“I think you’ve noticed there’s a woman outside who keeps glaring over here.”
“I know. It’s because of me. It has nothing to do with you.”
“But I think it does have something to do with me. I’m the one she’s glaring at.”
Fu Shu looked down at the black coffee in front of him. There was no sugar in it, and the bitterness still lingered in his mouth. He said unhurriedly, “She’s someone I don’t want to hurt, but I can’t give her what she wants.”
“But what she wants, you’re giving to me. That’s why she looks like she wants to slap me, right? This is exactly why I hate handsome men.” Faced with Ji Meng’s blunt mockery, Fu Shu only smiled and said nothing. Ji Meng took another sip of the coffee that had gradually cooled and grown even more bitter, then set down the cup. “But that isn’t your fault.” Fu Shu looked up and once again confirmed what he was feeling. He liked this woman. Ji Meng turned toward the window and met An Su’s gaze directly.
An Su froze for several seconds. She had been discovered. Yet Ji Meng’s eyes held no provocation, no triumph, no pity, nothing at all. Strangely, that made An Su feel relieved. Otherwise, she might have stormed into the café. She could not hear what they were saying. There was no cloying affection, no intimacy, no touching. They simply sat on opposite sides of the table, yet being together looked natural and comfortable. An Su could see how relaxed Fu Shu was. Suddenly she thought of Wu Xin and the desperate way her mother had once tried to keep An Zi Yan from leaving. An Su had seen how that story ended. Was she really going to become like her mother? She still remembered An Zi Yan leaning close to Wu Xin and whispering, Don’t force me to hate you. She also remembered how miserable and humiliated her mother had looked.
There was only one road left for her now. Give up. There was no other choice.
An Su started the car and drove away, leaving her feelings behind in the café. The farther she drove, the blurrier the road became. Tears kept falling onto the steering wheel. She wiped them away with the back of her hand, only for more to fall. In the end, she pulled over at the roadside and broke down crying.
At that moment, someone knocked on her car window. She looked up. It was Li Ming, standing outside at a complete loss. An Su lowered the window only a crack and shouted through her tears, “Go away!” Li Ming said nothing. He simply stood beside the window and stopped knocking.
An Su was not the only person following someone. Mai Ding had deliberately called Li Ming and told him not to bother An Su for a while so she could have some space. But Li Ming kept asking what had happened, so Mai Ding gave him a carefully edited version. Mai Ding was probably the only person who knew Li Ming liked An Su. Li Ming did not dare confess. He was only a homebody, but he could not ignore his worry that something might happen to her. Carrying his heavy one-sided feelings, he had ridden his motorcycle behind An Su’s car for five days, paying no attention to his windblown hair or dirty face.
An Su lay over the steering wheel for a while. When she raised her head again, Li Ming was gone. Everyone had left her. Nobody cared about her. She laughed bitterly at herself. She had been the one to tell him to go away, yet she was also the one who wanted somebody beside her. Then suddenly she saw Li Ming running back with a newly bought pack of tissues. Panting, he pulled out several and passed them through the crack in the window before turning his back to her.
“Why haven’t you left?!”
“But you’re crying.”
“Turn around. Do you think I’m embarrassed by the way I look? I don’t need you pretending to be considerate.”
Li Ming turned around. An Su lowered the window all the way. Still holding the pack of tissues, he pulled out two more and offered them to her. “Do you want more?” An Su took them and wiped away her tears. “I don’t need you meddling.” Li Ming stayed quiet. After a long while, An Su spoke again. “What have you been doing? What happened to your hair and your face? You look stupid.” Li Ming scratched his head awkwardly. “I was riding my bike. I just happened to pass by and saw you.”
“Let’s go eat.”
“I know a place with really good food. Follow me.” Li Ming immediately climbed onto the motorcycle nearby. An Su started her car and followed behind. Li Ming did not ride very fast because one hand was still tightly holding the pack of tissues.
While they were eating, a message from Mai Ding arrived.
[How is she?] Knowing Li Ming was following An Su, Mai Ding had been asking about her every day.
[Don’t know. We’re eating together.]
[You two? Li Ming, are you hallucinating because you haven’t slept enough?]
[Don’t believe me? Fine. I’ll secretly send you a photo.]
Li Ming pretended to casually put his phone on the table and, while An Su was not paying attention, took a photo and sent it. Mai Ding’s eyes widened when he saw it. He shoved the picture toward An Zi Yan. “Look! Your sister hasn’t wanted to talk to anybody lately, but she’s actually eating with Li Ming. And she’s eating that much. She hasn’t been shaken up into something strange, has she? We should go check on them. I know this place. Li Ming took me there before.” As he spoke, Mai Ding grabbed An Zi Yan’s arm and pulled him toward the door. An Zi Yan clicked his tongue unhappily, but still allowed himself to be dragged along. Whether Mai Ding truly had enough strength to drag him anywhere was highly questionable.
The car stopped outside the restaurant. Mai Ding immediately spotted Li Ming’s conspicuous hair. How powerful a tornado had to be to make it look like that? Mai Ding did not go inside. He lowered the window and watched An Su. There were still dried tear tracks on her face, yet she was ordering Li Ming around with complete confidence. That was the An Su he knew. Even without changing herself, there was already someone willing to do anything for her.
It was not that Mai Ding looked down on his friend. He genuinely did not think An Su would ever fall for Li Ming. She might never even have looked at him that way. Mai Ding still believed that now and held no expectations whatsoever for Li Ming’s love life. But, but if… A picture suddenly flashed into Mai Ding’s mind and he burst out in English, “Oh, no!!”
An Zi Yan frowned and looked sideways at Mai Ding, who was clutching his head. “What’s wrong with you now?”
“If Li Ming became your brother-in-law and mine, how unbelievably mismatched would that picture be?!” Only now had Mai Ding realized this possibility. It would probably take him some time to recover from how strange it felt.
That was the way love stories worked. If it was not this person, someone else might come along to help you keep writing. As for Mai Ding’s pen, there was only one person he would ever hand it to: An Zi Yan.