Waiting for You in a City

When she got off work, Xu Qin finally had time to take a look at her phone. The screen was very empty and there were no notifications.

During the entire day, Song Yan didn’t call her or send her a text message.

She frowned slightly, but she didn’t show any emotion, changed her clothes and went home.

When driving through the intersection, for a moment she wondered if Song Yan would go have dinner with Li Meng.

She wouldn’t be unhappy because of this, after all, it was normal for colleagues to have dinner together, but— she looked at her phone— how come there wasn’t even a single message.

Xu Qin usually didn’t have many recreational activities, but when she got home and turned on the TV, she found all the various sorts of programs were boring. She opened a book and read for a while. For some reason, her eyes always inadvertently glanced at the mobile phone on the table.

That phone always stayed quiet.

Time passed like this until it was after nine o’clock in the evening, it was like Song Yan had disappeared completely as if he wasn’t her boyfriend.

What was he doing, why didn’t he contact her?

After thinking about it for a while, she picked up her phone and checked out his Moments1.

Like her, he had no content in Moments, only a few forwarded fire prevention announcements, and the only time he posted a picture was also a fire prevention notice.

There was nothing to see.

She casually clicked on a picture, but unexpectedly, a like and a comment were displayed below.

Xu Qin was surprised, not knowing that they had mutual friends2.

Clicking on it again, there was a heart of praise: Zhan Xiaorao, followed by Zhan Xiaorao’s comment: “You’ve worked hard~”

Xu Qin: “……”

The comment was made a month ago, and Song Yan had not replied.

She almost forgot that she was the one who told Zhan Xiaorao his mobile phone number. With Zhan Xiaorao’s personality, she must have stalked him and added him as a friend.

She clicked again on Zhan Xiaorao’s Moments. From more than a month ago, there were few photos, and she only occasionally shared some small insights and life anecdotes. As for this month, it was all kinds of self portraits, brightly smiling faces.

Even Xu Qin had to admit that she was very cute and full of youthful energy.

Xu Qin also accidentally saw Song Yan’s figure in her photo. In Soho Square in Si Xi Di, Song Yan was bent over, rolling the water pipe on the ground, and the crowd surrounded him.

It was the day Song Yan saved her.

There were two photos in total, the other one was of Song Yan going down the escalator, tall and handsome. He seemed to be in a bad mood that day, with a grim look on his face, which made him look even more masculine.

The text that Zhan Xiaorao attached to the two photos was: “The person! That! Saved! My! Life! Aaaaaaaaah!”

There was also Zhan Xiaorao’s own comment below, which was probably an integrated reply:

“Superman!!! I want to sleep with him! I want to sleep with him!”

Xu Qin pursed her lips, threw the phone back on the sofa, got up and walked to the kitchen counter, and poured the water from the kettle into a cup to drink. Right after taking a big sip, she suddenly realized that the water was cold and hadn’t been boiled yet. She immediately turned around and rushed to the edge of the sink to spit out the water. After spitting it out, she then remembered that what she poured into the pot was mineral water, she could drink it directly.

“……”

Holding the cup, she stood by the sink with her chin covered in water, a little speechless towards herself. She pulled out a piece of tissue paper to wipe her mouth clean, drank the remaining water in the cup, washed the cup and put it away.

She returned to the living room, picked up the book again and read it for a while, finally picking up the phone and pulling up Song Yan’s number.

Countless questions to ask, countless words to express, but in the end only four words were typed out:

“What are you doing?”

When she was thinking about whether he was out with friends or at home with his uncle, her phone beeped, and two words came:

“Missing me?”

These words instantly hit the softest part of Xu Qin’s heart. Inexplicably, her eyes got a little feverish, and her ears also got a little hot. The frustration that had been accumulating for a day was wiped away by his two words, leaving only her heart beating in her chest.

She instinctively replied: “En.”

She only remembered after sending it, she should have replied “Not missing you”, to attack him.

