Heat Returning to the Lane

Lu Chen handed her a bottle. His tone stayed even. "Teacher Shen told me. She said you'd arrive in the next couple of days. Said if you didn't come, I should wait for you at the station." "She still meddles in everything." "She only meddles where it's warranted." Xu Zhixia twisted off the cap and took a few gulps. The cold water eased the dryness in her throat. Lu Chen stood opposite her without asking where she'd spent these years, or why she'd suddenly come home. He had always been like this, like the old projector in the cinema behind him: quiet when the reel was running, the soft whisper of film threading through the machine the only sign that anything was moving at all.