Amidst a Snowstorm of Love | Chapter 14 | A Lingering Departure | Novela.app

Her long hair slid quietly from behind her ear, brushing against the phone screen. Her finger hovered over the glass, unable to press down. The clock ticked over to the next minute. It felt as though a century had passed in that silence. "Is the signal bad?" Lin Yiyang asked suddenly. "Huh?" Yin Guo was startled. she looked up at him. He put his phone away, stood up, and stretched. "The signal is terrible here; WeChat won't connect. I'm going out for a smoke." With that, he walked past the burly man. The man was over six feet tall and weighed around two hundred pounds; Lin Yiyang was roughly the same height, though his leaner build made him look taller. As he passed behind the man, the contrast in their frames made his casual, nonchalant gait seem even more like that of a young man in his early twenties. Yin Guo watched him leave the laundry room. The burly man also watched him go, letting out a "Heh." He turned to her. "You two weren't talking, so I couldn't even tell what country you're from. Had a fight? The atmosphere was so heavy I could only hum to myself." The man gave a wry smile, picked up his stack of clothes, and left. Yin Guo glanced at WeChat again, then suddenly buried her head in her arms, slumped over the long table. In the shadow created by her arms, she kept her eyes open, staring at her shoes. Her mind had been a total blank just a moment ago, but now hundreds of thoughts were flying out—fragmented, messy, and completely illogical. She even wondered if he was joking, but no one joked like that. It would be one thing over the phone, but they were face-to-face. He had suddenly claimed the signal was bad and left; he was trying to move past it, wasn't he? Should she pretend she hadn't seen it either? *** Lin Yiyang stood outside the laundry room for a while. The burly man came out carrying his clothes and was startled to see him. Once he realized who it was, he gave a knowing smile, jerked his chin toward the room, and whispered, "Go on in." The man was certain his tactful departure had done the "fighting couple" a favor. He resumed his humming and headed up the stairs. Lin Yiyang kept his hands in his pockets, paced a few steps outside the door, and eventually walked out of the apartment building entirely. He hadn't worn much when he came down, and the wind was freezing. He stepped back, leaning against the doorframe to shield himself from the gust. He pulled out a traditional white cigarette. *Click, click*—it took five or six tries with the lighter before it finally caught. He did feel a bit of regret; he had asked too abruptly. He estimated he hadn't slept properly for two or three days. Coming back lightheaded, taking a hot shower—he had relaxed too much. The atmosphere just now had been too perfect, and for a moment, he hadn't held back. He’d been impulsive. He was a man who believed that rewards were proportional to effort. He believed the same applied to pursuing a girl. He hadn't really done anything yet, and he didn't expect her to actually take a fancy to him so soon. He should take it slow. *Take it slow, Lin Yiyang.* Lin Yiyang took three deep drags, exhaling the smoke. He pulled out his phone and called Wu Wei upstairs. "Bring a jacket down. Not you—send An-mei." Chen An’an was the quietest of the lot. His mind was occupied by nothing but billiards. Having him come down would ensure some peace. Sure enough, Chen An’an ran down a moment later and stuffed the jacket into his arms without saying a single word. "I'm a man of few words, but you're even worse," Lin Yiyang teased him. "We haven't seen each other in over ten years. Don't you want to talk to me?" Chen An’an gave a reserved smile and took a cigarette from Lin Yiyang. "You asked me to come down because you didn't want to hear them making fun of you, right?" Just because he didn't speak didn't mean he didn't understand. Lin Yiyang laughed and ruffled Chen An’an’s hair. "Still so short. You haven't grown an inch." Chen An’an tilted his head to avoid him. "Let me light that for you." Lin Yiyang cupped his hands to shield the flame, offering a light to Chen An’an. Chen An’an was a man of few words but deep, sensitive emotions. This gesture felt like a return to the past. His eyes reddened, and before the cigarette could even be lit, he threw his arms around Lin Yiyang in a tight hug. Being shorter, his head only reached Lin Yiyang’s nose. As he buried his face in Lin Yiyang’s shoulder, he looked a bit like a sensitive young girl. Fearing he might cry, Lin Yiyang kept the cigarette in his mouth and patted his