Su Zhinian then grabbed Song Qingchun’s hand and pulled her back to his car. As they walked, he asked, “Would you prefer Golden Corner or Beijing Hotel?”
Su Zhinian only gave two names before he felt a tug on his arm. He stopped moving and turned around with surprise. The girl was pointing down a direction twenty-five degrees to the left of them, saying, “I want to have that.”
Su Zhinian followed Song Qingchun’s finger and saw that she was referring to a barbeque shop. The place was crowded, and it was open-air in the sense that all the tables were placed outdoors.
He had given her the choice of so many high-class restaurants, but she had chosen a roadside stalls. Su Zhinian paused for a moment before relenting. However, before they ventured to the stall, Su Zhinian returned to his car to park it nicely lest it continued to hold up the traffic.
The stall was already full. Song Qingchun and Su Zhinian found an unoccupied low table and sat down. Song Qingchun hadn’t had anything to eat since lunch, so she was famished. Along with Su Zhinian, they spent around 200 RMB at that stall.
The car was parked more than 1,000 metres away, so after they had their fill, they walked back toward it while holding hands like they were on a walk. Song Qingchun, after dinner, was reenergized and started chatting with Su Zhinian. There was a lull in their conversation when Su Zhinian asked, “Why would you come here to wait?”
“I did call you, but your phone was off. I was sure you were still out there looking for me, but I had no clue where you could be, so I came here.” Song Qingchun, after she finished explaining, added, “I believed, you’d eventually come here because you once told me, over the years, you’ve been coming here waiting for me to appear.”
Indeed, he had spent many hours throughout the years standing dumbly at Ming Jing Alley waiting for her, and today, his patience finally paid off.
An indescribable softness appeared out of the left side of Su Zhinian’s chest. He suddenly stopped moving and turned toward Song Qingchun. He stared at her for a long time and nodded slightly before leaning in to say softly and earnestly, “And finally you have appeared.”
Finally, you’ve appeared at the place that we met. It has been eighteen years, from our younger years to after we’ve both built a life for ourselves, finally you’ve arrived at the place where we first met, where I’ve been waiting for you…
Song Qingchun’s face that looked back at Su Zhinian couldn’t help but be brightened up by a smile. At that moment, a car happened to pass, and its lights cast a glow on Su Zhinian’s face. She managed to catch a clearer glimpse of the circles under his eyes, the stubble around his jaw, his cracked lips, and the obvious signs of exhaustion on his face.
He hasn’t rested since I jumped out of his car?
Song Qingchun felt a heartache tearing at her heart. She thought about it and said, “Su Zhinian, can you promise me something?”
“Sure,” Su Zhinian answered without hearing the promise. He grabbed her hand again as they walked slowly alongside the road. Then he asked, “What promise is it?”
Shouldn’t you have asked that before you said yes? Even though Song Qingchun mocked him internally, her heart was warm. She ran forward to surpass Su Zhinian and turned around to walk backwards. She looked up into his face and said, “If we have another argument like the one from yesterday in the future and I run off again, please don’t be so worried about me.”