Her Heart Beat Faster — 3-in-1
The bus was right outside the hospital. Jun Yueyue and Fang Anyu looked around, afraid Fang Anyan and Jun Yu would see them, then ran along the broken cement flowerbed beside the hospital toward the wall.
Anyway, she had already ruined the test. Those two aunties who had originally been there to disgust people were still inside the hospital busily helping. In the entire building, the two of them were the busiest and most energetic. Their voices were even louder than when they had been fake-howling on the bus. Even the pregnant woman’s husband could not get a hand in, because when it came to childbirth, those two aunties had plenty of experience.
As Jun Yueyue ran toward the wall with Fang Anyu, she was still thinking that those two old women could actually be considered warm-hearted. Just now, when she and the others had pooled money for the pregnant woman’s family, she had not stayed there like some others who planned to ask for the money back. But when she walked out, she had still seen those two aunties digging around and taking out brand-new red notes to give to the pregnant woman’s husband, telling him to hurry and pay the hospital fees. After the waters had broken, and with the baby in the wrong position, the child needed surgery as soon as possible…
That money was probably the money Old Master Jun had paid them to disgust her, yet Jun Yueyue could no longer feel disgusted.
She had seen human nature in even uglier forms. People died for wealth, birds died for food. Taking someone’s money to eliminate their disaster—those clumsy performances just now were not that unbearable after all.
In the apocalypse, the cheapest thing was beauty. Cheaper than beauty was kindness. In the face of life and death, human nature could twist without limit. After having seen all that, this little bit of humanity leaking out from between the fingers of rough rural women actually made Jun Yueyue emotional for a moment. For the first time, she truly felt that she had changed worlds.
This was no longer that ugly world where biological parents could hand their daughter over to a group of men for a single bite of food.
Jun Yueyue pulled Fang Anyu and ran into the hot wind beneath the blazing sun. Her body and mind were both bathed in a warmth that felt more real than ever before.
That so-called aunt of the Jun family was also fictional. What was the point of seeing her or not? Jun Yueyue had run away with Fang Anyu. Old Master Jun would definitely be furious, and that was exactly what Jun Yueyue wanted. The angrier he was, the more disappointed he was in her, the more straightforwardly he would give her money to send her away.
In any case, once she got the money, she would not even stay in Qiuhai City anymore. When the time came, the mountains would be high and the sea wide—wouldn’t she be free as a bird?
Thinking of the money that was about to arrive, Jun Yueyue’s mood also soared like a little bird. When she stood on top of the wall and jumped down, she felt as though she was about to grow wings!
Fang Anyu had climbed over first. Jun Yueyue looked at him standing below, raising his head to look at her and opening his arms as if he was going to catch her. Her eyes curved with laughter, and she mouthed, “Catch me!”
Then she really did not care about anything. She kicked off with her feet and dove straight down.
The hospital wall was quite high. When Jun Yueyue was falling, she finally realised that she had really been a bit of an idiot. She spread her arms like a little bird that had not yet learned how to fly, plunging toward the earth, while her heart suddenly hung high in her chest.
She should not have done this.
She should not have trusted Fang Anyu to catch her. In her impression, Fang Anyu was a little rabbit who jumped when poked. She had not expected that she would actually trust him like this.
At the final moment, it was already too late to curl up. Jun Yueyue closed her eyes and prayed that when she landed, she would not break her arms before she had even had the chance to fly freely. Otherwise, she truly would not even have a place to cry.
But the expected dull pain of falling from a height did not arrive. In that foolish posture of a fledgling returning to the nest, she landed in a fairly solid and warm embrace.
The two of them staggered backward together for two steps, but actually managed to steady themselves.
Jun Yueyue opened her eyes and saw Fang Anyu’s chin right in front of her. Only now did she belatedly feel her legs go a little weak. For a moment, her entire body hung in Fang Anyu’s arms, and she did not get up.
“You really caught me…” Her head leaned against Fang Anyu’s chest, which was beating just as fast as hers. She muttered softly, then smiled again.
Thinking about it, that made sense. No matter how easy to bully and weak Fang Anyu seemed, he was still an adult man. Catching her current small body truly should not have taken too much effort.
