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墨書 Inktalez
In the warm winter sun, the streets outside were filled with a lazy atmosphere that made one want to stretch. Noon was the warmest time of the day, and a few stray dogs lay motionless at the iron gate of the Fire Department, enjoying their brief sunbath.
"Gather!"
Suddenly, a sharp whistle and shout came from inside the Fire Department, startling one dog whose ears twitched as it turned to glance at the firefighters quickly assembling behind it before settling back down to sleep.
"Hey." A thin boy stood next to Miao Chengmin, nudging him with his elbow. They were at the back of the line, and the instructor wouldn’t notice their quiet conversation for a while.
"Which one are you going to feed later?" Luo Lin glanced at the three stray dogs outside. "I’ve got the sausages ready."
Miao Chengmin cautiously looked toward the instructor, but he overestimated his height; his teammates completely blocked the instructor from view. Only then did Miao Chengmin relax and reply, "Feed? I'm not going to help you feed dogs today."
"What are you going to do then?" Luo Lin asked.
"Just need to use my phone," Miao Chengmin signaled with his eyes.
"Oh~" Luo Lin immediately understood, looking disdainful. "The smell of love."
After leaving university, Miao Chengmin was quite lucky to be assigned to a place relatively close to his alma mater, U City. Upon hearing that Miao Chengmin was not far from school, Ming Juan felt relieved. Her family had recently faced confiscation of assets by the government and was relocating, so she unhesitatingly requested to move to U City. There was no choice; her father had been sentenced to five years in prison, leaving her family without leadership, so they had to follow her wishes.
"Miss, please get in the car. We are about to depart."
Looking at the long line of trucks loaded with furniture, Ming Juan felt an inexplicable melancholy rise within her. She adjusted her coat and turned to get into her family's Bentley.
"Driver, I heard you won't be with us anymore starting tomorrow?" Ming Juan asked once the driver got into the car.
"Yes," the driver said while starting the engine, sounding somewhat regretful. "Who knew such a big incident would happen with the Ming Family? My contract is also expiring. I've been with you for over ten years now; honestly, I will miss it a bit."
"It’s fine; our family is so corrupt that this was bound to happen sooner or later." Ming Juan sat in the back seat, her brow relaxing as she used her Soul-Gazing Eye to observe pedestrians walking along the street in the winter sun. Their expressionless faces and black-and-white souls resembled her own confusion at that moment. "Just give me one last ride."
This was Ming Juan's winter break in her junior year of college and also the first year of her long-distance relationship with Miao Chengmin.
"Beep—"
"Beep—"
The phone rang, and upon seeing who was calling, Ming Juan began to smile. She answered without waiting for Miao Chengmin to say "hello," eagerly greeting him instead: "You brat, you still remember to call your wife during lunch break!"
"Oh come on, sorry Juanzi! I just didn’t send a good morning text this morning. My bad." Miao Chengmin chuckled as he leaned against a wall, watching Luo Lin surrounded by three stray dogs begging for food.
"Haha, have you eaten? I should be able to get to U City tonight; should I order takeout for you?" Ming Juan asked.
"No need, thanks babe." Miao Chengmin suddenly remembered something. "You're coming tonight?"
"In the evening, around six," Ming Juan replied. "What's up?"
"We have an emergency exercise this afternoon, and we need to take the fire truck out," Miao Chengmin and Ming Juan both realized something.
"We might get to see each other!" they answered in unison over the phone.
Ming Juan quickly sat up from the back seat, uncrossed her legs, and leaned closer to the window, looking down at the city beneath the elevated road, as if that would help her see the person she loved.
"Can you tell me where you'll be? I can locate you," Ming Juan asked softly, her fingers trembling with excitement as she playfully teased Miao Chengmin.
"Don't rush, Juanzi. I don't know where the endpoint is either, but they said we would pass by the newly built pedestrian bridge on Highway 51 in U City," Miao Chengmin replied.
"Passing by..." A wave of disappointment washed over Ming Juan, and her brows slowly furrowed as she leaned against the car window in a daze.
Noticing Ming Juan's disappointment, Miao Chengmin comforted her in a very affectionate tone, "It's okay. When you come to U City, it will be much easier for us to meet. Be good, muah muah muah."
"Eh~" Luo Lin at the door seemed to have overheard and turned back to tease, "muah muah muah~"
"Mm-hmm," Ming Juan said. "I'll wait for you there; you should be able to see me. Hehe."
Miao Chengmin glanced back at the cafeteria; his teammates had already finished eating and were coming out. He had to hurry and say goodbye to Ming Juan—if he didn't go now, the cafeteria would close.
Ming Juan was lucky; the highway was clear today. By around five in the afternoon, her convoy had already entered U City. She instructed the moving truck to head to her grandfather's house while she and the driver parked by Highway 51. Alone with her phone that had no messages, she stood on the pedestrian bridge, gazing at the flowing traffic below.
The sound of passing vehicles only highlighted Miss Ming's gentle demeanor. She stood quietly without moving her head even once; the evening breeze brushed against her hair, stirring up her thoughts of longing. Passersby couldn't help but notice this beauty with her flowing hair, curled hands, and still legs—she seemed to be silently embedded in the world's canvas.
She looked like a saint, with the setting sun behind her and the entire world ahead waiting for her.
