Polo, the long hair gothic girl, didn"t answer his question. She continued to circle Shao Yan while looking at her intently. Li Xiqing just smiled at her.
Meanwhile Shao Yan was looking at him with a confused look. He just stood there, crossed his arms in front of his chest and nodded to Shao Yan.
After a while, Polo tapped Shao Yan"s shoulder and said, "I"m Polo." and then Polo looked back at Li Xiqing, and then she c.o.c.ked her head to the side, "This way" and walked away.
Shao Yan lamented in her heart, "she is really a woman with minimal words". But was she not the one who was talking for so long with him on the phone just now?
Li Xiqing closed in to Shao Yan and signalled her to follow Polo. Three of them walked pa.s.s the crowd of people from earlier, they were teasing him about Shao Yan.
Li Xiqing just replied with a word, "Later" and tapped on the shoulder of the nearest guy to him, and continued his strides.
Shao Yan just gave a polite smile to them and also continued following Polo to enter the shop.
The main automatic gla.s.s door opened, and loud music was blaring cheerfully from the overhead speakers.
The s.p.a.ce was so large, since it was a combination of three warehouses into one. A lot of tools were hung around the wall and the whole area was surprisingly clean. A lot of people were inside, they were also busy with their own cars.
The s.p.a.ces were converted to two stories area. With the second floor area only occupying the sides of the wall, with railings on it.
So people could go upstairs and stood by the railings, they could have a full view of the first floor. Second floor was the customer lounge area. They could play some games or just sat around, while waiting for their cars.
Shao Yan could see comfortable couches and coffee table were set up on the second floor area. Cla.s.sic arcade machines lined up neatly on the other side.
There was also several jukeboxes available on one side, and next to them were several dart boards hung up on the wall.
Shao Yan first view was to a man dressed up in red and yellow checkered pullover with night black sweatpants. He had cornrows braided hair that he had put up into a bun.
He was standing on the second floor, leaning to the railing bars, facing the main gla.s.s door and was playing with his phone while chewing some gum.
His feet was tapping along the music and his head nodded to the rhythm.
He noticed that the gla.s.s door had opened, so he looked down at them. And then he whistled loudly and ran downstairs right away. All of a sudden, he gave a giant koala hug to Li Xiqing.
Shao Yan was stunned looking at this, and went speechless for a moment.
They were bantering in English for a while, before switching back to Chinese. The braided man turned to Shao Yan and gave her a big hug as well, "h.e.l.lo, I"m Bo."
Shao Yan was not used to this friendly gesture, but luckily it"s only a brief hug and then he let her go.
"h.e.l.lo, I"m Shao Yan." she smiled.
She almost put her hand out to offer handshake as that was her habit, but she managed to stop herself since Bo already gave her a hug.
Polo disappeared into somewhere before she came back carrying something with her. it"s a small carton box. She gave it to Li Xiqing, who took it over easily.
"You"re not leaving right away, are you?" Bo suddenly spoke to them just when Li Xiqing took the box from Polo.
"Polo and I were going to race in a bit. Stay and cheer for us!" Bo somehow a.s.sumed that the decision maker of this would be Shao Yan, so when he said the last part, he was looking at Shao Yan with a broad smile on his face.
Shao Yan looked at Li Xiqing and let him decide. Li Xiqing saw her look, and replied Bo, "Let me put this into the car. Is it the usual track?"
Bo grinned and nodded right away, "It"s going to be at 8. They"re preparing the area now."
Li Xiqing looked at his watch and then just nodded at him, "Got it. I"ll take her to go there first. I"ll meet you there." and then he looked at Shao Yan and said to her gently, "Let"s go?"
Shao Yan was confused. She wanted to pay for the battery first, so she turned to Polo and asked her, "How much do I owe you for the battery?"
Polo was not expecting Shao Yan to talk to her, but before Polo said anything, Li Xiqing cut her off and said, "it"s okay, they owed me something, so it"s settled now. You don"t have to worry about it."
Shao Yan saw Polo and Bo nodded, but she still felt uneasy. She just nodded anyway and said thank you to Bo and Polo before walking out with Li Xiqing.
Bo waved back at her happily while Polo still maintained her cool self and just nodded.
When they stepped out again, Li Xiqing introduced her to everyone, "This is Shao Yan" and then looked back at her and said, "This is everyone. Their individual names are not important, you don"t need to spend some brain juice to remember them."
They started to attack him and also throw remarks on him when they heard him said that. But looking at how he was carrying something, they didn"t stop him for a long time, and Li Xiqing only promised to catch up later at the track.
The mood was very warm and amicable.
Li Xiqing and Shao Yan walked back to the car, and they left for the track. On the way there, Li Xiqing gave a brief introduction of the place to her.
What they called "track" was actually a go-kart racing track, located behind the warehouses. During school years, he would often came to this area to play around with some friends. Polo and Bo were part of that group too.
This area used to be much more simple. The warehouses were abandoned warehouses that the kids converted to trickle with cars and motorbikes.
The track itself used to be only barren land with mud. Young kids who played around here before, started to develop the area.
"You could say this place grew up with us too. Even though I left ten years ago, everytime I got the chance to visit the country, I would still come here to meet them", Li Xiqing said that before he pointed his chin to her right side.
Similar to the warehouses area, the track was lit up brightly as well.