Xie Yucheng frowned and glanced at her.
“Go home. I can make do sleeping in the truck by myself. With you here, it’s really troublesome. I have to get an inn, and it costs money.”
Wen Shiqing frowned slightly.
“I brought money. I never planned on making you pay.”
She pulled a stack of bills and cash from her pocket. Under his watchful gaze, she went inside and settled the bill from the previous night.
When she finished, she returned to his side and said gently, “Ge, I won’t cause you trouble or interfere with your work. I just want to travel with you and see the outside world. If I go home, I’ll be alone anyway.”
Xie Yucheng’s face darkened, a suppressed irritability showing plainly in his expression.
“Wen Shiqing, do you know how annoying you are? Your mother latched onto my father, and now you want to latch onto me too? Are you mother and daughter both this shameless?”
“Ge, what’s wrong?”
She stepped closer and gently tugged at the hem of his shirt, looking up at him with clear, watery eyes.
“Are you in a bad mood? If I did something to upset you, just tell me, okay? I’ll change.”
Xie Yucheng looked away, his attitude as hard as stone.
“In a little while, you’re getting in Uncle Zhang’s truck and going home. Stop following me.”
“Ge…”
He turned away from her and let out a long breath.
“Wen Shiqing, am I your brother? My parents only had one child. I don’t have a younger sister.”
A wave of bitterness swept through Wen Shiqing’s heart, and tears immediately welled up in her eyes.
Hearing a soft sob, Xie Yucheng turned around. His gaze swept over her and landed on the glistening tears clinging to her lashes and the redness around her nose.
His heart instantly tightened.
Those tears seemed to burn their way straight into his chest, leaving him restless and unsettled.
After Uncle Zhang finished breakfast at the inn, he came out and asked Wen Shiqing, “Are you coming?”
Wen Shiqing shook her head. She wiped her tears with the back of her hand, then stepped beside Xie Yucheng and gripped the hem of his T-shirt.
“Uncle Zhang, you can go back. I’m not riding with you.”
“Really? Then I’m leaving.”
Uncle Zhang glanced at Xie Yucheng. The man’s face was dark and hard, and he immediately sensed that the siblings might have had an argument.
Naturally, he had no desire to get involved in someone else’s family matters. After saying goodbye to Xie Yucheng, he got into his truck and drove away.
Wen Shiqing stood awkwardly where she was.
The more she thought about it, the more aggrieved she felt. The tears she had just managed to stop began falling again, and soon she was sobbing helplessly, tears dropping one after another like shattered pearls.
Every time she cried, Xie Yucheng’s heart clenched painfully.
He strode toward the truck, his brows drawn together in a dark expression, and asked impatiently through the window,
“Are you coming or not?”
Wen Shiqing quickly wiped away her tears and climbed into the truck.
The truck sped along the highway, everything outside the window flashing past.
The cab was completely silent.
Neither of them spoke.
One sat there with a face as dark as the bottom of a pot; the other looked troubled and confused.
Wen Shiqing kept thinking about what she could possibly have done wrong the night before to make his attitude suddenly become so terrible.
She thought and thought, but couldn’t figure it out.
She had no idea what she had done to upset him.
Xie Yucheng lit a cigarette, holding it between the fingers of his left hand and taking a drag every now and then. The harsh, bitter smoke filled his lungs, as though it could suppress the restlessness boiling inside him.
Their relationship had once again frozen over like a thick sheet of ice on a winter river.
It was clearly summer, yet it felt unbearably cold.
Wen Shiqing leaned against the truck door, her head turned toward the window. Her cool, bright eyes remained fixed on the passing scenery.
After a long while, she finally spoke softly.
“Smoking too much can cause cancer.”
Xie Yucheng raised an eyebrow and gave a disdainful laugh.
“Are you cursing me?”
“I’m stating a fact.”
“Fine. If I get it, I get it. I’m not afraid.”
“The first thing smoking damages is your lungs. Long-term smoking can cause emphysema, lung cancer, oral cancer, throat cancer, esophageal cancer…”
Xie Yucheng irritably flicked the cigarette butt out the window.
“Damn it, are you trying to make me dump you in the middle of nowhere and leave you to the wolves?”
“Stop the car!”
Wen Shiqing suddenly shouted.
“Stop the car! I said stop!”
“What the hell are you freaking out about?”
He cursed angrily and slammed on the brakes.
When he turned to look at her, he suddenly met a pair of red, rabbit-like eyes.
