Chapter 2: From Blizzard to Sunshine (1)
Boston’s seawater surged inland.
Niagara Falls froze into ice sculptures.
Even ocean waves turned into frozen works of art.
These were the news reports they saw after arriving at the hotel.
Fortunately, the blizzard had ended, and the weather was warming up.
"Those experts keep talking about global warming—are they messing with me?" Her cousin grabbed some ham while grumbling.
"This is the lake effect. They taught it in geography—you definitely didn’t study properly," Yin Guo muttered drowsily, standing by the toaster as she waited for her bread. "If we’d come later, we wouldn’t have been so unlucky."
Her original plan was to come in March and leave in April. But Meng Xiaotian insisted on arriving in January, claiming he needed to adapt to the environment across multiple seasons. In reality, he just wanted to take advantage of Yin Guo’s presence to make her his tour guide around New York.
Meng Xiaotian, knowing he was in the wrong, gave an awkward laugh. "Toast a slice for me too."
Yin Guo hummed in agreement.
"Sis?"
"Hmm?"
"Aren’t you going to thank the handsome guy?"
Clack. The toast dropped onto the stainless steel tray.
Yin Guo flipped the bread with the tongs and continued toasting. "I do want to thank him, but I’m not sure how to say it."
"What’s so hard about it? We’re all Chinese. I’ll send you his WeChat."
Before getting out of the car that day, Meng Xiaotian had shamelessly asked for Lin Yiyang’s WeChat after profusely thanking him, securing a line of contact. According to him, he’d even exchanged a few messages with Lin Yiyang over the past couple of days—apparently, the guy was pretty friendly.
Lost in her thoughts, Yin Guo saw Meng Xiaotian forward Lin Yiyang’s WeChat contact to her.
Name: Lin.
Clack. The toast dropped again—now fully toasted on both sides.
Yin Guo picked up the toast with the tongs, grabbed a small tub of butter and strawberry jam, and returned to her seat by the window. Behind her, her cousin realized she’d forgotten to toast his bread and called her three times to no avail, leaving him no choice but to sulkily do it himself.
Placing her plate on the red-checkered tablecloth, Yin Guo stared at Lin Yiyang’s contact, hesitating over whether to add him. After a moment, she decided against it. Setting her phone aside, she picked up her fork and focused on her scrambled eggs.
Thinking back to that night, she still felt a little uneasy. When her cousin and the bespectacled guy returned from the restroom, they’d caught Lin Yiyang putting away his ID. The bespectacled guy burst out laughing and asked Yin Guo if she still wanted to see the information page of his household register—after all, it was broad daylight back in China, so there was still a chance for Lin Yiyang’s family to take a photo and send it to her.
So embarrassing.
Meng Xiaotian returned with his food and saw her hesitating with her phone. He snatched it from her and added Lin Yiyang himself. "What are you scared of? That guy’s so nice."
The moment the friend request was sent, it was accepted.
"He accepted." Meng Xiaotian showed her the screen before sending a smiley face.
Yin Guo grabbed her phone back.
Staring at the emoji Meng Xiaotian had sent, she knew she had no choice but to say hello.
Holding her phone carefully, she carefully composed her words: Hello, I’m Yin Guo—one of the Chinese siblings you helped at RED FISH bar that night. I’m the older sister.
After sending it, she immediately felt her introduction was too wordy and thought about recalling it.
Before she could, a reply popped up.
Lin: I know.
So concise.
Yin Guo: Thank you so much for helping us that night—we wouldn’t have made it to the hotel otherwise. If you’re free, my brother and I would like to treat you to a meal as thanks. Would that be okay? Lin: Aren’t you afraid of being scammed?
Xiao Guo: …That day I had just arrived in New York, and there was a snowstorm. I was completely at a loss. Sorry for misunderstanding your kindness.
Lin: No worries.
Xiao Guo: Are you still in Manhattan now? We can come over.
