◎It tasted a bit like snow, and a bit like a first kiss.◎
Ji Qingyou often felt that every minute should be spent on the cutting edge, used to catch up on the gaps she could only bridge by accumulating time.
Of course, there were moments for rest and relaxation, for balancing work and rest. But even those gaps were within the plan she had set for herself.
This is why Ji Xiruan always called her a robot—strict control, never stepping out of line, living like a machine.
But right now, she had wasted a minute, standing under an umbrella in the falling snow, realizing she didn’t have Yu Qinjiu’s contact information.
It didn’t take the whole minute to realize that.
The remaining fifty-nine seconds, she spent thinking. She had already met Yu Qinjiu three times.
In those three meetings, they weren’t as distant as others who hadn’t seen each other for ten years. They hadn’t grown apart.
But they hadn’t exchanged any contact information, unlike other old friends.
Was it just forgotten? Had no one thought of it?
Or did even Yu Qinjiu feel there was no need for them to stay in touch… because she wouldn’t stay in Nanwu City for long and had decided not to be too closely connected with her?
If she were Yu Qinjiu, she would probably do the same.
After a long minute.
Snowflakes drifted under the umbrella, landing on the tip of her nose, melting slowly. Ji Qingyou suddenly felt a tightness in her chest, so she loosened the knot of her scarf a bit.
Only then did she exhale and take a step, leaving a straight line of footprints in the snow, as if following a predetermined trajectory, never deviating.
The department party was at a nearby KTV. By the time Ji Qingyou arrived, a large group of people was already there. The young doctors who were off duty in the department for the past two days had all come. A few people were singing here and there, while the rest were enthusiastically playing an old-fashioned drinking game.
Ji Qingyou rarely attended such occasions. She had only come today because Ji Xiruan had dragged her along to be the designated driver. There were no restrictions for parties on days off, so it gave Ji Xiruan a chance to shine.
Just as she was looking for a corner to rest in, Ji Xiruan popped her head out from the crowd and beckoned excitedly, “Come play the game, Doctor Ji!”
Ji Qingyou frowned. “No—”
Before she could finish, Dr. Zhao pulled her in. “It’s not every day Doctor Ji makes it to a department party! Before, you’d refuse any department dinner or party without a second thought. We can’t let you off the hook this time! Just look, there are so many new residents and interns who just started this year, and they’re all quite curious about you!”
Ji Qingyou glanced at Ji Xiruan, a bit regretful she had agreed to be her designated driver.
Ji Xiruan grinned and came over, patting her shoulder. “You’re here now.” Then she burped right in Ji Qingyou’s face, the smell of alcohol mixed in.
Ji Qingyou frowned and pushed her away. In the next second, Dr. Zhao cheerfully pulled her to sit down in the crowd, yelled “Game on!”, and a group of people started cheering, rubbing their hands together, waiting for her to fall into the trap.
When she came to her senses, Ji Qingyou found the mouth of the bottle on the table pointing directly at her. Under everyone’s gaze, Ji Xiruan let out another burp, grinned, and pointed at Ji Qingyou. “Lucky you.”
Then she pointed at the person the bottle’s bottom was pointing at, who was Tao Xingzi, who hadn’t looked up. “Little Tao, you ask her.”
Tao Xingzi froze, looked at Ji Qingyou, then quickly looked away, flustered. “That’s not a good idea.”
“Hey, you have to follow the rules.” Dr. Zhao patted Tao Xingzi’s shoulder, then raised her chin towards Ji Qingyou. “Don’t you agree, Doctor Ji?”
Colorful, fragmented light danced on her face, a bit dazzling. Ji Qingyou hummed in agreement, not wanting to make things difficult for Tao Xingzi. “Go ahead and ask.”
Tao Xingzi breathed a sigh of relief. She thought for a few seconds but didn’t ask anything too inappropriate. “Doctor Ji, what’s your favorite foreign city?”
Ji Qingyou was stunned for a few seconds, not quite reacting.
She hadn’t expected the question to be so simple. Others were similarly surprised. Someone protested, “Why is her question so easy? You guys were asking me about my first kiss and first love!”
Another chimed in, “Right! And I don’t even need Doctor Ji to answer that. It’s definitely that one, right? That mountain on her computer desktop wallpaper. What’s it called? Oh, right, the Alps. It’s been that way for years, hasn’t changed.”
It seemed no one expected an interesting answer to this question.
“Ding——”
A crisp sound rang out unexpectedly.
Ji Xiruan, who had been resting with her eyes half-closed, clinked two empty beer bottles together. She suddenly started a guessing game about the question. “The Alps is definitely wrong. Does anyone else have an answer?”
“What? It’s wrong?”
“How do you know, Doctor Ji?”
“Of course I know.” Ji Xiruan hugged the empty bottle in her hand, slightly raising her narrow eyes, as if in thought, rattling on like a stand-up comedian. “I remember the Winter Solstice of our freshman year. Ji Qingyou asked for a day off for the first time. I asked her where she was going. She said she was going on a trip.”
“You guys don’t know how shocked I was. This is Ji Qingyou we’re talking about! The Ji Qingyou who wants to split every minute in half, who takes only five minutes to eat, who sleeps a perfect, unbroken six hours, the Ji Qingyou I’m afraid might short-circuit when she showers. And she suddenly tells me she’s going on a trip, and to such a faraway place, but she only asked for one day off. She said she was going on a trip by herself. Think about it, that had to be her favorite travel destination.”
