Waiting for You in a City

That was the end of the old year.

Xu Qin thought to herself when she closed the door of the locker.

She cleaned up all her things, stuck the keys in the cabinet door, and walked out.

She was no longer an emergency department doctor.

In the corridors of the emergency room, doctors and nurses hurried.

And she withdrew and became a bystander. She didn’t know if Song Yan was in this mood too when he took off his fire suit for the last time.

It seemed that he had successfully performed his duties until the last moment, he was at ease, but there was a faint feeling of loss.

Xu Qin walked out of the building, the sky was clear outside. She didn’t look back because Song Yan was waiting for her on the side of the road.

Carrying a bag, with one hand in his pocket, he stood under a tree smoking a cigarette with a vague expression.

She took an ointment from her bag and walked over to him. He saw her coming, extinguished the cigarette and threw it into the trash, took the bag in her hand, and flicked it: “So few things?”

“They were all relocated to the outpatient building in advance.” She unscrewed the ointment and glanced at his backpack, “I remember you had a lot of stuff in your dormitory.” 

“Packed the box and let Yang Chi help send it home.”

She dipped her fingers in the transparent ointment and smeared it on his chapped face, one by one.

He lowered his head in cooperation and asked, “Disfigured?”

“It’s ugly.” She said, “It’s not good to hurt your face, you are not allowed to take wedding photos.”

He looked at her face up close, and suddenly asked, “Do you think I don’t love you enough?”

She was applying medicine to him, she paused her fingers, shook her head first, and then raised her eyes to look at him.

“Xu Qin, at that moment, I could only make that choice. It was not to abandon you.”

“I know.” She nodded, “I know, really.”

He had his duty and morals, and she understood it.

She gently wiped his face with her fingers and asked, “What about you?”

“En?”

“Do you think I’m ignorant, threatening you, and being selfish.” Before he could answer, she immediately said, “I’m not a noble person, I’m selfish, I…”

He interrupted: “I like you like this.”

She stopped talking for a moment, and suddenly felt that there was no need to explain anything.

At that time, it was a winter morning, the sun was thin and the air was clear.

The streets were quiet and empty. It was as if the city was just him and her.

“Walk back slowly?” He proposed.

“Well, it’s a nice day. ……There’s no one on the street either.”

“It’s the New Year, they are all at home.”

“Has the temperature picked up?”

“It is said that there will be snow again.”

“And then it’s spring?”

“En, then it’s spring.”

On the road that day, there were few pedestrians, and the whole city was clean and quiet.

On the way back, a lot of things were said, which seemed very interesting, but it seemed that they were all insignificant things.

The mood along the way, like the sky that day, was unburdened. But to draw up a specific description, in fact, it was forgotten when thought about later, but just felt that the New Year was a real New Year.

The end of the old, the beginning of the new.

Along the way, Xu Qin looked back from time to time.

What to look for, she didn’t know.

She vaguely felt that she looked like when she went abroad ten years ago, but last time, she was lonely and scared; but this time, he was by her side, holding her hand tightly.

Song Yan felt the same way.

At the beginning of his journey ten years ago, he fought alone and wandered; ten years later, she wrote a new chapter with him.

Looking back on the youngest ten years in his life, it was just like the thrilling night at the end, with blood and tears, helplessness, sadness and tears, but no complaints or regrets.

The letter that started ten years ago had its last touch at this moment.

Fortunately, there was surprises but no danger.

……

The Spring Festival holiday was the best reward for a busy year.

The city was gradually lively, the streets and alleys were full of red elements for the New Year, everyone’s face was joyful, there wasn’t a need to work and less trouble, the past and the future were all set aside, enjoying the good time of the festival.

As for Song Yan and Xu Qin, when they took off their uniforms, he was not a firefighter, she was not a doctor, but a young man and woman in love who just wanted to be together all day.

They would stop for an ice cream when they passed a dessert shop, and they would go in to pick up a stuffed animal when they passed a doll’s shop.

When taking the escalator up the mall, Xu Qin looked up at the large red lanterns on the roof of the skyscape, and her eyes swept downwards towards the men and women walking on the floors of the mall.