Her eyes were swollen from crying, her eyelids puffy. Judging by her appearance, she had probably been secretly crying the entire way.
Something seemed to lodge itself in Xie Yucheng’s throat.
Wen Shiqing opened the door and jumped out.
She moved too quickly and lost her footing, suddenly stumbling to the ground.
“Damn!”
Xie Yucheng immediately got out and hurried around to the passenger side to help her, but the stubborn girl pushed his arm away.
“Xie Yucheng, I won’t cling to you anymore.”
She ignored the stabbing pain in her ankle, got back up, and limped along the side of the road.
Xie Yucheng ran a hand through his hair. His eyes were pitch-black, his expression filled with barely restrained fury.
He stepped forward and grabbed her arm.
“Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Whether I live or die is none of your business! You’re not even my real brother! Do you think I care whether you want to be my brother? You don’t even want to see me. You’re always picking on me. I’m not going to get in your way anymore. I’m going home!”
“When I told you to go back just now, you refused. And now what are you doing? Standing out here in the middle of nowhere, waiting for some man to assault you or for someone to sell you off into the mountains?”
His expression was cold and severe, and his words remained as cruel as ever.
“That would still be better than staying by your side!”
Tears streamed down Wen Shiqing’s face.
For some reason, she couldn’t control them at all.
Usually, she was good at controlling herself and hiding her emotions.
But this time, all the anger she had been holding inside burst out at once.
She didn’t want to suppress it anymore.
“What did you say?”
“I said that whether someone assaulted me or sold me into the mountains, it would still be better than staying by your side!”
Xie Yucheng’s expression grew even darker. Anger burned in his eyes.
He ground his back teeth together and said viciously,
“Fine. Then stay here and fend for yourself!”
He turned around and strode away.
He got into the truck, slammed on the accelerator, and sent a cloud of dust billowing into the air.
In an instant, both man and truck disappeared from Wen Shiqing’s sight.
Something inside her seemed to suddenly tear open.
The angrier she became, the more she wanted to vent it.
She picked up a stone from the roadside and hurled it viciously in the direction Xie Yucheng had driven away.
“You bastard! I’m never going to like you again! I’ll never forgive you!”
Her tears came harder than ever.
She cried helplessly as she limped forward, stubborn to the very end.
Her shoulders trembled. Tears fell one after another.
Her ankle throbbed with sharp pain, and every step felt as though she were walking on a blade.
Less than two minutes later, the familiar truck came back.
The man slammed the brakes directly in front of her.
He jumped out aggressively and, before she could struggle, hoisted her over his shoulder. In just a few steps, he carried her back to the truck, opened the door, and dropped her inside.
Then he slammed the door shut.
With a grim expression, he climbed into the driver’s seat, pulled out several tissues, and roughly wiped the tears from her cheeks.
Wen Shiqing turned away and refused to let him wipe them.
He immediately caught the back of her neck, forcing her to lift her face and look at him.
Xie Yucheng gritted his teeth.
“Are you done throwing a tantrum?”
He was furious beyond words.
No one had ever been capable of stirring his emotions this violently.
“Who gave you the nerve to act like this in front of me?”
Wen Shiqing sniffed. Her reddened eyes looked straight back at him.
“Why do you get to bully me? You’re always saying such nasty things to me. Even the big yellow dog at the entrance of the alley is nicer than you.”
“You’re saying I’m worse than a dog?”
“I didn’t say that. You said it yourself.”
Xie Yucheng was so angry that he actually laughed.
His gaze remained fixed on her little moving mouth. Her pale red lips opened and closed as she spoke. She looked delicate and harmless, yet when it came to arguing, her words could be even sharper than his.
A clear tear slipped from the corner of her eye.
Xie Yucheng wiped it away with his rough fingertip and asked in a low voice,
“You’re the one cursing at me. So why are you crying?”
She bit her lip, tears glistening in her eyes.
“My foot hurts. Am I not allowed to cry?”
She had twisted her ankle just now. She could barely walk without limping.
Xie Yucheng leaned over and took hold of her left foot.
He pulled off her sock and rolled up her pant leg.
Her fair ankle was visibly swollen and red. The injury was quite serious.
His brows knitted tightly.
His heart felt as though something had pierced it.
Looking at her tightly pressed lips, he couldn’t find the right words to say.
In silence, he started the truck and sped toward the nearest town.
He stopped in front of a local clinic.