Chapter 3 A Neighbor

Maya watched the strange man taking the plump, snow-white Samoyed away. Not long after, the dog turned around and suddenly barked at her, as if laughing at her.

The man appeared to have sensed something, so he turned his head and followed the dog's sight, and soon ended up catching her gazing at them. The man shortly averted his eyes calmly. With a smile, he bent down, patted the dog's head, and continued sauntering away.

Maya was rendered speechless. Uh-oh! She seemed to have experienced disgrace twice in front of this stranger. She could only squeeze an awkward grimace into her face as she grumpily asked herself, 'What did you do?'

Shaking her head, Maya went directly to the supermarket, thinking that she could not go empty-handed back to her place. Since she came here all the way, she should buy more things to calm herself down after recently making a fool of herself. After picking all the grocery items that she presumed enough for a week, Maya still grabbed some snacks, candies, and tampons. And while her gaze fell at the bunch of old ladies who were busy and excited buying different things for the upcoming Spring Festival celebration, she carefully placed a fish tank in her cart. She decided to give the tortoise a new nest.

Carrying big and small bags, she now felt comfortable and so much at ease. In the past, her family was poor, but even if she didn't have much money at that time, she liked to go shopping occasionally. Nothing could lift her moods other than shopping. It was like an antidote for her. Now that her work was considerably on the right track, and she had enough money to support herself, she enjoyed this kind of strange pleasure she got out of shopping. Besides, she had already kissed goodbye to her fears of being short in money to cover the purchases she unwittingly made in excess.

When she got back to her place, it was still so cold that it numbed her. As soon as she alighted from the taxi, she felt the cold wind rustling her face like a knife. This year, to ensure that she wouldn't have to go out again during the Spring Festival, she had paid enough water and electricity fee so she could turn the air conditioner on every day.

Her parents had asked her when she would go home for the Spring Festival, but she didn't want to go back this year. Maybe she felt like an outsider whenever she went back home, or perhaps she was not used to dealing with her relatives. Her parents knew how stubborn she was. Even if they persuaded her to come, Maya would still decline. They had only successfully convinced her to go home on the first few days of the Spring Festival.

"Little girl, you're back!" A man in the neighborhood recognized her and greeted her with a smile.

For two years, she had lived here. But she would never go out unless it was deemed necessary. So having someone remembering her was way out of her expectations. Oddly, she was a little stunned and could only let out a stiff smile. "Yes."

As soon as she said that, she entered the elevator right away and went home directly.

Maya was a homebody. She was 24 years old and was a professional script writer. She came from a small town in S City, but after she graduated from university, she had stayed in T City. Although she was a script writer now, she had been an unknown internet writer for a span of four years. Only last year did she get the script writing job. But that was not sufficient enough for her to survive in T City, which happened to be a first-tier city. Fortunately, she had a wealthy friend who never got tired of helping her out.

And it was Crosby Liu, who she first met in high school as her deskmate. Crosby was notorious for having a cold temper, but when Maya got familiar with her, she found that Crosby was not only beautiful but clever and funny as well. She was fond of painting and games. On the flip side, Maya was timid and shy in front of strangers. Only when she became familiar with others would she talk in an unexpected but funny way. The friendship between the two almost resembled a science fiction film, which was very inexplicable. Both of the girls never shared the same hobbies at all. Well, if there was one thing they had in common, that was being a homebody.

Well, now let's go back to Maya.

The house was quite big, with two bedrooms and one living room. Maya loved staying at home, doing nothing but writing scripts every day. But she certainly kept the house clean in her spare time.

That evening, she opted to make a simple steak for herself. By the way, other than her daily routine of writing scripts and watching TV dramas, this professional screenwriter also studied food and cooking. Shortly after her graduation, Maya had almost learned all Chinese and foreign cuisine by heart.

Her confidence extended dramatically to her assumption that even if Crosby got married in the future, she would certainly come to visit her from time to time because of her impeccable culinary skills.

A while later, after sending the latest chapter of the script to the chief editor, Maya finally went to bed and soon doze off.

In the middle of the night, a sudden burst of noise outside jolted her awake.

Ironically, with such good sound insulation, she could still hear the earth-shattering barks of dog outside her room. Then the doorbell rang, making her heart skip a beat.

"Who is it? It's late at night..." Maya whispered as she smoothed her hair and tentatively inched her way to the door in her slippers. In a daze, she tried to peek at the door peephole and was startled.

'Why is he here?' she frantically asked herself, apparently confused. Surprisingly, it was none other than the owner of the Samoyed dog she met during the day!

Maya cautiously took out the electric baton from the shoe cabinet in silence and discreetly hid it behind her. She purposely cleared her throat and asked the tall and handsome man in front of the door, "Well, what can I do for you?"

It appeared that the man failed to recognize her voice. Instead, he only pointed at a pile of things behind him and the two men from the furniture company before he replied, "I'm new here. Can I trouble you to take care of my dog? I will take it back after I clean up the house."

For a moment, Maya found herself speechless again. She reluctantly shifted her attention at the fat dog and then cast a glimpse at the man again, who stared at her innocently and looked almost pleading. The man seemed to be afraid that she would refuse, so he quickly explained, "My dog can't bear the dust. I'll finish cleaning soon!"

Quite frankly, Maya didn't know how to answer.

It was her first-ever encounter with such a delicate dog. It was called Beauty, and it could not bear the dust.

'But... Ah, what? He's new here? Does that mean he is a neighbor?' she mused.