But he quickly replied: “Then I will come to you. Be there in ten minutes.”

Her heart was instantly coaxed to bloom.

Xu Qin was holding the phone, but she didn’t realize that she was pursing her lips and smiling: “Okay.”

She put down her phone, immediately ran to wash her face, combed her hair, and got her lipstick to put on her lips in front of the mirror.

After getting ready, she sat on the sofa to read her book. Just as she picked up the book, she remembered that the garbage in the kitchen hadn’t been thrown away yet, so she took the garbage bag and went downstairs. After leaving the corridor, she took a look at the side of the road, and soon saw Song Yan’s figure walking towards her, with a bag in his hand.

She threw the trash bag into the garbage can and stood by the side of the road, watching him come towards her.

It was also at this time that she noticed the sun had risen during the day, and the snow in the neighborhood had melted. There were only a few places on the trees where the sun did not shine, and stripes of snow were piled up on the dead branches.

Song Yan had already approached, and ran to her in a few steps, with a smile in his eyes: “Missed me?”

“No. Just taking a look at you, otherwise, I’ll forget what you look like.” Xu Qin said.

Song Yan nodded knowingly: “That’s right, you have a bad memory.” After speaking, he tilted his head slightly and looked at her quietly, as if letting her look.

Her heart suddenly thumped.

Their four eyes faced each other, and each of their eyes were bright in the night.

After looking for a long time, he smiled: “Am I nice to look at?”

She didn’t want to admit it, and raised her eyebrows: “You’re alright.”

He asked again: “Are you done looking?”

She turned her eyes away indifferently, looking at the street lights: “Done looking.”

“If you’re done looking, I’m leaving.” He turned and left.

Xu Qin was taken aback, and immediately went to pull him: “Want to—”

Song Yan turned around and quickly grabbed the back of her head, lowered his head to enclose her lips, and licked her lips hard; Xu Qin didn’t expect it, and before she could close her eyes, she instinctively shrunk her shoulders and stood on her tiptoes. But he took a bite and let go, leaving her alone with her heart beating wildly.

He glanced at her dazed look, a naughty smile flashed in his eyes. He rubbed her head with his big palm, pulled her into his arms, rubbed his chin against her temples, and laughed out loud. It seemed that it was fun to tease her.

“I like your lipstick, I want to bite when I see it.”

“If you want to kiss me, just say it, even blaming the lipstick.” Xu Qin snorted and adjusted her disordered breathing a little.

“Okay,” he admitted generously, “I want to kiss you whenever I see you, and I want to kiss you even if I don’t see you.”

Xu Qin couldn’t help but smile slightly. She lay in his arms, panting slightly, trying to hug his waist, but touched the bag in his hand, lowered her head: “What are you carrying?”

He got down to business: “Where is your car parked?”

……

The underground garage.

Xu Qin pressed the key, there was a beep, and the white BMW flashed twice.

Song Yan took out a safety hammer from the paper bag, handed it to Xu Qin, and explained: “If you are trapped in the car in an unexpected situation, use this to smash the glass.” He tapped the four corners of the window glass, “Remember, hit the corners, not the middle. The middle doesn’t break easily.”

Xu Qin nodded and imitated the movement with the hammer.

He straightened the angle of her hand: “When the tip of the hammer is perpendicular to the glass, at a 90-degree angle, the force is the greatest. Concentrate on hitting one point, and don’t smash around everywhere because of panic. ……Memorized it?”

She nodded: “I memorized it.”

“Memorized what?”

“Hit the corners, need to be perpendicular.”

“Good.” He patted her head.

She was still gesturing with the hammer in her hand.

He approached her, held her hand, and corrected: “Rely on the wrist, don’t use the whole arm, it expends too much effort.”

He guided her to try a few times, and asked in a low voice: “Did you find the feeling?”

“En.” She nodded, slightly distracted, right now he was being extremely serious and it was extremely charming.

He let go of her hand and took a step back: “Try again.”

