Jiang Xinghuai turned his head and glanced at Fu Yan, who had his eyes closed, then pressed his lips together and quietly smiled.
Told him to rest properly, but he just wouldn’t. He kept talking nonstop, forcing him to fight back.
But…
Fu Yan’s nose was really quite nice, and straight, too.
His chin was also good-looking.
The more Jiang Xinghuai looked, the more surprised he became, as if he were truly seeing this man for the first time. He had never noticed before that Fu Yan was actually very… very handsome.
In his impression, Fu Yan was serious, gentle.
But not handsome. Since when did Fu Yan suddenly become handsome…
“Don’t look at me. Watch the road.” Fu Yan opened his eyes helplessly.
“I am watching.” Jiang Xinghuai hurriedly turned his head back, staring at the endless stretch of road, his heart thumping hard.
“I wasn’t scolding you. Don’t be nervous.” Fu Yan comforted him when he saw how tightly he was gripping the steering wheel.
“I’m not nervous.” Jiang Xinghuai cleared his throat, then glanced sideways at him. “Why do I feel like your voice is getting hoarser and hoarser?”
“Probably didn’t rest well.” Fu Yan unscrewed the thermos. A puff of steam blew into his face.
He leaned back to dodge, then brought it close and took a sip. The calm expression on his face instantly twisted.
“Does it taste good?” Jiang Xinghuai didn’t turn his head, eyes fixed on the road ahead, asking with anticipation.
“…It’s okay.” Fu Yan forced down the sickly sweetness clogging his throat.
“Then do you want to eat something?” Jiang Xinghuai asked again. “I saw you didn’t eat much for breakfast.”
Before Fu Yan could reply, Jiang Xinghuai kept recommending one after another: “Do you eat beef jerky? What about duck necks, chips—do you like those? This chocolate cookie is my favorite. Do you want some?”
“Quiet.” Fu Yan reached out and flicked the side of his cheek.
Jiang Xinghuai shut his mouth, only feeling the spot on his cheek grow a little hot.
What was wrong with him? Was he catching a cold, too?
Stepping on the accelerator, the car went faster and faster.
“Jiang Xinghuai.” Fu Yan sighed. “We’re not flying a helicopter right now.”
“Why aren’t you sleeping?” Jiang Xinghuai turned in surprise to look at him. “Didn’t you say you hadn’t rested well? Go on, sleep a bit.”
“No need.” Fu Yan pinched the bridge of his nose.
“What, you don’t trust me?” Jiang Xinghuai frowned, slowed the car down. “It’s fine, I’ll drive carefully. This road is really long… I’ll call you when we get further along. Just sleep.”
“I—”
“Besides, aren’t you going to drive later? If you don’t rest now, you’ll be even more tired then.”
Fu Yan frowned, thought for a moment, then nodded. “Wake me anytime.”
“Mm.” Jiang Xinghuai nodded again and again. “Go to sleep.”
Fu Yan closed his eyes and leaned back against the seat, drifting off.
Jiang Xinghuai glanced at him, then turned his head back to stare at the road.
The road twisted and turned. It is not very wide. In some places, the cement was broken. It is really ugly.
But the wheat fields on the left side looked quite nice, all golden yellow.
So many sparrows, too…
So, was Fu Yan asleep?
Why couldn’t he hear Fu Yan’s breathing?
Jiang Xinghuai’s mind wandered all over the place. In the end, he couldn’t help but turn his head to look.
Fu Yan’s head was slightly tilted toward him, his hands folded together and resting in front of his stomach.
Even in his sleep, he slept all proper and serious.
But… Fu Yan’s side profile was really good-looking…
Suddenly, Fu Yan’s eyelashes twitched.
Jiang Xinghuai quickly turned his head back. He gripped the steering wheel tightly, straightened his back, and started driving seriously.
The light rain gradually stopped. The sun broke through the clouds, showing a sliver of brightness, and the wet gray cement road slowly dried.
Occasional puddles under the sunlight sparkled like fallen stars.
Jiang Xinghuai’s mood was unusually good. He looked at the road, then at Fu Yan, and felt especially satisfied.
