During the Snowstorm

Chapter 2 (part 5)

Some of the pedestrians on both sides held umbrellas, and some walked in a hurry. Only Lin Yiyang and her walked lesiurely. Lin Yiyang was very familiar with the neighborhood here, he turned left, walked to the sidewalk of a small road, and pulled Yin Guo to his right.

There is a string of apartments to the left of the two of them, and each apartment has a downward staircase leading to the basement. On snowy days, the steps are covered with snow and cannot be seen clearly. If you get too close, it is easy to fall.

So he walked on the left side, which is safer.

Of course, Yin Guo didn’t understand his intentions at all.

She just thought that Lin Yiyang must have a certain obsessive-compulsive disorder when walking, sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right, weird…

After another turn, She saw the narrow stairs of the subway entrance.

She stomped the snow on the bottom of her feet and followed Lin Yiyang down.

On the steps, there was a row of wet footprints left by Lin Yiyang, and then she added a row. Lin Yiyang deliberately stopped in front of the bottom step and waited for her. There were three homeless people lying in the subway station, each found a sheltered corner to sleep in, and one of them slept next to the ticket machine.

Yin Guo took out her credit card from her wallet and wanted to go to the vending machine to insert the card to buy a ticket, so he politely took two steps away.

“Follow me,” Lin Yiyang said behind her, “the train is coming.”

Inside the station, the subway roared into the station with the noise of rolling over the tracks.

The New York subway is capricious, and it’s will be too late to buy a ticket if you want to can catch a trip. He pulled Yin Guo away from the ticket machine, sent her to the ticket gate, and swiped his subway card.

Immediately after, he swiped again and entered the station himself.

Before Yin Guo could see what the platform looked like, she had already been pushed into the carriage.

The door closed behind her.

She looked around, and it was the worst kind of carriage.

There is no air conditioner, no electronic display, and I don’t know if the train speaker is good…

No one yet?

She and Lin Yiyang were the only ones in the entire carriage, and there were two rows of empty orange seats waiting for them. You could sit anywhere. Yin Guo pointed to a seat, saw that Lin Yiyang had no objection, and sat down next to the door.

Lin Yiyang sat beside her, took off the club barrel, and stood beside his leg.

It was the only thing he was holding, and it belonged to her. Speaking of which, this man really didn’t bring anything except his mobile phone and wallet, so he went to Flushing to gamble on a game, which was really casual.

The soles of the two of them still had bits of snow remaining, and they stepped on a pool of water on the floor of the carriage.

There is no signal in the subway cars, no internet access, and nothing to kill time. There was no scenery outside the carriage, it was dark, and only the sound of driving filled the empty carriage.

Lin Yiyang’s reticent temper, she almost got used to it and had to take initiative to talk between the two.

“We—” she said two words.

Lin Yiyang’s eyes turned and stopped on her face.

“……haven’t officially known each other yet,” she said.

Her face was white and rosy, her nose was small, her eyes were big, but not round, rather long, and her double eyelids were obvious. Because of the high hair, the outline of the entire face is exposed, and round, and the chin is not pointed. It is a young appearance, beautiful and unoffensive, very sweet.

”How do you want to know?” Lin Yiyang met her eyes.

“My name is Yin Guo.”

”The first WeChat you sent, you said already” Lin Yiyang reminded her.

…well, forgot about it all.

She had to bite the bullet and continue: “My brother and I are in the senior year. He should have told you the rest.”

Both of them were in the second half of their senior year, and there were no classes. It was the “internship period” required by the college. She wanted to switch to professional nine-ball, and her cousin wanted to study abroad, so she naturally put her internship time in New York.

Lin Yiyang nodded.

When she finished, it was his turn.

Lin Yiyang was silent for a while, and then asked her: “You have seen all my valid documents, what else do you want to know?”

He asked with a sly smile.

Nationality, date of birth, and place of birth were all clearly written on those documents, and even the school magnetic card was shown to her. Apart from his major, he couldn’t think of anything else to explain.

“I didn’t look carefully that day, I didn’t look at your privacy.” She explained.

Just know that he is twenty-seven years old, six years older than her.

Lin Yiyang smiled.

“I studied in China for my undergraduate degree, and I earned two years of money after graduation. I thought it was boring and came here,” he leaned on the back of the seat and told the girl simply, “What I study here is communication, part-time, three years, this year is the last year.”

After he finished speaking, he thought about it and said, “Most of the time I live in DC, and occasionally come to New York.”

He stopped for a while, Yin Guo was still waiting.

”Nothing more,” he finally said, ”What do you want to know, feel free to ask.”

”I have nothing to ask.” Yin Guo laughed helplessly

very good. Dry chat content, it is better not to speak.

They continued to sit side by side.

Entering the subway station made her think of a more important matter. She was too anxious to get on the subway just now, and the WeChat message she had written had not been sent.

She took advantage of the subway stop to look for the signal quickly.

She held her mobile phone and swayed from side to side for a long time. She didn’t know whether it was because of the snow, or the network at this station was extremely poor. Whether it was mobile or the platform WiFi, she couldn’t connect. .