Xu Qin waved lightly at the corner of the glass a few times, her posture and angle was correct.

She suddenly pursed her lips and smiled lightly.

“What are you laughing at?”

“I remembered that last rainstorm, you saved me. It felt like such a coincidence that time. You didn’t expect that it would be me being pulled out of the car, did you?” Xu Qin said, “I also didn’t expect it to be you, let alone that you could push the car up…… With such dedication, it’s no wonder that you are the captain.”

Song Yan smiled, but didn’t answer.

He took her safety hammer and put it in the bag, and took out a small fire extinguisher from the bag and put it on the ground. There was another fire extinguisher in the bag.

He rolled up the bag and stuffed it under the passenger seat: “I’ll put these here.”

Xu Qin stretched her neck to look: “Why is there an extra fire extinguisher?”

“To teach you.” He laughed, and handed her the fire extinguisher, “This is very simple, unscrew the lead seal here, pull out the safety lock, then press the handle, and that’s it.”

Xu Qin touched the lead seal on the fire extinguisher, a little curious, and looked up at him: “Can I unscrew it and try it now?”

“The extra one is for you to try.”

Excitement flashed across Xu Qin’s eyes. She unscrewed the lead seal, pulled out the safety lock, put both hands on the handle, and when she was about to press it, she glanced at Song Yan.

Song Yan laughed: “It’s not like shooting a gun, it doesn’t have that much recoil.”

Xu Qin felt relieved, pressed the handle hard, and with a puff, a large cloud of white smoke sprayed out.

She immediately laughed, a smile filled her eyes. She pressed it again once or twice, and several clouds of smoke puffed out, floating around her feet.

Song Yan stood aside with his hands in his pocket, staring at her big smile, unconsciously, the corners of his mouth curled up.

“Easy, right?” he asked.

“Easy.” She was happy and couldn’t help but smile, “It’s pretty fun.”

“Fun.” He repeated her words, and smiled lightly, “I hope you never need to use it.”

He closed the car door, she saw dust on his sleeve and helped him brush it off, but it became a light blue powder on her hands: “What is this?”

Song Yan patted his sleeves: “I guess it rubbed off from somewhere.”

Xu Qin didn’t mind, and asked: “Where should I put this fire extinguisher?”

“Bring it home.”

“Oh.” Xu Qin hugged the small fire extinguisher, like holding a pot of gold.

“Don’t play around with it at home, do you hear me?”

“I hear you—” she said softly.

Walking to the corner of the parking lot, Xu Qin saw the fire hydrant on the wall, somehow remembered Zhan Xiaorao’s Moments, and asked casually: “Are you still in touch with Zhan Xiaorao?”

Song Yan: “No. …Why are you suddenly asking about this?”

Holding the fire extinguisher in her arms, Xu Qin said in a casual tone: “Oh, I saw she left comments on your Moments.”

Song Yan smiled faintly: “Are you jealous?”

“No.” Immediately denied.

“It’s good that you aren’t.”

There was nothing that followed.

Xu Qin had thought that there would be a brief comforting or light coaxing, but he smiled and moved on. It was not easy for her to continue asking, it would look too bad.

But this was like the Li Meng incident this morning making a comeback,

Remembering his disappearance all day,

For some reason, the pent-up frustrations that had been eliminated had indistinctly resurfaced.

There was no exit,

Song Yan asked: “Was work tiring today, when did you get off work?”

His tone was still as if nothing had happened, Xu Qin didn’t know whether to answer six o’clock or nine o’clock, she was confused for a moment, and suddenly asked: “Have you thought about me today? “

He heard her and stopped. She was still walking forward quickly, he reached out and grabbed her, pulling her around to face him. He glanced at her up and down and asked: “What’s the matter?”

She looked a little surprised, and said normally: “It’s nothing. Oh, it’s just that you haven’t contacted me all day. I thought you were busy.”