“What exactly are you smiling at?” Fu Yan pinched the bridge of his nose and sat upright.
Jiang Xinghuai was startled and instinctively stepped on the brakes.
“I didn’t laugh… I…” Jiang Xinghuai swallowed hard. “You woke up. I already drove onto the second road of your designated route. I’ve been looking at the map. I didn’t drive randomly.”
“Mm.” Fu Yan took the map from his lap. “Keep driving.”
“Oh, okay.” Jiang Xinghuai started the car and had just stepped on the gas.
A mother and daughter suddenly rushed out, appearing less than a meter in front of the car.
Jiang Xinghuai instantly slammed on the brakes, his eyes wide, breaking into a cold sweat from fright.
When he came back to his senses, he was so scared that he cursed several times in a row, “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”
“Three rules, first rule.” Fu Yan frowned as he looked at him. “No swearing.”
“Ah?” Jiang Xinghuai was stunned. “That counts as swearing?”
Fu Yan stared at him without speaking.
“Ah, I was just startled.” Jiang Xinghuai explained.
Fu Yan still kept looking at him without saying anything.
“Okay, okay, I won’t say it.” Jiang Xinghuai shrank his shoulders a little in fear. “I won’t ever say it again.”
Outside the car, the sound of a child crying rang out, while the woman had fallen to the ground as if she had lost consciousness.
“Don’t get out of the car,” Fu Yan said.
“I know.” Jiang Xinghuai nodded.
Fu Yan looked at him with some surprise.
“I’m not stupid.” Jiang Xinghuai rather proudly rubbed the tip of his nose. “This isn’t exactly deep in the wilderness, but it’s still pretty remote, right? All around are wheat fields. You can’t even see a single house. For a woman with a child to suddenly throw themselves in front of our car, that’s way too much of a coincidence.”
Looking at that smug expression on his face, Fu Yan couldn’t help but laugh. “Not completely stupid.”
“Of course I’m not stupid.” Jiang Xinghuai said, lowering the window. He stuck his head out and shouted at the mother and daughter ahead: “You two, get going!”
“Save my mom! Uncle, please save my mom!” The little girl knelt on the ground, crying heartbrokenly.
Jiang Xinghuai turned his head to glance at Fu Yan, then pulled it back in and rolled the window up.
“She didn’t just fall down normally.” Fu Yan calmly looked at the touching scene before the car. “She’s pretending.”
“What are they trying to do?” Jiang Xinghuai asked, puzzled.
“They’re bait.” Fu Yan’s gaze grew colder. “They have accomplices.”
Jiang Xinghuai could tell that something about this situation was off, but he hadn’t thought it would be like this.
The one woman and one car confronted each other for nearly five minutes.
The woman lying on the ground couldn’t keep up the act anymore. She slowly got up, staring coldly at the car. The child also stopped crying and likewise stared with cold eyes.
Though tear streaks still hung on their faces, there was no longer a single expression left.
In less than half a minute, six or seven middle-aged men slowly came up from the slope on the other side of the road.
The leader was bare-chested, with a large dragon-head tattoo on his chest.
Fu Yan’s brows furrowed tightly, his hand going to the gun at his waist.
After the few men came onto the road, two of them carried something to the back of the car, put it down, and then quickly went to the front to block together with the others.
Through the rearview mirror, Fu Yan clearly saw. It was large iron spikes, specifically used to stop cars. Just as he was thinking, Jiang Xinghuai, sitting beside him, furrowed his brows hard, rolled down the window, held up a gun, and stuck his hand out.
“I’ll count to three.” Jiang Xinghuai pointed the gun at the bare-chested leader, his voice steady and calm. “All of you, stand at attention, turn left, and march away.”
Fu Yan loosened the hand that had gone to his gun, surprised. He turned his head to look at Jiang Xinghuai.
“Is that a gun?”
“A real gun? How does he have a gun?”
“No way it’s a real gun.”
The men’s expressions clearly wavered.
But the man with the dragon-head tattoo clearly didn’t believe it. With a sneer, he took a step forward.
“Stop.” Jiang Xinghuai released the safety.
The man took another step.
Without the slightest hesitation, Jiang Xinghuai pulled the trigger and neatly fired a shot at the ground beside his foot.