Lin: I’m at the train station, heading back to DC.
He’s going back to Washington?
“What did he say?” Meng Xiaotian asked.
“He said he’s going back to school.”
Meng Xiaotian chewed on his bread: “Then let’s go too, perfect for a little trip.”
Yin Guo let out a surprised “Huh?”
“Let’s go find him and hang out. I’ve got nothing to do all day anyway.”
“We didn’t prepare anything in advance. Train tickets and hotels need to be booked ahead,” Yin Guo pleaded. “Don’t make things difficult. Let’s just stay and explore New York first. It’s not like we have to have that meal today.”
Besides, who chases someone down just to treat them to a meal? All the way from New York to Washington—sounded downright creepy.
Seeing Yin Guo’s reluctance, Meng Xiaotian didn’t push further.
He quickly finished his slice of bread and went to grab another plate of food.
Although the hotel had a restaurant and bar, once mealtime was over, the staff would vanish without a trace. During the snowstorm the past two days, they hadn’t wanted to go out and had planned to eat lunch at the hotel. But after searching everywhere, they couldn’t find a single chef or waiter. In the end, starving, they had to ask the front desk where they could get food. The cheerful American girl told them they’d have to wait until 5:30 p.m. for the restaurant staff to return. Left with no choice, the two miserably scoured the hotel floors for vending machines, hoping to find something to eat—only to discover that all the machines sold drinks. Defeated, they returned to their room, chatting and drinking water, drinking water and chatting, browsing the internet and drinking water, drinking water and browsing the internet, enduring several hours until they finally got to eat steak.
After that ordeal, Meng Xiaotian had learned his lesson: as long as breakfast was still available, he would eat until he was stuffed. When traveling, never, ever pass up any chance to fill your stomach.
Their discussion about Washington ended in the breakfast hall.
Later, Meng Xiaotian didn’t bring it up again, and Yin Guo didn’t dwell on it. She returned to her room to rest for half an hour, then found the address of a nearby supermarket and dragged Meng Xiaotian—who had been glued to his phone chatting on WeChat—out to buy daily necessities. They planned to stay in New York for 3-4 months, and Yin Guo hadn’t brought bulky items, intending to purchase them locally.
As soon as she entered the supermarket, she headed straight for the household goods aisle, while Meng Xiaotian charged toward the food section.
Following the signs, she first went to the shampoo and body wash section and quickly spotted a large bottle on the top shelf—perfect for the two of them to use over three months. She stood on her tiptoes, stretching to reach it, and finally grabbed one.
“What are you buying?” Meng Xiaotian circled back.
“Shampoo,” Yin Guo replied, then went to look for body wash. “Stop following me. I have a lot to buy.”
Some things weren’t meant for Meng Xiaotian to see.
The person behind her reached over Yin Guo’s head and took the shampoo from her hands: “Let’s go first. We can buy this later.”
The shampoo was placed back on the shelf.
“I just got it down,” and from such a high spot too, “Give it back to me.”
Without another word, Meng Xiaotian pulled Yin Guo along and headed out: “I just bought the train tickets. Time’s tight—we need to hurry back and pack, or we’ll miss it.”"You bought the tickets? How? Where?" Yin Guo was stunned. Weren't they together when they entered the supermarket? They hadn't separated before going in either. When did he manage to buy the tickets?
He waved his phone in front of Yin Guo's face, showing the e-tickets to Washington. "Handsome Bro taught me. I told him you were useless and didn't even know how to buy train tickets. So he recommended an app to me."
Meng Xiaotian was gloating, feeling like he'd grown up at lightning speed now that he could even handle train tickets.