After finishing this speech, Ji Xiruan let out a burp, the smell of alcohol causing the crowd that had leaned in to listen to lean back.
Someone covered their nose, curiosity piqued. “So where did Doctor Ji go back then?”
Ji Qingyou lowered her eyelashes and said nothing.
Ji Xiruan grinned again. “She told me that she’d heard a tavern there made really good egg fried rice. So she just went. I didn’t think she’d leave the first night and come back the next day. Later, I remembered that day was the Winter Solstice. People celebrate. We had dumplings. She just gave herself a day and a night to go eat that plate of egg fried rice. So, the question is, what city did Doctor Ji go to…”
She paused, tapped on the table, making a “da-da-da-da” sound effect, then held the empty beer bottle up to Ji Qingyou’s lips like a microphone.
A crowd of eyes, accompanied by Ji Xiruan’s dramatic antics, focused on her. Ji Qingyou turned her face away, frowning at the smell of alcohol wafting from the bottle. But when she moved away, Ji Xiruan shoved the bottle back. Feeling overwhelmed by the direct stares, she gently pushed the bottle aside, lowered her eyes, and softly uttered two words.
“London.”
“London? Isn’t that the famous food desert? How could it have good food? Egg fried rice in a tavern? How weird is that?”
“I remember a direct flight to London takes eleven hours one way. And Doctor Ji said she went the first night and came back the next day. She must have spent all the time on the plane. Did she even get to eat that egg fried rice?”
“Right! Did she eat it or not?”
The topic had veered this way, and Ji Qingyou saw no need to be evasive. She just shook her head. “I didn’t eat it.”
As she spoke, her voice grew softer, sounding a bit lonely in the midst of the noisy chatter. “It snowed heavily in London that day. The tavern was closed.”
“That’s a real shame. Did you ever go back, Doctor Ji?” Dr. Zhao asked.
Ji Qingyou lowered her head, moved the bottle that Ji Xiruan was practically poking into her face aside, and placed it on the table slowly. She stared at the tiny bubbles popped on the glass of the bottle and said in a low voice, “No. I never went back.”
The gossip floodgates had opened. The subsequent questions were no longer this simple, ranging from love lives to embarrassing stories. When the mouth of the bottle pointed at Ji Qingyou again, the bottom pointed at a resident who had been asking the most questions.
The question was, “Doctor Ji, how old were you when you had your first love?”
Ji Qingyou pursed her lips slightly and told the truth. “I’ve never been in love.”
One exclamation stirred up a commotion. Even Tao Xingzi, who had been looking down for a while, raised her head in shock to look at her. Someone didn’t believe it. “Doctor Ji, you can’t be kidding us, right?”
Ji Qingyou lowered her eyes. “It’s the truth.”
The questioner coughed lightly. “Fine, different question. If there’s no first love, there must be a first kiss, right?”
“Are you confused? How can there be a first kiss without a first love?” someone retorted.
The questioner was stunned, muttering, “Yeah, you’re right.”
“But you never know. What if there is? Don’t you think so, Doctor Ji?”
The topic and attention were back on her. Ji Qingyou’s throat moved. She didn’t speak. She just looked at the bottle in Ji Xiruan’s hand. You could use alcohol to avoid answering questions you didn’t want to.
After a few seconds of silence.
She reached out her hand towards Ji Xiruan.
The gesture was obvious. More people started to stir, including the singers, who leaned in curiously. “Is Doctor Ji going to drink?”
“Hey, you guys stop bullying Doctor Ji! She never touches alcohol. If something happens, you’ll be responsible.”
Hearing this, Ji Xiruan didn’t hand her the bottle. Instead, she tossed back the drink in one gulp, then handed her an empty glass, muttering, “I drank it for Doctor Ji. Let’s move on. Next round.”
“Tch, boring.”
“Oh, whatever. Let’s just start the next round.”
The drinkers went back to their seats. The game players muttered and started the next round. The singers picked up the microphones again and continued their unfinished song.
When the classic chorus came, everyone in the room got excited, joining in with improvisation. The noisy, lively voices sang together:
Later, I finally learned how to love…
The room was stuffy. The space was cut by chaotic beams of light, falling on Ji Qingyou’s face, casting a hazy blue reflection on her thin glasses.
She lowered her eyes slightly. Her fine, soft bangs fell by her face.
Her pale, clean wrist hung loosely. Her long, slender fingers held the glass that had just been filled with alcohol. Her palm and the glass felt strangely empty.
It seemed as if it would fall in the next second.
Shatter on the ground into countless pieces, cutting that clean, white hand with its faintly visible veins, spilling blood that would drip everywhere.
But in the end, the empty glass was placed steadily on the table.
With a dull thud.
Ji Qingyou leaned back slightly. The chaotic halo of light above blurred her vision.
Her fragile, empty hand curled in the air, stained with the smell of alcohol. But as her thoughts connected, the scent of alcohol around her nose suddenly faded.
When the air conditioner breeze hit her face, it seemed to carry the light scent of green grapefruit, mixed with the faint rose moisturizing scent from her scarf—refreshing, sweet, soft, blending with the alcohol in the room.
It was like a unique, sweet alcohol.
Its taste… was probably a bit like snow, and a bit like her first kiss.
