The Road Home Lies at the End of the Highway

When the car pulled onto the highway shoulder, I thought Lu Zhi was going to use the restroom. “Nuan Nuan’s asleep. Don’t wake her.” I pulled my daughter’s little blanket up around her. Lu Zhi didn’t turn around. He tapped the steering wheel with his fingers. “Gu Qing, get Nuan Nuan out of the car.” I froze. “What?” From the back seat, Su Wan said softly, “A Zhi, forget it. We can squeeze in.” Her daughter, Weiwei, immediately started crying. “No! I don’t want to sit with that dirty kid! She was coughing just now!” Lu Zhi turned around. His eyes were colder than I had ever seen them. “You heard her. Get out.” “Tingting is already on her way. She’ll be here in half an hour.” “Wait here until then.” It was the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, on the highway, with temperatures five degrees below zero. I held my three-year-old daughter and watched him start the car again. The taillights grew smaller in the snowstorm, then vanished completely.