She thought of her King Kong Barbie physique in the apocalypse, when she could lift two men with one hand. For the first time in her life, she found a little feeling of being a delicate little bird in a man’s arms. Finding it rather novel, she raised her head to look at Fang Anyu.
Her own heart was beating fast because she had been scared by her idiotic behaviour. But what about Fang Anyu? Was he nervous? Afraid he would not catch her?
Jun Yueyue lifted her eyes and met Fang Anyu’s gaze. His eyes were lowered, and inside them was the same soft, cotton-like expression as always, making Jun Yueyue relax endlessly. She became even less willing to stand up.
This was too abnormal. She lowered her head. Her hands were not hugging Fang Anyu; they were only hanging by her sides. After struggling in the apocalypse for so many years, the vigilance and guard she had never put down even around children simply could not take shape in front of Fang Anyu.
The afternoon sunlight fell over them without any obstruction. Jun Yueyue felt the back of her neck getting a little roasted. Just as she was about to raise her head, she felt a palm with just the right temperature cover the back of her neck.
It was not so hot that it made her restless, nor cold enough to make her resist.
Her head, which had been about to lift, was covered by that hand. It felt as though something weighing a thousand jin had been added to it, and she failed to raise it after all.
The two of them leaned together silently like this. It could not really be considered a hug, because Fang Anyu was only supporting her arm and holding the back of her neck, while Jun Yueyue still had not reached out to wrap her arms around the waist so close in front of her.
This was truly strange. She did not want to move. And if she did not move, Fang Anyu would not move either.
He was mute and would not suddenly speak up to ask what she was doing. He was quiet like a dutiful pillar. The two of them were still some distance from the roadside. There were not many vehicles in the town, and this place was as quiet as this inexplicable leaning against each other—out of place, yet somehow natural.
Jun Yueyue was thinking about a question: why did Fang Anyu smell better than her when they used the same shower gel? She wondered whether it had been steamed by the noon sun. The scent drifted faintly from his slightly open collar and relentlessly burrowed into her nose.
Why had the “mixed flavours” on the bus just now not left even the slightest strange smell on him, while she smelled like a rotten egg that had rolled through chicken droppings in a henhouse?
Why had she inexplicably jumped down from the wall with that suicidal trust, believing in a fool?
Why…
Ah, screw it.
Thinking made her head hurt.
Jun Yueyue’s nose was full of the scent of shower gel inside Fang Anyu’s collar. This was the shower gel he had said smelled nice last night. It was labelled as a perfume shower gel, lime and jasmine. But Jun Yueyue felt the top notes were all right, while the later scent always had a hint of bottled fly spray.
Yesterday, when Fang Anyu said it smelled good, Jun Yueyue had perfunctorily said that if he liked it, he could take it away. But today, she discovered that this perfume shower gel had a base note. She could not quite say what the smell was. It was just… very pleasant, making people want to move closer and carefully smell it clearly, to figure out exactly what scent it was.
Jun Yueyue had always done whatever she thought of. So she finally lifted her head and moved a little. But she did not push Fang Anyu away. Instead, she undid a button at his collar, pulled open both sides of his shirt, and buried her head into Fang Anyu’s collar…
Fang Anyu: “……”
He lowered his head and looked at Jun Yueyue in confusion, blinking twice, not understanding.
After Jun Yueyue inhaled deeply a few times, she raised her head, buttoned his collar back up for him, even patted it, nodded, then took out her phone and typed—
That shower gel from last night. What do you think the base note smells like?
Fang Anyu instantly understood what she had been doing just now. He took the phone and seriously typed—
Milk.
Jun Yueyue nodded and typed with the expression of someone doing an academic problem—
Right. It’s that milky scent.
Actually, it was not…
She had not managed to identify it just now.
And seeing Fang Anyu nod seriously, she somehow felt a little ashamed. After all, taking advantage of someone and then lying about it was nothing when facing a normal person. But facing someone as pure to the point of foolishness as Fang Anyu, she always felt a sense of guilt.
She had even wanted to lick it and taste it just now. Fortunately, she had not yet become so deranged that she needed to go to the Third Hospital for treatment.
So after Jun Yueyue briefly failed to get past her conscience, she quickly digested the huge pit in her conscience by herself and took Fang Anyu down a side road toward the town.