“Didn’t send it out?” The man beside her saw her predicament.

“It’s always been like this, there’s no signal at all.” Yin Guo was discouraged and showed him her cell phone.

Lin Yiyang glanced.

On the screen, there is a WeChat message that she failed to send——

Xiaoguo: I’m starving to death. Are there any instant noodles in the room? If not, you can go out and buy me a pizza while you still can. It will be closed when I get back.

She couldn’t figure it out, she asked Lin Yiyang, “Is it because I have a domestic mobile phone number? Will it be more difficult to connect?”

“It will be a little bit affected, you can wait for the transfer, get off the bus, and send it again.”

That’s all it is.

She exhaled and put away her phone.

Unexpectedly, Lin Yiyang took out his mobile phone instead when the train just left the station, she didn’t know who he was chatting with.

When they entered the tunnel completely, he put his phone in his trouser pocket and said, “Are you hungry?”

Yin Guo was stunned for a moment, thinking of her WeChat, she understood.

“It’s okay, I can hold on.”

Sticking to the hotel should not be a problem.

“Stand on for what? Go back to eat pizza?” He laughed.

What to do then?

She didn’t want to eat that either: “Our hotel is too far away, so late, only the gas station supermarket sells pizza.”

“Wu Wei, the one who wore glasses that day. He asked me to eat ramen,” Lin Yiyang asked her casually, “Want to go?”

Now?

“Will it be too late?” she hesitated.

“Sit down directly at this train, it will be there in three stops, “He leaned there, looked at the watch, and gave a kind suggestion, “Let’s go first, and then take the subway.”

After he finished speaking, he said, “I didn’t eat either.”

On such a snowy day, when she was hungry, as she heard the word “ramen”, all she could see in front of her eyes was a hot soup, with pork cartilage, kelp, kimchi, corn… The hesitation just now disappeared…

Don’t worry if you’re hungry, it’s unkind to let others send you hungry. Anyway, I didn’t eat it myself, so I might as well get out of the train to solve it together, and also save myself from eating dry pizza.

Thinking like this, it is time to go, not for yourself, but also for him.

Yin Guo immediately agreed.

As a result, the two people who were going to transfer to another line sat directly after three stops in order to eat ramen.

When the two went to the door of the ramen restaurant, they saw that there were still a few people waiting for a seat at the door of the noodle restaurant in the snow. Lin Yiyang took Yin Guo, pushed aside the crowd, walked down, and entered a ramen restaurant converted into a basement.

At the moment when the glass door was pushed open, the aroma came in.

Every table, every big ramen bowl is steaming with white mist, on both sides of the narrow aisle, every table is full, the hot interior, hot noodles, this is really the best choice made today.

Wu Wei had already occupied a table for four inside, and when he saw the two of them, he smiled and waved: “Here it is.”

Yin Guo met him for the second time, greeted him friendly, put down her bag, and went to the bathroom first.

Seeing Yin Guo leave, Wu Wei immediately lowered his voice: “You’re so funny, I took off my clothes, and my hair was covered in foam. You messaged to reserve a seat, just to eat a bowl of ramen?”

“Don’t talk nonsense when you came already.”

Lin Yiyang took off his winter clothes, put it on the back of the chair, waved his hand, and said hello to the boss. After the two chatted warmly in Japanese, he asked for ‘Sake’ first.
[ T/N: Sake is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin ]

The boss asked if he wanted to order, but he rejected it, and he had to wait for Yin Guo to come out.

Wu Wei was at a loss: “Didn’t you go to Flushing to gamble? How did you meet the little beauty?”

“It happened in the ballroom,” he said.

The two men spoke a few words, to clarify the ins and outs, and Yin Guo just returned.

Wu Wei immediately put away the face of “watching a good show” and asked with a smile: “I heard him say, you are also here to participate in the open competition?”

“Yes, it’s the women’s team.” She smiled and sat opposite the two men.

“I’m also a member of the list,” Wu Wei stretched out his right hand, “Come on, I’m so destined to hold one.”

“Good fate.” Yin Guo shook hands with him.

“I came in that day, and your brother talked to me. I thought I was a lie. Later, when I saw that the club was on the box, I confirmed,” Wu Wei smiled and talked about Blizzard that night,” and began to think that the club was your brother’s, and did not expect it to be you. “

No wonder, they became friends so easily, and they invited them to drink especially.

She finally figured it out.

The two chatted for a while, but Yin Guo gained a lot of information about Lin Yiyang from Wu Wei.

Wu Wei was studying at New York University. Lin Yiyang helped prepare the materials and came to study for a master’s degree. The two have different majors. Lin Yiyang came a year early and had to study for three years, while Wu Wei only needed to study for one year. He didn’t leave after graduation, he just wanted to wait for Lin Yiyang to finish his studies and return to China together.

“Actually, I’m just average nine-ball. I practiced when I was young. The nine-ball is popular in the United States, and I have followed the custom in the countryside.” Wu Wei said with a smile.

