Former screen goddess Brigitte Lin Ching-hsia stepped away from acting after marrying Hong Kong businessman Michael Ying in 1994.
Some 17 years ago, she began a new career as a writer. The Taiwanese celebrity has written several books including Ching Hsia Sketches, published in 2022.
One of her main writing spaces is her study at her Hong Kong residence, reportedly valued at around HK$1.1bil (RM581.57mil).
Recently, however, Lin was forced to abandon her study after it became infested with cockroaches.
Writing about the ordeal in a Chinese magazine, Lin said she first spotted a lone cockroach at home. Attempting to get rid of it with a tissue, she ended up flicking it onto her garden balcony.
“The tissues floated in the air like a scene from a wuxia film,” she wrote, as translated by Dimsum Daily.
But that was only the beginning. Within days, more cockroaches began appearing in her study. Lin realised this was “not a coincidence, but an invasion.”
Unable to tolerate their presence, she found herself too distracted to write. Instead, she kept checking corners, fearing the cockroaches would “show up in groups at any moment”.
Following a friend’s advice, she hired a pest control company to spray the property.
That night, her housekeeper discovered the kitchen floor covered in what appeared to be “tiny black dots” – which turned out to be dead or dying cockroaches.
In the article, Lin described the scene as “bodies everywhere", adding that they cleared the remains with a broom and dustpan.
The first round of spraying wasn’t enough. It took another two to three treatments before the infestation was finally brought under control.
But Lin’s run-ins with cockroaches didn’t end there. While holidaying in Hangzhou, China, she encountered another one.
Before she could react, a friend trapped it in a paper cup and released it outdoors.
Lin admitted feeling conflicted, acknowledging that cockroaches are harmful pests that reproduce rapidly.
“If I see one again, I may not be able to hold back – there will be no mercy,” she wrote.