The whole way, she was afraid of running into Fang Anyan and Jun Yu taking a taxi, so the two of them deliberately threaded through small alleys. This small town really was not big. They reached the end before long. There were no taxis to be seen, nor did they see anyone familiar from the bus.
The two of them wandered for a while. There were basically no people on the street, but there were still a few shops. Their storefronts looked small, but at least there was a little bit of everything.
Jun Yueyue saw a phone repair shop and took Fang Anyu inside. Originally, she had planned to buy Fang Anyu a phone after they returned to Qiuhai City. But buying one now was fine too. In any case, he did not need any functions. As long as he could type, that was enough.
The shop had branded phones with extremely old models. They did not look very new either. The shop owner was a chubby middle-aged man with greasy hair and a pockmarked face, yet he stubbornly insisted they were new.
Jun Yueyue only looked for phones with large screens and said, “It needs to respond faster too.”
In the end, the two of them bought two Meiai-brand smartphones for eight hundred yuan.
Why buy two? Because he damn well refused to sell just one. Eight hundred yuan for buy one get one free, but if she offered six hundred for one, he refused to sell.
Jun Yueyue was extremely shocked by the owner’s marketing philosophy and deeply suspected that he had cobbled the phones together himself. Because not only was there a huge pile of scattered parts beneath his counter, but only the shells of the phones were new. When inserting the SIM cards, there were scratches on the card slots.
But Fang Anyu seemed to like them very much. The phones were black and white. He held the white one and could not bear to put it down, poking and poking nonstop. Jun Yueyue listened to the shop owner constantly boasting.
“Super long standby, dual SIM dual standby, eight-year warranty, couple phones, automatic positioning! Hey, if it breaks, come find me any time. I’ll even give you earphones and batteries. You’ll get signal even in mountain ditches. The quality is absolutely solid!”
Jun Yueyue watched him wipe his face while praising the phones with spittle flying everywhere. The moment he said “eight-year warranty,” Jun Yueyue successfully confirmed that these were absolutely assembled by him!
She could not help laughing, but Fang Anyu liked them, so she bought both. Actually, Fang Anyu did not need this thing. The Fang family had a landline. He never went out, had no friends, and also had a computer, so he had never needed or bought one.
But who would not like such a little thing that could be carried around? This time, Fang Anyu did not need to buy a notebook. As soon as they left the shop, he pulled Jun Yueyue to a stop and used his newly bought phone to type for Jun Yueyue to see.
His speed was actually not bad already.
Jun Yueyue simply sat down at the shop entrance, used the shop’s Wi-Fi to register a WeChat account for him, added herself as a friend, handed the phone back to him, and sent him a message.
The sun tilted westward. Tomorrow would probably be especially good weather. The evening glow dyed half the sky red and poured recklessly down onto the earth, outlining the two people sitting at the entrance with a warm golden edge. A little dog from someone’s house walked past them and was so frightened by Jun Yueyue’s giggling that it tucked its tail and shot away.
*Whoosh—* Now you can send me messages like this. Whether we’re face to face or not, I’ll be able to see them.
*Whoosh—* Mm! This is really good!
*Whoosh—* Where are we going next?
Fang Anyu held the phone in both hands with such preciousness that he looked like a child holding a beloved toy. And his hands really did react quite quickly. The message notification sound was especially loud… Jun Yueyue looked at the expensive phone left by the original owner in her own hand and suddenly felt it was no longer nice to use.
In the end, as if possessed, she also switched her SIM card into the buy-one-get-one-free new phone. Then, as soon as she turned it on, both her and Fang Anyu’s phones displayed little red hearts gradually merging.
She remembered what the shop owner had said. These were couple phones.
After the little red hearts completely merged, a very small arrow appeared beside the battery icon at the top of both phones, pointing in the direction of the other person.
Wow. Eight hundred yuan, eight-year warranty, super long standby, extremely loud sound, and buy one get one free—it did not seem completely unacceptable.
The sky had already darkened. Jun Yueyue looked around. The small shops by the street had all turned on their lights. Those ten-yuan strings of plug-in coloured lights hanging from the signs were not as pretty as neon lights in the city, but they flashed back and forth, dazzling the eyes.
