THE SADDEST GIRL SINCE THE SONG DYNASTY

TRAUMA OF THE HATE-LIKE - PART II

At nine p.m., still not finished with the letter she was drafting to the editors of some local publication in Shandong province convincing them that their article on a proposed development verged on slander in the legal sense (and that ECN would happily take no action if they took the article down), Zhi-Lai – mistakenly or maliciously – tagged Lady Zhao in a photo she wasn't in. It was in a restaurant, one of her favorites, very nearby in fact, and everyone looked to be having fun; it was a social group that Lady Zhao often associated with. It was a hate-tag, and it was the last straw.

Not even shutting her computer down, not even grabbing her purse, she stormed out of the building and headed for the atrocity's ground-zero. But Lady Zhao regretted leaving her purse behind the moment the doors to the building auto-locked behind her – she had no way of getting back in. Then more so when she got to the restaurant only to find the party had left, learning from the waiter who may or may not have overheard where they were headed that she would need at least eighty-kuai of taxi fare, or her transport card, to get there, neither of which she had.

A few hours earlier, Spring had updated Lady Zhao with where he and Ander were likely to be that evening. She tried calling them in case their circumstances had changed, hoping too they could come and pick her up, but there was no answer, so she left a voicemail. She tried calling a colleague, and with the last of her battery-life, managed to arrange a meeting so she could borrow five-hundred kuai.

Lurchingforward slightly like a T-Rex as she walked in her extremely uncomfortable butnew second-favorite shoes, Lady Zhao hustled between cafes and taxis and bars,eventually making it to the Jiaotong University area in the hope of catching upwith Spring and Ander. She had given up on hunting down her substantive troll –for now. But they were not there. It was coming up to ten-thirty – hadn't LadyZhao told Ander to be back at the apartment by ten? The night had been a 360-degreedisaster, it was best that it should end, so Lady Zhao headed back to herapartment in defeat expecting Ander to be there to open the door and put sometea on for her to ease the aftermath.