He was right.

Many people in the United States will use nine-ball as family entertainment. They have a ball table at home, but very few people play snooker. Today, when she met Lin Yiyang at the ballroom, there was only one snooker table in the ballroom where she usually trained, and no one was playing.

In professional games, people here are not keen on snooker either.

For Yin Guo, she plays American billiards, and the US Nine-Ball Open is very important.

But from Wu Wei’s words, she could tell that the other party was a snooker player who mainly played English billiards.

Just like my cousin.

His friends are all pros, why isn’t he?

Yin Guo looked at him.

Lin Yiyang had been sitting there, drinking the Sake that was brought first. The small glass bottle, the size of a palm, blue and translucent, was held in his palm, and took two sips. Most of the bottle was emptied.

He didn’t seem to listen to their conversation seriously. When Yin Guo looked at him, he pushed the menu in front of her: “Order first, then talk.”

“Yes, first, first.” Wu Wei echoed.

On that menu are pictures.

Ramen is a way to open a shop all over the world, just look at the pictures to choose noodles and add vegetables. Yin Guo quickly liked the menu, and she returned it to Lin Yiyang. Lin Yiyang waved his hand and directly called someone to place the order. He was so familiar with this place that he and Wu Wei could blind spot without looking at the order.

Wu Wei changed the topic and talked about his daily life in New York, and was concerned about Yin Guo’s next accommodation arrangement.

“It should still be a hotel,” Yin Guo said, “now that.”

“Didn’t consider renting a house? Short-term rental?”

“I thought about it, but I think three months is not too long or too short. I’m afraid of trouble, and I can’t find a good one.”

Wu Wei immediately invited her warmly, saying that the apartment he rented was a three-bedroom apartment, two of which were a pair of sisters, and they were going to move out this month. He can help ask the landlord if he can let Yin Guo rent for a short period of time first. In this way, there are two advantages. The first is to save money at this stage, and the second is that if Yin Guo’s cousin gets an offer from New York University, it is not bad to rent it directly.

Good location, convenient transportation, ready-made house.

Wu Wei’s words really touched her.

When she came, her friend suggested a short-term rental, but it was just because her friend was in China and it was inconvenient to find a house for her, so she gave up. Since there are reliable listings, renting is certainly cost-effective.

Yin Guo thanked him happily and added Wu Wei’s WeChat.

“Wait for me to ask the landlord first, and I will give you the exact news tomorrow.” Wu Wei finally said.

Because they had to hurry, they didn’t talk anymore and finished the noodles quickly.

After supper, Lin Yiyang and Yin Guo got on the subway again, and it was eleven o’clock when they arrived at Yin Guo Hotel.

The hotel she lives in is a relatively remote neighborhood, surrounded by repair factories, and the only lively place is a small gas station. From the subway entrance to the hotel, you have to go through a dark road. Except for the light of the gas station, there are no extra lights, three or five minutes away.

The wind picked up in the middle of the night, and it blew her a chill.

He took Yin Guo to the door of the hotel, where two barmaids were smoking. When the two approached, they just snuffed out the cigarette butts. The two of them helped open the heavy black-lacquered iron door of the hotel and entered.

She stopped in front of the steps: “Do you still have a subway ride when you go back?”

“The subway is 24 hours a day.” Lin Yiyang took off the club barrel from his shoulders and hooked the rope as if he was about to hand it out as if he was waiting for something.

His hand hooked on the rope was exposed, Yin Guo saw it and thought of his right hand when he was holding the club.

The sport of billiards requires long, uninterrupted years of polishing and hard practice. Like any sport, one cannot slack off in one day. The layman can’t see it. His level has been cultivated all year round, not quite like an amateur…

There was a knock on the glass door behind her, interrupting her thoughts.

She looked back and saw her cousin waving at them behind the frosted glass.

Lin Yiyang’s arm passed over her shoulder at the same time, pulling open the iron door for her. He pushed Yin Guo into the warm room and handed the club bucket to Meng Xiaotian.

“Thank you, Brother Yang, for sending my sister back.” Her cousin smiled and thanked him.

He nodded, saying goodbye.

Then he put his hands in his pockets, turned around, and walked back along the path beside the gas station without street lights.

Yin Guo touched her ears. Just now when Lin Yiyang pulled the door, the cuff zipper scratched her ears: “Did you come down by chance?”

“Brother Yang sent me WeChat, saying that you are coming, let me pick you up,” said cousin, “I guess I mentioned that there is a bar under our hotel. He is worried, is he afraid that you will run into a drunk?”

Unexpected answer.

Yin Guo looked back again.

Lin Yiyang was raising his hat to block the cold wind. In the distance is the light of the gas station, and on the left is the wall beside the road. Gradually, the figure disappears into the wind and snow, in the direction of the subway.

T/N: Hello readers, very sorry for the late update, and I am sorry to tell you that I am dropping this novel as things are not going well irl and I am getting busier. Thank you so much for reading. Hopes everything goes well with you. May you all stay healthy and happy!!