The subway moves quickly, Xu Qin doesn’t move, Song Yan also stays still.
No one cares about them, or perhaps everyone thinks that they are a couple.
She looks from the window glass, the window glass refracts both her and Song Yan’s figure. They both are standing together very close. The time she looks at the window, her gaze meets Song Yan’s gaze.
She looks away and thinks about. She shifts slowly and holds the pole. She stands face to face to hi.
They are standing in silent.
Song Yan finally speaks up: “What did you hear from the honorary meeting?”
Xu Qin: “I seem to mess it up.”
Song Yan raises his eyebrow: “What do you mean?”
Xu Qin retells what happened before in detailed, she even tells him that she mentioned him during her short speech
Song Yan doesn’t express his opinion, he just smiles. He doesn’t criticize him.
Xu Qin says: “That baby, I haven’t told you, I need to thank you.”
Song Yan listens to her and clearly he doesn’t think too much about it. “How would you thank me? You would treat me a meal again?”
“Okay.” Xu Qin answers. Yet after she answers, she realizes that he seems to tease her. She recalls the last time she ‘treated’ him a meal. She modifies her words: “I’ll change, I change it to another way to thank you.”
Song Yan looks at her face and be quite serious. He asks: “How would you thank me?”
Xu Qin doesn’t think too much before. When he is asked, he couldn’t answer it: “Let me think of it, when I think of something, I’ll tell you.”
He looks away and smiles. It’s obvious he doesn’t count on her thankfulness. He could see her through.
Xu Qin: “…..”
She is embarrassed. She thinks for few seconds but it’s useless. So she simply changes the subject: “How is your injury?”
“It’s recovering quite fast.” Song Yan says. Someone wants to go out. He holds Xu Qin’s shoulder to let her move inside.
Xu Qin asks: “How long would you be resting?”
He looks at her: “I couldn’t.”
“When would you start working?”
“Next week.”
Xu Qin frowns lightly: “With your injury, at least you need two months to get well.”
Song Yan smiles: “With my condition, during my working time, I would only act as an instructor, I would train them, play with the dog. I wouldn’t do training and get into the fire scene.
Xu Qin nods: “It’s great then.” Then she says: “So these days you were resting?”
“No, I and several firefighters were getting mental counseling together.”
This earthquake, Xu Qin was with them. Every day with their two profession, they indeed are working hard and seeing between life and death matter. But Song Yan and friends are quite different as they are on the front life, they face a lot of corpses. Their mental might not able to accept it.
Xu Qin: “Are you okay?”
Song Yan: “Do you think I’m not good?”
Xu Qin watches him for a while and shakes her head.
“In the group, there were young ones who would cry in pain, have a nightmare. I am okay. I have watched worst when I was in the army.”
Song Yan speaks up and realizes that they would arrive soon.
Xu Qin asks: “Were you an armed police before?”
Song Yan looks at her silently for two seconds and says: “It’s our stop.”
“Oh.” Xu Qin comes out of the subway, Song Yan is following behind her.
………..
It’s the end of December, Christmas is around the corner, The streets and roads are designed in Christmas festive atmosphere.
The time they exit the subway station, the weather starts to turn cold. It’s snowing lightly. It’s not really good.
“It’s a first snow.” Xu Qin says.
Song Yan looks at the sky. This morning the weather is fine. But this time it’s a bit gloomy: “Later on when it’s time for us to go home, it would be snowing heavier than this.
“When we were still senior high student, during the Christmas, it’s also snowing.” Xu Qin says.
That year it’s snowing heavily. They were running around at night. Xu Qin was so happy and playing around. She made a snowball and stuffed it on Song Yan’s back. It made him wet. She was laughing so hard and took another snowball and stuffed it to his clothes.
Song Yan warned her: “Stop it, if you keep on playing around, I would tear your clothes!!”
Xu Qin still jumped and hugged his neck.
Then he just grabbed her and unzipped her down-jacket’s zipper. He lifted up her top and stroked her belly.
She was cold and wanted to break free from his hold. He said to her: “Are you going to stop or not?”
This moment they don’t say anything, but they keep on recalling the pasts.
It needs few days more before Christmas, the atmosphere has gotten intense.
The time they enter the shopping mall, they could see huge big Christmas tree. It is decorated with great decorations so it’s so beautiful. A lot of people are taking photos under the tree.
Song Yan and Xu Qin pass. A couple passes a phone over: “Excuse me, could you help to take picture of us?”
Xu Qin takes the phone.
The couple runs toward the Christmas tree, they hug each other and smile sweetly.
Xu Qin is done and returns the phone to them. “I took two photos.”
“Thank you ah.” The woman asks: “Do you want me to help you guys too?”
Xu Qin is startled. She hasn’t answered and Song Yan’s just passes his phone over: “Thank you.”
The time for taking photo, he leans closer to her side, yet he doesn’t hold her hand or her shoulder. The time he gets his phone back. He looks at the photo and doesn’t give any chance for Xu Qin to take a look at it. He puts his phone back to his pocket.
Xu Qin follows him out: “Send the photo to me.”
“Okay.” He says, yet he doesn’t get his phone.
“Send it to me ah.” She goes to the his front.
He says: “Later I’ll send it to you…. Pay attention to the front.”
“Oh.” They take escalator upstairs. She is in front of him, she looks back and watches his face.
His eyes are black but very bright. It’s quite different from her memory.
In her memory, Song Yan was an arrogant and unruly one, he was a willful man.
Song Yan also watches her. She is quite different. When she was young, she was skinny, weak, and silent yet she was stubborn.
He is thinking they have become hiatus for several years, how could they be together again, how could their wounds heal.
