Chapter 5 You can be with me again
Su Nian looked at his tense jawline and suddenly smiled softly. The arc at the end of her eyes was like a crescent moon dipped in honey. "It's okay. You don't have to say it if you don't want to."
The porcelain spoon made a crisp sound when it hit the wall of the cup. He handed over the ginger tea with ginger shreds floating in it. The steaming hot air formed a mist between the two of them. "But don't be so reckless next time. It's very cold and you will catch a cold."
The warm ginger tea slid down his throat and into his stomach. Ling Shen's fingers, gripping the stoneware cup, turned slightly white. He watched as Su Nian turned, her falling hair brushing against her light gray sweater, casting a soft glow under the warm yellow desk lamp.
The other person opened the old-spine book "Snow Country". The rustling sound of the pages mixed with the hum of the heater isolated the howling wind and snow outside the window into a distant background.
The bottom of the glass left a wet, circular mark on the wooden tabletop. Ling Shen stared at the water droplets winding along the wall of the glass and suddenly heard his own hoarse voice: "Why do you want to open a bookstore?"
This question that lingered in his mind would always overlap with Su Nian's silhouette leaning against the bookshelf and sorting books during countless late nights of overtime work.
Su Nian's eyelashes fluttered, and the ginkgo bookmark stuck between the pages slipped off, swirling a golden arc across the tabletop. He clipped the bookmark back into place, his fingertips unconsciously stroking the gilded title. "Opening a bookstore is great. It's profitable and free, isn't it?" The words lingered lightly in the air like a memorized line.
Ling Shen's Adam's apple rolled, and the words that came out of his mouth were filled with a desperate ruthlessness: "If there was something more profitable, would you do it?"
After asking, he regretted it so much that he clenched his trouser seams, his nails almost digging into his palms. The bookstore suddenly became so quiet that he could hear the second hand of the clock ticking. He saw Su Nian pause in turning the pages of the book, his knuckles leaving bluish-white marks on the cover.
However, the expected reprimand did not come. Su Nian chuckled and closed the book, but there was a look in her eyes that Ling Shen could not understand.
Warm light passed over his tall nose, casting a half-shadow under his eyes: "Oh? What money-making business?" This rhetorical question was asked with a bit of nonchalant playfulness, but it made Ling Shen inexplicably relieved - it turned out that this seemingly gentle person also hid the shrewdness of the market.
He suddenly remembered that last week in the corner of the bookstore, he caught a glimpse of Su Nian's sharp look when he was bargaining with the supplier. His current indifference seemed like an expected answer.
Ling Shen's fingertips unconsciously stroked the lines on the surface of the mug, and the remaining temperature on the wall of the mug was quietly dissipating with the hot air.
I thought Su Nian, who was hiding in the second-hand bookstore, had long been indifferent to worldly troubles, but the guilt that was surging in his heart at this moment quietly faded away a little because of the other party's behavior.
His Adam's apple rolled and he was thinking for a while. He was just about to speak to break the stagnant air: "Su Nian, I..." But the sharp ring of the cell phone suddenly pierced the silence, startling the copper bell on the wooden bookshelf and making it tremble slightly.
Su Nian nodded apologetically, his fingertips rustling across the phone screen. The moment he pushed open the carved wooden door, a chill swept his figure into the twilight. The heavy door blocked out most of the sound, but a few fragments of words still pierced through the cracks: "Okay... tomorrow at the latest... give me a few more days..."
The voice was hushed, gravelly, and Ling Shen's knuckles turned white as he gripped the cup handle. Steaming water vapor blurred the lenses, but only made the suppressed sighs in his ears even clearer.
Ling Shen's brain, which had been working at full speed, outlined Su Nian's expression in almost 0.01 seconds.
He could even clearly imagine the other person frowning, his knuckles unconsciously rubbing the edge of the phone, repeatedly refreshing the bank account balance in the minus ten degree cold wind - those peach blossom eyes that always smiled must be filled with annoyance at this moment, and his eyelashes were like butterfly wings wet by the snow.
Perhaps this was an opportunity, Ling Shen thought.
