Fang Zhuo changed her shoes casually and hurried downstairs.

The moment she opened the security door, Yan Lie came rushing over, grabbed her hand, and took off running toward the entrance of the residential compound.

Fang Zhuo felt the cold wind shoot past her in an instant. The chill that hit her face cut off the question she had been about to ask. Her gaze swept to the side, and she spotted a bicycle standing under a distant streetlamp, its shadow blurring in the light.

“We’re running out of time!” Yan Lie glanced at his watch. “I couldn’t get a cab, so I rode a bicycle!”

A faint sheen of sweat beaded on his forehead, though his cheeks were flushed pink — whether from excitement or the exertion, it was hard to say.

He swung nimbly onto the bike and propped one foot on the ground, then turned his head and found Fang Zhuo still standing there in a daze. He stepped back down with one long-legged stride, quickly unwound his scarf, and wrapped it twice around Fang Zhuo’s neck.

“You come out without dressing more warmly? The wind is strong at night.” Yan Lie straightened the edges of the scarf and smoothed her hair out from under it. “There! Let’s go!”

The scarf still held the warmth and smell of Yan Lie. Fang Zhuo breathed in, and a hazy, enveloping sensation washed over her. Even as she slowed her breathing, the heat that bounced back from the soft fabric was still enough to numb her senses. Before she had even finished thinking, she had already settled onto the rear seat of the bicycle.

Yan Lie waited a moment, put on his gloves, and still saw no further movement from Fang Zhuo. He had to prompt her: “Hold on to me — otherwise I’ll always be worried you’re going to fall off.”

He turned his head, his face half-obscured by the warm white vapor of his breath, and asked with a teasing note in his voice: “What is it about me that doesn’t make you feel safe?”

Fang Zhuo tugged the scarf upward to cover the lower half of her face, then slowly wrapped her arms around him and said bluntly, “Go.”

The fireworks were near the People’s Square, facing the side toward the river. Cycling there would take about twenty minutes or so. Along the way they would pass a clock tower.

As they rode past the clock tower, Fang Zhuo could see the hands pointing to 11:10.

There were few pedestrians along this stretch of road at this hour, but continuing forward would lead into the bustling shopping district at the heart of the city. The brilliant lights of the tall buildings were already visible in the distance.

Just as they were approaching a traffic light intersection, Yan Lie suddenly pulled over to the side.

Fang Zhuo peered past his shoulder and saw a traffic officer in a fluorescent-striped uniform standing at the intersection ahead, glancing over in their direction repeatedly.

Yan Lie steadied the bike and, with his head now somewhat cooler, uttered a single word: “Uh oh.”

Fang Zhuo: “?”

“I think you’re not allowed to carry a passenger on a bicycle. Unless it’s a child under school age.” Yan Lie turned back around. He was clearly guilty but had the nerve to ask with a straight face: “Award-winning actress, do you think the officer would believe it?”

Fang Zhuo: “……”

When Lielie starts scheming, Zhuozhuo starts sweating.

“Hang on,” Fang Zhuo said, “did you not know this before? Did you do this on purpose?”

Yan Lie pleaded his case: “I genuinely only just remembered. My bike’s rear seat doesn’t usually carry passengers! You’re a rare exception.”

In a situation like this, under these circumstances, Fang Zhuo found it very hard to feel pleased.

Fortunately, the officer saw them pull over voluntarily and didn’t come toward them. On New Year’s Eve, they were spared a fine.

Yan Lie moved the bike to the roadside, locked it, checked the time, decided there was still enough left, and pulled Fang Zhuo into a run again.

As they passed in front of the traffic officer, Yan Lie waved and called out loudly: “Thank you, comrade! Happy New Year! Thank you for working the holiday!”

The officer smiled and gave him a look that said, “Don’t let me catch you doing it again.”

From the street corner to the bridge was still about two kilometers. But the surrounding area was all low-rise buildings, so if they walked just a little further they would be able to see the fireworks over the river — the only downside being that their viewing spot wouldn’t be ideal.

Fang Zhuo ran into the night breeze and started to feel warm enough to sweat. She signaled to Yan Lie to slow down, and they followed the gradually gathering crowd toward the bridge.

Yan Lie took long strides, humming some unknown tune, his gaze drifting between the glittering river surface and the vast, deep night sky — he never once glanced in Fang Zhuo’s direction.

His brows and eyes held a radiant glow, vibrant and high-spirited. He looked to be in a light, happy mood, and he still hadn’t let go of Fang Zhuo’s hand, as though he had forgotten entirely that he was holding it.

Fang Zhuo fell into step with him, and as her mind relaxed into the unhurried rhythm, she noticed a couple on the side of the road taking photos with their phones. She looked up at him and said reproachfully: “Why didn’t you reply to my messages?”