Xu Qin’s heart beats so fast. She finally shifts her gaze.
Song Yan has decided.
…………
Though today is working day but the cinema is still full of people. The air is full of popcorn scent.
They go to buy the ticket and when they pass the area to buy popcorn.
Song Yan asks Xu Qin: “Do you want to eat popcorn?”
Xu Qin nods. She doesn’t really want to eat but she feels that watching movie requires popcorn to.
Song Yan takes out his wallet and asks: “What do you want to drink?”
Xu Qin: “Water.”
Song Yan says to the waiter: “Two bottle of waters.”
The waiter takes two bottles of water and a bucket of popcorn, Song Yan looks around and asks: “Do you want to eat anything else?”
Xu Qin shakes her head, these years she has changed, she doesn’t like to eat snacks anymore.
Song Yan sees a pack of chocolate and asks her: “What about this?”
Xu Qin: “I don’t like to eat chocolate anymore.”
Song Yan puts back the chocolate.
The time Xu Qin holds the bucket of popcorns and walks toward the cinema room. She suddenly realizes that chocolate was her favorite when she was in senior high school.
This late realization makes Xu Qin’s heart turns worry. But the time she looks at Song Yan, she notices that he doesn’t take offense on it.
They get inside the cinema room and sits down. Song Yan unscrews a bottle of water and puts it on cup holder beside her. Then he unscrews and opens another one, he drinks it.
The movie starts, Xu Qin passes the bucket of popcorn to him and asks: “Do you want to eat it?”
“I don’t.” He says, he doesn’t look at her and just looks at the exit.
Xu Qin doesn’t know why but he frowns and says lowly: “You watch it first, I have something to handle.” Then he just stands up and leaves.
Xu Qin watches Song Yan leaving. He goes to the safety door and opens it up. Then he just disappears.
Xu Qin could guess what he is doing.
Indeed after a while, he returns back inside the room. A cinema employee seems to follow behind him. He is bowing and apologizing to him.
Song Yan returns and sits beside Xu Qin.
He laughs at himself: “Occupational disease.”
Xu Qin: “The safety channel is sealed rigidly?”
“Em. Song Yan leans closer and says: “What is the movie about?”
Xu Qin: “………..” I don’t know ah.
She looks at him and suddenly notices that their faces are so close. His eyes are bright.
He looks at her seriously and waits for the answer.
Her long silence lets the atmosphere isn’t allowing them to talk. He looks at her for few seconds, perhaps he realizes that looking at each other would be dangerous. He just shifts her gaze and looks at the screen.
………..
Song Yan and Xu Qin don’t look at each other anymore, they look at the screen. The movie turns excited. Both of them don’t interact with each other and just watches the movie till it’s done.
When they are out of the cinema hall, Song Yan notices that all the women are going to the restroom. “Do you want to the restroom?”
“Em.”
The atmosphere inside the cinema hall is warm so she doesn’t wear her coat. She places it on her arm. This time it’s inconvenient for her to take it. She asks: “What about you? Would you go?”
“I would hold it for you.” Song Yan says and takes the coat from her.
Xu Qin passes her handbag and coat to him and enters the restroom.
Song Yan leans on the wall and takes out a cigarette. He unconsciously peeks at her back. Before because she wore her coat, he didn’t notice. But now without her coat, he could see that she is wearing a skirt today.
He suddenly laughs.
The time they are out of the department store, the sky has turned dark.
It’s snowing heavily.
A lot of people are running in the snow. there are happy laughter and cheerful voices.
Snowing always be someone that could make people be happy.
“Just two stops, we could walk to go home.” Xu Qin says.
“Okay.”
Both of them are placing their both hands inside the pocket and walk together pass the snow
There’s no wind there’s only snowflake.
“Is the movie good?” Song Yan asks, he takes out his cigarette and smokes it.
“Why?” Xu Qin raises her head and looks the snowflake falls on his black hair. There’s not fine memory.
“In the future if you would remember this again, it’ll be good memory.” Song Yan says: “And not, that day I watched a dud movie with Song Yan.”
Xu Qin pursues her lips and asks: “You especially chose that movie?”
“Em.” He says.
She is a bit startled, she raises her head again and watches his breathing. Suddenly she feels something warm inside her heart. It as if the snowy night isn’t that cold.
“It’s very good.” Xu Qin says.
People are running around happily, both of them just walk slowly.
For her perhaps this is good thing to keep on walking, there’s nothing else that is in the world beside snow.
It’s quite close distance to go back, they would arrive soon.
He sends her to the entrance of her apartment complex. At under the banyan tree.
The lights around are on.
Xu Qin stops under the streetlamp near the banyan tree.
“We are here.”
“Em.” Song Yan stands still and examines her like he is checking her condition. “Go in.”
Xu Qin rubs her bottom shoes on the ground, yet she doesn’t walk away. “You could leave first, I am home.”
“Em.” Song Yan nods: “Bye.”
She looks at him turning his body to leave, suddenly she feels reluctant to part with him. Suddenly she wants to call after him. Before she calls his name, he already turns around and comes back to her side.
His tall figure blocks the light from the streetlamp.
She pants lightly and looks at him.
He pursues his lips and looks at her.
Suddenly he leans over slowly and wants to get closer to her lips.
Xu Qin’s heart stops beating. She couldn’t move.
But he stops, his eyes are watching her intensely.
She could smell his scent, also the scent of the snowflake. It makes her mood is in a mess.
It’s fake if she says that she doesn’t look forward to it.
Her whole body turns tense, she is thinking what would he do next. He just stands up straight and says: “Let’s get in.”
88tangeatdrinkread 