好雨

若說「好雨」是「知時節」的話，「好雨」非去年初夏的一場豪雨所屬。
去年的四、五月分十分潮濕，香港不是被大霧籠罩著便是下著雨，而且天氣變幻無常，突如其來的雨水教人冷不及防。一天，我和友人結伴放學回家，甫踏出校們，便被震耳欲聾的一聲「轟隆」嚇倒，連忙縮回學校裏，狼狽地掏出雨傘。
「你好，我今天忘了帶雨傘，你可以幫忙幫忙嗎？」一把清脆的女聲對我說道。
回首一看，原來是一個同班的女同學，我的心跳不由自主的加快。
「你......想跟我共用一把雨傘？」心裏興奮的期待著她說「是」。
「不是，你能不能把雨傘借我，然後跟他一塊兒用他的傘子？」
「沒問題。」縱使有點無奈，也只得順從。
就這樣，我們出發了。在下山的路途中，我和友人小心翼翼地走過十分濕滑的大斜坡，並共用了他那小得可憐的摺疊雨傘。從山上的學校一直走到市區裏的商場，還不過是十分鐘的路程，卻已足夠讓我的左半身和整個書包濕透，變成了一個「水人」
「雨傘先還你。」看見女同學的身體依舊乾爽、依舊美麗，心裏不免感到甜絲絲的。
穿過商場以後，我們便下了地鐵站了。本以為要「田雞過河」了，但女同學在離開之前回過頭來，像是對我說了些甚麼。
「你說啥？」
「唔該。」她用非常誠懇的語氣說道，並用非常誠懇眼光看著我，使我立時「觸電」。
「不客氣。」我急忙應道。
從此以後，我每次上街都要帶上一把摺疊雨傘，為的是在下一次遇到一場知曉時節的「好雨」時能再一次聽到那刻骨銘心、誠懇的「唔該」。

(部分內容純屬虛構)

Cocaine Fishballs

                

                “Onward Christian soldiers.

Marching as to war.

With the cross of Jesus.

Going on before.”

The Christians from different churches assembled in Stanley prison to sing their hymns of praise during Christmas time, and the images of my beloved children, wife, and parents instantly floated into my mind. Unfortunately, I will never get the chance to see them again in my lifetime, thanks to the utterly wrong decision I’ve made last year.

I was busy working in my office on last year’s Christmas day, when a black limousine pulled up outside the building of our company. Larry Win, a famous criminal who is wanted by the useless and pathetic HK government, got off the limousine and went into our company’s building with his assistants.

My secretary really freaked out when she spotted Larry along with his assistants, all armed with AK-47, enter our office.

“Mr. Ball, someone outsides w……wants to s……see you.”

“Let them in, and quit stammering.”

Frankly speaking, I was also quite scared and shocked to see these unexpected guests step into my office. Nevertheless, I tried my best to look confident in the outside.

A leather handbag which is stuffed and overloaded landed on my table with a loud “Bang!”

“Merry Christmas, Mr. Ball. How’re you doing lately?”

“Be honest and tell me WHAT DO YOU WANT?!”

“No need to be so defensive. It is ten kilograms of cocaine inside this bag. I’ll let you have it as a Christmas present from me.”

“What’s the point of giving me all this? I’m not going to make use of it anyway, considering all the bad effects it does to my body.”

“I see, so you’re a law-abiding citizen, am I right? But hang on a sec, people will get addicted to the fishballs your company produces if you add in a bit of these, right? Then your company can make a lot more money, and I benefit from this too, so it’s a win-win situation. OK now, if you’re interested, just phone my assistant to make arrangement and I’ll offer a 30% discount exclusively for you. Think about it, dude.”

The gang then left, leaving me struggling on what to do next.

“Hey, Mr. Fish Ball, dinner is ready.” My roommate, Paul reminded.

Paul was really addicted to cocaine, and consumed loads of it each day. Right now, he is adding some of his white powder onto his curry fishballs, and painfully reminded me the utterly wrong decision I made.

Larry was experienced in hiding his crime from the government. He first shipped the cocaine, from Argentina, to the middle of nowhere in mainland, packed it into bags which said “Starch” outside, then transported it to Hong Kong. To play safe, he also bribed some governors. These methods kept our illegal business deal secret.

One evening, my wife was watching the finance news report on television.

“Good Fish Company held a press conference today. Their profit rose 95.1% to HKD 51.5 billion. The price of the company’s stocks also rose 58.5% to……”

“Wow, I can’t believe that your company has been doing so well lately. You’re an amazing businessmen!”

“Stop using the fishballs of our company, it’s bad.”

“What? But why……”

“Are you deaf? Just do as I say!”

As everyone knows, cocaine does great harm to the human body, and some nosy reporters started to find out the fact that consumers regularly purchasing our company’s fishballs are getting unhealthier. To prevent them from discovering the truth, I decided temporarily stop purchasing the cocaine from Larry.

However, Larry was way more cunning than I expected. Of course, my decision made him earn less, and also made him furious, and he fired back. Fiercely. Firstly, the bribe was changed to be paid from our company’s bank account directly, as he said his gang was undergoing a “financial redevelopment”, and I was unbelievably foolish and believed in him. Moreover, he also found someone to report to the Hong Kong Police about the bad fishballs containing cocaine.

After all these careful arrangements, he seemed to have no relationship at all with the cocaine fishballs, and I, as the CEO of the company, had to take up all the responsibility. Finally, I was sentenced to a lifelong imprisonment.

Well, this is the end of my sad little story. I hope you would learn a thing or two from it, and, most importantly, do not follow my footsteps. Lastly, I wish you all a Christmas merrier then mine.