"Hey, big bro."
Chen Tingting turned her head and leaned close to his ear:
"You've been so good to us — don't tell me you've got your eye on one of us?"
The blunt, fearless directness that was so characteristic of wild girls caught Bai Li completely off guard.
Chen Tingting kept going:
"Is it me you like? Or our Xiao Shuang? Or maybe..." she paused, jerking her chin toward Li Jiaxin across the aisle, "someone more like Jiaxin?"
Li Jiaxin had her earphones in, listening to music, her body swaying gently with the beat, completely oblivious to the conversation.
The question left Bai Li momentarily tongue-tied.
He could hardly say: I like you because you're all going to be my cash cows.
He was silent for a short while, then came up with a reason that sounded perfectly high-minded:
"We're all from the same county. Life's tough out here — if I can help, I will."
Chen Tingting responded with a dismissive "tch," her eyes glinting with the knowing amusement of someone who'd seen it all.
"Come off it, big bro. Men are all the same."
She lowered her voice and leaned in a little closer, a playful smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth:
"First they talk about life and dreams, get all cozy with you — and then what? They just want to get into your pants."
Bai Li knew wild girls had a rough way of talking, but this was something else entirely, and he found himself at a loss for words.
He cleared his throat and followed her lead:
"From the sound of it, your crowd is pretty... wild?"
The question wiped the amusement right off Chen Tingting's face.
She sat up straight, her expression turning serious.
"We are pure, genuine wild girls." Her voice carried the irritation of someone deeply misunderstood. "We're nothing like those trashy girls who just mess around!"
She glanced back at Lin Xiaoshuang, who was already getting drowsy, then shot a look at Li Jiaxin across the aisle — as if she were setting the record straight on behalf of her sisters.
"Don't let the look fool you — dyed hair, tattoos, tongue piercings — but we're clean!"
"We're all still good girls, not like those trashy ones who hang off some guy one minute and end up in his bed that same night."
That caught Bai Li off guard.
He took a fresh look at Chen Tingting.
Loud red hair, arms covered in tattoos, a tongue piercing, a mouth full of crude language — and yet here she was, solemnly declaring their purity.
The contrast didn't make him want to laugh. If anything, it stirred something stranger inside him.
Perhaps sensing that her tone had been too sharp, Chen Tingting softened a little.
She looked at Bai Li, a sly glint flickering in her eyes.
"But then again... you've been genuinely good to us, big bro. We can't just let you spend money for nothing, right?"
As she spoke, she quietly slipped her right hand in front of him.
Her thumb and index finger formed an OK sign.
Then she gently rocked her arm up and down in front of him.
Finally, in a voice only the two of them could hear, she whispered in his ear:
"Want to try it?"
Bai Li's mind crashed on the spot, his heart hammering like crazy.
What kind of situation was this?
Was he really supposed to be dealing with this?
"No, no, no!" Bai Li instinctively recoiled, waving his hands frantically. "We're — we're on the bus!"
His reaction seemed to delight Chen Tingting.
Watching him look so flustered, she finally burst out laughing — a loud, unrestrained "pfft" — her whole body shaking as she collapsed against him.
"Hahaha, look at you! Big bro, I was just messing with you!"
She laughed so loudly that passengers in the rows ahead turned to look.
Bai Li sighed inwardly. He knew it was probably a joke — but he suspected there was a grain of truth buried in it too.
This was just how these girls showed their gratitude: direct, holding nothing back.
The cabin gradually grew quiet, leaving only the rhythmic thud-thud of the tires rolling over speed bumps.
The weariness of a long journey, mingled with the drowsiness that comes after a full stomach, began to spread through the air without a sound.
Conversation dwindled.
Bai Li felt a faint, gentle weight settle onto his left shoulder.
He turned his head.
Lin Xiaoshuang — who had been so quiet all along — had fallen asleep without him noticing.
Her small head had tilted to one side, her soft cheek resting right on Bai Li's shoulder, her nostrils fluttering with each slow, even breath.
In sleep, she shed every trace of the wild girl label. She looked like nothing more than a child worn out from life on the road, who had finally found a corner she could lean on in peace.
A faint scent drifted to Bai Li's nose — cheap shampoo mingled with the subtle warmth of a young girl.
Bai Li's body stiffened for a moment, but in the end he didn't move.
He watched the girl's peaceful sleeping face, those long lashes resting low, stirring a quiet tenderness in him.
The restlessness Chen Tingting had stirred up in him faded away without him even realizing it.
A feeling entirely different from the cold calculation of rebate percentages quietly took root in his heart.
It was a strange, warm sense of satisfaction — the feeling of having something to protect.
He lowered his gaze, moving from Lin Xiaoshuang's sleeping face to Chen Tingting leaning against his right arm,
then across the aisle to Li Jiaxin, who had put her earphones back in and stretched her long legs out in front of her.
These three cash cows...
No. These three girls.
Their futures, it seemed, had become bound up with his from this very moment.
Bai Li leaned back in his seat, watching the night outside the window rush past in reverse, and felt the corners of his mouth curl up on their own.