He’s Coaxing Her

It was late into the night before Zhou Jingze finally let her go. Xu Sui ran back to the tent, carefully taking off her coat, when Hu Qianxi, still in her sleep, suddenly waved her fist in the air and said fiercely: “Where did you go?”

“I just—”

Before Xu Sui could finish, Hu Qianxi abruptly interrupted her: “Lu Wenbai, don’t think I can’t catch up to you just because you’re hiding from me.”

So she wasn’t talking to her. Xu Sui breathed a sigh of relief, put Hu Qianxi’s exposed arm back into the sleeping bag, tucked her in tightly, and then went to sleep.

The next morning, at least half of those who wanted to see the sunrise ended in failure. The group had no choice but to pack up, dismantle the tents and return them to the scenic area, planning to go back to the guesthouse to rest and discuss.

After they rested for a while, the energetic Hu Qianxi dragged Xu Sui to visit the surrounding attractions. The soda squad had to follow, with Qin Jing and a couple trailing behind.

They wandered around everywhere, and Hu Qianxi saw a wooden sign ahead with “Suspension Bridge” written on it, her eyes lighting up.

Sheng Nanzhou took one look, turned around and started walking away. Hu Qianxi quickly grabbed him and dragged him forward, while he clung to the railing, refusing to take another step, squeezing out words through gritted teeth: “You’re fucking with me, aren’t you? I’m afraid of heights.”

“Then you need to overcome it even more.” Hu Qianxi said.

Sheng Nanzhou: “…”

The suspension bridge hung in the middle of the valley with unfathomable depths below, swaying slightly when walked on. Xu Sui wasn’t afraid of heights, just a bit scared, but fortunately Zhou Jingze held her hand steadily.

Qin Jing walked in front of them, saw a large string of colorful locks hanging in the middle of the bridge, and suddenly stopped walking.

“Holy shit, love locks! Didn’t expect to see them here too.” Qin Jing exclaimed with a “wow.”

Da Liu walked over, looked at the locks above, and asked: “What? Does playboy Qin have any insights?”

“Screw you, I was very pure back then, okay,” Qin Jing kicked Da Liu, touched his forehead, his tone even a bit embarrassed, “it’s just when I was in high school, my first love and I secretly ran off on dates. By the way, my first love looked so much like little sister Xu – pure and well-behaved appearance, those eyes—”

Zhou Jingze stood to the side, pointing at the bottomless canyon: “If you want a beating, just say so directly. I’ll fulfill your wish.”

Qin Jing immediately stepped back two paces, falling back into memory: “I remember going to some temple with her, and there was also a place to hang love locks nearby. The people there said that when you encounter such places, as long as two people sincerely hang one together, the lovers will last forever. Some old guy spoke so convincingly that both my first love and I were moved. Then that guy opened his mouth and said one lock costs 250 yuan, so I just nodded and left.”

“What happened then?” Xu Sui couldn’t help but ask.

“Then it didn’t last long. Blame that old man for talking so mysteriously. Sigh, so when you encounter love locks, you should still hang them – I suddenly miss my first love a bit, she was so good.” Qin Jing said, looking into the distance with emotion.

The only couple in Zhou Jingze’s class immediately went to hang one after hearing this, while Da Liu, a single dog, expressed no opinion on this matter. Qin Jing suddenly said as if discovering a new continent: “Zhou-ye, you should go hang one too. God will bless you two to be together forever.”

Xu Sui looked at the locks hanging by the bridge, the ribbons tied to them fluttering in the wind, her eyes wavering. She was just about to say “why don’t we hang one too” when Zhou Jingze answered Qin Jing.

He flicked the cigarette ash in his hand, raised his head and sneered lazily: “I’m an atheist.”

Xu Sui had to swallow the words that were about to come out.

The group walked to the end of the bridge with small fights along the way, where there happened to be a station right in front, and everyone sat on stone blocks to rest. Zhou Jingze and Xu Sui went to the vending machine in front to buy drinks for everyone.

Zhou Jingze stood in front of the freezer selecting drinks, while Xu Sui, thinking about what Qin Jing had just said, couldn’t help but take out her phone to search on Baidu, typing in the search box: “If you hang locks on a lover’s bridge, can two people really last forever?”

A series of web answers popped up on her phone screen. Xu Sui read them seriously – the answers varied. Some said of course it’s true, “Five years and I’m still with him.”

Others replied: “Don’t believe it, it’s just a mythical story used by scenic areas to cheat money.”

There were also balanced answers: “Believe and it exists, don’t believe and it doesn’t.”

Xu Sui kept scrolling down the screen, completely immersed in stories about love locks. Zhou Jingze was adding drinks on the vending machine screen, and after a while turned his head to ask:

“Yiyi, what do you want to drink?”

No answer. Zhou Jingze stepped back two paces, reached up to pinch her face, squinting with dissatisfaction and calling: “Xu Sui.”

“Ah, I’ll have Yi Fang.” Xu Sui came back to her senses, took her phone and walked to the screen to add the drink she wanted. Zhou Jingze stood behind her, glanced at her phone, his black lashes moving slightly.

When Zhou Jingze returned to the rest area carrying a bag of water, Da Liu clasped his hands together: “Thanks to little sister Xu, I actually lived to see the day Zhou-ye would run errands to buy water for me.”

“Just happened to be one bottle short,” Zhou Jingze glanced at the drink, his tone both annoying and slow, “don’t drink it, wait until you live to 99 and I’ll buy you another.”

