Chapter 2 Shaking in the Snow
My hand shook as I held the phone.
I guessed my face didn't look good.
Because when I got out of the car, the driver asked if I wanted to detour to the hospital.
I didn't know how I made it to the bottom of Lu Huaichuan's apartment building.
It was three in the afternoon in Vancouver.
The sky was overcast and gray. Snowflakes fell heavily.
I sat on the bench outside the apartment and spaced out for a while.
Then I took out my phone and called Lu Huaichuan.
Lu Huaichuan hung up directly.
The next second, I received his WeChat message. "Busy, not convenient."
I didn't know when it started, but Lu Huaichuan's replies to me were always "busy."
To the point where I could hardly remember what the eighteen-year-old Lu Huaichuan, who always had time for me, looked like.
I took out my phone and opened WeChat. I scrolled back a long way in the chat until I reached the top.
Back then, Lu Huaichuan loved talking to me.
Most of the page was him speaking as I scrolled down.
He shared street food he ate, songs he heard that day, night cats in the park.
Then he waited to see me.
I remembered one time I was on a business trip for a month. One day, I transferred through Shanghai.
I had a five-hour layover at the airport.
When Lu Huaichuan found out, he took the subway from Pudong for an hour and a half to the airport.
He stayed with me in the airport lounge for three hours, then took another hour and a half subway back.
The next day was his final exam. I told him not to bother.
He pinned me in the corner, kissing me fiercely.
"No! I haven't seen you for twenty-four days. That's like seventy-two autumns passed."
"It's too long. I'm afraid you'll forget me."
Back then, Lu Huaichuan was so passionate.
Who would have thought such heat could turn cold one day.