Xie Yucheng noticed that something was wrong with her, and he spoke much less during the latter part of the journey.
When they arrived in Jiangcheng, Fang Yue enthusiastically invited the two of them to her home for dinner, but he waved her off.
Before getting out of the truck, Fang Yue asked for Xie Yucheng’s address and contact information. Her family raised bees, and sometimes they needed trucks to transport beehives to distant places for beekeeping.
Xie Yucheng was naturally happy to make another business connection, so he gave her the phone number and address of Wang Changlin’s office.
Just as he was about to start the truck and leave, Fang Yue ran out of the courtyard and handed him a jar of honey through the window.
“Our own bees made this honey. It’s really sweet.”
Xie Yucheng didn’t particularly like sweet things, and he tried several times to refuse, but Fang Yue insisted that he take it as a thank-you gift for the ride.
He glanced at the sleeping Wen Shiqing in the rearview mirror and accepted the jar with a smile.
“Thanks.”
Wen Shiqing had slept all afternoon. She hadn’t actually been tired, but the gentle rocking of the truck, combined with the pleasant scent lingering on the jacket, had somehow lulled her to sleep.
When she woke up, it was already nearing evening. A streak of dark-red clouds stretched across the horizon. The truck was parked beside a river, but Xie Yucheng was nowhere to be seen.
She crawled into the front seat and looked around. She noticed what seemed to be a dark figure swimming in the river.
She slowly made her way out of the truck and saw Xie Yucheng’s clothes draped over a fallen tree trunk by the riverbank. He was swimming happily in the water, diving beneath the surface and popping up somewhere else moments later. He looked like the happiest man alive.
Wen Shiqing quietly gathered up his clothes from the riverbank and carried them back to the truck.
When Xie Yucheng finished bathing in the river and came out, he was wearing nothing but a pair of fitted boxer briefs. His clothes had mysteriously disappeared, and even his towel was gone.
He ran his hands through his wet black hair and muttered under his breath,
“Damn it. What the hell?”
He searched the nearby area but couldn’t find his clothes. Then his sharp eyes caught sight of a line of footprints on the ground.
They weren’t his shoe size.
They were small, about the same size as someone else’s.
As though he suddenly understood what had happened, he raised an eyebrow, curled his lips into a mocking smile, and strode back to the truck. He knocked on the door.
“Throw the towel down. Don’t make me beat you up.”
A small hand slowly appeared through the window. Instead of handing him the towel, it tossed it straight onto his head in a fit of temper.
“Damn…”
He cursed again, yanked the towel off his head, roughly dried the water from his body, and opened the door to climb inside.
A fresh rush of damp air immediately filled the cab.
Wen Shiqing was curled up in the rear sleeper berth, lying on top of his clothes.
Xie Yucheng sat in his boxer briefs and glanced at his miserable state before saying to the person in the back,
“Give me my clothes.”
“No.”
The girl’s voice was full of anger.
Xie Yucheng gave an impish grin and threatened her,
“Believe it or not, I’ll throw you out and let the wolves eat you.”
“Even if you feed me to the wolves, I’m not giving them back. Stay naked.”
He scoffed and turned around to retrieve his clothes. Seeing the girl lying there without moving, he knew there was no way that little schemer could escape his notice. He reached behind her to feel for the clothes.
She held them down tightly, refusing to give them to him.
Xie Yucheng was still wearing his wet underwear, which clung uncomfortably to his body. His dark eyes hardened.
“Get up! Are you asking for a beating?”
Wen Shiqing stared at him.
“Go ahead. It’s not like you haven’t beaten me before.”
Almost instantly, Xie Yucheng understood exactly which incident she was referring to.
Back when Xie Yucheng was in high school, he had been determined to rebel against Xie Guoli in every possible way. He got into fights, dated girls, and did everything the adults forbade him from doing simply because they forbade it.
There was a girl in his class who liked him. Their families lived on the same street, so Xie Yucheng tacitly allowed her to walk to and from school with him every day.
Once, that girl had boldly slipped her hand into his.
He had been stunned, but he hadn’t pulled away.
The next day, the girl wanted to ask him out for the weekend. She tugged on his arm and acted coy, but eventually he impatiently pushed her away.
“No. I have to stay home and look after a kid.”