*Whoosh—* Are you hungry?
After Jun Yueyue asked, she stood up. Only after getting up did she realise that her backside and legs were stiff beyond belief. The two of them had actually sat in front of this small shop for the entire afternoon, just fiddling with two new phones…
*Whoosh—* Hungry. Fang Anyu also picked up his phone and stood up.
The phone boxes and free gifts were all placed in a bag. Jun Yueyue looked around and took Fang Anyu into a small shop.
It sold fast-food snacks. Things like hand-grabbed pancakes and grilled cold noodles—without even thinking, one knew Fang Anyu had never eaten any of them.
Actually, it had also been a very long time since Jun Yueyue had eaten them. After the apocalypse, the foods she missed most were not grand feasts. Sometimes, it was just these little snacks from downstairs near home, as well as instant noodles with many flavours and plenty of oil and salt.
But the later it got in the apocalypse, the more rare instant foods that could be stored for long periods, like instant noodles, became. Whenever she went out and got injured, she could receive one pack from the team as a reward.
Fang Anyu had eaten none of these things, so Jun Yueyue simply did not ask him. She made the decision and ordered enough rice noodles for two. This thing had a stronger flavour, and was full of additives. Once eaten, its smell lingered like hotpot for ages. But if one had not eaten it for a long time, it smelled unbearably fragrant.
The rice noodles had been soaked in advance and were served very quickly. The clay pot was placed on the table, and the soup base was still bubbling.
Jun Yueyue scalded a bowl with hot water, picked out a bowlful, added some vegetables, drizzled in a little sesame oil, mixed it well, and handed it to Fang Anyu. He took one bite, and his eyes immediately widened round.
Fang Anyu had seen this on television too. But to him, there were far too many new things. Jun Yueyue felt especially accomplished bringing him around, because he was such a supportive audience.
Jun Yueyue smiled and served herself a bowl too, saying, “It’s good, right?”
Fang Anyu was looking at her. At times like this, he quickly understood what Jun Yueyue said and nodded hard.
The two of them ate from the steaming clay pot, one bowl for you and one bowl for me, until they were drenched in sweat and their lips were red.
After paying the bill, they left the shop. The night wind carried a chill and quickly swept away the heat from their bodies, making it unbearably comfortable. Jun Yueyue bought Fang Anyu the otaku happy water she had liked most before the apocalypse. Each of them held a bottle and walked along the small town where light and shadow flickered and crossed. At some point, their free hands naturally held each other. Her palm was injured and still wrapped in gauze, so Fang Anyu only held her fingertips. Their fingertips pressed together damply, but neither of them let go.
This most ordinary, most common kind of life was something Jun Yueyue had never been able to dream of, whether before or after the apocalypse. She slowed her steps, her thumb constantly rubbing the back of Fang Anyu’s hand at a very fast pace. That small patch of skin was rubbed very warm by her.
She walked in front, almost with the back of her head facing Fang Anyu. Her gaze wandered everywhere without focus. In truth, at this point, she should be thinking of a way to go back. Making Old Master Jun angry was fine, but she could not go too far. Yet she did not know why she was wandering aimlessly like this.
She did not want to go back…
The town was not long, and the stretch with lights was even shorter. Farther ahead was a pitch-black dirt road. Yet even after she reached the edge, she was still slowly walking forward.
She knew that as long as she walked, the person in her hand would follow her like this, whether the path ahead was a street flashing with coloured lights or a stretch of complete darkness.
She seemed to understand a little why she had jumped down from the hospital wall in the daytime…
When the two of them finally reached a completely dark stretch, Jun Yueyue at last stopped.
She turned back. She could not see Fang Anyu’s expression clearly, but she could feel that Fang Anyu was looking at her.
Very slowly, bit by bit, almost inch by inch, she moved in front of Fang Anyu and stretched out her hand…
The half-finished drink in her hand blocked her attempt to hug Fang Anyu. Jun Yueyue irritably brought it to her lips and took a sip. The cold, sharp liquid slid burning-hot down her throat like alcohol, giving her endless courage.
No one knew how much courage it took for her to take this step. Only in a place so dark that she could not see her own fingers could she dare to go against her original plan and walk toward a choice that would bring countless troubles, toward an ending she could not predict.
