Lin Jinran pursed her lips and smiled, her heart full of touch, just as warm as the heat emitted by the warming patch. "Class monitor, why didn't you prepare one for me? Wuwuwu, we've been childhood friends for so many years." Lu Youchuan, who was standing nearby, heard their conversation and covered his face, pretending to cry.
But he left a gap between his fingers and rolled his eyes around, looking rather comical.
"Get out of here." Su Qinian couldn't help but scold with a laugh.
Childhood friends... Just thinking about it made him shiver.
"Sure enough, one has to be as shameless as Lu Youchuan." Tao Wan joked about him. "The couple is having a sweet moment. What are you doing here? It's already good that you were just scolded."
One of the couple, Lin Jinran: "..."
The other one, Su Qinian: "..."
Brilliant fireworks bloomed one after another in the night sky, dazzling people.
After the fireworks faded, the night sky fell back into darkness. Along the riverbank, only the streetlights were emitting a faint glow, and the snowflakes were slowly falling.
"Shall we take a group photo here or at the hotel?" Tao Wan asked. "It seems that we haven't taken many photos of the group yet."
"Let's take a group photo first and then individual ones." Lin Jinran suggested.
"Su Qinian, Su Qinian..." A familiar voice sounded, accompanied by hasty footsteps.
Everyone looked over and saw Zhang Qiaozhi. Perhaps because they were closer now, they noticed that she had put on a delicate makeup.
"What's up?" Su Qinian frowned slightly, but quickly returned to normal.
With so many people watching, Zhang Qiaozhi was not afraid. She bent over to catch her breath, then stood up straight again and smiled as she offered her blessings. "Class monitor, with each passing year comes new gifts. May the new year bring you good luck and all your wishes come true."
"Thank you." Su Qinian nodded slightly and politely thanked her.
A look of disappointment flashed across Zhang Qiaozhi's eyes, but she quickly perked up. She turned to Tao Wan and asked, "Are we going to take a group photo later?"
Tao Wan nodded. "Yes, right here. I'll @ everyone later and ask them to come here for the photo."
As she finished speaking, she picked up her phone and immediately @ everyone to gather and sent them a location.
"How will you get back later?" Su Qinian turned his head and whispered.
His warm breath brushed against her ear.
Lin Jinran looked around.
Since it was New Year's Eve tonight, there were a lot of people gathered along the riverbank. Naturally, the taxi drivers wouldn't miss this good opportunity to make money.
"I'll take a taxi later. What about you?"
"I originally planned to ask the family driver to pick me up, but it's already past midnight. It would be too much trouble for him. I'll take a taxi with you. It's better to have company..."
Over there, Su Qinian and Lin Jinran were whispering to each other as if there was no one else around, while over here, Lu Youchuan and the others were laughing and joking.
The classmates who had come to celebrate New Year's Eve gradually arrived.
Zhang Qiaozhi leaned against the railing, pretending to be busy on her phone.
Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at Su Qinian.
She saw the intimate way the two of them were acting as if there was no one else around, and also saw Su Qinian gently brush away the snowflake that had landed on Lin Jinran's nose.
She felt a suffocating feeling in her heart and was extremely annoyed.
She couldn't even focus on her phone.
After waiting for five or six minutes, Tao Wan counted the number of people to make sure everyone had arrived. She then greeted everyone to stand in position and prepared to take the group photo.
Su Qinian stood in the middle, and next to him was Lin Jinran. He held her back and didn't let her go to the other side to take the photo.
Zhang Qiaozhi was lost in her jealousy. When she came to her senses, the first row was already full and there were no more spots.
She stared at Lin Jinran beside her gloomily, then silently stood in the back row.
"Achoo!" Lin Jinran sneezed and rubbed her nose.
"What's wrong? Are you catching a cold?" Su Qinian looked worried and checked her up and down.
Lin Jinran waved her hand indifferently. "It's okay. Maybe it's because of the wind. It's almost over. It doesn't matter."
Tao Wan found a passerby and simply taught him how to use the camera to take a photo. After the passerby learned how to do it, she quickly squeezed into the spot that everyone had reserved for her.
"Are you ready? I'll count three, two, one. Remember to say 'cheese'." The passerby adjusted the position. After hearing their replies, he started counting down. "Three, two, one!"
"Cheese!"
The shutter was pressed several times in a row. The passerby returned the camera to Tao Wan and then left.
Tao Wan took a quick look at a few of the photos and found that they were all good. She smiled in satisfaction. She also noticed that the snow was still falling, but it had become much lighter than before.
"Remember to post a message in the group when you get home, just in case something happens." Tao Wan fulfilled her duty as the vice class monitor and called out worriedly.
"Don't worry. I'll definitely send a message when I get home."
"Yeah, Tao Wan, you have our contact information. Don't worry. We're all grown - ups. We definitely won't have any problems."
"..."
The classmates all responded one after another. They said goodbye to each other and then left one by one.
Most of the people along the riverbank had left. After Tao Wan took the photos for everyone, she also prepared to go home. It was already after one o'clock in the morning. If she didn't go home soon, her family would start to worry.
Fortunately, there were still taxis along the riverbank. According to their home directions, they got into the taxis in small groups.
Lin Jinran and Su Qinian were in the same taxi.
"See you the day after tomorrow!" Lu Youchuan and the others opened the car window and said goodbye to everyone. They were the first to leave, and the taxi that Lin Jinran was in was the last to go.
Outside the car window, the night was surging. The soft snowflakes had become bigger again, floating down like a celestial maiden scattering flowers. It was very beautiful.
"Then you'll get home even later. You're not going in the same direction as me." Lin Jinran shifted her gaze from the car window to the boy beside her.
Su Qinian leaned back lazily, his tone lazy and casual. "It's okay. I need to make sure you get home safely. Then I can rest assured."
The car drove on the road. About half an hour later, Lin Jinran arrived at her rental house. She got out of the car and told Su Qinian, "Remember to send me a message when you get home."
"Okay, okay, okay." Su Qinian said "okay" three times in a row and watched the girl he loved leave.
"Shall we go now? Where to?" the driver asked.
"Not yet. Wait for five minutes." Su Qinian rolled down the car window. The howling cold wind blew in, but he seemed not to notice. He looked up at a certain window on the opposite building.
Two minutes later, the window lit up.
Su Qinian yawned but still forced himself to stay awake and look at the window. His fingers tapped on the leather car seat.
Another five minutes passed. Su Qinian told the driver a location, rolled up the car window, and the driver drove him there.
Lin Jinran, who had just finished taking a shower, didn't know how long Su Qinian had waited for her downstairs. She picked up her phone, and a WeChat message popped up.
She thought it was from Su Qinian. She pursed her lips and smiled, thinking that he had arrived home so quickly.
When she opened it, she found that it wasn't from Su Qinian but from Qiao Songyue.
It was her friend request.