Fang ignored Li Guorui's retort and merely lowered his head to pick at the rice in his bowl.
Li Guorui felt his throat tighten. He slowly shook his head and said, "No. Your mother, she wasn't that kind of person."
Fang stopped eating with his head bowed. For some reason, Li Guorui felt a pang of sorrow. He reached out and stroked Fang's head, saying gently, "Your mother was very beautiful and gentle. Oh, I have a photograph of Sister Red here. Do you want to see it?"
"You never slept with her, yet you kept her photograph." Fang gripped his chopsticks tightly. "Doesn't that make you even more stupid?"
A wave of anger rose in Li Guorui's heart. He did not want Fang to slander Sister Red like this. "Don't talk about your mother that way. She'll be sad."
"A client sleeps with a prostitute. What is there to be sad about? Why are you getting angry?" Fang stared at Li Guorui expressionlessly and pressed again, "You really never slept with her?"
"No!" Li Guorui said firmly. "We weren't in the kind of relationship you imagine. Sister Red was a woman worthy of respect."
Li Guorui felt that Fang's speculation had tarnished his relationship with Sister Red. He did not want to continue the subject, so he turned away evasively. "I'll go find the photograph for you."
Sitting beside the dining table, Fang watched Li Guorui search through the bedroom, half his face swallowed by the dim yellow light.
The dim yellow light blurred Fang's outline. Holding his rice bowl, he sat blankly at the table and suddenly murmured in a voice no one could hear, "How could he not have slept with her?"
*If he had, then maybe I could believe... Otherwise, why would he treat me so