Jun Yueyue knew she was not being rational right now. Perhaps before long, she would regret the choice she was making now. In fact, the moment she decided, she had already begun regretting it. Fang Anyu, this person, represented the complete opposite of the life she dreamed of.
“Fang Anyu…” Jun Yueyue called him softly from a short distance away.
She knew he could not hear. She also did not want him to hear her voice at this moment, trembling and wavering.
But just as she struggled forward again and reached toward Fang Anyu—
Two glaring beams of light suddenly nearly blinded her.
“Fuck.” Jun Yueyue raised a hand to shield her eyes. The emotions that had risen to her throat were suddenly swallowed back down. She could not help cursing aloud.
Very quickly, the car drove up beside them and stopped.
Fang Anyan got out of the car. Looking at the two of them standing in the darkness in strange postures, his brows furrowed tightly. Out of habit, he wanted to lose his temper at Jun Yueyue.
It was her again! She had abducted his brother!
But when he met Jun Yueyue’s impatient gaze, he uncontrollably remembered the things Jun Yueyue had said in the pavilion that night. The skin on the back of Fang Anyan’s neck tightened, and the nasty words that had reached his mouth were swallowed back down. He only said in a low voice, “Why didn’t you answer the phone? Aunt Jun has been waiting for a long time. Let’s go.”
On such a night, in the empty wilderness, Jun Yueyue had silently stretched her feelers out of her shell. But before she could touch the person she wanted to touch, they had retracted with a *swoosh*.
She said nothing and directly walked past Fang Anyu to get into the car. Fang Anyu did not know what she had just missed, and followed behind Jun Yueyue into the car.
The entire way, Jun Yueyue did not say a single word. Fang Anyu sent her two messages. She heard them, but did not reply or look.
She was regretting it.
Regretting it so much that she did not even want to look at Fang Anyu. Just now, she had almost gone to hug him. To Fang Anyu, that might not mean anything at all. After all, the two of them had already done it. What could a hug count for?
But to Jun Yueyue, its meaning was as different from that chaotic night as heaven was from earth. Approaching someone unconsciously and approaching someone consciously were two completely different extremes.
She did not care who she slept with once.
But she could not ignore who she *wanted* to take the initiative to sleep with.
And if she had really stretched out her arms just now, it would not have been as simple as sleeping with Fang Anyu once.
If it were another man, a normal man, then even if Jun Yueyue took the initiative and later changed her mind, so what? Who said only men could pull up their trousers and refuse to recognise someone afterward?
But Fang Anyu was different. What kind of person was he? His heart and eyes were as pure as zombie crystal cores. He was simply foolish. Jun Yueyue could toy with a rational and fully sound person, change her mind overnight, enjoy herself and walk away. At worst, she would be cursed as scum, and she would not care.
But people always needed a bottom line. Even scum had one.
If she reached out to someone like Fang Anyu, it would not mean sleeping for one night. It would mean sleeping for a lifetime.
What had bewitched her? Why would she want to sleep for a lifetime with someone who was deaf, mute, and foolish?
Had she slurped the rice noodles into her brain tonight? Or had eating too much chilli burned her brain rotten?
Jun Yueyue was not only regretful, she was frightened. To her, Fang Anyu was a male supporting character she could not use to escape the main plot. He still had scenes with the female lead and was an important character who pushed the male and female leads’ relationship forward. If she forcibly split that apart, who knew what the final result would be?
This was a novel world. If something went wrong between the male and female leads, would the world collapse?
The three words “Fang Anyu” meant endless trouble. If she really dared get involved with someone like him, then her imagined life of holding money, living freely, and spending as she pleased would become pure nonsense.
The more Jun Yueyue thought, the more afraid she became. She had almost crossed the line just now. Jun Yueyue sat close to the car door, pulling a large distance between herself and Fang Anyu. In front of her was the back of Fang Anyan’s head. Looking at the back of Fang Anyan’s head now, she actually felt it was a little comforting.
Fortunately, he had appeared in time just now. He had practically descended like divine soldiers from heaven!
Fang Anyu sat on the other side of the back seat. He had not received a reply from Jun Yueyue, nor had he seen Jun Yueyue look at his messages. His face was full of confusion as he kept looking at Jun Yueyue.
