The afternoon when Qin Shui first met Qin Sheng was the moment she least wanted to recall.
The ancient city’s summer heat was stifling. She was riding an electric scooter whose brakes wouldn’t stop, rear-ended someone else’s car, slammed headfirst into the trunk, then rolled and crashed onto the ground, hitting it so hard that her head was bleeding badly.
By the time the ambulance arrived, the bleeding had basically stopped. She could not speak, and she was also the party at fault, so of course she could not defend herself even with a hundred mouths. Several strong paramedics lifted her onto a stretcher, secured her with elastic straps, and took her to the nearest Fifth People’s Hospital.
After finishing her IV drip and CT scan, it was already completely dark. When she went to the front desk to pay, she paid special attention to the remaining balance in her employee medical insurance account.
The car owner called the police on the spot. When Qin Shui was discharged from the hospital, she received a phone call from the car owner’s wife, asking after her warmly. It was this big sister who had gotten out of the passenger seat earlier to call 122 to report the accident. Seeing that Qin Shui was badly injured and completely silent, she absolutely would not let her leave, afraid it might be the kind of case reported in the news where someone seemed totally fine at the time, but in fact had fatal internal injuries.
The woman kept muttering nonstop along the way, explaining to the medical staff, “This little girl ran straight into us herself!”
“We really don’t know how she got hurt like this. She was fine when she went out, and then this happened. She doesn’t have a bit of sense at all!”
The doctor told her to keep quiet and attached monitoring pads to Qin Shui’s abdomen and below her collarbone to monitor her heart rate. He repeatedly reminded her that if she felt like vomiting, she must say so and not throw up on herself.
Her heart rate shot all the way up to 140.
The car owner paid the ambulance fee and said over the phone that the damage had already been assessed. The car had been sent to the repair shop, and she should rest well.
Qin Shui went home and slept for a while, though the pain kept her from sleeping well. Lying on the bed, she patted the quilt as if she were patting a child.
She had experienced being unable to speak for herself her entire life. Just ten days ago, she had been bullied by her supervisor and lost her job. During her period of unemployment, she did not dare tell her family. Today, she went out riding to attend an interview, the brakes broke, she rear-ended someone, ended up in the hospital, and now had to pay compensation.
Her monthly salary of over 4,700 yuan had come from a clerical position at a small state-owned enterprise in the provincial capital, which her parents had worked hard to secure for her through gift-giving. She handled document drafting and delivery, with drivers helping when she needed to go out. She mainly wrote documents. Her major was not actually in this field, but she picked up official writing quickly and adapted fairly well.
The state-owned enterprise’s office was located within an administrative institution, renting four offices on the fifth floor.
She ate breakfast and lunch in the cafeteria. The auntie there favored the institution’s own civil servants. Sometimes there was clearly food, but when her colleagues went to get some, the auntie would say there was none left. When Qin Shui went to return her dishes, she saw the cafeteria auntie handing a few buns to other people who were still hungry.
She basically spent no money every day, aside from electricity for her rental room and some dinner expenses. Over the course of a year, she saved more than 40,000 yuan.
She had just completed one year of work. Fortunately, there had been a dispute before she resigned, and the company compensated her with over 10,000 yuan, but her relationship with the person who introduced her to the job also became somewhat awkward.
In her first month without any income, she crashed into the back of a Mercedes.
The repair shop was in the west of the city, not far from the city center, but closer to an urban village. The car owner sent her the address. Since she was not working anyway, she made an appointment for a weekday and went to the shop in person.
Actually, when the traffic police investigated the situation, an accident responsibility report had already been issued. After all, she was a young girl. The car was badly damaged, and she herself was injured. It was pitiful to see. The police officer had taken the trouble to mediate, so she did not have to compensate much. She really did not need to go to the repair shop at all.
At that time, Qin Shui was sitting by the roadside, clutching her wound. The only sign language she used that day was for Officer Yu. She said thank you.
The WeChat location showed a place called Beidaihe Luxury Car Repair Center. The storefront was set up quite grandly, with metallic advertising letters that could be seen from far away.
She did not see the pot-bellied car owner with a belt, nor did she see his wife, so she went inside to look around first. The inside of the repair shop was like a parking lot. Vehicles sent in for repair were parked on the upper and lower levels all around. There was also a small bus with dents on all sides, hoisted up and mangled into a strange shape.
The repair shop was completely open. There was no air conditioning inside, and it could not be installed anyway. At most, she could hear exhaust fans spinning as if in a competition. It was even hotter than outside.
All kinds of workers were busy with their tasks. Someone asked whom she was looking for. Qin Shui hurriedly waved her hands and smiled. When there was no response, the other person just crawled back under the car and ignored her.
