Chapter 13
The flow of people in the mall did not diminish as the night deepened; the escalator was crowded and the long queue outside the restaurant had already stretched to the elevator entrance.
Yue Qianling finished her third cup of tea, idly counted the number of people in line, and then went to ask the restaurant receptionist how long they would have to wait.
After getting a hopeless number, Yue Qianling sat back with a drooping brow.
If I had known this earlier, I would have stayed in school. It doesn’t matter what I eat.
"How about we look at other homes?"
Yue Qianling pulled Yin Xue's sleeve and said, "We'll have to wait another forty minutes."
Yin Xue raised her head and looked around, frowning and said, "I'm afraid there won't be a seat if we go to other places, and here we have to wait for the number to be filled."
That’s true.
Yue Qianling took out her cell phone and saw Xiaomai’s invitation from more than ten minutes ago. She thought about it and lowered her head to type.
[Glutinous Rice Dough Sticks]: I'm waiting in line. I think I'll have to wait a while. Would you like a few handfuls?
Wheat didn't reply.
Camel: Where are you?
[Camel]: How many people are in line? Why don’t you come and eat with us? There aren’t many people here.
Yue Qianling thought Luotuo had seen it wrong.
【Glutinous Rice Dough Sticks】: It’s me, not Xiaomai!
[Camel]: I know.
As if she didn't recognize these words, Yue Qianling read the sentence twice before she understood the relationship between them.
Lin Xun knew she was in Jiangcheng, so he told Luotuo.
And Camel said this because they were also in Jiangcheng.
Before that—
Yue Qianling recalled the time when she asked Lin Xun if he was also in Jiangcheng, and he seemed to have not denied it.
If true, it's such a coincidence.
Yue Qianling didn't give up and wanted to confirm it again.
[Glutinous Rice Dough Sticks]: Are you in Jiangcheng?
A few seconds later.
【School Prince】: Yes.
【Glutinous rice twisted dough sticks】：? ? ?
[School Prince]: Why, are you so surprised?
“…”
So that's really the case.
Her mood suddenly went back to the day when the first snow fell, and an inexplicable emotion inexplicably spread in Yue Qianling's heart.
For some unknown reason, she opened the photo again. This time, she not only looked at the hand in the photo, but also looked at the dishes on the table and observed the decoration of the restaurant.
The person you thought was far away is actually very close to you, and you may even have passed by him/her at some point.
It’s quite amazing if you think about it.
She didn't reply for a long time, so Camel asked again.
Camel: Are you coming? We are in the CBD.
Yin Xue was sitting next to Yue Qianling, so of course it was impossible for her to go meet her online friend.
Moreover, she thought about it and realized that even if it wasn’t today and without Yin Xue, she probably... wouldn’t go, right?
But I don’t have a definite answer in my heart.
Because she felt that she was quite curious about Lin Xun.
If I were more familiar...
Wait, stop.
The mall was crowded with people, and countless strangers passed by her one after another.
Yue Qianling shifted her gaze from the phone screen and looked away.
Even if they were more familiar with each other, it still seemed weird for a 20-year-old girl like her to meet a male online friend.
It would be fine if it was a girl.
Once the behavior of "meeting online friends" is related to the "opposite sex", it always seems to lack a layer of purity.
So, Yue Qianling quickly dismissed the fleeting thought.
[Glutinous Rice Dough Sticks]: Forget it, forget it. I’m with my roommate.
【Camel】: OK.
Putting down the phone, Luotuo shrugged at Gu Xun.
"Oh no, I won't come to meet you."
Gu Xun hasn't looked at his phone since he said that in the group, and is now eating with his head down.
When he heard Camel's words, his eyebrows twitched slightly and his chewing speed slowed down.
After a moment, he raised his head.
"What's with that tone of voice?" He raised his eyelids and said nonchalantly, "Why, are you disappointed that you can't date a female online friend?"
