She had even unconsciously started imitating her former self, buying dark chocolate for Li Wuhui whenever she got angry.
Li Wuhui didn’t speak.
But she was eating the chocolate Qiu Yiran had given her.
That proved she wasn’t too angry.
Qiu Yiran thought to herself.
She also had no intention of forcing Li Wuhui to say “I forgive you.”
Insisting that others accept an apology without reason struck her as a form of bullying.
Qiu Yiran quietly watched Li Wuhui eat two or three pieces of chocolate before preparing to return to her own room.
“Get some early sleep. We’ll set off early tomorrow. We should be able to cross the border into Russia.”
Li Wuhui’s movements stopped as she tore open the chocolate wrapper.
She put the fourth piece into her mouth, lowered her face, and didn’t know what she was thinking. After a long time, she finally spat out three words,
“Got it.”
Qiu Yiran didn’t say anything more and went into her room.
That night, neither of them brought up the question of who would drive again.
Qiu Yiran wasn’t the sharp type to begin with.
Her stubbornness and pride were wrapped beneath a soft exterior.
Most of the time, she didn’t want to force others to do things. Whenever she wanted to achieve a certain result, her usual method was conditional exchange.
But the “birthday wish” conditional exchange had failed, and she didn’t want to push Li Wuhui any harder.
Even so, she still didn’t sleep well that night.
She tossed and turned.
She wondered if, even if Li Wuhui never drove again or faced that matter, she could fully move on from the accident all those years ago and stop feeling guilty toward her?
She wanted to find a gentler way to let Li Wuhui completely let go of her.
The next day, Qiu Yiran got up very early.
The large luggage had already been loaded into the car the night before.
She had arranged to meet Li Wuhui in the parking lot in the morning. Qiu Yiran dressed very warmly, hiding her prosthetic leg under thick fleece pants. When she spotted that bright yellow taxi, she rubbed her eyes—
Her vision gradually cleared from blurry, and the woman leaning against the car became clear as well.
It was Li Wuhui.
It was still early, and the air was damp and cold, making it feel like invisible snow was already drifting about. Li Wuhui wore the clothes they had bought together that day—very thick ones—with a heavy scarf wrapped around her neck.
It seemed she really had been listening to her.
Qiu Yiran smiled contentedly.
She walked over toward her.
As if by some telepathic connection, Li Wuhui suddenly looked up at that moment.
She saw her, their gazes meeting.
But she didn’t speak or wait for her to get closer. Li Wuhui lowered her head again, lost in thought.
By the time Qiu Yiran was almost there, Li Wuhui opened the car door on her own.
She got in.
Qiu Yiran froze.
She stopped in place and didn’t move forward for a long time.
Until Li Wuhui rolled down the window. Her profile looked very pale in the damp, cold air.
“Don’t just stand there. Get in.”
She urged her.
Qiu Yiran snapped back to reality.
She lowered her head and wiped the fog from her eyes.
She walked over.
First, she placed her small bag of luggage in the back seat, then went around to the side.
She opened the door—
Qiu Yiran sat in the passenger seat.
Then, she looked somewhat nervously at Li Wuhui, who was seated in the driver’s seat.
Before setting off, to prepare for any unexpected situations, she had printed out Li Wuhui’s driver’s license and related documents.
But Qiu Yiran had never imagined there would actually be a chance to use them.
“Wasn’t it you who said it?”
Li Wuhui sat very upright, as if she were just someone temporarily sitting in the driver’s seat.
“The roads here are easier to drive. It’s a rare chance to get back on the road.”
Seeing Li Wuhui back in the driver’s seat made Qiu Yiran even more nervous than her.
She suppressed her heart, which was about to leap into her throat, and slowly nodded.
“Yeah, the roads lately have been easy to drive, and the population and traffic aren’t as dense as in the country or France.”
That was exactly why Qiu Yiran had brought it up repeatedly—it was a rare opportunity.
Li Wuhui might never come back here again.
But during a journey, people’s mindsets often changed, and they could even come to accept things they had been avoiding.
“Then let’s do as you said.”
Li Wuhui said slowly, slowly raising her hand to rest it on the steering wheel.
“I’ll give it a try first.”