She did not dare approach the cars hanging nearby, nor did she dare touch anything randomly. She walked along the path in the middle of the workshop. This place was far worse than the maintenance centers at 4S shops. The smell of engine oil hit her head-on, with even stronger scents of rust and metal. In the height of summer, it made people dizzy.
In a corner was a small pickup truck with its innards torn out and scattered everywhere. A man wearing a light gray work shirt with a dark blue lining and a mechanical wristwatch stood up from outside the passenger seat. Qin Shui had not noticed him before.
“Who are you looking for?” he asked. “You can’t just wander around in here. Don’t you know that?”
His brows were furrowed very tightly, but Qin Shui felt this had nothing to do with his mood. It was more like a habitual expression from exhaustion and lack of oxygen. She was very good at observing people.
This mechanic was very young and tall, with a buzz cut. His clothes seemed not light gray but white, though they were too dirty to tell. Underneath, he wore a pure black T-shirt tank top. His build was solid, with an impatient expression that had nothing to do with the word refined.
Qin Shui began signing, telling him that she could not speak and could not hear very clearly either.
Nine out of ten deaf people are mute. Her hearing was extremely poor to begin with, and the echoes inside made it even harder to hear. Afraid that the mechanic might get impatient and scold her later, she quickly made it clear that she had a hearing impairment. After all, people are usually more tolerant toward the disabled.
Sure enough, the man stopped talking. His brows relaxed, and he seemed somewhat surprised.
He pointed to a place five or six meters away. “Go sit on the sofa over there. Don’t come over here.”
Qin Shui obediently went over.
The mechanic’s work gloves were tossed on the roof of the car. From the side, he looked a bit hunched with a forward-leaning spine, but it did not look awkward. The younger workers in repair shops all seemed to be like this, but this mechanic was the tallest and the most energetic.
He grabbed a metal tool from the messy workbench behind him, lay flat on a wheeled wooden board, and smoothly slid under the car. Qin Shui’s brows furrowed tightly just like his. The movement tugged at the wound on her head, sending sharp pain through it, and scenes from Final Destination flashed repeatedly through her mind.
After sitting for a while, the imagined bloody scenes did not occur. The mechanic finished safely. Holding a water bottle in one hand and a paper cup in the other, he walked over and casually glanced at the gauze taped to her arm and the top of her head.
“Have some water.”
Qin Shui made a gesture of thanks. He understood it and sat down beside her, asking, “Are you the car owner, or…?”
Thinking of her electric scooter that had long since been scrapped, Qin Shui quickly typed on her phone: “I’m the one at fault. I was riding the scooter.”
The mechanic had a high nose bridge, and the hair on his head looked a bit prickly. He was amused by her answer and asked again, “You caused the accident and still came here? Isn’t paying the money enough? Are you planning to supervise the repairs too?”
She typed again: “The car owner said the car would be repaired this afternoon. I had nothing to do, so I came to transfer the compensation to him in person.”
He had seen many traffic accidents, but this kind of at-fault party was rare, so he made no comment. The two fell silent. He unscrewed the water bottle, which looked like it came from the same lineage as the battered cars in the repair shop. Inside, tea leaves were steeping. He tilted his head back and drank more than half the cup.
Watching him made Qin Shui feel thirsty too. She finished the water in her paper cup and looked down to see five engine oil fingerprints smeared on the side of the cup, black and grimy, which had also transferred neatly onto the pads of her five fingers.
“My name is Qin Sheng. And you?”
Qin Shui had been staring at the silver chain at his neck. She came back to herself and handed him her phone. On the home screen wallpaper were the two characters Qin Shui.
“Nice name. It sounds cool,” he said, lifting his hand and finishing the remaining half bottle in one go. Sweat ran down along his jawline.
She took out a pack of tissues from her bag and raised her hand to wipe the sweat from Qin Sheng’s face.
This was clearly a kind of goodwill, and one that could easily be misunderstood, but Qin Shui still did it. Qin Sheng did not dodge either. After half his face was wiped, he took the tissue himself, folded it once, and quickly wiped the other half.
The car owner arrived.
The repair cost was several thousand yuan. Thanks to Officer Yu’s eloquence, she only had to pay three hundred, not including the ambulance fee. After all, she was injured, and the car owner was actually more afraid that she might pursue the matter.
The big sister had changed into a patterned dress. From their clothing, Qin Shui judged them to be middle class or above. Their Shanghai accent left a deep impression. The car owner did not say much and did not really engage with her, but he also did not cause trouble. He probably just found the whole affair annoying. Meanwhile, the big sister beside him kept chattering at her like a rapid-fire cannon.
“Be more careful when riding next time, little girl! Our family is kind-hearted, but you can’t go scamming people again, all right? Once this is settled, don’t contact us again, got it?”
