The Scorching Sun - 42
Fang Zhuo slipped into a pair of shoes without thinking and hurried downstairs.
The moment she opened the security door, Yan Lie rushed over, grabbed her hand, and pulled her toward the entrance of the residential complex.
A gust of cold wind swept past Fang Zhuo without warning, the chill striking her face and cutting off the question she had been about to ask. She glanced to the side and spotted the bicycle beneath a streetlamp not far away, its shadow stretching faintly behind it.
"We're out of time!" Yan Lie glanced at his watch. "I couldn't get a car, so I rode my bike over!"
A thin sheen of sweat had gathered on his forehead, while his cheeks were flushed red, whether from excitement or the heat she couldn't tell.
He swung neatly onto the bicycle, bracing one foot on the ground. When he looked back and saw Fang Zhuo still standing there in a daze, he immediately swung his long leg over and got off again. He quickly unwound his scarf and wrapped it twice around her neck.
"Why didn't you put on more clothes before coming out? It's windy at night." Yan Lie straightened the ends of the scarf and pulled her hair free from underneath it. "There. Ready! Let's go!"
The scarf still held Yan Lie's warmth and scent. Fang Zhuo drew in a breath and was overcome by the hazy sensation of being wrapped up in him. Even when she deliberately slowed her breathing, the heat rising back from the soft fabric was enough to numb her senses. Before she could make sense of what was happening, she was already sitting on the back of the bicycle.
Yan Lie waited a moment and put on his gloves, but Fang Zhuo still made no move. He couldn't help reminding her, "You have to hold onto me. Otherwise I'll keep worrying you're going to fall off."
He turned his head, his face blurred behind the white mist of his breath as he spoke, and asked teasingly, "What part of me isn't making you feel safe?"
Fang Zhuo pulled the scarf higher to cover half her face, then slowly wrapped her arms around him and urged stiffly, "Faster."
The fireworks were being set off near People's Square, on the side facing the river. It would take them about twenty minutes to ride there, and they would pass a clock tower along the way.
As they passed in front of the clock tower, Fang Zhuo saw its hands pointing to 11:10.
There weren't many pedestrians on this street at the moment, but farther ahead was the bustling commercial center of the city. Even from here, they could already see the dazzling lights glowing from the tops of the high-rises in the distance.
Just as they were about to reach a traffic-light intersection, Yan Lie suddenly pulled over and stopped.
Fang Zhuo looked over his shoulder and saw a traffic officer in a fluorescent-striped uniform standing at the intersection ahead, repeatedly glancing in their direction.
Yan Lie braced the bicycle with one hand. Now that his head had cooled down, he muttered, "Oh, no."
Fang Zhuo: "?"
"I think bicycles aren't allowed to carry passengers. Unless it's a preschooler." Yan Lie turned his head. The guilt was written all over his face, yet he still managed to ask with a perfectly straight expression, "Movie Queen, do you think the traffic officer over there is going to believe that?"
Fang Zhuo: "..."
Whenever Lie Lie started thinking, Zhuo Zhuo got scared.
"Wait," Fang Zhuo said. "You didn't know that before? Did you do this on purpose?"
"I'm telling the truth!" Yan Lie protested. "I really only remembered just now. I normally don't have anyone ride on the back of my bike! You're a rare exception."
In this situation, under these circumstances, Fang Zhuo found it very difficult to feel happy about being a rare exception.
Fortunately, seeing that they'd stopped on their own, the traffic officer didn't come over. On New Year's Eve, they had narrowly escaped a ticket.
Yan Lie carried the bicycle to the roadside and locked it up. After checking the time and deciding they still had enough, he grabbed Fang Zhuo's hand again and started running.
As they passed the traffic officer, Yan Lie waved and shouted, "Thank you, sir! Happy New Year! Thanks for working overtime!"
The traffic officer smiled and gave him a look that clearly said, Don't let me catch you doing it again.
There were still about two kilometers from the street entrance to the bridge. But the surrounding buildings were all relatively low, so they only needed to go a little farther before they'd be able to see the fireworks over the river. The only drawback was that their viewing spot wouldn't be particularly good.
Fang Zhuo ran into the night wind, gradually working up a sweat. She gestured for Yan Lie to slow down and followed the steadily growing crowd toward the bridge.
Yan Lie's strides were long. He hummed an unfamiliar tune under his breath, his gaze drifting between the glittering surface of the river and the vast, profound night sky. He never once looked Fang Zhuo's way.
His eyes and brows were alive with radiance, his whole expression bright and spirited. He seemed to be in a remarkably light mood, and even now he hadn't let go of Fang Zhuo's hand, as though he'd completely forgotten he was still holding it.