Luotuo didn't care about Gu Xun's attitude. He chuckled to himself and said, "You are the second national champion and no one dares to be the first."
He added: "But it's reasonable for a little girl not to come out and meet her online friends. You have to be on guard. Who knows if there is a person or a dog behind the Internet? If it's a dog, it's okay. But if it's a stinky man who has bad intentions towards the little girl, that would be dangerous."
Gu Xun tilted his head and glanced at him without saying anything, his eyes were cold.
Luotuo felt that Gu Xun was about to explode with his laughter, so he quickly said, "But! She spent New Year's Day with her roommate. Do you know what this means?"
Gu Xun said coldly: "It means that their friendship is still strong and they won't beat their brothers for the time being."
The camel curled his lips and said, "Why are you so angry?"
He tapped the table with his finger bones, "It means there's no hope for her and her lover for now!"
The restaurant's resident singer took the stage and the lights gradually dimmed.
In the shadow cast by the background wall, Gu Xun curled the corners of his lips almost imperceptibly.
"Do you want to eat? If not, pay the bill and leave."
"Why are you in such a hurry? It's a rare day off for me." Luotuo looked at the singer on the stage, squinted his eyes and hummed a few lines of the lyrics, then asked, "What entertainment activities will we have after dinner?"
Gu Xun made a clear arrangement: "I'll go back to school, and you go back to the hotel."
"No way?" Camel frowned in dissatisfaction, "Isn't the New Year's Eve fireworks at that park in Jiangcheng very famous?"
He thought of thousands of people gathered together, counting down the arrival of the New Year, looking at the dazzled eyes, revealing a longing look, "Aren't you going to take me to see it?"
Gu Xun looked up at him, expressionless.
"Guo Luo, do you think you are very romantic?"
Yin Xue chose this crowded restaurant because it is close to the lakeside park.
It took the two of them more than an hour to queue up, but less than forty minutes to finish their meal.
But when they walked out of the mall and looked at the traffic jam on the overpass not far away, they suddenly felt that the more than one hour of waiting was worth it.
The two of them walked to the Lakeside Park in less than twenty minutes. At the entrance, large and small stalls were decorated with lights and selling glittering headbands and all kinds of fairy wands.
Yin Xue pulled Yue Qianling into the crowd and spent more than half an hour selecting some decorations and dressing herself up in a fancy way.
The park is ablaze with colorful lights, making the lifeless winter night colorful.
Apart from the midnight fireworks, the cosplay performances, singing and dancing in Lakeside Park are no different from other amusement parks.
Yin Xue found a place with good lighting, took a few selfies with her mobile phone, and then took dozens of photos of Yue Qianling in various poses and angles.
Afterwards, Yue Qianling strolled along the way while Yin Xue focused on editing the pictures.
After a while, she finally picked out the two that she was most satisfied with and prepared to post them on her Moments.
Before sending, she handed the phone to Yue Qianling to take a look: "I'll send these two."
Yue Qianling glanced at it casually, "Whatever."
Yin Xue nodded and asked, "There are many more photos in the album. Would you like to choose a few?"
"Just send me a few of them. It doesn't matter whether they have been edited or not."
Anyway, she wanted these photos just to keep them as a souvenir and never thought of posting them on WeChat Moments.
In the past few years, due to studies, campus activities, and work contacts after internship, Yue Qianling has added a lot of people on WeChat who cannot be considered friends.
Every time she posted a photo, many boys whose faces and names she couldn't even recognize would come to her private message her.
It’s okay if the conversation is awkward. You can just say a few perfunctory words and find an excuse to end the conversation.
If you encounter someone who is persistent, there is almost no other solution except to block him.
The number of WeChat friends is increasing day by day, and it is troublesome to group them separately every time. Over time, Yue Qianling no longer has the heart to post on Moments.
Throughout the year, only during holidays can we utter a few words of blessing.
