In telling this story, it is certainly not my intention to reveal any secrets from other people’s lives. Rather, I simply have to vent my sheer shock and astonishment. It wasn’t just that this woman had the same dreams and ideas as I did. What really got to me was this: while I was just thinking about all those things, making big plans that were elaborate and absolutely flawless in my imagination, she actually went out and made it happen.
     On the day I met her, we somehow got into conversation at one of those high-class social events. Only later did I realize that, after checking out the party for a bit, she had deliberately chosen me to tell her story to—or should I say, impress me with it.
     That day, I had made my entry as usual. The host and hostess were standing at the entrance welcoming the guests. With countless media cameras leveled at that spot, constantly going click, click, click for fear of missing the arrival of a major bigwig, I yet managed to slip inside unnoticed behind a legislator and his surrounding entourage of assistants. The truth was, I might as well have walked right up to the hosts, shaken their hands and said something like “Congratulations!” or “How’re you doing?”, because the question “Do I know this person?” would never even have crossed their minds. But even after having been to such events so many times, I could never drum up the courage to give it a try.
     Having entered, I quickly found a large pillar to lean against, and as a waiter walked past I nimbly snatched a glass of champagne from his tray. It was a pity I’d never been able to drink a lot—my personal record at one of those dinner parties was two glasses of white wine and three of champagne, drunk over the entire event. If I could really hold my liquor, I’d get a chance to finish a bottle or two of really expensive, high-end hooch at every go, for free!
     I had picked a good spot. To my left and right were VIPs and dignitaries, all dressed up for the occasion. As I raised my eyes to the ceiling, they were dazzled by the reflections of the luxurious ballroom’s splendid interior. Slap dab in the middle of the central buffet table rose a thick column of ice into the speckled disco light that illuminated the fresh flowers and exquisite delicacies below. Since I didn’t want to draw other people’s attention by hogging that spot, I moved away from the pillar after twenty minutes and strolled over to the one on the opposite side of the hall. I lingered there for another twenty minutes before scuttling back to my original vantage point.
     I was very familiar with this particular hotel. In Taipei, no other place was more famous for its cocktail parties and dinner receptions, and so it was also the one I’d been to most frequently. I felt that this should be the ideal place for the plan I had in my head to succeed.
     That morning, I hadn’t drunk any milk. I didn’t actually like milk, but to balance my calcium intake I forced myself to drink a glass or two every day to make up for the two daily cups of coffee I also consumed. The thing was, though, that lately I’d felt that I was getting a bit plump around the waist, and I blamed it on the coffee and the milk. But since there was no way I’d be able to quit the coffee—you need some things to spice up your life—I had to sacrifice health and nutrition instead. Consequently, I had had just a glass of water before the reception, and after two rather quickly drunk glasses of white wine on what was basically an empty stomach, I could already feel the alcohol circulating through every part of my system.
     The lights began to look just a tiny bit blurry as I had reached about the right degree of tipsiness, finally feeling brave enough to go and talk to people. I was just about to look for someone to exchange a bit of small talk when a person materialized right in front of me, looking at me.
     “You’re here alone? Not easy to find someone you know with the place so packed with people. Just now, I was sure I’d recognized someone I know standing over there talking to someone, but when I wanted to go over and say hi, he had already disappeared, just like that.”
     She was about half a head taller than me, so if I didn’t lift my head my eyes were at the same level as the slightly curled corners of her cherry mouth. Standing this close to her, I couldn’t get a good look at the woman. I stepped back a little so that my back came to rest against the cool marble pillar behind me. Now I could give her a good once-over, and I noticed that her stomach was flat to the point of being almost concave. She wore a charcoal satin dress with delicate thin shoulder straps that revealed much of her back. Her shoulders and gaunt collarbone caught the eye and contributed to the overall impression of a fragile yet sexy skinniness. The faint goosebumps on her skin, a result of the very cold air-conditioning,...