Bang!
A deafening gunshot exploded, startling a flock of sparrows perched by the roadside into flight.
Jiang Xinghuai immediately raised the gun again, aiming at the man’s body, and warned once more: “I said stop.”
The bare-chested man clearly hadn’t expected it to be a real gun. He froze for quite a while, then his legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the ground.
The men behind him were also stunned with fright.
Clatter, clatter.
Several gleaming knives fell from their backs, hitting the ground with a series of loud noises.
Fu Yan wasn’t surprised at all by this. What surprised him more was Jiang Xinghuai’s reaction.
Jiang Xinghuai, however, furrowed his brows tightly at the scene. He pressed down on his hand that was trembling from the aftershock of fear, and gave his final warning: “Move aside.”
After several seconds, as the sound of the child crying rang out again, the men with vicious eyes picked up their knives once more, stared at the black SUV, and slowly retreated to the roadside.
Jiang Xinghuai slammed on the gas, speeding away. Yet he couldn’t help but glance several times at the rearview mirror.
From a distance, Jiang Xinghuai felt that those men and women were no different from the infected.
They were no longer human.
“Don’t look.” Fu Yan reached out, cupped the back of his head, and forcibly turned it forward. “Watch the road ahead.”
Jiang Xinghuai was silent for a while, then still asked: “Is it because of the chaos caused by the virus infection?”
“People are different, after all. The chaos caused by the infection won’t turn them into this kind of person. It only fuels their darkness.” Fu Yan said in a low voice. “They were already like this.”
Jiang Xinghuai nodded silently.
Fu Yan’s brows tightened deeply. He knew that such undisguised malice was no less than a heavy blow to Jiang Xinghuai.
An eighteen-year-old child, who had always lived within school and a society that seemed relatively peaceful and friendly, truly had little chance to come into contact with these darker sides of human nature.
He hoped for and was glad to see Jiang Xinghuai’s growth, yet at the same time felt distressed for this Jiang Xinghuai who was in the midst of growing.
“You were really cool just now,” Fu Yan suddenly said.
“What did you say? I didn’t hear clearly.” Jiang Xinghuai freed one hand, shaped it like a gun, and pointed it at Fu Yan. “Please say it again.”
“You really were cool just now.” Fu Yan cooperated completely.
Jiang Xinghuai’s brows lit up with joy. He giggled for a long time, instantly forgetting those unpleasant things.
“Tired?” Fu Yan asked with a smile. “Let’s find a place to rest a bit and eat something.”
“Are you okay now? Still dizzy?” Jiang Xinghuai turned his head, glancing at his complexion.
“Much better.” Fu Yan smiled. “You’ve worked hard. Are you hungry?”
“Not hungry.” At that, Jiang Xinghuai’s ears inexplicably turned red, and he lowered his voice. “I want to pee.”
“Stop the car, then.” Fu Yan couldn’t help but laugh. “Why have you been holding it in all this time?”
“You were asleep, weren’t you? I was afraid to leave you alone in the car.” Jiang Xinghuai pushed the door open and jumped down, humming awkwardly in a low voice.
“Go quickly.” Fu Yan watched him, only feeling a soft warmth filling his heart.
“Do you need to pee?” Jiang Xinghuai came around to stand outside his car door, poking his head in through the window.
“I don’t need to.” Fu Yan said.
“This whole way, after so long, and you still don’t need to pee?” Jiang Xinghuai looked at him suspiciously. “Really don’t need to?”
Fu Yan suddenly had a bad feeling.
“Is your kidney not in good condition?” Jiang Xinghuai asked.
As expected.
Hearing this, Fu Yan’s brows instantly throbbed with pain. “Jiang Xinghuai, you—”
“It’s okay, men in their thirties are all like this,” Jiang Xinghuai softly comforted with understanding. “Easily fatigued, low energy. I get it.”
Fu Yan was so angry he almost lost his wits: “Want to try?”
“Try what?” Jiang Xinghuai was stunned for a moment.
“Try a thirty-year-old man’s kidney.” Fu Yan pinched the bridge of his nose. The words were shocking.