After Yin Xue posted on WeChat Moments, she put her phone in her bag and walked towards the center of the lake with Yue Qianling.
"It seems there will be a lantern festival this year, let's go and have a look."
It was almost eleven o'clock when the two entered the park. After strolling around for a while, the New Year's Eve fireworks were ready to go off.
Yue Qianling and Yin Xue did not deliberately look for the way, they followed the crowd and unknowingly stood at the place where they could watch the fireworks.
The two girls were petite, and their vision was mostly blocked when they were standing in the crowd.
The two squeezed in the crowd for a long time and finally found a step.
Once you stand there, the view is much wider.
Yin Xue stood on tiptoe and looked around aimlessly. Suddenly, she saw something and grabbed Yue Qianling's hand.
"Look! Isn't that Gu Xun?!"
The name "Gu Xun" is like a magic button. As soon as Yue Qianling hears it, all his attention will be focused on it.
She immediately turned around and looked in the direction Yin Xue pointed.
The night is thick and the lights are dazzling.
Gu Xun was wearing a black coat, standing in the vast crowd of people, about twenty meters away. Although his face was blurred by the flickering light and shadow, he was a head taller than the people around him, and his clear and neat facial features stood out from the crowd, and were easily caught at a glance.
At that moment, Yue Qianling's originally ordinary mood was ignited like a flame, and his eyes were filled with colorful lights.
She finally felt excited, not because of the festival, but because of Gu Xun.
But how did he get here?
Yue Qianling thought about it for a moment and suddenly felt a little nervous, wondering if he came here with a girl.
Otherwise, how could a grown man like him have the leisure to come here and watch the New Year's Eve fireworks?
"Could it be that he has a date with a girl?"
Yin Xue obviously had the same idea as Yue Qianling.
So Yue Qianling stood on tiptoe and searched carefully. After confirming that the girls next to Gu Xun were not his colleagues, and also seeing the slightly fat man she met this afternoon, Yue Qianling felt relieved.
As time approached midnight, the crowd on the observation deck became more and more crowded and began to slowly move towards the place with the best view.
"How about we squeeze through?"
Yue Qianling grabbed Yin Xue's hand, eager to try.
Yin Xue looked at the jam-packed road and clapped her hands twice, "Come on, Yue Qianling, push forward. If you can squeeze through, I, Yin Xue, will tie Gu Xun to your bed even if I risk going to the police station today."
“…”
The words may be rough, but the truth is there.
Yue Qianling suppressed her impulse and stood obediently on the steps.
But her mood at this moment was no longer the same as before. Across the sea of people, just by looking at Gu Xun from afar, a kind of happiness that did not require resonance spread in her heart.
Just at this moment, the simulated stone speakers that can be found everywhere in the park started playing music.
The cheerful BGM pushed the festive atmosphere to a climax, and the already noisy crowd gradually began to boil.
Amid the countdown of thousands of people, Yue Qianling glanced at Gu Xun from a distance.
Before I could look away, there was a loud "bang".
The first firework of the New Year rose into the sky with a loud bang, and bloomed into a brilliant starry sky in the vast night sky.
The audience's cheers reached a peak at this moment, and the atmosphere had not yet relaxed. Fireworks immediately shot into the sky one after another, interweaving a colorful and gorgeous light and shadow.
Almost everyone took out their cell phones to record this moment, but Yue Qianling saw Gu Xun just standing there with his arms folded, turning his head to smile at his companions beside him, then looking up to continue watching the fireworks. The outline of his face was even clearer in the glow of the lights.
Yue Qianling immediately took out her cell phone, turned on the camera, and pointed it at the air.
At the moment when the fireworks reached their most grand scale, she pressed the camera button.
The upper part of the photo shows gorgeous fireworks.
The lower part is a dense crowd of people.
After taking the photo, Yue Qianling opened her Moments and found that almost everyone had sent New Year wishes within that minute.