“Okay.” Qiu Yiran’s throat felt dry.
She barely breathed as she watched Li Wuhui slowly get a feel for the car.
She knew she had to be a reliable passenger today.
“The weather’s bad today. It might snow.”
Before starting the car, Li Wuhui looked down at the steering wheel and emphasized again,
“If it snows midway, we have to switch to you driving.”
“Okay.” Qiu Yiran agreed quickly.
As long as Li Wuhui was willing to try, she could agree to many conditions.
“And…” Li Wuhui seemed to remember something and suddenly turned to look at her.
“You have to keep looking at me.”
“What?” Qiu Yiran didn’t react at first.
“You said it before,” Li Wuhui said, lightly lifting her chin.
“If I drive, you’ll watch me from the side and not let anything go wrong.”
With that, as if afraid Qiu Yiran wouldn’t agree, she quickly looked away. Her hands gripped the steering wheel tightly.
“If you don’t agree, we’ll switch seats right now—”
She said, reaching to unbuckle her seatbelt.
“Okay!” Qiu Yiran instinctively pressed down on her hand.
At that moment, their palms and the backs of their hands brushed accidentally.
The skin felt extremely delicate.
It was an experience they hadn’t had in a long time.
Li Wuhui froze all her movements and slowly looked up—
Qiu Yiran’s hand was still pressing on the back of hers.
Realizing this,
Qiu Yiran panicked and pulled her hand back, brushing the woman’s skin once more.
She curled her fingers.
After withdrawing her gaze and looking around helplessly, once the warmth from the woman’s palm had faded, she forced herself to stay calm and said,
“I promise. I’ll keep watching you, not slacking for even a second.”
She didn’t realize that she had made it sound like a marriage vow again.
But Li Wuhui inexplicably thought of that.
She slowly released her hand from the seatbelt and placed it back on the steering wheel, feeling its response, before slowly uttering two words,
“Okay.”
The last bit of residual warmth in her palm faded.
Qiu Yiran finally calmed down. She fastened her own seatbelt, then turned her head, originally wanting to say “Li Wuhui, your hands are cold” and also wanting to give her more reminders before she drove.
But Qiu Yiran swallowed both sentences.
The first was too intimate. The second would seem like she didn’t trust Li Wuhui.
So she just quietly watched Li Wuhui.
Li Wuhui didn’t look at her.
Instead, she briskly started the engine, released the handbrake, and stared straight ahead at the wide road—
One second, two seconds, three seconds…
She drove off.
Very steadily, without any panic or accidents.
The surprised one was Qiu Yiran, who hadn’t expected it to go so smoothly—
Li Wuhui had agreed to drive for her.
Li Wuhui stepped on the accelerator and hit the road directly.
Without any hesitation or incidents.
It was as if Qiu Yiran, who had made the request, was merely a mascot in the passenger seat.
Perhaps sensing her surprise, once the car was steadily on the main road, Li Wuhui finally relaxed her tense jaw and explained to her,
“Yesterday afternoon, after you went into your room, I came out to practice on my own.”
“Yesterday afternoon?” Qiu Yiran was astonished.
She grew a bit anxious. “By yourself? Why didn’t you tell me?”
But she quickly realized.
She forced herself to stay calm, not letting her own panic affect Li Wuhui.
“You deliberately didn’t tell me?”
Li Wuhui hummed in affirmation. “Because I wasn’t confident.”
How could she possibly drive the steering wheel she hadn’t touched in years without any preparation?
—Especially with Qiu Yiran in the passenger seat?
But Qiu Yiran seemed to hope she could do it so much.
So yesterday afternoon,
After Qiu Yiran entered her room, Li Wuhui took that bag of dark chocolate to the parking lot.
She had been keeping the car keys.
So she smoothly sat in the driver’s seat and stared blankly for half an hour.
She ate quite a few pieces of dark chocolate.
If fat could appear all at once, she probably would have gained dozens of pounds that day.
But she didn’t gain weight.
She felt like she had burned off all the calories from what she’d eaten that afternoon.
Alone in the parking lot, she tried starting and stopping many times, turning corners. Before venturing onto the main road, she nearly hit a pillar several times because she was too cautious.