The girl knew he had a younger sister, so she asked,
“Aren’t your parents home?”
“They went out to take care of something.”
Who would have thought that the next day, the girl would show up at his house carrying several books under the excuse of wanting to study with him?
Wen Shiqing had only been eleven or twelve at the time. She had been an especially mischievous little brat. Somehow, that girl must have said something that rubbed her the wrong way, because she actually tore the girl’s homework and books to pieces.
She had been like a little demon, even worse than her own older brother.
The girl immediately burst into tears.
Xie Yucheng felt that Yang Ying had raised Wen Shiqing completely wrong, so he decided to teach her a lesson and show her how to behave.
He pulled her over and gave her several hard smacks on the backside.
Wen Shiqing cried so hard that the world seemed to end. Xie Yucheng was afraid she would cry herself into a fit, so the matter finally ended with him buying her a bag of honey mini-buns as an apology.
Inside the truck, the space was cramped and narrow. Every breath they took could be heard with startling clarity.
Xie Yucheng issued his final warning.
“Give me my clothes.”
“No way. You’re a shameless womanizer. Why would someone like you need clothes?”
Wen Shiqing’s words were laced with sarcasm.
The veins on his forehead throbbed.
“What woman have I been chasing? Why are you putting such a ridiculous label on me?”
“I’d advise you to have a little self-respect. You’re careless and irresponsible, flirting with everyone and leaving a trail of women wherever you go…”
She was temperamental and unpredictable. Xie Yucheng couldn’t be bothered to argue with her. He reached for the clothes pinned beneath her body, and the girl immediately fought back with all four limbs as though she had been electrified.
“Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me! You’re filthy…”
Like an angry little kitten, she had particularly sharp fingernails. Within moments, several bloody scratches appeared on Xie Yucheng’s arm.
Xie Yucheng swore.
“Damn it! I just took a bath. How am I dirty?”
“You’re dirty everywhere! Your heart is dirty, and your body is dirty too!”
Being cursed out like this for no apparent reason made Xie Yucheng furious.
He had grown up without even kissing a woman, yet here she was calling him filthy. When had he ever suffered such humiliation?
He genuinely had no idea what he had done to upset her this time.
She had woken up, stolen his clothes, cursed at him, and scratched him. She was even more troublesome than a wild animal gone mad.
How had he ended up with someone like this?
The more Xie Yucheng thought about it, the angrier he became. Finally, he gritted his teeth, turned Wen Shiqing over, and smacked her twice on the side of her backside.
“Damn it. I shouldn’t have spoiled you. If I don’t discipline you, you’ll start climbing onto your brother’s head and running wild!”
He hadn’t held back at all.
Wen Shiqing’s clothes were thin, and her skin immediately burned from the impact. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she suddenly grabbed his arm and bit down hard.
“Damn!”
Xie Yucheng hadn’t expected that at all. When he yanked his arm away, a distinct red ring of teeth marks was already visible.
Wen Shiqing glared at him angrily through reddened eyes.
Xie Yucheng clenched his jaw, pulled his clothes out from beneath her, jumped down from the truck, and slammed the door shut.
After getting dressed, he leaned dejectedly against the truck door.
The evening glow had faded completely, leaving the sky dark and gloomy.
The man’s thick brows were deeply furrowed, his tall nose as sharp as the ridge of a mountain. He lowered his eyes and looked at the bite mark on his arm.
Then he let out a mocking laugh and muttered,
“Damn. She bites harder than a dog.”
A moment later, the truck door opened, and a rush of cool mountain air swept inside.
Xie Yucheng glanced at the girl in the back. She was still curled up, crying pitifully.
He sighed and softened his voice.
“There isn’t a place to stay for more than two hundred kilometers in any direction. We’re spending the night in the truck.”
He reached out and pulled her up.
A face streaked with tears like a little crying kitten suddenly appeared before him. Her loose hair was messy, the tip of her nose and her lips red from crying, giving her a fragile kind of beauty.
“Are you Lin Daiyu or something?”
His large hand wiped away the tears from both sides of her face.
“Damn, I must have owed you in my past life. Stop crying.”
The cool, fresh scent of the mountain air clung to him, drifting into Wen Shiqing’s nose.
She sniffled a few times, gradually calming down.
“I’m hungry,” she said.