home dialect and which in Mandarin. The heat of our argument hadn’t cooled in the least. The whole conversation could hardly come to a satisfactory end with the awkwardness of an urgent mix of our home dialect and Mandarin.