The Healing Sunshine (一厘米的阳光)

Chapter 21.3 - The One Beyond those Past Dreams (3)

"This place doesn't seem to have changed much." Her voice was scratchy, and the tears in her eyes seemed as if a single little bump would send them tumbling down.

She wanted to force them back, but he had already seen them. What should she do?

She was embarrassed about her loss of composure. Bending over, she was going to continue changing her shoes.

Jì Chengyang's hand closed around her arm. "No need to change them."

Jǐ Yi's body stiffened slightly.

"I think I forgot to buy groceries yesterday. There's nothing in the house that I can really cook for you to eat." Jì Chengyang spoke a very obvious lie. The refrigerator very early on had been stuffed full with half-completed dishes that he had prepared in advance. He had already changed his mind, though. He did not want their hard-to-come-by dinner to become like this, where they felt so awkward as they faced one another. Perhaps switching to another location would be much better.

Everything had come about because he had been too anxious to achieve instant results, wanting her to be able to have a sense of "home" on this day. But he had forgotten that though this place had once contained all of her greatest joys, it also held an equal amount of pain.

"Then... let's go out to eat." She spoke softly.

All along the way here earlier, she had been continuously preparing herself mentally. Since she had already agreed to have dinner with him, then she should not do anything that would make the two of them feel too awkard. And plus, today was the fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year, the Lantern Festival. They were celebrating a holiday.

But in the end, she had messed it all up.

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That night, the two had dinner and then he took her back to her school.

The road that their vehicle was driving on was relatively quiet, and Jǐ Yi did not really recognize it. While she was gazing out at the surroundings, she speculated over why Jì Chengyang was so familiar with this area, until her eyes were drawn to a car parked in the shadows on the roadside.

"What's wrong?" Jì Chengyang discovered that she had turned her head in surprise and was looking towards the back.

However, when he looked in the rearview mirror, there was no one at all.

"I can see that car moving. Is someone trying to steal it?" Jǐ Yi said quietly.

Sìowly stepping on the brake, Jì Chengyang put the car into reverse for a stretch of way. After confirming which car it was that she was referring to, he, for once, fell into silence for a while. Only when Jǐ Yi turned her head to look at him did he self-consciously clear his throat. His right hand, which had been resting on the steering wheel, changed positions so that it was now gripping it. "It shouldn't be a car theft."

That was...

She suddenly caught on. As if trying to dispel any doubts, she took another few glances. Once she had confirmed her thought, she instantly sat her body up straight and unblinkingly stared straight ahead of her. Due to this little encounter, the awkwardness in the car went up another several notches. Not only was there awkwardness, there were also hints of a suggestive atmosphere that could not be ignored.

As a result, these two people, who had not had much dialogue going on between them in the first place, now fell into silence the entire way until they arrived at the final destination.