back. "Loosen up a bit. If people see this, they'll get the wrong idea. How am I supposed to find a wife then?" "Screw you," Chen An’an cursed, his voice thick with emotion. Lin Yiyang chuckled and pulled Chen An’an away. The two brothers stood outside the apartment in the sub-zero temperatures, shivering as they talked about the years they had spent apart. Chen An’an’s eyes welled up from time to time, and he kept trying to lean into Lin Yiyang’s shoulder. Lin Yiyang teased him, saying that with so many students upstairs, it was embarrassing for him to lose his composure as a teacher. *** Yin Guo finished her laundry, took her time with the drying, and finally carried the stack of clothes back to the apartment. The guests were all gone. Wu Wei was seeing his friends off, and Lin Yiyang was tidying up the room. In the living room, only a simple floor lamp was on. As Yin Guo closed the apartment door behind her, Lin Yiyang was putting glass cups into the sink and picking up a rag to wipe the bar counter. Across the counter, their eyes met. Lin Yiyang thought she wouldn't speak to him, but to his surprise, she took the initiative. "Are you going back tomorrow?" He nodded. "Yes." "Morning? Or afternoon? If it's the afternoon, will there be time to go to Brooklyn?" Before he could answer, she added, "I'm just asking. If you're busy, next week is fine too." Lin Yiyang was about to agree, but Yin Guo didn't give him the chance. She hurried into her bedroom in three quick steps. Looking at the closed door, he set the white rag on the counter and leaned his weight on his hands, staring at the surface. After a long silence, he suddenly smiled. *What kind of crappy table is this? So ugly. I'll replace it with a new one another day.* Inside the room, Yin Guo was still standing by the door, her hand on the handle, lost in thought. *What was the rush? I didn't even finish asking.* So, was he going or not? Did she have to ask on WeChat now? She didn't even dare open their chat window. Those three sentences were still the last thing there. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. She let go of the handle abruptly, her heart pounding violently. Through the door, she heard Lin Yiyang's voice. "No need to open the door. Let's set a time." Her heart throbbed; she didn't make a sound. "How about we leave at ten?" Yin Guo let out a soft "Mm." The person outside probably didn't hear her. After a two-second pause, he said, "Ten-thirty is fine too." "Ten is fine," she finally said, her throat feeling dry. "Ten o'clock." ... Outside the door, Lin Yiyang leaned his hand against the doorframe. He lowered his head and whispered toward the door, "See you tomorrow." The girl's voice answered him, "See you tomorrow." Lin Yiyang stood by the door for a moment. Wu Wei returned and, catching sight of this, thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. *What's going on? Did they just have a secret rendezvous? Did they kiss? Is he standing by the door savoring the moment? This is moving a bit fast, isn't it? Didn't they just have a short date in the laundry room?* Lin Yiyang turned around and picked up the rag from the table. He was so distracted that he nearly used the rag as a towel to wipe his face. Fortunately, under Wu Wei's suspicious gaze, he managed to drop the rag into the sink at the last second. Wu Wei watched Lin Yiyang with a face full of doubt as he turned away. He watched him tidy the room with exaggerated focus, feeling annoyed that he hadn't insisted on replacing An-mei to deliver the jacket. An-mei was the type you couldn't get a word out of if his life depended on it; Wu Wei had questioned him for ages and gotten nothing useful. He had wasted his only chance to spy on Lin Yiyang's date. By the early hours of the morning, Yin Guo still hadn't fallen asleep. Fearing that Wu Wei or Lin Yiyang might still be in the living room using their computers, she wrapped herself in her duvet and sat by the window to make a quiet voice call. At first, she was hesitant, beating around the bush and talking about laundry for ages, even complaining that drying machines weren't as good as sunlight. Zheng Yi thought she was just sharing snippets of her life and started venting in return, telling her how, when she first started studying here, she didn't know outdoor drying was forbidden. She had hung her clothes outside her dorm window and was warned by a classmate that it was illegal, which scared her into hauling them back in immediately... Zheng Yi rambled on for quite a while. Finally, Yin Guo stammered out a question: "When people confessed to you in the past, what did you usually say?" "Why? Is someone trying to pursue you?" Yin Guo defended herself. "It's a girl from my club. She's asking for advice, and I don't know what to suggest." "What did he say? How did he confess? You have to tell me before I can give any advice." She recited it word for word: "'Can you tell I want to pursue you?'" Zheng Yi mulled over the phrase. "Sounds a bit... insincere." *Does it?