It was so lively, everything was alive and warm.

She turned her head again and looked Song Yan up and down, the hoodie, jeans, and Vans shoes. Every time he dressed up for non-work, she could stare at him for a long time, he always felt like two people. But this time, after he left his job, he was in a more relaxed and casual state.

“What are you looking at?”

When she was caught, she looked at him: “Do you have to keep your haircut? Or can you keep it long?”

Song Yan lowered and touched his head, raised his eyelids to look at her: “Not good-looking?”

She immediately shook her head: “Just curious.”

“If it’s not good-looking, I’ll cover it.” He put the hoodie on his head and glanced at her.

Xu Qin’s heart thumped, wearing a hoodie was even cooler.

On the elevator going down next door, two beautiful women looked towards him.

She pulled his hood down: “Know what? Those who can pull off the buzz cut are really good-looking.” Seeing that he couldn’t help laughing, she added, “It’s you.”

“This mouth is so sweet?” He put his arms around her waist. She was wearing a beige woolen dress today, with a slim figure.

“I just ate some candy.” She said playfully, “Strawberry flavored.”

These words were like some kind of invitation, which made him a little distracted. He lowered his head unconsciously and wanted to kiss her lips, but considering that it was not elegant in public, he just moved closer to her lips and sniffed.

But he didn’t know that this light sniff was more seductive than a kiss, and Xu Qin’s face turned red instantly.

The delayed and suppressed kiss didn’t fall until they entered the movie theater.

It didn’t matter what movie they watched.

It was nothing more than a new popcorn-style Chinese New Year movie, illogical and nutritious.

During the Spring Festival, the movie hall was overcrowded, full of people, elderlies and children having fun with their families. The elderly here were deaf, and they kept asking their children to remind them to explain; the children over there were curious, and kept asking the adults what the words in the picture meant.

Those who ate melon seeds, those who ate popcorn…twittered like in a market.

Some audience members were overwhelmed and sighed, but were powerless to stop;

Some viewers didn’t care about movies, but felt that the atmosphere of this large courtyard was rare, so they laughed.

Gradually, more and more people spoke in the cinema, and everyone gave up on themselves.

Even those who wanted to watch movies seriously before broke their cans and chatted to their heart’s content. Like on New Year’s Eve, when the TV was turned on and the Spring Festival Gala was the background sound, the whole family was scattered everywhere to have their own moments.

Song Yan and Xu Qin came to be safe. Watched a movie for a while, played with each other for a while, grabbed hands, pinched waists, snuggled up and closed eyes in the dim light, listened to the sounds of the movie mixed with the sounds of festival people, two hours passed very comfortably.

After leaving the movie theater, she saw a row of claw machines for catching dolls. Xu Qin was still holding a baby sheep that he bought before watching the movie, and her eyes couldn’t help but linger in the shiny glass box.

Song Yan: “Want to catch a doll?”

“Yes!” She looked at him with stars in her eyes.

“Go ahead.” Song Yan took out his mobile phone, scanned the code to pay, then came out a rain of silver coins, piling them into a hill.

Xu Qin was delighted: “So many?” She put it in her hand as she said it, but she couldn’t fit it all in her small hand, so he helped to fish it out with his big hand, explaining: “I feel like you can’t catch it, so got more to prepare.”

Xu Qin: “…”

She complained: “Crow mouth!”1

Song Yan held the fat baby sheep under his arm and a pile of coins in his hand, and leaned against the machine to watch her catch the doll.

How can it be easy to catch?

The claws were very weak, either they couldn’t grab it, or they fell off after grabbing, and the claws always loosened on the way to the exit.

Song Yan occasionally helped her look left and right, gave her instructions to move back and forth. More often, he doesn’t look at the doll, he looked at her. Seeing her nervously biting her lips, her eyes shining, full of expectation, suddenly frowning, angry jumping to her feet…

He watched the various expressions on her face come and go, and he couldn’t stop being happy.

