After leaving the coffee shop and turning a corner, Song Xi saw Lou Yuming standing under a large tree, holding a bouquet of flowers.
The flowers were beautiful, pure white bellflowers wrapped in black, translucent frosted paper, elegant and sophisticated.
Song Xi scoffed inwardly, never expecting Lou Yuming to accept flowers from a woman, let alone not refuse them.
She wanted to appear indifferent, to walk past without looking, but Lou Yuming gave her no such chance. As she approached him, he thrust the flowers into her arms.
Song Xi reacted with disgust, "I don't want them!"
What did he mean by giving her flowers from another woman?
Lou Yuming blinked, "You don't like them?"
The florist had assured him that many girls liked this style, calling it the hottest "Ins style."
Lou Yuming didn't know what "Ins style" meant, but if Song Xi liked it, he wouldn't mind changing everything to this "Ins style."
"Like your ass..." Song Xi stopped herself, glared at him, but didn't throw the flowers back. After all, they were someone else's kind gesture. So, despite her anger, she handed the flowers back to him, "I've never heard of someone giving away something they received from someone else."
Lou Yuming frowned, finally understanding her meaning and grasping the core issue, "So you saw what happened just now, and you're jealous?"
Song Xi realized she had revealed herself.
Her ears turned a little red, but she still feigned stubbornness, "No, you're thinking too much!"
"They weren't from them," Lou Yuming looked her straight in the eyes, "I bought them myself. Here's the receipt."
He said this and actually pulled a slip of paper from his trench coat pocket.
Song Xi was stunned.
Lou Yuming smiled, "Can you clear my name now?"
Song Xi pouted, too embarrassed to speak.
Lou Yuming deliberately teased her, "If you don't want them, I'll throw them away."
Song Xi immediately clutched the flowers tightly to her chest.
Lou Yuming curved his lips, recalling the bouquet she had held in the parking lot earlier, and suddenly asked, "Which one do you like?"
"What?"
"Never mind." He walked ahead, glancing back at the woman who was secretly sniffing the flowers, and said with a smug look, "Anyway, the one being held now is mine."
Lou Yuming, lowering himself, got into the taxi.
With his long arms and legs, he and Song Xi squeezed into the back seat, looking quite cramped.
Song Xi felt like the flowers were being crushed.
"Move over a bit."
Lou Yuming's expression darkened, "I'm already as far over as I can go."
The driver spoke up, "Handsome guy, why don't you sit in the front?"
He was accustomed to sitting in the back, the boss's seat. In his mind, the front was for subordinates. He wouldn't sit there!
Seeing him immobile and glancing at Song Xi's tightly-frowning face, the driver said righteously, "The young lady is clearly uncomfortable sitting with you. Why are you crowding her? Either you move up, or you get out!"
Song Xi's eyes widened in surprise, watching Lou Yuming's tense face, and she desperately wanted to laugh but dared not.
No one had probably ever dared to speak to him like that before. The driver was a hero!
What shocked Song Xi even more was that Lou Yuming, despite his dark expression, didn't get angry. He seemed to have a long internal debate, and finally, he opened the door and actually sat in the passenger seat!
Three astonishing things had happened to Song Xi in one day: Lou Yuming fighting, Lou Yuming giving flowers, and Lou Yuming being lectured.
Song Xi felt that today could be etched in history.
"That's more like it," the driver said, "Buckle up, let's go!"
The old car jolted twice and laboriously set off.
Lou Yuming, being so tall, kept bumping his head against the car's ceiling.
Song Xi could no longer hold back, clutching the flowers, she burst into laughter, "Hahaha!"
The driver was also infected by her laughter, and in a friendly Northeast dialect, he asked, "Kid, what are you laughing at?"
Song Xi shook her head, still smiling.
Lou Yuming cast a cold glance back at her, but Song Xi, emboldened, laughed even harder.
The driver sighed, "My daughter should be about your age. But she's too busy with work and hasn't been home for almost three years. I don't know how she's doing lately, she doesn't even call her old man."
As this topic came up, the atmosphere in the car became heavy.
Song Xi said, "You can call her."
The driver waved his hand, "Forget it, I don't want to distract her. I'm just trying to earn what I can while I'm still able. When she gets tired, and can't do it anymore in that field, at least she won't go hungry!"
Song Xi quietly hugged the flowers tighter.
Her parents had passed away many years ago. To this day, she couldn't remember what they looked like. But she still remembered how happy she was as a child, riding on her father's shoulders, a little scared but also asking him to lift her higher and higher.
The greatest wish of parents was for their children to live a stable and happy life.
If her parents knew how she was living now, they would be very disappointed, wouldn't they?
Song Xi turned to look out the window, suppressing the surge of sadness in her heart.
Lou Yuming, however, was indifferent to this topic and felt no stirrings of emotion within himself.
He glanced at Song Xi's reaction in the rearview mirror, but the flowers blocked her face. He could only vaguely see that she was looking out the window, her mood seemingly a bit melancholic.