“Damn, tricking me again.” Da Liu stood on tiptoe to grab Zhou Jingze’s neck, and the two wrestled together.

After they had enough water and rest, just as they were about to set off, Sheng Nanzhou looked at the map: “Last stop, Sky City. If we’re lucky, we can see the Snow Maiden.”

The group was eager to move, only Hu Qianxi stood in place without moving, staring blankly at her phone. Sheng Nanzhou walked in front of her, waved his five fingers in front of her eyes, and asked with a smile:

“Why are you spacing out? Aren’t you looking forward to the next stop? And your favorite flying flowers.”

Sheng Nanzhou’s voice pulled the young miss’s thoughts back. Hu Qianxi suddenly looked up, her face lost: “I just received a call from the hospital saying Lu Wenbai fainted on the roadside and was sent to the hospital.”

“I’m his emergency contact, I need to go to the hospital to see him.”

“It’s the last stop, isn’t this where you most wanted to go? There are no cars down the mountain now, we’ll accompany you after seeing it.” Sheng Nanzhou blocked her arm.

Hu Qianxi frowned, her tone a bit aggressive: “Is now the time for sightseeing? He’s injured, I need to go see him. If you want to go, then go!”

“I fucking want to go because you wanted to go!” Sheng Nanzhou roared in a deep voice.

“It’s because you said before that you really wanted to ski and relax that I organized everyone to form a band, just so everyone could come here together! It’s because of you!” Sheng Nanzhou slammed the route map to the ground with a “snap,” his eye sockets feeling a bit dry, whether from anger or something else.

Sheng Nanzhou let out all his pent-up feelings, his expression mocking: “Go if you want to go, just don’t come crying back to me again.”

After Sheng Nanzhou dropped these words, he left the group behind without looking back.

Hu Qianxi was completely stunned by the scolding. Since childhood, Sheng Nanzhou had always been good to her and almost never yelled at her – this was the first time. Crystal tears hung on her lashes, she looked about to cry, and Xu Sui immediately found tissues to give her.

Zhou Jingze took out Hu Qianxi’s phone, his thumb scrolling through the call log. He lowered his neck and took out his phone from his pants pocket, walking not far away to make a low-voiced call.

Two minutes later, Zhou Jingze returned Hu Qianxi’s phone and said: “Already called someone to go to the hospital. Let’s go.”

Zhou Jingze handled everything properly with just one phone call. After their commotion, no one had the mood to continue touring. Beishan was quite remote with only a few fixed buses that couldn’t depart until the scheduled time.

Zhou Jingze somehow got a car from somewhere and sent everyone back.

On the way back, because Hu Qianxi was in a bad mood, Xu Sui had to sit in the back row to chat with her. They hadn’t chatted long before the young miss fell asleep on her shoulder.

Bone-chilling cold wind poured in through the window. Hu Qianxi instinctively shrank back, so Xu Sui pressed the window button, and the window slowly rose. She also called out to the driver to turn up the temperature.

Zhou Jingze’s long arms and legs were cramped in the passenger seat, his elbow propped on the car window. Just as the driver was about to move, Zhou Jingze leaned over and turned up the temperature a bit. The driver smiled: “Thank you.”

“No problem.”

Xu Sui sat in the back row looking at Zhou Jingze in the passenger seat. He sat up straight again, his hair seemed a bit longer – the short, hard black hair poked at his neck slightly. His knuckles supported his forehead as he casually scrolled through his phone, skimming through messages.

Suddenly, Xu Sui’s phone made a “ding dong” sound. She opened WeChat and saw she’d been added to a group called “Beishan Ski Squad” – the name… looked like something Da Liu would come up with.

Sure enough, the next second, Da Liu tagged all members: [Handsome guys and beautiful ladies, share the beautiful photos from this trip!]

Group messages immediately appeared in 99+ format, with Zhou Jingze’s brief “No” standing out in the message group, looking pretentious and annoying.

Xu Sui’s finger pressed on the screen, casually looking at the photos they shared, when suddenly she clicked on one photo and held her finger still, emotions stunned in her eyes.

Someone had casually taken a photo of the suspension bridge with countless love locks hanging in the center.

What a pity, it would have been nice if she could have hung one with him.

While thinking this, the screen’s message bar showed zjz had sent her a message. Xu Sui opened her phone.

Zjz: [Unhappy?]

Xu Sui instinctively looked toward Zhou Jingze in front, but he had his head down, his back like a bow slightly pressed against the back seat. Had he seen her expression through the rearview mirror?

Although she didn’t know why Zhou Jingze would send her messages when they were in the same space, Xu Sui still adjusted her facial expression, lowered her lashes and replied: [No.]

After sending it, there was no reply. Five minutes later, WeChat made a message notification sound – zjz sent you a picture.

She opened WeChat, clicked on the picture, then widened her eyes slightly, somewhat incredulous. Among all kinds of love locks was a red bronze lock, firmly fastened there, with words carved on it – their names side by side:

ZJZ and XS

Her heart pounded non-stop. Xu Sui felt her neck getting hot and replied: [When did you go back to hang it?]

ZJZ replied: [When I was finding a car for everyone.]

Ding dong, he sent another message. Xu Sui clicked to see ZJZ had said: [I threw away the key, so now it can’t be unlocked.]

So now it can’t be unlocked – he was coaxing her. Xu Sui stared at this line of text and couldn’t help but curve her lips.

So happy, happy enough that even the air was sweet.