Intermediate to Advanced

Continue the story in English.

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You are halfway through cooking dinner when you realise you are missing three ingredients. The sauce on the stove is starting to smell rich and sweet, but the recipe will not work without them. Just then, there is a knock at the door. A neighbour you have never spoken to is standing there, holding exactly those three ingredients in a small paper bag. She smiles politely and says, “I had a feeling you needed these.” Her coat is damp from the rain, and she keeps glancing back at the stairwell as if she is in a hurry. You have never seen her before, but she seems calm, certain, and strangely familiar. The three ingredients are the exact brands you would have chosen yourself. Before you can ask how she knew, she looks past your shoulder into the apartment and lowers her voice. “I should probably explain,” she says. “But not here.”