Fang Zhuo matched her steps to his. As the relaxed rhythm allowed her mind to start working again, she spotted a young couple by the roadside taking pictures with their phones and turned to demand an explanation. "Why didn't you reply to my messages?"
Yan Lie answered with complete justification, "You don't reply to mine all the time either."
That settled it. Fang Zhuo was now certain Yan Lie had been getting revenge. She couldn't believe this man could be so petty.
Fang Zhuo protested, "I really wasn't doing it because I'm stingy."
"I believe you." Yan Lie's acting was so terrible that the first three words sounded utterly insincere. He added, "Because I wasn't doing it because I'm stingy either."
You are, Fang Zhuo grumbled inwardly.
By the time they reached the bridge, it was already 11:45. The fireworks would be launched from the opposite bank at midnight.
Quite a crowd had gathered along the bridge. Yan Lie pulled Fang Zhuo into the surging mass of people and found a relatively elevated spot, where they stood on a slope and waited for the new year to arrive.
Fang Zhuo pulled out her phone, checked the time again, and asked the person beside her, "How did you even have time to come here? Don't you need to spend New Year's with your parents?"
"They're both drunk." The noise around them was deafening, so Yan Lie leaned close to her ear and asked, "Could you smell alcohol on me just now?"
They had been sitting close together on the bicycle, so Fang Zhuo had, in fact, caught the faintest trace of it. But remembering Yan Lie's undisguised hatred of alcohol and fearing he'd throw a fit on the spot, she answered without batting an eye, "No."
Besides, today was the final day of the old year, and there were only a few minutes left before it ended. A few well-intentioned lies told now wouldn't follow her into the new year.
Yan Lie frowned and said rather pitifully, "Before I saw you, I had the unluckiest day!"
"I can share some of my luck with you," Fang Zhuo said. "Although I don't have that much to spare." Her luck had only started accumulating after she met Yan Lie, and lately, it seemed to be increasing especially quickly.
Yan Lie stared at her profile. "Like how you have less than two hundred yuan, but you're still willing to spend twenty yuan to buy me lunch?"
Fang Zhuo said solemnly, "Human, you're asking for too much."
Yan Lie burst out laughing.
There was only one minute left until midnight. The people on the bridge grew increasingly excited. Many pulled out their phones and began counting down the final seconds.
After laughing himself out, Yan Lie turned to Fang Zhuo and said seriously, "Thank you. Before I saw you, I really wasn't very happy. I thought this was how the year was going to end... Can you grant me a New Year's wish?"
Fang Zhuo glanced at him without answering.
"Can't you?" Yan Lie asked softly, almost pleading. "It's not difficult. It won't cost you anything. Can't you even do that?"
"I have to raise chickens for you, go see the ocean with you, and buy you a birthday present. And now I have to grant another wish." Fang Zhuo looked utterly aggrieved and finally cried out, "Why do you have so many demands of me? Can't you take them one at a time?"
Yan Lie froze for a moment, light flickering in his eyes. "You remember all of them?"
Fang Zhuo said, "Everything's been reset!"
"No!" Yan Lie protested loudly. "Save it! Make a permanent save file! If you forget, I'll reload it for you every single day!"
"You forgot yourself!" Fang Zhuo snapped angrily. "Do you even remember your little baldy? I told you not to buy him in the first place!"
At that very moment, fireworks tore through the darkness of the night, streaking into the sky before exploding at their highest point into countless sparks. Brilliant flashes of red, yellow, blue, and green illuminated the entire night.
The old year slipped away amid cheers, while the new year arrived in a blaze of light.
Yan Lie laughed loudly. He raised his hands to cover Fang Zhuo's ears, his lips opening and closing as he spoke to her amid the honking of passing cars and the roar of the city.
Fang Zhuo couldn't hear a thing. She tipped her head back, following the paths of the fireworks as countless points of light like falling galaxies descended from the sky before vanishing in midair, her mouth falling open in awestruck wonder.
The world lit up before her eyes during the first fireworks display she had ever seen, yet beside the first person who had ever spent New Year's Eve with her, the world became utterly silent.
Following the direction of the light, her gaze eventually settled on Yan Lie's face. His dark pupils were filled with the lingering glow of the fireworks, their brilliant heat shining back at her as he met her eyes.
She watched his lips and made out what seemed to be "Happy New Year." In the end, what remained was his open, radiant smile.
The pain of setbacks, the bitterness of life, the fear of the unknown, all the resentment and grievances she'd carried with her before... Every trivial, useless thing withdrew from her memory at that moment, making room in her records for Yan Lie's unfinished list of things to do.
Fang Zhuo finally surrendered. "Okay, I'm saving it now. So what's your New Year's wish?”
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