Colman, Matthew and Erica's third son, was more like Sheffield than anyone else—a complete and total womanizer. He took to those behaviors as if born to them. And he was better than Sheffield in the romance department. Beautiful women had flocked to him since he was a teen.
Erica cautioned him about his love-em-and-leave-em lifestyle. Every girl was the apple of her parents' eye, after all.
Colman felt wronged. Was it his fault girls liked him a lot? And one thing usually led to another. Was he responsible for that too?
When he was three, he once declared that he would marry one hundred wives. He had a rich romantic history. Since he got his first girlfriend at age fifteen, he had never been single for even one day.
Even so, there were a lot of girls lining up to be his girlfriend. They didn't care he was a playboy.
Matthew had tried all kinds of things to curb his appetites, but nothing seemed to work. But it was not like Colman did anything out of the ordinary. He hung out with friends, he didn't do anything illegal. All he did was date girls. So after Colman grew up, Matthew stopped trying. He was who he was.
Colman had a good friend called Leon Feng. He was also from a rich family. The two of them had known each other since primary school.
They used to chase girls, fight, drink, and race together. They were as thick as thieves. Wherever Colman was, Leon Feng was there too.
After skipping two grades as Colman did, Leon Feng found he really couldn't keep up with his friend, so he gave it up. He decided to leave that to Colman, and started studying hard to make up for his less-than-stellar academic record.
When Leon Feng had just entered college, Colman had been admitted to the most advanced university. But he never gave up womanizing. He drove all kinds of different luxury cars, still flirting with girls.
One day, Colman suddenly heard Leon Feng had a girlfriend. Leon Feng was something of a playboy too. So having a girl on his arm was not unusual. What was unusual was she'd been with him for two months and they hadn't broken up yet. Colman thought they might be serious.
Upon hearing this, Colman was interested in what kind of girl could hold Leon Feng's attention longer than two months. Normally, Leon Feng and Colman changed girlfriends like a man might change his outfit—frequently.
After Colman broke up with his ninety-ninth girlfriend, Leon Feng arranged a formal meeting between his good friend and his girlfriend. "Hey, Colman, this is my girlfriend, Amber Zhen. Amber, this is my best friend, Colman Huo."
One arm crossed over his chest, Colman rested his thumb and index finger on his chin and looked Amber Zhen up and down.
He did that a lot, to the point where it made her uncomfortable.
The girl was cute and petite.
She was over 1.6 meter tall and was slender, with a little nose and full, red lips. Her black eyes were big and round, and glinted with a hint of eagerness and intelligence.
She wore a set of orange trousers, a little pink backpack slung over her shoulder.
She looked delicate and quirky all at once.
At last, Amber Zhen said, "Hi, Colman, nice to meet you."
And Colman realized what had been missing from his endless string of girlfriends. He'd never dated a woman like this. If she became his girlfriend, wouldn't he have a richer romantic history?
When he thought of this, Colman smiled and shook hands with her. He figured he'd flatter her like a gentleman. "I'm in the presence of a beautiful woman. The pleasure is all mine."
Amber Zhen smiled at him and said, "Thank you. You're not so bad yourself."
Leon Feng had no idea what was on Colman's mind and chuckled. "Let's have a seat. Order whatever you want, Amber. Meals are on him."
Colman nodded his head. "Oh yeah, it's my treat. Order anything you want."
"Thank you, Colman!" She was a foodie and wasn't going to turn down free food. Before long, the table was full of rich, aromatic dishes.
That was the first meeting between Amber Zhen and Colman. He made good impression on her. He was handsome, genteel and polite.
They had ordered a plate of steamed shrimp. When everything was served, Leon Feng excused himself and made his way to the restroom.
Wearing a pair of disposable gloves, Colman chatted with Amber Zhen while peeling shrimp. He piled all of the shrimp on her plate before Leon Feng came back.
Noting the puzzled look on her face, Colman explained calmly, "It suddenly occurred to me I'm allergic to shrimp. You can eat them, though. Besides, I should be helping you out. You're my best friend's girlfriend.