Qin Shui was a little unhappy hearing this. She had not scammed them at all. She had paid what she should have paid. The car owner quickly waved his hand to signal his wife to say less. Qin Sheng took them to look at the car and briefly handed things over to the mechanic in charge of reception.
He took a clipboard with several sheets of paper clipped to it. After finishing the inspection, he deliberately went to take a look around the trunk area and said to the car owner and his wife, “You slammed on the brakes, didn’t you?”
“We only tapped the brakes when turning at the intersection! Whether it’s an electric scooter or a motor vehicle, you’re supposed to keep a safe distance. How can you blame the brakes for this?”
Qin Shui did not want Qin Sheng to argue back and forth with the big sister. She originally wanted to say that her own brakes were broken, but she could not get a word in. In the end, she simply walked behind Qin Sheng and reached out to poke him.
“You thought it was some huge dent. These scratches are already pretty minor. No one died, that’s already fortunate, and you’re still afraid of being scammed?” He casually tossed his gloves onto the trunk and pointed toward the front desk. “Go over there and register your information. After you’ve looked through the itemized list, just go home and wait for the call to pick up the car.”
Hearing this, the car owner responded and went to pay. The big sister stood by the rearview mirror with her arms crossed and asked Qin Shui, “Do you two know each other?”
Qin Sheng leaned against a table to the side and did not speak. Qin Shui then shook her head to indicate that the two of them were not familiar with each other.
“The people here really are something, always siding with fair and clean little girls. It’s true you got hurt, but you did rear-end us. In the end, the police officer favored you, and even the repair mechanic is protecting you. It makes it look like we were the ones who hit you, doesn’t it?”
“……”
Qin Sheng was not protecting her at all. He was just standing by and watching. The car owner came back with the receipts, asked symbolically about her injuries, then left with his wife.
The money had been paid, and the matter was settled. Qin Sheng glanced at the pure black Casio mechanical watch on his wrist and tipped his chin toward her. “We’re almost off work. You should head back.”
The two of them walked back together to the sofa from earlier. Qin Shui looked at the wall mottled with black engine oil stains, pointed at the outlet on the wall, and asked, “Can I charge for a bit? My phone’s out of battery.”
Qin Sheng leaned over to look at her screen and shrugged to indicate it was fine. Qin Shui sat back down, set her phone aside to charge, and used Qin Sheng’s charging cable.
“How are you still using an iPhone 7? It’s already updated to 16.”
He was clearly just making conversation. Qin Shui could tell, but she only smiled.
He tidied up the pickup truck he had been repairing, efficiently took off his work uniform, and began organizing the tools on the table.
Qin Shui sat on the sofa observing the other mechanics farther away. One by one, everyone went outside the repair center to smoke. Their work uniforms were all hung on racks at the door of the break room. No one packed up their tools. Even though there were no walls or designated workstations, everyone had their own tacitly understood work area. Tools were laid out conveniently, and no one bothered to put them back into boxes.
But Qin Sheng was doing exactly that.
The huge fan oscillated, taking turns blowing on the two of them. Qin Shui leaned back against the sofa with her arms crossed, and the sweat on her head was blown dry as well. Qin Sheng finally finished packing up and went outside to smoke, arm in arm with his coworkers.
Ten minutes later, she shouldered her backpack and went out. She scanned around at the entrance and easily spotted Qin Sheng outside a lodging hotel next door. He had just stubbed out a cigarette. There were five or six cigarette butts at the base of the wall, and she did not know whether they were his.
Qin Shui waved at him. Qin Sheng walked over wearing that dark blue T-shirt, lifted a hand to wave away the lingering smell of smoke, took out a set of car keys from his pocket, and asked her, “It’s a bit of a walk from here to both the bus station and the subway. I’ll give you a ride.”
She did not respond. Instead, she held out her WeChat QR code, with the screen brightness turned all the way up. On it was a friend-adding QR code.
“……”
Qin Sheng did not speak. He took out his phone and scanned it.
He started up a Volkswagen Golf. There were no decorations inside the car at all. Only a small pony charm hung beneath the rearview mirror. The car looked to be well-maintained overall. The dashboard showed over one hundred thousand kilometers driven. It was, without a doubt, an old car.
He drove to the subway entrance but only pulled over slightly instead of stopping. The windows were tightly closed, and the air conditioning was so cool it was almost cold. Qin Shui leaned over and entered her home address into his phone’s navigation, tapping the screen with her fingertip.
Qin Sheng looked over the route and finally smiled. He made a U-turn at the intersection ahead.
“Since it’s not far anyway, and it’s already mealtime, I’ll take you to eat first, then head back.”