He could feel that Jun Yueyue’s mood was wrong. Usually, when the two of them sat in the back seat, there had never been such a wide distance between them.
Fang Anyu looked at Jun Yueyue’s side profile. Jun Yueyue kept looking out at the dark window. The whole way, she did not turn back to look at him once.
Although his reactions had become much faster these past few days under Jun Yueyue’s intentional and unintentional training, when it came to emotional responses with unclear roots like this, he was still very slow.
He did not know what was wrong with Jun Yueyue. When they got out of the car and followed Fang Anyan toward a small courtyard, he guessed in his heart that she was probably angry with him.
But why was she angry?
Fang Anyu followed behind Jun Yueyue and quickened his steps. He reached out and touched her shoulder. He wanted to ask her directly why she was angry. He could apologise.
But after Jun Yueyue felt Fang Anyu’s touch, she did not even turn her head. Feeling guilty enough that even her kidneys felt weak, she quickened her steps and walked into the house.
This could be considered a fairly ordinary rural tile-roofed house. The inside was quite clean, and the space was large enough. Upon entering, there was a long kang bed. But the end of the kang had been separated into a small room with a partition screen.
Sitting by the kang was an old lady who looked quite elderly. Beside her sat Jun Yu, smiling and talking cheerfully.
As soon as the three of them entered, the old lady turned her head. The moment her gaze met Jun Yueyue’s, her expression changed. Her face stretched long enough to almost drop to the floor.
“Hmph.” The old lady held a pipe in her hand and knocked it against the edge of the earthen kang. She had the manner of a landlord’s wife, and even her tone was sour and strange. “If you didn’t want to come see me, then why come at all…”
Jun Yueyue’s earlier panic, like a dog was chasing her, was miraculously soothed by this sour and strange sentence.
“This is Auntie,” Jun Yu greeted Jun Yueyue over and smiled as she smoothed things over. “Auntie has been waiting for you for ages.”
Jun Yueyue walked a few steps inside but did not open her mouth to greet anyone, because she knew that the old lady in front of her, who looked like a landlord’s wife, was a fake product of poor quality. Old Master Jun’s two tests seemed fair on the surface, with everyone setting off together from the same starting point, but no matter how she thought about it, they seemed aimed at her…
But Old Master Jun was, after all, an old fox who had dominated the business world for many years. Were his methods really only like this? Having a few primary school students throw pebbles at her would have more destructive power. To Jun Yueyue, this kind of targeting did not hurt or itch at all.
Thinking about it, the original owner was truly pitiful. Her grandfather’s heart was hidden in his trouser waistband, her younger sister was a pure and innocent little white flower, and the person she liked was an idiot like Fang Anyan. It would be strange if she had remained normal.
Jun Yueyue looked coldly at the old lady like this, meeting those triangular eyes. She crossed her arms and flicked her curls. Forget saying soft words; she did not even have the desire to continue cooperating with the performance.
Jun Yu’s expression became somewhat awkward. She softly called, “Sister…”
Fang Anyu had originally been standing not far behind her. Because Jun Yueyue had been paying attention to him from the corner of her eye, she noticed as soon as he moved.
There was only this old lady in the room. Fang Anyu was slow, but not stupid, so he naturally knew she was Aunt Jun. Fang Anyu walked to the old lady’s side and even very politely gave a bow. Jun Yueyue reached out but failed to stop him, so she simply let it be.
The old lady had especially high cheekbones and a harsh-looking face. She snorted again, reached into the winnowing basket on the kang, filled her pipe, placed it in her mouth, and looked at Fang Anyu.
After all, she was using the Jun family’s name and acting as Jun Yueyue and Jun Yu’s aunt. This meant she wanted the new son-in-law to light her pipe for her.
But Fang Anyu simply could not understand.
Fang Anyan wanted to hint to Fang Anyu. He walked beside him and stretched out his hand toward him, but Fang Anyu did not hand him the little notebook…
Fang Anyan had no choice but to signal to Fang Anyu with his eyes. He also tried to speak to him with mouth shapes the way Jun Yueyue did. Fang Anyu looked completely blank. In a situation that was not specific and familiar, he could not understand these signals…
His first reaction was to turn back and look at Jun Yueyue, but Jun Yueyue’s gaze was not on him. Fang Anyu’s pleading look circled once around Jun Yueyue, then withdrew. He stood blankly by the kang and took out his phone, just about to type, when the old lady suddenly got up, grabbed her pipe, and went into the inner room, directly leaving Fang Anyu outside.