“Didn’t you tell me you were busy and would message me when you got off work?” Song Yan looked into her eyes and asked.

Xu Qin was speechless for a moment, like a fool who had slapped herself. But……that wasn’t right, he was the one who said that. But……when he said it she didn’t object.

You reap what you sow.

She stared at him for a while, then suddenly asked: “Song Yan, are you doing it on purpose?”

Song Yan: “Doing what on purpose?”

“Stringing me along like this on purpose.”

“I didn’t want to disturb your work.” Song Yan’s eyes were calm, and in an explaining tone said, “As soon as you sent me a message, I came right away, right?”

Xu Qin was speechless again. He came as soon as she sent a message, and with just a few words, he made her forget the troubles of the whole day and coaxed her into submission. But……why did her chest feel even more heavy.

But she smiled slightly, as if it was a trivial matter she didn’t care about: “Oh, yes, I forgot.”

She pushed open the door and entered the elevator as if nothing happened, looked back at Song Yan, and said: “Ah, I almost forgot again, I have to study a few cases tonight, and will be very busy.” When she said this, her eyes were looking straight at him.

Song Yan raised his eyebrows a little, feeling a little regretful, but finally sighed: “Well, I won’t go up to bother you then. Remember to rest early.”

“……” Xu Qin nodded, “Okay.”

She pursed her lips and pressed down on the elevator.

The elevator had originally stopped on the first floor, but soon came down to the ground floor.

Song Yan came over and kissed her on the forehead, rubbing her head.

Xu Qin smiled and waved at him, turned around, and walked into the elevator silently. Her eyes were looking for the floor on the elevator buttons and she didn’t have time to look at him.

The elevator doors closed.

She immediately leaned against the elevator wall, silently staring at the ceiling.

The elevator lights were all white, and for some reason, she felt a dull pain in her heart.

Xu Qin returned home alone, looked at the empty living room, then looked at the small fire extinguisher in her arms, not knowing what to do for a while.

She moved slowly to the wall and leaned against it, very depressed,

He was obviously very happy in the underground garage not long ago, why was it like this now?

The whole day, her mood was up and down because of him, like riding a roller coaster.

She lowered her head and rubbed her forehead vigorously. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of the slippers he wore before. She turned her head and stared at the slippers for a while, she didn’t care anymore, she just kicked them, and the poor and innocent slippers were kicked to the bottom of the stairs.

Just as she was about to kick it again, the doorbell rang suddenly.

Xu Qin was stunned for a moment, before she had even put down the fire extinguisher, she ran to open the door.

Song Yan stood at the door, watching her quietly.

Xu Qin took in a breath, but didn’t speak.

Song Yan walked in, and she took a step back. He closed the door behind him, walked up to her, and took her into his arms.

Xu Qin could smell the faint fragrance on his clothes.

He whispered:

“Okay, I won’t tease you anymore.”

She buried her head in his chest and kicked him immediately.

He leaned against her and sighed softly: “These years, I’ve become cowardly. If problems come up I stay quiet. But at least you’ve always been meek and civil in public, but a tyrant at home.”

She immediately kicked him again: “Shut up.”

Song Yan just smiled, and asked again: “Do you need to study cases tonight?”

She said nothing.

“Even if you need to, I’m staying here and not leaving.” He said, taking out the fire extinguisher in her hand and putting it on the cabinet. He had already pushed her against the wall, bowing his head and kissing her lips.

……

Actually, he had selfish motives.

What people couldn’t forget the most was what had not yet been obtained and what had been lost.

There was nothing else like wanting more after getting it, and being unwilling to lose it ever again.

He had gently pushed her into this state.

But, he couldn’t bear to see her so disappointed but still having to pretend she didn’t care. He really couldn’t bear it. When he saw her like that, it felt like his heart was being cut by a knife, suffering from pain.

1Moments – the social media page on Wechat where one can view the posts made by the users they follow

2on Wechat, likes and comments made by other users are only visible to you if you are friends with that user