She curled the corners of her lips and posted the photo with four words.
"Happy New Year."
Anyway, no one would notice the blurry figure of Gu Xun among the dark crowd in this photo.
And Gu Xun would not know that she quietly gave him a simple blessing.
"The sea is all water. New Year's Eve is all legs."
Halfway through the fireworks show, the camel had been stepped on no less than ten times. He finally realized that it was a wrong decision for two grown men to come and watch these New Year's Eve fireworks.
Fortunately, their position was not very front, so it was easy to exit. They left the crowd in just a few minutes.
"I'd better go back to the hotel and play games."
Gu Xun sneered and asked him, "Is it romantic?"
"I like it, I want it again next time."
The camel shamelessly smacked his lips, rubbed his head, looked around, and found a toilet. "I'll be back soon."
Gu Xun didn't go, but waited for him there.
At this moment, most people were watching the fireworks, so there were few people on the road.
Gu Xun leaned against the railing of the amusement facility and took out his cell phone.
The fireworks were still blooming overhead, and the loud noises were drowning out one another, making this place exceptionally quiet.
He received a lot of New Year greetings on his mobile phone. Gu Xun replied to a few messages from relatives, but soon lost his patience and didn't even read the rest.
He scrolled down the message list for a long time and finally found Yue Qianling.
The conversation between the two people still stopped yesterday.
Gu Xun opened the message box and typed four words.
But a second before sending the message, he looked at her profile picture, paused for a moment, and then clicked on her circle of friends.
Ten minutes ago, she updated a photo with the caption also those four simple words.
Gu Xun took a quick glance and was about to close it when a loud noise of fireworks exploded in the sky again.
He suddenly frowned, looked down at the photo again, and suddenly fixed his eyes.
This night sky, these gorgeous fireworks, this photo angle.
Everything indicates that she is also here.
As the fireworks in the sky bloomed one after another, Gu Xun's emotions exploded silently like the rapidly expanding air at this moment. He couldn't grasp a clear thought and couldn't explain why, but the urge to see her came back again, more violent than a few hours ago.
He concentrated for a moment, suddenly put away his phone, turned around and walked towards the observation deck.
But after leaving for a while, there were even more people on the observation deck than before. Millions of them were packed together like a shadow, and the people inside couldn't get out, and the people outside couldn't squeeze in.
Gu Xun was trapped in the huge crowd, unable to move forward or backward, so he simply took out his cell phone and made a voice call to her.
During the few seconds of waiting for the call to be connected, the fireworks show came to a temporary end and was building up momentum for the next theme.
Without the loud noise of fireworks, the surroundings seemed much quieter, but Gu Xun felt an inexplicable restlessness in his heart, which made him itchy.
He suddenly felt a little crazy.
No one wants to come out and meet him, so why is he messing around here?
If Yin Xue hadn't reminded her, Yue Qianling wouldn't have noticed that her phone was vibrating.
She thought the chief artist who was still working overtime wanted to talk to her about something, so she quickly took out her cell phone from her bag, and was stunned when she saw the caller ID.
Why would he call me at this time?
Yue Qianling was stunned for a moment before answering the call.
"Hey, what's up?"
However, no one spoke on the other end of the phone.
Because it was very close to the location where the fireworks were set off, the explosions were particularly loud, and the voices of people around were extremely noisy.
Yue Qianling thought the other party couldn't hear her, so she raised her voice again: "What's the matter? It's very noisy outside. If nothing else, I'll hang up."
The other party still didn't speak.
The fireworks were at their most spectacular, and voices were rising in her ears like waves, one after another. Yue Qianling thought that he probably made a wrong call because his phone was squeezed, and this happened to her frequently, so she prepared to hang up.
The phone had just been one millimeter away from my ear when a sound finally came from the receiver.
The environment on his side seemed to be very noisy, but Yue Qianling still heard what he said clearly.
"Nothing, Happy New Year."
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