With spring coming to an end, summer is very much in the air. I never like summer too much for the simple reason that it can be irritably hot. It's like you are steamed until you're as soft as a bun fresh out of the oven. For another, you just can't escape being surrounded and attacked by mosquitoes. They're just all-pervasive!

Since we moved into the new house, the no mosquito net policy has been strictly carried out by my wife. She said it would spoil the overall perception of the bedroom. And she insisted it would feel cramped and thus uncomfortable if a net was set up in there. As a prevention measure, we had all the windows and doors screened.

Last night, however, several mosquitoes somehow managed to get into the bedroom. They were humming over my head and, from time to time, came down and gave me a bite. Before long there were a few swellings on my head and hands. What made me really angry was the bitten spots were itching terribly. Oddly enough, the mosquitoes seemed very selective about the people they stung. Practically, I was the only target of their vicious attack. Seeing that I was furious about the unfairness, my wife said, “You know what? It is all because you are a man. The mosquitoes that suck the blood of people are all female. They just like you guys.” Like me? So they bite me so relentlessly?” I replied, busy applying some toilet water onto the itching places.

In order to have a good night’s sleep, we began to launch a campaign against the mosquitoes. I sat up and even ran around, trying to clap them to death with my hands, but failed. I also tried to drive them away by waving both of my hands, but in vain. They just came back soon after you lay down. My wife took out a big bottle of pesticide and sprayed a little into the air, but I stopped her immediately. I reminded her that it contained a lot of chemicals. We might get poisoned before the mosquitoes did. Then she produced an electric mosquito catcher like magic and wielded it desperately in the air, as if fighting against an invisible enemy. However, the mosquitoes mysteriously disappeared, just nowhere to be found. “Have they also learned to use the guerrilla tactics?” I wondered.

Obviously it was not hard for tinny mosquitoes to hide somewhere in such a big room. So I said to my wife, “Now that we can not get them, we might as well hide ourselves. If we can not put a beast into a cage, why not put ourselves in the cage instead. It serves the same purpose, doesn’t it?” With these words, I pulled the sheet over my body from head to toe, the air inside was a little stuffy, though. I was beginning to think that a mosquito net might be a better idea.