by Hailong Hao

(This article was originally published in ISPE’s journal Telicom, Vol.35, No.3 – Third Quarter 2023. It is a work of fiction. Some revisions have been made for this version.)

When I came back from the bathroom, she had already ordered a tableful of dishes. It was her habit when she was angry: ordering a lot, eating very little, refusing to take the leftovers home, and not allowing me to do so either.

“The more I think about it, the angrier I get. Where has the basic trust between people gone?” She was referring to the incident at the cinema earlier – her reason for ordering the food.

According to the original plan, we should have gone to the movie first, and by the time it ended, we would be just hungry enough to fully enjoy the delicious cuisine at this restaurant.

But right when we were buying the tickets, it suddenly occurred to me that, for this one-month anniversary of our relationship, we had deliberately dressed in the matching outfits bought the day before. We had even had an unprecedented little disagreement over the color of our shoes, which was fortunately resolved by a kiss before we left home.

What I hadn’t realized the true tragedy then: we had left our student ID cards in our old clothes. Because of this, the ticket attendant insisted on not giving us the student discount. After arguing back and forth, he remained adamant, saying it was “a directive from above.”

Based on my limited experience of life in Beijing, if he had said, “It’s not allowed in principle,” my student bus pass might have worked. But the phrase “a directive from above” usually meant there was no room for negotiation.

Under the impatient glares of the people waiting behind us, I decided to buy two full-priced tickets – minimizing the duration of annoyance was the most important principle for new couples on a date.

But her mood had clearly been ruined. She tugged at my hand and said, “Let’s not watch the movie.”

The topic of our conversation during dinner inevitably turned to the indifference of humanity and the loss of trust.

At that time, inexperienced in the ways of the world and unfamiliar with the real estate market, I couldn’t fathom a more boring romantic scenario than this. So without waiting to finish eating, I couldn't help but take out two tickets for the next screening from my pocket and asked, “Still interested?”

She didn’t answer right away, first confirming the word “student” was indeed on the tickets before asking with a slightly delayed surprise, “How did you manage to do this?”

“I have a superpower.”

She broke into a huge smile and gave a little snort, her eyes shimmering with innocent light, as though she had no idea that the cinema happened to be on the way to the bathroom.

As long as you were willing to pay full price, the ticket boy was perfectly happy to sell you whatever kind of ticket you wanted.

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