Many times, she didn’t dare to drive forward, afraid of scraping other cars. Even when she was still far from them, she stopped early, got out, and checked the situation as cautiously as if she’d never touched a steering wheel before…
So she repeatedly got in and out of the car, alone, driving less than a kilometer in total.
That afternoon, she broke out in a lot of cold sweat, her whole body turning into soggy, melting dirty snow.
Finally, she safely parked the car back in the lot.
Li Wuhui unbuckled her seatbelt, got out, and squatted powerlessly on the ground.
Exhausted, she clutched her rapidly beating heart, feeling like she was about to die.
It had rained later that afternoon. She had no umbrella and couldn’t let Qiu Yiran come pick her up and see her in such a state.
So she just squatted alone in the parking lot, covering her eyes and crying for a long time.
Finally, she stood up, her whole body numb, her ears aching and sore.
This had been extremely difficult for her, requiring her to overcome so much. That night, her hands shook and her heart raced; she had nightmare after nightmare, reliving the previous car accident and dreaming of failing this time and crashing again.
That night, she sat dazed in the darkness, groggy.
In the end, she forced herself to sleep.
Then got up early again to try repeatedly, taking countless deep breaths, asking herself over and over in her mind—
Could she really try this? Could she really do it?
Until Qiu Yiran came down in the morning.
The moment she slowly walked toward her, Li Wuhui finally had her answer.
Since she had decided to do it, she had to do it right.
“I don’t want any accidents.”
After the car safely rounded another bend, Li Wuhui said softly.
Qiu Yiran gazed at Li Wuhui’s nose tip, which had been reddened by the wind earlier.
She didn’t know how to calm the shock she felt upon hearing this.
Just when she thought her request was unreasonable, Li Wuhui had secretly practiced alone for an entire afternoon.
She couldn’t imagine—what exactly had happened to Li Wuhui alone yesterday afternoon? How many times had she practiced to drive so steadily this morning?
“But why?”
Once the road widened and there were no other vehicles around, Qiu Yiran finally asked,
“Didn’t you say yesterday that I didn’t… have the right to ask you to do this?”
She changed “I’m not that important” to “don’t have the right.”
“I did think that yesterday.”
Li Wuhui didn’t deny it. “But after you went into your room, I suddenly didn’t think so anymore…”
After all, this wasn’t the first time she had gone back on her word.
“I was just eating those chocolates when I suddenly thought again—”
At this point, Li Wuhui laughed to herself. “Actually, if I can really do this and let you see it with your own eyes…”
Her voice rolled away amid the sound of the wheels.
“Wouldn’t that give you more confidence to do the things you’re too scared to do right now?”
Qiu Yiran completely froze.
“So…” Her heart clenched in that instant, and her voice turned extremely dry.
“You agreed because… me?”
She asked in a muddled way, giving the sentence an ambiguous meaning. The full intent was—
To help Qiu Yiran confront her past, Li Wuhui was willing to be the one to take that first step.
Li Wuhui frankly let out an “Mm.” “But it doesn’t matter.”
Qiu Yiran suddenly felt her nose tingle.
She clenched her fingertips, barely able to breathe, lest it turn into a sob.
“You don’t need to rush right now.”
Thinking Qiu Yiran was silently expressing resistance, Li Wuhui’s voice softened as she emphasized, “You don’t need to be afraid, either.”
Sunlight gradually pierced through the thick clouds toward the earth. Li Wuhui said softly,
“Because I’ll prove a lot of things to you.”
“And now—”
She was clearly the one bravely facing her own cowardice, yet here she was, coaxing Qiu Yiran instead.
“The only thing you need to do is one thing.”
“What?” Qiu Yiran forced out the word with great difficulty.
Li Wuhui sat in the seat she hadn’t occupied in three years. Not a single second allowed her to fully relax. Even when the car temporarily halted at a traffic light, she worried a vehicle might suddenly crash into them.
Sitting in this seat didn’t instantly change her personality. She still felt fear and confusion, and she worried she might fail in the end.
But she smiled at Qiu Yiran anyway.
“Look at me.”
Because I’ll do great, and you’ll see it with your own eyes.