Outside, Su Nian leaned against the bookstore's mottled red brick wall, his fingertips hovering over his phone screen, unmoving. The so-called ringtone was just the alarm he had set, and the conversation just now was just a play he put on for the phone.
The purpose was to make Ling Shen in the room believe that he was in trouble.
Su Nian raised his head, letting the tiny snowflakes settle on his eyelashes. The streetlights stretched his shadow across the snow-covered bluestone, and the faint curve at the corner of his mouth gradually widened.
Snowflakes rustled onto his black cashmere scarf, making his eyes appear surprisingly brighter, like a lone wolf quietly waiting for its prey to fall into a trap on the snowy field late at night, every nerve stretched to the sharpest hunting state.
When Su Nian returned to the bookstore, the glass doors closed, shutting out the howling wind and snow. Ling Shen had already finished his cup of ginger tea, the remaining ginger shreds at the bottom gleaming amber under the warm yellow light. His face had returned to its usual expressionless expression, save for the tips of his ears, which still clung to a red tinge.
Ling Shen raised his head, his eyes sweeping over Su Nian's face, which was forcing a smile. Tiny ice crystals still clung to her eyelashes, and the remaining moisture in the corners of her eyes froze into a thin layer of frost in the cold air.
The wind blew the strands of hair on Su Nian's forehead into a mess. Her pale lips trembled slightly, revealing a smile that was uglier than crying.
"Is there any trouble? Is there anything I can help you with?" Ling Shen's voice was as low as if it had been polished by sandpaper, and his fingertips unconsciously stroked the wall of the empty porcelain cup.
Su Nian shook his head and sat back down at the table with unsteady steps. The old wooden chair creaked. He reached for the book on the table, but his knuckles banged heavily on the cups and saucers.
The crisp collision sound was particularly harsh in the silent bookstore. Although he appeared to be extremely calm, Ling Shen still saw his hands hidden under the table, uncontrollably scratching deep wrinkles on his pants.
"Don't force yourself." The blanket with Ling Shen's body temperature soothed Su Nian's body that was numb from the cold.
Su Nian slowly lowered her head, her scalding tears falling on the title page of Snow Country, blurring Kawabata Yasunari's handwriting into a blurry blob of ink. Snowflakes pattered against the glass outside, mingling with the ticking of the old-fashioned bookstore clock, weaving a fine web in the air.
"It's been a long time since I paid the rent," Su Nian's voice seemed to come from far away, with a heartbreaking hoarseness, "The landlord said that if you don't pay it, he will cut off the water and electricity." His slender fingers ran across the worn spines of the books on the bookshelf, and his fingertips stroked the faded gold-embossed title of "The Little Prince".
"Maybe, this place will soon no longer belong to me." When he raised his head, under the warm yellow light, the self-mockery in his eyes was colder than the snow outside the window.
Ling Shen sat back in his chair, the hem of his black coat brushing the floor, his legs crossed with an innate grace. "I can help you." The moment he finished speaking, the wind chimes on the bookshelf suddenly tinkled, startling the sparrows perched near the window.
Su Nian's eyes snapped open at the words, the frost flakes falling from his eyelashes. His pupils constricted, and a look of immense surprise flashed across his face, but this joy was quickly replaced by hesitation and doubt. Swallowing his uneasiness with his Adam's apple rolling, he whispered, "Why...?"
Ling Shen stood up and opened the door of the bookstore. The biting cold wind rushed in with large snowflakes, instantly blurring the warm yellow halo.
His black coat rustled in the snow, like a crow about to take flight. "You don't need to know why. The money will be deposited into your account tonight, and someone will come with the contract tomorrow."
Before he finished speaking, Ling Shen's figure had already melted into the wind and snow. The sound of his leather shoes stepping on the snow spread out from near to far, and finally disappeared into the depths of the alley.
The mist on the door gradually condensed into water droplets, winding down along the lines.
Su Nian stared silently at the direction where Ling Shen had disappeared, until the streetlights at the alley entrance were covered in snow and mist. When the dark figure completely disappeared, the corners of his mouth suddenly curved upwards. Against the inky black sky, a face slowly emerged, and Su Nian couldn't help but raise his hand.
"Chen Ran, you can stay with me again."
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