* Yin Guo actually felt he was quite serious. "Assuming it's serious, how would you reply?" "Depends. If I liked him, I'd say, 'I can't really tell. Why don't you make it more obvious?' If I didn't like him... then I wouldn't reply. I'd wait for him to find his own way out of the situation and let it pass as if it never happened." Yin Guo pondered this, realizing that different people had very different ways of handling things. A thousand people, a thousand faces. The reason she didn't dare reply was that she didn't know how to phrase it or how to react—she was afraid that if she said "I can't tell," he would mistake it for a rejection, and she was also afraid that if she said "I can tell," he would mistake it for her saying yes. She hadn't even figured it out herself yet. *Didn't I come here for a competition? So what am I doing now? Considering the possibilities?* Yin Guo pulled the duvet over her head in frustration and made a self-defeating decision: *Stop thinking about it.* It was March. The junior and youth divisions were about to start, and the official Open was next month. As soon as the competition was over, she would return home. He was here; they wouldn't even have a chance to see each other. She woke up after six. Usually, Wu Wei and his cousin woke up early. By the time she got up, they were usually out—one playing, the other working part-time to make money—so she always felt very free in the apartment. Today, when she opened her door to go to the bathroom, she found the light already on. Yin Guo was wearing a white tracksuit, the kind with fleece lining for warmth, so she wasn't cold wandering around the living room. She sat on the sofa, waiting for the person in the bathroom to come out. Not quite awake, she hung her head, her slippers clicking against the floor as she kicked her feet idly. *Slap, hit the floor. Slap, hit the floor.* This was the scene Lin Yiyang saw when he stepped out of the bathroom: her head lowered, long hair obscuring most of her face, still dazed and dozing. "Waiting for the bathroom?" he asked. Yin Guo looked up, her gaze colliding with his. "Huh? Oh, yeah. Are you done?" Lin Yiyang stepped aside from the bathroom door, and Yin Guo walked around him. As they brushed past each other, she sensitively caught the scent on him—the smell of someone who had just showered. *Didn't he shower last night? Does he shower twice a day?* She closed the door and locked it, noticing a few unfamiliar men's toiletries by the sink. They weren't Wu Wei's or the cousin's. Yin Guo guessed they were his and spotted a manual razor. He actually used blades instead of an electric one. How fascinating. Wouldn't he cut himself? Outside the door, Lin Yiyang rubbed his chin. Actually, after showering and shaving, he had realized the towel was too old and wanted to come out to get a new one. He hadn't had time to tidy the bathroom yet. But seeing Yin Guo, he couldn't say much and let her go in first. It was only six o'clock; he hadn't expected her to be up so early. This whole week had been exhausting, and he was afraid he might sleep through the entire morning, so he had made a point to get up early for a run. He’d come back and showered to stay sharp for their trip to Brooklyn. After Yin Guo finished washing up, she looked at her face in the mirror. Because she hadn't slept well, a pimple had popped up on her chin. It really chose its timing. She poked at it with her index finger, regretting that she didn't have a habit of wearing makeup; otherwise, some concealer might have solved this emergency. Her bangs were a bit damp from washing her face, so she pressed them with a paper towel to absorb the water and ran her fingers through them to make them look more natural. When she returned to the living room, Lin Yiyang was frying eggs. "Wu Wei went to Boston." "Left at five," he said, pointing to two white plates containing fried potatoes. "Breakfast together?" Yin Guo agreed and added a "Thank you." A peaceful breakfast. A peaceful date for lobster pasta. Lin Yiyang carried a large sports bag with him to the meal. It held his laptop and other essentials; it was clear he didn't have enough time and would have to go straight from Brooklyn to the train station. They said their goodbyes in