To Sweep Across Like Wildfire - Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Meng Chi’s backpack was still unzipped.

Shen Qingruo glanced inside and saw several light blue cigarette boxes. Her delicate brows furrowed as she turned and headed toward a convenience store. A moment later, she returned to Meng Chi’s side, holding a plastic bag printed with the green characters for “Changhu Supermarket.”

Opening the bag, she raised an eyebrow at Meng Chi. With an unreadable expression, she said, “Put all the cigarettes from your bag in here.”

Meng Chi bit her lip and hesitated for a moment, but eventually, she placed the “Sea Breeze” cigarette boxes into the bag one by one.

She had come to Changhu today to sketch. Just before leaving, she had received a call from a courier. She could have left them in a delivery locker, but she wanted to try the cigarettes right away, so she picked them up directly. Then, she got busy painting and hadn’t found the time to try them yet.

Glancing at the Sea Breeze ladies’ cigarettes in the bag, a belated thought crossed her mind: Why was she listening to Shen Qingruo so obediently? Just because Shen Qingruo told her to put them away, she did?

“Is that all of them?” Shen Qingruo asked.

“That’s all.”

“Really?”

Meng Chi felt a bit resentful to begin with, and being questioned repeatedly made her even unhappier. She blurted out, “There really are no more. If you don’t believe me, search me.”

Her calm voice carried a hint of youthful sharp-edgedness.

Compared to seasoned “old souls” of society, young people are young because they tend to say startling things in the heat of the moment.

Ever since she first met Meng Chi, Shen Qingruo had realized the girl wasn’t as cool and steady as she appeared on the surface. Despite knowing this, she was still slightly surprised by this side of the “little kid,” and after the surprise came a deep sense of intrigue.

Meng Chi regretted it as soon as the words left her mouth. For some reason, whenever she was with Shen Qingruo, she wasn’t herself anymore. She kept saying impulsive things and her tone lacked its usual composure.

With a hint of a smile, Shen Qingruo tied the bag shut, hung it on her slender wrist, and said, “I’ll deal with you tonight.”

She strolled toward the lakeside. Meng Chi followed behind, still feeling a bit disgruntled. She thought she should have left the cigarettes in the delivery locker and picked them up later when returning to Xiling. Knowing she was going to the lake with Shen Qingruo today, she hadn’t even considered the possibility of being caught.

How could I have been so careless? She had pulled the cigarettes out while reaching for a tissue.

After all that trouble, she hadn’t even had a single puff.

A moment later, her phone chimed with a notification. A WeChat transfer message slid across the screen.

When Meng Chi opened WeChat, she looked ahead and saw Shen Qingruo looking down at her phone.

“rr” had sent 1,000 yuan. The transfer note read: Kids aren’t allowed to smoke. Confiscated.

The lake breeze blew gently, lifting the ends of Shen Qingruo’s chestnut-colored curls. Her pace was light, and her silhouette looked exceptionally vibrant.

The frustration in Meng Chi’s heart vanished instantly. A thought she had almost forgotten surfaced: This was their first date.

She didn’t accept the transfer. Instead, she put her phone back in her pocket and sped up a few steps to catch up with Shen Qingruo.

There were many people strolling along the embankment. Two or three young couples walked past them, laughing and being intimate. Meng Chi’s eyes involuntarily drifted to their interlaced fingers. Her heart stirred as her gaze fell on Shen Qingruo’s hand hanging by her side. Her black nail polish made her skin look even fairer; her fingers were long and her knuckles distinct. It was a very beautiful hand.

Even though they had already been physically intimate, Meng Chi still felt shy about what she wanted to do next.

She… wanted to hold Shen Qingruo’s hand.

It was a strange feeling. Even when she was dating Song Yuanzhe, she had never felt this way. Whenever they walked together and he showed that intention, she would speed up and leave him behind. Back then, she felt that holding hands was an avoidable behavior—there was no need to declare ownership to the world that way. If you’re walking, just walk. Why hold hands? Doesn’t it just get in the way?

But now, she… wanted to be closer to Shen Qingruo.

Meng Chi’s heart pounded. The blood in her body seemed to rush to her fingertips, making them tingle. She edged slightly closer, wanting to touch the back of Shen Qingruo’s hand. Just then, Shen Qingruo casually raised her hand to tap her phone screen.

Meng Chi missed. Her face flushed hot. Fearing Shen Qingruo would notice something was wrong, she turned her head slightly to the other side.

Her heart fluttered. Did Shen Qingruo notice her intention? Did she not want to touch her hand?

Shen Qingruo hadn’t thought that much; she just wanted to check her messages. Seeing that Meng Chi still hadn’t accepted the red packet, she looked up.

The kid had no expression on her face, looking seriously at the pedal boats on the lake.

“Still angry?” Shen Qingruo asked.

“No.”

“Are you looking at those pedal boats?”

Meng Chi gave a soft “Mhm.”

In truth, she wasn’t looking at anything. Feeling Shen Qingruo’s gaze, she pretended to be watching the boats.

The lake shimmered. The orange pedal boats drifted lazily, with the occasional hum of a motor as several white speedboats zipped past.

The scene triggered some memories for Shen Qingruo, but she quickly pushed them to the back of her mind.

She said casually, “How about we rent a boat and go out on the lake?”

Although the pedal boats in Changhu Park looked old, they were kept fairly clean, with no obvious grime under the seats.

They soon drifted to the center of the lake. There was a small, untended island overgrown with weeds, but it served as a stopover for flocks of birds. They didn’t seem afraid of humans, landing in groups of three or five.