Yan Lie said, perfectly self-righteous: “Don’t you often not reply to mine?”

That settled it for Fang Zhuo — Yan Lie was definitely getting his revenge. She hadn’t expected this man to be so petty.

Fang Zhuo protested, “I genuinely wasn’t being stingy—”

“I believe you.” Yan Lie’s delivery was too clumsy; those first three words sounded thoroughly insincere. He added: “Because I wasn’t being stingy either.”

Yes you were, Fang Zhuo said inside her head.

By the time they reached the riverside, it was already 11:45. The fireworks would be set off from the opposite bank at midnight.

The bridge was already filled with a considerable crowd. Yan Lie pulled Fang Zhuo into the surging mass of people, found a relatively elevated spot, and stood on a slope to wait for the new year to arrive.

Fang Zhuo took out her phone, checked the time again, and asked the person beside her: “How come you have time to be here? Don’t you need to bring in the New Year with your parents?”

“They’re both drunk.” The surrounding noise was too loud; Yan Lie leaned down to speak close to Fang Zhuo’s ear. “Could you smell any alcohol on me earlier?”

Actually, when they were riding the bike and were pressed close together, Fang Zhuo had caught the faintest trace of it — but recalling Yan Lie’s undisguised aversion to alcohol, she was worried he might lose his temper on the spot, so she said with a completely straight face that she hadn’t.

Besides, today was the last night of the old year. There were only a few minutes left before it was over. A few kind little white lies told now wouldn’t carry over into the new year.

Yan Lie frowned, and said a little pitifully: “Before I saw you, this entire day of mine had been one piece of bad luck after another!”

Fang Zhuo said, “I could share a bit of my good luck with you — though I don’t have much to spare either.” Her store of good fortune had begun accumulating from the moment she’d encountered Yan Lie, and lately it seemed to be growing especially fast.

Yan Lie fixed his gaze on her profile and asked: “Like when you had less than two hundred yuan to your name but could still treat me to a twenty-yuan lunch?”

Fang Zhuo said with great seriousness: “Man, you ask for too much.”

Yan Lie broke into loud laughter.

There was only one minute left until midnight and the new year. The people on the bridge grew even more excited. Many held up their phones, counting down the final seconds.

When his laughter subsided, Yan Lie turned to Fang Zhuo with sincerity: “Thank you. Before I saw you, I really wasn’t very happy. I thought the year was going to end just like this…. Can you grant me one New Year’s wish?”

Fang Zhuo glanced at him and said nothing.

“Won’t you?” Yan Lie asked softly, appealing to her. “It’s not difficult. It doesn’t cost anything. Not even then?”

“I’m going to raise chickens for you, keep you company on a trip to see the ocean, buy you a birthday present. And now you want me to grant another wish on top of all that.” Fang Zhuo looked utterly put-upon and cried out in exasperation: “How do you have so many demands of me? Can’t you take them one at a time?”

Yan Lie froze, light flickering in his eyes: “You remember all of them?” Fang Zhuo said: “They’re cleared now!”

“No!” Yan Lie said very loudly. “Saved! Permanently saved! If you forget, I’ll read them back to you every single day!”

“You’re the one who forgot!” Fang Zhuo said, very indignantly. “Do you still remember your chicken mascot? I said back then we shouldn’t buy it!”

The fireworks split open the darkness of the night in that very moment, shooting upward into the sky and exploding at their peak into countless sparks — trailing brilliant light in red, yellow, blue, and green, illuminating the entire canopy of night.

The tail end of the old year departed amid cheers and cries, and the first breath of the new year arrived in a blaze of light.

Yan Lie laughed loudly and raised his hands to cover her ears, speaking to her through the honking of vehicles, through the noise of the city, his lips moving open and closed.

Fang Zhuo couldn’t hear a thing. She tilted her head back, tracking the arc of the fireworks, watching countless star-like points of light plummet downward and burn out mid-fall, her mouth open, a soundless exclamation on her lips.

The world grew bright in the first fireworks display she had ever witnessed, and then fell silent beside the first person who had ever welcomed the new year with her.

Following the direction of the light, she finally let her gaze come to rest on Yan Lie’s face. His jet-black pupils were filled at this moment with the lingering glow of the flames, radiant and burning as they met her eyes.

She read his lips and understood that Yan Lie seemed to be saying “Happy New Year” to her, the image finally settling on a frank, brilliant smile.

The pain of setbacks, the bitterness of daily life, the fear of the unknown, all the old resentments and grievances she had once harbored…. Every last trivial and useless thing retreated from her memory in that instant, making room to record the unfinished matters that involved Yan Lie.

Fang Zhuo conceded defeat and said: “The saving starts now — so what is your New Year’s wish?”