“Still laughing?!” She threw the anger of not being able to catch the doll at his head, “It’s because you laugh at me that I can’t catch it!”

He stopped smiling, straightened up a little, poked a finger at her eyebrow and gently brushed her aside: “I’ll try.”

He stuffed two coins, and his slender fingers quickly flicked back and forth a few times on the remote control lever to adjust the position, but stopped and looked back at her:

“What if I catch one?”

“What do you mean?”

“No reward?”

“…… What reward do you want?”

“Change your position.”

Xu Qin kicked him with a shy smile, and asked, “What other positions have you not tried?”

Song Yan’s eyes were somewhat meaningful: “Remember first, when you agreed.”

With a light slap of five fingers, the paws fell down, and precisely caught the rabbit she wanted most, swayed it to the entrance of the hole, and let it go.

The plush bunny rolled into the mouth of the machine.

At the Japanese restaurant when the food was already served, Xu Qin was still hugging the rabbit, touching its fluff, eyes full of excitement and joy:

“I like this rabbit the most, catching it feels like the whole day is complete.”

“It seems that buying is not as good as catching.” Song Yan glanced at the lamb at the side, poured soy sauce on her plate, put wasabi in it and stirred it, he put a piece of salmon on the plate, “Eat it, didn’t you shout you were hungry during the movie.”

“I like them all.” Xu Qin picked up the salmon and put a large mouthful into her mouth, just about to ask him how he could catch the doll, but suddenly remembered, “When you were in high school, you were very good at ——”

Halfway through the sentence, she stopped abruptly.

He was very good at catching dolls.

He often caught them for her and gave them to her, so much so that the owners of several game halls near the school did not allow him to play.

From Doraemon to cherry balls, from little penguins to baby elephants, there were many, many of Xu Qin’s cabinets filled up. But the year she went abroad, she didn’t take them with her. When she returned, the cabinet of dolls had long been cleaned up.

Doraemon

She remembered standing at home, facing the empty cabinet, feeling hollowed out in the past.

At that time, she felt very painful, but she was very silent, buried this matter in her subconscious, and never wanted to remember again. Until this moment, she suddenly remembered that she still regretted those lost dolls.

And in front of her, Song Yan just smiled faintly: “I’ll catch one for you every date in the future, okay?” 

“Okay.” She said.

He took a piece of grilled eel and put it on her plate, waited for her to take a bite and asked, “Is it delicious?”

“En. It tastes better than the one I ate last time.”

“There is another place that tastes better, a little farther away, take you next week.”

“Okay.”

As he spoke, the people at the next table discussed the fire on Chinese New Year’s Eve, and their voices floated to their side:

“……The firefighters of your country are not good enough. According to me, they have to professionalize firefighting. Let’s just talk about the fire on New Year’s Eve, such a big fire still sent people to rush in, isn’t that suicide? Your country is like this, it can’t put people first. Looking at America…”

The man blah blah blah said a bunch of things, and it sounded very awesome.

The one at the same table seemed unable to listen, and said: “The fire scene broke out. There were so many situations, how can everything be predicted accurately, don’t talk about it. You have read too many articles criticizing the system on the Internet. Those people just want to click, what? You talk about professionalism, so let me ask you a question, if you are paid, can you enter this fire? Would you hide behind other people or rush to the front? There can be a contract system, but it does not rely on full-time soldiers at all. It’s absolutely impossible.”

A table of people arguing about this topic, but it was clear that everyone was an outsider.

Xu Qin felt a little uncomfortable in her heart, looking at Song Yan, he didn’t care.

But after drinking a few spoonfuls of soup, he still spoke flatly:

“In this fire, there were many people who criticized the fire command. But…… What if the fire department was not wrong, but a fire has occurred?”

“What if the fire was too big to control and the danger factor is great, but the consequences are more serious?”

“Can’t do anything.”

“There is no way, you can only send people to rush in. This is the same regardless of whether it is at home or abroad, and in any country in the world.”

“Many times, the fire does not wait for the command to judge the situation inside, and more often it is impossible to judge the situation without going in.”

“And some people who are not even bystanders, say those self-righteous but irresponsible words, except for secondary harm, it has no meaning.”

Xu Qin listened quietly, not knowing how to comfort.

After a long time, a hand reached over and touched her hand.

She raised her eyes, and he tilted his head to look at her: “Captain Song, in the future, you will be a member of the command department, the revolution has not yet succeeded, comrades work hard!”

Song Yan smiled: “Yes.” 

……

Day by day, the sky was getting bluer and the temperature slowly rose.

The holiday days passed leisurely and sweetly, and in the blink of an eye it was Valentine’s Day.

But on the day of the festival, Xu Qin received a call from Xiao Yixiao, saying that Meng Yanchen would be going on a special trip abroad to the peacekeeping force after the festival, and everyone would be gathering at night, asked her to come over, and added: “Bring your boyfriend.”

Xu Qin put down the phone and her scalp felt numb.

Meng Yanchen was going abroad, she should meet up, and it was better in a group setting to get together than to meet alone. But Song Yan won’t be jealous, right?

She forced the bullet and conveyed the news to Song Yan: “You can go if you want, you can not go if you don’t want to.” 

Song Yan: “I’ll go, why not go?”

“……Oh. ”

Surprisingly smooth.

What she didn’t know was that Song Yan’s idea was very simple, her friends, he naturally wanted to know.

As for Meng Yanchen, when he was in China, he was not worried; he’s going abroad now, and his mind was like a ball of yarn.

Song Yan disappeared for a while in the afternoon, saying that his friend was in a hurry and went out to help. But he was not late for the evening appointment, when the two arrived at Glow Bar, everyone else arrived.

The two sat down, and the waiter came take orders for drinks.

Song Yan: “Vodka.”

Xu Qin: “Whiskey.”

Song Yan glanced at her, and she shrugged: “It doesn’t matter if I drink more, with you here, what is there to be afraid of?”

He gave her a blank look.

Meng Yanchen took it in under his eyes, and saw the diamond shining on Xu Qin’s ring finger. With hundreds of thousands of intentions, Song Yan treated her so well. He was relieved to let go.

At this moment, although there was a trace of astonishment in his heart, there was also a trace of relief. It should be said that after talking to Xu Qin in the interrogation room that day, he began to let go.

That day, he clearly realized that although there were thousands of people blocking him, it was he who did not take that step, and he had no complaints.

Since there were no complaints, the entanglement would disperse on its own, just waiting for time.

Xu Qin glanced at Xiao Yixiao, Meng Yanchen and Zhan Xiaojiao, who were present, and then looked at Jiang Yu and said to Song Yan: “You know everyone else, so no need to introduce. This is Jiang Yu, Jiang Yu, this is Song Yan.”

The two looked at each other and nodded to each other, like they had said hello.

Xu Qin looked at Meng Yanchen and wanted to ask something, but did not speak, Song Yan asked him: “Which country are you going to?”

Meng Yanchen: “Lebanon.”

“When do you leave?”

“Next week.”

“So urgent?”

“Said it’s a heavy task over there.” Meng Yanchen replied, and the two chatted for a while about the work and situation over there.

Xu Qin sat on the side and drank without any trouble.

Zhan Xiaorao heard the conversation between the two getting deeper and deeper, started to talk about war, and interjected to ask Song Yan: “My God, do you want to follow? Go, go, you go, Qin Qin and I will stay together. It’s time to mix it up.”

Xiao Yixiao: “Zhan Xiaoxiao, you don’t understand, men have the vision of wanting to be soldiers and fight. It’s in the bones, nothing can be done.”

Jiang Yu: “You businessman shut up. When your father asked you to become a soldier, you refused to live or die, and you have face to talk?”

Xu Qin didn’t care about their trouble, and asked Meng Yanchen: “Mom and Dad agreed?”

Meng Yanchen: “Dad agreed, Mom is still mad.”

Xu Qin nodded her head understanding.

The group of people played and talked until late at night, Xu Qin got up to go to the toilet, and Song Yan left with her.

A habit that has been maintained since childhood.