Yin Guo, however, was shocked by Meng Xiaotian's audacity. She snatched his phone and scrolled through their chat history. Not only had he painted her as incompetent, but he'd practically spilled all their family details to Lin Yiyang. In the WeChat messages, Meng Xiaotian had been the picture of obedience, explaining to Lin Yiyang: he'd applied to universities here and came early to adjust to life, while also visiting several prestigious schools in case he didn't get accepted this year and had to try again next year. As for Yin Guo, since she'd been here last year, their family had entrusted her with taking care of him, her cousin, making her his personal tour guide.
The man's replies in the chat were sparse.
The last message was from three minutes ago.
Lin: There's a Shake Shack at DC's train station. Worth trying if it's your first time.
"What's this?" Meng Xiaotian asked from behind her.
"A burger place."
"See, he's way more reliable than you. You didn't even tell me about it."
"We just got here!" Yin Guo protested. "There's one in New York too. I'll take you if you want it."
Ignoring her explanation, Meng Xiaotian immediately dragged her back to their hotel.
Inexperienced, he'd booked tickets leaving in just two hours. Unprepared, they barely had time to pack—grabbing a couple of clothes and toiletries to stuff into their backpacks before snatching up their IDs, credit cards, and phones and bolting for the train station.
In the taxi, Yin Guo buried herself in searching for hotels.
By the time they reached the station, she was fully absorbed in booking one, constantly on the phone with staff to select rooms and provide credit card details. Meng Xiaotian, gripping her backpack, weaved through the crowd, pulling her along as they joined the boarding line.
They scanned their tickets and entered the station.
Like soldiers rushing into battle, they boarded the train where most passengers were already seated.
"Let's find seats together."
Seeing no hope in their current car—every pair of seats already had one occupied—Yin Guo moved to the next one. After passing through two cars, she spotted an empty pair. She set her small backpack at her feet and took the window seat.
Meng Xiaotian tossed his large backpack onto the overhead rack and sat beside her on the aisle. "Seriously, why doesn't this train go faster? The distance from New York to D.C. would take our high-speed rail just an hour. When I bought the tickets, they said it'd take over three hours. Shocking—high-speed rail prices at snail speeds. Unbelievable."
Meng Xiaotian kept muttering beside her.
Yin Guo refused to engage. She still couldn't figure out how Meng Xiaotian had rushed and pressured her onto this train. All she'd wanted was to browse the supermarket for shampoo and daily necessities—how had they ended up heading to Washington?
As she stared out the window at the platform, something important suddenly struck her—
Had she ever paid him back for that car ride the other day?
Just before the train departed, Lin Yiyang boarded.He didn't feel like walking further back, so he chose a seat and sat down. Next to him was a Black mother holding her one-year-old child, who was wailing loudly. The mother was at a loss, only able to pat the child lovingly while repeatedly saying, "Sorry."
Amid the young mother's soothing voice, he took off his cold-proof clothing, bundled it up, and stuffed it into the overhead luggage rack, then did the same with his sports bag. Having not slept the night before, he pulled his cap down as soon as he sat to block out the light from the train window.
"Could you help me, please?" the Black mother's voice asked him.
Lin Yiyang was so exhausted he thought he was hearing things.
The mother, embarrassed, asked again. Startled from his half-asleep state, he tugged off his cap, rubbed his face with both hands, and fully woke up, muttering, "Sorry."
Thus, for the long ten minutes after the train left the station, he helped the young mother by holding her backpack, fetching a bottle, and pouring formula...
By the time she no longer needed assistance, Lin Yiyang couldn't sleep anymore. His head ached, he was drowsy, and his gaze lingered on the baby drinking milk. The vibration in his pocket snapped him out of it.
It was a WeChat message.
He pulled his phone from his pants pocket and opened it—two new messages.
The first was from "No Big Deal": On the train yet? I'll get on at the next stop to find you.
The second was from "Red Fish," the name Lin Yiyang had saved for Yin Guo—a reference to the bar where they'd met that day.
She had sent him a transfer:
I’m really grateful for your help that day, and I hope I can repay you someday. But before that, please accept this for the ride and drinks that night. [Smiley face]
OpenNovel