the subway. It was crowded, and Lin Yiyang was rushing for his train, so they didn't have time for more than a few words. At the transfer station, they waved to each other and turned to go their separate ways. The line Yin Guo needed to take was crowded. When she reached the platform, many people were waiting. Thinking about it, this was her first time riding alone. She prayed for a good train, one with announcements and electronic screens. Two minutes later, lights appeared at the end of the tunnel. The subway roared in—it was the line she was waiting for. Yin Guo followed several people into the carriage and looked left and right. "Go to the right," a voice behind her directed. So familiar— She turned around, her eyes widening. It was Lin Yiyang, who was supposed to have headed for another line to catch his train. Lin Yiyang had also just entered the carriage. There were people behind him, so without a word, he nudged her toward the right, making her sit in the only empty seat, right in front of him. Yin Guo's brain couldn't keep up with her feet. She sat down, leaning back against the seat. Because the carriage was so crowded, Lin Yiyang stood very close to her. His legs were pressed against her knees, their legs even intertwining slightly... "Aren't you supposed to be catching a train?" Yin Guo whispered in Chinese. Lin Yiyang looked down. "I was afraid you'd miss your stop." He still remembered how Yin Guo had complained about the New York subway the first time she rode it. He had only walked away for a short while before turning back to follow her. He had managed to spot her on the platform from a distance and luckily caught up. Yin Guo pointed to the electronic display. "There's this. I can find my way." Thinking of his train time, she felt anxious for him and said softly, "You should get off at the next stop. You can still make your train." Lin Yiyang looked down at her and gave a soft "Mm." As the subway started moving, the people in the carriage retreated into their own little worlds, either chatting or staring blankly into space. Yin Guo felt their legs constantly brushing and rubbing against each other with the motion of the train. Gradually, her face grew hot, her palms began to sweat, and she became increasingly restless, not knowing where to look. *This stop is so long. Why aren't we there yet?* Yin Guo thought. "Yesterday—" He said two words, then stopped. Yin Guo clutched her backpack and looked up at him. Lin Yiyang actually wanted to say that he had just been caught up in the moment yesterday when he asked, and that she didn't need to take it to heart. He didn't want her to misunderstand—to think he was the kind of man who, after knowing her for only a few days and barely speaking, would try to hit on her just because she was in a foreign country, only to break up once she went home. But looking into Yin Guo's eyes, he dismissed the thought. Some things didn't need to be said. Spending time together slowly like this was also good. The announcement for the station sounded, and the train began to pull in. The train slowed to a halt. Now Yin Guo was thinking: *This stop was so short. He hasn't finished talking.* "Tell me when you get back to the apartment." He wanted to know she was safe. Lin Yiyang adjusted the strap of his sports bag and moved to step away, but Yin Guo suddenly grabbed the strap of his bag. He froze, stopping amidst the flow of people exiting the train, his shoulder bumped by a passerby. Yin Guo immediately let go, her cheeks burning. She lowered her voice and said, "When you get to DC, tell me too." Of all the passengers around them, only they could understand each other. This was their mother tongue. Lin Yiyang paused for half a second, then looked down and smiled. He really wanted to pat the back of her head—something he had wanted to do all day but had repeatedly resisted. In the end, he held back and adjusted his bag strap again. "Okay." He took two quick steps and hopped from the carriage onto the platform. The doors closed behind him. Yin Guo turned to look. The glass wasn't very clean, and several passengers who had just disembarked blocked her view. After the train started moving again, she saw him clearly. Unfortunately, it only lasted three or four seconds before the light faded and he disappeared. The roaring subway carried her back into the dark tunnel. The carriage had emptied out quite a bit, but it felt as if Lin Yiyang was still standing in front of her, their legs and knees still touching... Yin Guo felt a tingling sensation in her heart. She couldn't help but rub her knees. *Stop thinking about it.* *** Glossary Table: