The Road Home

Chapter 15

There is a term: after-the-fact realization.

That evening, Lu Yanchen, worried about Qin Xiaonan, left halfway through the meal. Because her younger guy cousin and cousin's wife were both present, the two of them had not really gotten to say much to one another. Only when Gui Xiao was finished eating and went to pay the bill was she told that the gentleman who left earlier had already settled the bill for this meal. Gui Xiao did not talk on the phone with Lu Yanchen that night either and only sent him a few text messages, giving the excuse that she wanted to see Qin Xiaonan and arranging to meet him the next morning.

As a result, when Gui Xiao locked gazes through the front windshield with Lu Yanchen as he strolled out of the auto repair shop, she finally found the reason behind last night's tossing and turning and insomnia—everything had happened too quickly.

It was just like those days in the beginning after they first held hands. There had been no signs that it would happen and she had not been prepared, so for a very long period of time, she had been uneasy and had repeatedly stressed to him, "If we're together, then we're not allowed to break up. Lu Chen, if you dare break up with me, I'll cry to death for you to see. You're not allowed to just treat this as playing around. You have to guarantee—swear—that to me. All types of quarrelling are okay, but you're just not allowed to break up with me." These were words that Gui Xiao would often say when she was young, probably because he did not appear to be someone who could give you a sense of security.

Back then, every time Lu Chen heard these words, he would simply ignore them. But the more he ignored them, the more she would stress them, repeating them incessantly, like she was untiringly playing them on an infinite loop.

Thinking back on it now, she sure had been melodramatic when she was young. Later, she had asked the people around her and learned that almost everyone in their first love is a drama queen, and that the younger you are, the more you put everyone through this torture... But now, as she reflected on everything, it felt as if that had been a different lifetime.

Walking up to her car, his fingers holding a pop-top aluminum can, he casually took a swig of Sprite and then looked at her through that layer of transparent glass.

The winter light cast itself into the car, tracing out the outline of the lower half of her face. Because of the angle, he could not see all of her face clearly, but he was able to notice that there was a faint, dewy layer of lip gloss on her lips. Back when they were young and dating, they were still students, so she would not have had the chance to put this sort of thing on and had been clean and unadorned. Yesterday, though, when he kissed her, there had been a sweet taste similar to that of cherries.

That moment had enraptured him and made him lightheaded. Being unaccustomed to it was one thing, but he had finally vividly felt that type of desire between a man and a woman that could not be expressed in words.

Gui Xiao rolled down her window.

Tipping his head back, Lu Yanchen knocked back the last couple of swallows of his Sprite, crushed the can between two fingers, and then set his elbow on top of the car door, telling her in a low voice, "Drive in. I'll inspect your car for you."

Right as Gui Xiao was about to start the car once more, he spoke again. "Come out. I'll drive it."

Gui Xiao was also thinking that he was more familiar with this, so she got out of the vehicle and handed it over to him.

It was only a short distance to go inside from the entrance of the shop. Gui Xiao did not get back into the car and instead, following the route on which Lu Yanchen drove in, she walked in.