Su Zhinian forced himself to power on. After who knew how many laps across the city, he slowed his car down to focus on locating Song Qingchun’s voice. There was still no sign of her, and he was submerged in a sea of despair that hadn’t left him since 30 hours ago. The long hours of unrest caused Su Zhinian’s heart to go a bit haywire. He could see stars occasionally before his eyes, and it caused his stomach to turn. The man in his condition had no choice but to park his car by the roadside and lean his head against the steering wheel to rest.
His body and brain were equally tired. Su Zhinian closed his eyes, but the voices in his mind denied him the grace of sleep. Between her and the child, he had chosen her without hesitation, but would she give him up for the sake of the child?
Su Zhinian’s hands gripped the steering wheel tightly. A familiar sense of pain started to crawl out of his heart. But not too long ago, she just promised she would be by my side as long as we shall live…
As this thought entered Su Zhinian’s mind, his body froze like he had just remembered something. He raised his head in a hurry, and the next second, he stepped on the gas pedal and the car zipped through the traffic.
Su Zhinian didn’t have much faith in his prediction, but he felt like there was something pulling him forward, urging him to go to that place. The streets at midnight were empty, so Su Zhinian reached his destination in less than ten minutes. He slammed on the brakes, and the car screeched into a halt. Ignoring the fact that his car might have blocked all traffic, he jumped up from his seat and dashed across the street.
When Su Zhinian reached the middle of the road, with cars going to and fro around him, he spotted a familiar shadow standing at the entrance to the alleyway.
She seemed to have been there for quite some time already because she was leaning rather weakly against the wall. She would occasionally look down the alley and took two steps down it before finally squatting down from fatigue.
There were passers-by walking past her who tossed curious glance at her. She probably felt embarrassed because she raised her hands to shelter her face, pretending to wipe at the perspiration on her forehead. Perhaps she was truly exhausted; the girl who had been squatting for a while spotted a rock not far away before moving over to it and sitting on it without paying attention to the disgraceful image she was creating.
Su Zhinian had completely forgotten he was standing in the middle of the road. The moment he saw Song Qingchun, his surroundings had fallen away to highlight her presence. The cars around him kept honking, and some had even rolled down their windows to curse at him.
His ears were flooded with car honks and unsavoury curses, but he seemed to have lost his sense of hearing as he stood there staring at Song Qingchun.
Song Qingchun seemed to sense something because she retracted her wandering gaze and slowly turned her head around to look at Su Zhinian blocking the traffic. She was visibly startled before she stood up from the rock.
Her action was everything he needed to pull him back to reality. He immediately rushed through the crowded traffic to head toward her. He stopped when he was about two meters away from her. She stood under the dim street light quietly, her eyes that stared at him were watery and clear.
After about half a minute, she pouted and grumbled like a little girl, “Su Zhinian, why were you so late? Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for you already?”