Xu Qin was amused: “This bar is Xiao Yixiao’s, it’s very safe.”

Song Yan curved his lips, touched her waist, and carried her through the dimly lit corridor towards the bathroom. This time there were no men and women hooking up.

Xu Qin went into the bathroom. Song Yan waited in the corridor, he leaned his back against the wall and lit a cigarette, just as he exhaled, Jiang Yu came. The two looked at each other and did not speak for the first second.

Song Yan was obviously much calmer, but Jiang Yu had nowhere to place his hands and feet, after a while, he shook the cigarette in his hand and explained: “I came over to smoke a cigarette, inside smoking is prohibited.”

Song Yan nodded.

Jiang Yu also leaned his back against the wall like him, touched his pockets up and down, turned his head to look at him, just about to speak, Song Yan threw something over, Jiang Yu caught it, it was a lighter.

“Thanks.” He lit the cigarette and threw the lighter back to him.

Song Yan caught it with one hand and stuffed it back into his pocket.

Both did not speak and each smoked.

After a while, Jiang Yu said, “I seem to have met you at the Ministry of Public Security last time.”

“En, had some business.”

“Will you go to work over there?”

“Not for now. Go to the detachment first.”

Jiang Yu nodded in agreement: “En, you can only do miscellaneous work at this time, it’s better to wait two or three years to get promoted to a real job.” 

Song Yan turned his head to look at him.

Jiang Yu twitched the corner of his mouth: “We may meet frequently at work in the future, please take care of me.” He couldn’t control it for a while, and stretched out his hand to him.

Song Yan did not respond immediately, and Jiang Yu was also stunned.

But in the next second, Song Yan’s hand reached over and hit him in the palm of his hand, which was regarded as a handshake.

Late at night, the party dispersed.

On the way home, Xu Qin leaned on Song Yan’s shoulder, looking at the lights flowing outside the car window, her heart was very calm. Seeing that Meng Yanchen was not in a bad state, she was relieved.

Before reaching Wu Fang Street, Song Yan called for a stop.

Xu Qin tilted her head and looked out the window: “We’re not there yet.”

“Let’s take a walk.”

“Okay.”

She got out of the car, took his hand, and crossed the tree-dappled road.

Late at night, the street lights were dim.

The two walked together, not saying anything, but the feeling was also extraordinarily sweet.

Xu Qin looked up. There were not many stars in the sky, but they were Orion and Sirius, which were easily identifiable. She walked with her head up, not at all afraid of falling, and he supported her.

After walking for a while, she thought of something, and her eyes fell: “I didn’t spend Valentine’s Day alone with you, would you be unhappy?”

“Nope.”

On the contrary, he had a good time tonight.

Moreover,

“With you, what day is not Valentine’s Day?”

Xu Qin smiled and stretched out her hand towards him: “Hey, do you want to give me a gift? Conjure it up, I just want a rose.”

She made a fuss on purpose again, and looked at his jokes with some success, “Quick, today is Valentine’s Day, give me roses! Just one is enough.”

Song Yan curled his lips slightly and stared at her, the street lights reflected brilliantly in his eyes. He said:

“Wouldn’t one be too little?”

He grabbed her shoulders and turned her around.

A brand new white BMW was parked on the side of the road.

Xu Qin didn’t react yet, just wondering whose car was the same as her previous one, but through the windshield she saw the rose petals covering the car.

Her heart began to beat violently all at once,

He put his arm around her waist from behind, and shoved the car keys into the palm of her hand. For no reason, she shuddered.

“This… For me?”

“For my wife.”

“That’s me!” she exclaimed softly. For some reason, she couldn’t control it, and her body trembled slightly. Maybe it was because the temperature was low late at night, it must be like this.

He hugged her tightly, rested his chin on her shoulder, and said, “Let’s go to and from work together in the future, okay?”

She nodded obediently: “Okay.”

He couldn’t help but laugh.

She couldn’t help giggling too. Suddenly she felt happy going to work.

“By the way,” he asked, kissing her earlobe, his voice low, “Is it time to cash in the reward of catching the doll last time?”