Three Thousand Steps Through the Wind

The fifth car Yan Qing flagged down stopped for a man who drove an off-roader and smoked Liqun cigarettes.

His eyes were alluring, his smile lazy, and the cigarette by the window carried the scent of the grassland wind.

After repeating her question four times, she turned it into a radiant smile and said, “I want to go winter swimming in the river up ahead. Could you give me a lift?”

The man smiled faintly and offered her a cigarette.

Yan Qing didn’t take it. She naturally climbed into the passenger seat, pulled one from his pack, put it between her lips, and smiled at him. Her figure was graceful, her charm irresistible. Lou Yu leaned over to light her cigarette.

A beautiful liar with a mouth full of lies attached herself to a rich, dissolute young man.

They rode horses and reveled, danced on cliff edges, and flirted beneath the stars. When they returned to reality, they both walked away with swift, practiced maturity.

Eight years later, Yan Qing is the lead dancer of a ballet company, a social butterfly in high society, with countless admirers at her feet and no one able to claim her.

The man has a Hongtashan cigarette in his mouth and wears a faded blue work uniform as he bends over tiling her home.

She pulls out a cigarette. The designer and foreman both hurry to light it for her, while her gaze passes over them and lands on the flecks of white plaster in the man’s messy hair.

On a sweltering summer night, Yan Qing is pinned behind the iron shelves of a hardware store, her couture dress brushing against a rusted post.

Yan Qing smiles flirtatiously. “How did you end up as a grain of rice?”

The man’s rough fingertips brush her bright red lips. “And you became the cinnabar mole in my heart.”

Barren land, night mist, grass swaying.

We listened to the wind for three thousand steps, and our souls were still damp.

· A glamorous dancer at the height of her career × a rough, dissolute man at the lowest point of his life

· Both are each other’s first and only, with an uneven devotion

· Rekindled love | Road trip | Rough hero | Pride and prejudice | Using and enjoying

· “Our souls were still damp” by Neruda

Completed works:

Mutual salvation: "Southern Tangerine"

Rekindled love: "Shadows by the Hearth"

Childhood sweethearts: "Spring Tide, Summer Chaos"

Theme: Strive and work hard to make a brilliant life