Shen Qingruo said regretfully, “If I’d known, I would have brought some bread to feed them.”

She sat in a relaxed posture, leaning lazily against the plastic backrest. From time to time, she directed Meng Chi on how to pedal while she didn’t move at all.

The light reflecting off the water danced across her beautiful face, accentuating her red lips and white teeth.

The pedal boat was easy to operate. Even though Meng Chi had never done it before, she learned quickly. She took the helm, carefully navigating along the edge of the island. Her gaze moved from the birds to Shen Qingruo’s face, lingered for a moment, and then quickly shifted away. She said calmly, “We can come back again in the future.”

The two sat on opposite sides.

Shen Qingruo rested one hand on the back of the seat next to her, propping up her head lazily. Her lips curled slightly as she said, “Okay.”

A while later, after passing under a bridge, they realized they were in a small cove with no way forward.

“Should we go back?” Meng Chi asked.

Shen Qingruo didn’t respond, her eyes fixed intentionally or unintentionally on another pedal boat nearby.

They were the only two boats in this area.

On that boat was a familiar-looking three- or four-year-old child wearing a life jacket. The child was dangerously leaning halfway out of the boat, clutching a thin stick and poking at the algae in the water. The two adults on the boat were completely oblivious. They looked irritable, and their argument was getting louder, seemingly complaining about recent life stresses.

Meng Chi recalled that this child had asked Shen Qingruo to change some small bills earlier. The thin stick in her hand must have been the leftover skewer from a candied hawthorn.

Once she understood Shen Qingruo’s concern, she stopped rushing. She steered their boat toward the other one, intending to warn the parents.

At that moment, the child leaned out even further. Before either of them could shout, there was a “plop,” and the child fell in.

Seeing this, the parents stopped arguing immediately. They scrambled anxiously to the side where the child had fallen, nearly capsizing the pedal boat. They screamed for help, reaching out for the child. Two seconds later, the young father, acting on impulse, climbed over the side and jumped in to try and save the child, forgetting that he didn’t know how to swim. He splashed around, drifting further away.

Seeing her husband fall in, the young woman immediately threw the life buoy toward him: “You can’t swim! Quick, grab the buoy…”

Everything happened in a flash. Their boat was still some distance from the child. Without waiting for the boat to get closer, Shen Qingruo immediately dove into the deep lake and swam toward the spot where the child had fallen. She was an excellent swimmer and, a moment later, she held the child up. With the parents’ help, she returned the unconscious, water-choked child to their boat.

Two minutes later, the child regained consciousness, and the couple hugged each other, wailing loudly.

Meng Chi breathed a sigh of relief, only then realizing that Shen Qingruo was nowhere to be seen. Shen Qingruo hadn’t returned to the boat, and there was no sign of a person on the surface.

Her heart tightened painfully as she shouted Shen Qingruo’s name repeatedly.

Although the weather was getting warmer, the lake water was still cold. Shen Qingruo had jumped in without warming up—could she have cramped and drowned? At that thought, Meng Chi didn’t care about anything else and was about to dive in to find her.

Just as she threw one leg over the side of the boat, a “thump-thump” sound came from the stern.

Shen Qingruo had been submerged under the boat. Seeing Meng Chi about to jump in, she tapped the hull to stop her. She swam from the stern to Meng Chi’s side and laughed, “Just teasing you.”

She saw Meng Chi’s face and froze for a few seconds. “Why are you crying?”

Only then did Meng Chi feel the heat in her eyelids. In her panic, she had actually shed tears. She turned away and rubbed her eyes, but a few more tears rolled down. The more she rubbed, the more they fell.

Shen Qingruo never expected such a reaction. As the “instigator,” she climbed back onto the boat sheepishly.

She parted her lips and said, “Why did you cry… Hey, don’t cry…”

It was a socially awkward thing to say, but it came out nonetheless. She was single and unattached; it had been a long time since she had encountered a situation like this. If it had been Xie Zhen, she would have definitely cursed her out or maybe even driven the boat away.

Seeing that Meng Chi still had her back turned, Shen Qingruo realized she had said the wrong thing and shut her mouth.

After a moment, Meng Chi’s emotions settled, and she stared quietly at the lake.

She had forgotten the last time she cried, and she had never cried for someone else before.

What was wrong with her?

The couple nearby was still wailing, seemingly unable to shake off the terror. Shen Qingruo stepped on the pedals and took the steering wheel, wanting to leave quietly. A moment later, Meng Chi turned around, took over the wheel, and said in a voice that was calm but carried a hint of raspiness, “Let me do it. You’re all wet. Wring yourself out so you don’t catch a cold.”

Shen Qingruo obediently stepped aside without any objection.

They returned to the docking point in complete silence. They told the shop owner what had happened. The owner was shocked and thanked them profusely, offering to let them shower and change in the shop. They declined, took only a towel, and left.

As they walked away, the shop owner and several others took a speedboat toward the cove, fearing the family of three might have another accident.

They arrived at the Changhu Park parking lot and stopped by Shen Qingruo’s car.

Shen Qingruo said her body felt sticky and driving would be uncomfortable. She locked eyes with Meng Chi for a moment before saying, as if waking from a dream, “I forgot, you can’t drive.”

By now, Meng Chi had completely recovered from her emotions, leaving only a sense of embarrassment that she had cried in front of her. Fortunately, aside from the initial comment, Shen Qingruo hadn’t brought it up again.

Shen Qingruo wrapped the large towel around her upper body and casually used a corner of it to dry her long hair. Her wet clothes clung to her skin, leaving nothing to the imagination.

She said, “Let’s go. Let’s get a room.”