An hour passed, and even the drivers under the bridge began to grow impatient. One of them messaged Miss Ming, hoping to pick her up soon for her grandfather's house. However, Ming Juan didn't even glance at her phone; she just stood there waiting.
An hour and a half went by.
"It's almost time," Ming Juan thought. "They should be here soon."
Just then, a distant honking startled her. Her heart skipped a beat as she finally moved, gripping the railing tightly and peering into the distance along the road.
"Hey! Why are you honking?!" Inside the fire truck, an instructor quickly stepped forward and asked.
"A kid said his girlfriend is waiting for him on the bridge ahead and asked me to honk to see if she'd notice," the driver explained.
Before the instructor could respond, Miao Chengmin immediately chimed in, "Instructor, that girl standing on the bridge is my girlfriend; please let it slide this once!"
"Is that so?" The instructor walked to the front and indeed saw a girl standing on the bridge. He nodded in understanding and patted Miao Chengmin's shoulder. "Just give him a few honks; don't disturb other vehicles."
"Chengmin!" Upon realizing it was really a fire truck, Ming Juan immediately raised her hand and waved excitedly, calling out in hopes that her beloved on the fire truck would see her.
Sure enough, true lovers always respond to each other. As the fire truck approached within about a hundred meters, it began alternating its high and low beams as a signal for the girl on the bridge while also honking a few times. Ming Juan covered her mouth and jumped in place. Although she couldn't see Miao Chengmin, she believed that her lover who had been apart from her for half a year was surely watching her from inside that truck. After such a long time apart, this was their closest encounter of the year.
"Hi." Luo Lin and his teammates in the vehicle looked at Miao Chengmin's girlfriend on the overpass and sighed, "It's great to have someone you love. Chengmin, cherish her well."
"I've always cherished her." Miao Chengmin hadn't even mentioned what his girl meant to him yet. He looked up at the familiar girl on the overpass, stretching out his hand from the car as if he could touch Ming Juan's hair. The fire truck was already moving very slowly for Miao Chengmin, but his fingertips quickly left Ming Juan's head, and soon, all that remained in his eyes was the bottom of the overpass.
"Don't be disappointed, young man." The instructor stood beside Miao Chengmin and comforted him, "Once you become a formal member of the system, you'll have more holidays than now. Then you can go find her; we're not in the army."
"Yeah, thank you, instructor," Miao Chengmin replied, turning his head.
After waiting for half a year, they could finally end their long-distance relationship. Ming Juan hurriedly ran to the other side of the overpass, watching the vehicle carrying her longing and affection gradually fade away until it disappeared into her enchanting eyes and the night skyline.
This was considered their first meeting after Miao Chengmin graduated.
Even if we can only part after a fleeting glance, I am still willing to wait for you until there are no more separations.
Half a month later, the Spring Festival holiday began. The fire station where Miao Chengmin worked also gave everyone a seven-day break. This was Miao Chengmin's first time not going home for the New Year; he felt that he would have many opportunities to reunite with his family in the future, but having the chance to spend the New Year with his beloved Ming Juan was truly rare. This year during the Spring Festival, he drove to the small town where Ming Juan's new home was located, and that year, it snowed heavily, with thick snow piling up enough to submerge one's feet.
"I want to build a snowman!" Miao Chengmin said as he picked Ming Juan up from her house, and they joyfully dashed through the snow. After parking, Ming Juan got out from the passenger seat, opened Miao Chengmin's driver's door, and sat down on his lap. After a long moment of intimacy, Ming Juan wrapped her arms around Miao Chengmin's neck and made a small request.
"Sure," Miao Chengmin smiled.
"But it can't be an ordinary snowman," Ming Juan said while looking out at the snowy ground through the car window. "I want our snowman to have a carrot nose and... a pair of blueberry eyes. And it has to be super big—really huge! Big enough to break a Guinness World Record! Hahaha..."
Miao Chengmin smiled knowingly—carrots were his favorite vegetable, while blueberries were Ming Juan's favorite fruit.
"Of course!" Miao Chengmin said as he held Ming Juan's slender waist and gazed deeply into her eyes. "I'll help you build it first; there's a convenience store nearby where you can buy some things. Let's go build an enormous one in that square, okay?"
That day, they spent all afternoon and evening working on their snowman so that it wouldn't be easily kicked over by passersby. Ming Juan felt that wasn't enough; so Miao Chengmin woke up early the next day to continue building it and warned a boy who often sat on a nearby bench not to come kick their snowman down. On New Year's Eve that year, Miao Chengmin and Ming Juan sat beside their snowman—almost as tall as a person—sitting in the snow together, snuggling up while dreaming about their future.
"Darling, when are you going to marry me?" Ming Juan asked shyly as she buried her head in Miao Chengmin's embrace.
Miao Chengmin looked down and gently kissed the top of Ming Juan's head: "I'll marry you when you graduate or finish your postgraduate exams, then take you to fulfill all your wishes, okay?"
Ming Juan nodded in Miao Chengmin's embrace as he smiled lightly and looked up at the night sky that belonged to their future. There, brilliant lights sparkled with fireworks; the tranquility of the small town combined with the beauty of the festival blended affection and longing into just the right sweetness. In such a warm world, it seemed to bless them—love would not only linger in this year's snowy night.
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