We can both be good to you. Get used to it." The more she thought about it, the weirder she felt. Something wasn't quite right, but she couldn't put her finger on it. But before she could process it all, Leon Feng came back and interrupted her train of thought.
After dinner, Colman and Leon Feng dropped Amber off at her high school.
Coleman hadn't even realized till then how truly young she was. Amber Zhen was still in high school. No wonder she was so slender.
One day, Colman kept staring at Leon Feng, making the man nervous. "If you have something to say, just say it," he said.
With an embarrassed look, Colman put his arm around his shoulder and said hesitantly, "Dude, I don't know if I should tell you this or not…"
"You can tell me. What is it?" It sounded serious. Something told Leon Feng he should hear his friend out.
Then, Colman took out a photo from his inside pocket and handed it to Leon Feng. "Someone else snapped this pic. He showed me and I paid him so he'd give it to me. I think she's cheating on you, man. I'm sorry." After saying that, he patted Leon Feng on his shoulder and said, "Don't get upset. This can't be what it looks like, can it?"
The pic showed two people in the library. Amber was sitting next to a boy, hip-to-hip. They were sharing the same book.
The two people looked quite comfortable with each other, like a couple.
Leon Feng was boiling over with rage. He slapped the photo on the table and shouted, "Damn it! That asshole can't flirt with my woman! I'll kill him!"
Later, Leon Feng gathered his friends and proceeded to the school gate to confront the boy. He had violence on his mind, and was going to teach this boy a lesson. They ran into Amber Zhen first. Holding back his temper, he took out the photo and asked, "Who is he?"
Confused, Amber looked at the photo and answered, "Just my classmate. Where'd you get this? Are you spying on me or something?"
"That's not the point. The point is that you're my girlfriend. You two look awful cozy there. I don't want you doing that again, get it?" he asked. Leon Feng didn't have the heart to accuse Amber Zhen of much of anything. If it were another woman, he would have dumped her already.
Considering he didn't get too upset, Amber Zhen nodded and said, "I didn't realize what was going on. Don't worry. It won't happen again. Promise."
Later, Leon Feng came up against the boy in question, but the boy had brought friends of his own. One of them was a well-known thug with a reputation for violence. Leon Feng left him alone this time. He warned him to stay away from his girl, and left.
They butted heads a second time two weeks later. With a gloomy face, Colman stared at Leon Feng and asked, "Why is it I always see Amber with another guy?"
Leon Feng's face changed instantly. "What? What did you say? Another guy?" he asked.
"Here you go!" Colman gave him another picture.
This time, the contents in the photo made Leon Feng fuming mad. In the photo, a man had his arm around a girl's waist, and she was cuddled up with him. The man had his back to the camera, but it was obvious that the girl in the photo was Amber Zhen.
Things didn't go well when he showed Amber Zhen the photo. She chased after Leon Feng and tried to mollify him. "I can explain. I tripped and stumbled, and it was lucky he was around to catch me when I finally did fall."
But Leon Feng didn't listen and interrupted her, "Cut the crap! Do I look that dumb to you?"
Amber Zhen was also angered by his accusatory tone. She didn't want to explain anymore.
After parting from him, she walked along the sidewalk, wondering what to do next. She saw a car pull up alongside her. As soon as Colman got out of the car, he saw the girl. "Hey, Amber," he greeted her.
Depressed, Amber Zhen nodded at the man and said, "Hello, Colman."
"What's wrong? You don't look happy." Colman looked her up and down.
The girl said nothing, but lowered her head.
All of a sudden, Colman grabbed her wrist and said, "Why are you so unhappy? Let's go somewhere and you can be happy again."
Startled by his sudden move, Amber Zhen stammered, "Colman…let go of me. Colman!"
As if he hadn't heard her, Colman pulled her into the passenger seat and fastened the seat belt for her. "Sit tight. I know just the place."
Amber Zhen didn't know what to say.
