Su Zhinian rolled down the window, and the wind carried snowflakes into his car. When they fell on the leather seat, they immediately melted into droplets of water in the warm air inside.
Song Qingchun had her head lowered, trying to call a taxi, so she did not notice that a car had stopped before her. Su Zhinian opened his lips, trying to call her name, but he thought about it, undid his seatbelt, and got out in person.
Bracing the wind and snow, Su Zhinian walked around to the front of his car. Before he reached her, Song Qingchun suddenly raised her head to look at him. Su Zhinian stopped right in his tracks.
The wind grew stronger, but the both of them seemed to have frozen in time, allowing the heavy snow to gather around and on them.
A car honk from not far away pulled Song Qingchun back to reality. She moved her gaze that was staring at him to a telephone booth that had become white from snow. As she hesitated over whether to greet him or not, Su Zhinian resumed moving and walked closer to her.
Song Qingchun sidled to the side when she felt he was about to reach her. She was wearing heels, and the floor underneath her was already frozen. The bottom of her heels slid on the slippery surface, and her whole body swerved dangerously down one side.
Su Zhinian quickly reached out to hold her and asked, “Did you hurt your ankle?”
A normal person would have been concerned, but most of them would stop at general questions like, “Are you okay?”
However, Su Zhinian had asked, “Did you hurt your ankle?”
A simple question had belied his concern and care…
Song Qingchun’s heart started to become flustered. She instinctively tried to remove herself from Su Zhinian’s grasp. She took two steps back to introduce a respectable distance between them before she lowered her gaze and answered flatly, “Thank you…”
Song Qingchun paused for a moment, feeling like she needed to say something more, but there was nothing else that she wanted to say. Therefore, in the end, she opted to leave. However, before she could say goodbye, Su Zhinian, who had ignored her thank you, suddenly asked, “Are you waiting for your ride?”
Song Qingchun could only answer truthfully. “Yes, waiting for a taxi.”
“Where are you going?”
What’s it to you?
Su Zhinian seemed to read her thoughts, or maybe he thought his question was indeed too forward, so he added, “It’s not easy to get a taxi here, how about I give you a lift?”
“No…”
He was absolutely right. The girl had been waiting for almost an hour, and there was still no taxi in sight, but in any case, she did not think it was appropriate to accept a ride from him.
Before Song Qingchun could reject him, Su Zhinian began again. “It’s snowing so heavily, and it’s getting late.”
Again, he was right. It was indeed snowing heavily, it was getting late, and the place was isolated. Song Qingchun hesitated for a while before nodding. “If it is really no inconvenience to you, please send me to the nearest subway station.”
“Okay.” Su Zhinian then took two steps back to help Song Qingchun with the passenger-side door as he usually did.
However, as his fingers landed on the door handle, before he even pulled it open, Song Qingchun behind him said softly, “I’ll just sit in the back.”