Easily Set Aflame

Chapter 8 - An Unexpected Beginning

Chapter 8.1 — An Unexpected Beginning (1)

Jia He wanted to deny this, but when the words came to her lips, she felt that doing so would not be right. In the end, she answered honestly, "Mm-hmm," and then offhandedly picked up that magazine that Yi Wenze had read this afternoon.

He did not continue asking and merely turned on the reading light for her. "You bought an economy class ticket?" Then he handed her a bottle of water, twisting open the cap for her.

Taking the bottle from him, Jia He had a drink. "Yes, economy. It's not even a two-hour flight. You take a doze and then you're there." It was not as if this was an international flight, where you were tortured for a very lengthy time, nor did she need to avoid the public eye like a celebrity, so naturally there was no need to waste money.

Yi Wenze nodded. "As long as you're used to it."

She took a sip of water and casually thumbed through the magazine, but eventually, unaccustomed to reading large blocks of English at a time, she could only set it back in its original place. "Do you have any Chinese magazines? You know, the kind where you don't really have to read any text." Actually, she did not really like looking at magazines, but sitting like this, side by side with him without anything to distract herself, would just make her feel constantly disconcerted.

Before Yi Wenze could answer, the driver was already pointing at the front passenger seat. "A-Qing left these here earlier. She likes reading that kind of stuff."

Leaning forward, Jia He saw that, sure enough, there was a stack of tabloid magazines as well as quite a few fashion magazines. She noticed that several had Yi Wenze on the cover, but feeling too awkward to take those, she could only continue bending forward and picking through the pile. All of a sudden, the brakes were hit. Jia He did not even have a chance to react before Yi Wenze had taken ahold of her waist and pulled her back.

"Thanks." Not daring to look at him, she could only bring her head down and allow her eyes to take in the magazine she had arbitrarily grabbed. By fluke, the cover of this one was a photograph of Yi Wenze and Tian Chu together, and a tearing effect had even intentionally been placed between the two of them. Such... a coincidence. Jia He inconspicuously flipped past the cover. Once more topping the new-songs chart was Tian Chu's newly released song. She was about to turn the page again, but Yi Wenze's eyes had already slid over it. Instantly, she pointed to that song at the top of the list and, merely to make conversation, said, "Wu Zhilun told me that day that the two of you wrote this song two years ago?"

Regret hit her the instant the question came out. Seriously, she just had to pick his sore spot and then give it a nudge, too.

Yi Wenze glanced at the spot at which she was pointing. "The song itself was composed a long time ago. The lyrics, he wrote two years ago."

His voice was unperturbed; his expression was unperturbed. In any case, everything seemed fine.

Jia He gave an "oh" and was about to change the topic, but he added another sentence. "I wrote this for a fan of mine, some time around 1999."

Jia He immediately sighed with feeling. "Such a lucky fan."

He smiled, not saying anything.

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When the car arrived at the airport, it was not even eight o'clock. The road that was usually very congested was exceptionally smooth and unimpeded today.