My friend Juanzi has the magical ability to make mundane life sound really exciting. For example, she is the only one of us to have got back her purse from a thief. One day, in a vegetable market, she found her purse gone and shouted: "Those who have taken away my purse, listen to me.

"Take the money but do leave the cards. They are useless to you without the password. There are also medical invoices that I need for reimbursement. Please do me this favor."

Everyone froze. A kind old lady touched her elbow: "Girl, don't waste your time. No thief will pity you." As she spoke, something flew right into the basket of Juanzi's bicycle. It was her purse, with everything in it but the money.

Once Juanzi met 007 in Macao - well, not the real James Bond, but an equally fascinating character.

She was trying in vain to open her suitcase at the hotel when a man in black showed up at the door. "Sorry, miss. We took the wrong suitcase. Could we exchange them?" The two suitcases were exactly the same, and were even bound with the same kind of tape.

The man said he had found the phone number of her friend from a book inside the suitcase, called her family in Beijing and got her address in Macao. When he left, Juanzi thumbed through the book and found the phone number written in tiny characters.

Her suitcase showed no trace of having been forced open. "Did he have a master key?" she wondered as she related the incident to me. "If he could locate me so quickly, could he have been 007?"

A few years ago, an old man stopped Juanzi on the street and said: "Girl, don't go on a trip now. Something good will come to your door." Juanzi was startled. The old man had a red nose and didn't seem to be a kind person. "He appeared before me whenever I closed my eyes," she said. "Maybe something really bad was to happen?"

In those days, Juanzi was a busy person. At 28, she still hadn't found Mr Right, but vowed to get married before 30. The red-nosed man must have meant something, she decided.

"Help me," she pleaded with me. "I'm getting old like a cucumber. Nobody wants an old cucumber even if it is painted green."

"You are tender green," I tried to comfort her.

In just a few days, Juanzi came back bouncing like a joyful deer. "The boss of the son of the classmate of my father's old friend has just visited us," she said. "The young man has been sent to work in Macao after graduation. His boss seems to be interested in me."

When they finally met, Juanzi found him to be unlike anything she had imagined. However, her parents thought the honest and kind young man made for a perfect son-in-law.

Her married life is full of sparkling surprises. The couple live separately because of their work. But distance makes the heart grow fonder. Every day, they write three mails and murmur on the phone till it smokes. Whenever her daily presents arrive in the office, all of us turn green with envy.

The story first appeared on Beijing Youth Daily

(China Daily 05/07/2008 page20)

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