Fuck this.
Jun Yueyue cursed inwardly. She walked to the side of the kang, picked up the lighter, directly pulled open the door to the inner room, walked in, and closed the door behind her.
“You’re Auntie, right? I came to light your pipe.”
Jun Yueyue walked to the old lady’s side, flicked on the lighter, and really lit the pipe for her.
The old lady’s gaze toward her was unfriendly. Her wrinkled lips moved, as if she wanted to say something. But Jun Yueyue did not want to listen. She directly interrupted her, lowered her voice, and said, “I know Old Master Jun hired you with money. I won’t stop you from earning money, so act as usual. But the one outside lighting the pipe is deaf and mute. Old lady, you also have children and grandchildren. Enough is enough.”
The old lady’s triangular eyes widened, actually becoming quite round. She had not expected Jun Yueyue to know she had been hired with money. Immediately, she became a little panicked. After all, she was not a professional actress. She had originally been holding the pipe with one hand, but now both hands immediately came up to support it.
“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Jun Yueyue patted her. “No one knows except me. Just carry on as usual.”
The old lady’s expression even looked rather apologetic, because when Jun Yueyue had first entered, she truly had not given this girl a pleasant expression. Jun Yueyue waved her hand indifferently, opened the door, and went out.
The four of them would sleep together that night on the long kang bed in the outer room. According to Old Master Jun, the old lady had no children and no daughters, but the furnishings in this room clearly belonged to a family of several people. Even if shoes and such had deliberately been hidden under cabinets, it was not hard to discover.
Jun Yu and Fang Anyan had probably noticed too, but they might only think the old lady did not normally live alone. They would not be able to guess that she had been hired by Old Master Jun. Only Jun Yueyue knew the plot.
Before sleep, the old lady came out and told them where the quilts were. Then she went back into her little partitioned room and did not come out again. She had taken the money… but after being exposed, she no longer dared to make trouble.
The four of them did not talk much. Mainly, Fang Anyu could not speak, and Jun Yueyue refused to communicate. The four of them lay down early.
Jun Yueyue leaned against one side. After lying down, she turned her back to the wall and hid under the quilt to play with her phone. Beside her was Fang Anyu, then Fang Anyan, and finally Jun Yu.
The kang was wide enough. Four people spread out four quilts, and there was still quite a bit of space between them. After everyone lay down, they were actually tired from the day’s events, especially Fang Anyan and Jun Yu.
After getting off the bus, the two of them had first searched for Jun Yueyue and Fang Anyu. But because Jun Yu’s movements were inconvenient, and the ground in this small town was bumpy and uneven, even pushing the wheelchair was difficult. The two searched several rounds but could not find them. Calling Jun Yueyue did not work either, so they found a car and prepared to go to Taishan County first.
But this process was extremely tortuous. The hardships were hard to describe in a few words. The difficulties and obstacles Old Master Jun had arranged along the way had all been avoided by Jun Yueyue and Fang Anyu after they ran off, but they had all landed on Fang Anyan and Jun Yu’s heads.
Switching vehicles twice, encountering a mass brawl, Fang Anyan nearly being knocked unconscious—all of that aside, by the time the two of them arrived in Taishan County in a truck transporting meat chickens, the smell of chicken droppings on their bodies still lingered even after washing three times.
At last, when they reached Aunt Jun’s house, there was a car parked in the courtyard. It was exactly the one that had broken down earlier after leaving the Jun residence. They were told Old Master Jun had sent someone to deliver it. Fang Anyan and Jun Yu were both on the verge of tears.
If the car could be delivered here, could it not have just been given to them halfway…
After finally eating dinner, Fang Anyan hurried out to look for Jun Yueyue and Fang Anyu.
After a tiring day, Jun Yu and Fang Anyan began feeling drowsy as soon as they lay down. Even the fact that they were sleeping next to each other could no longer spark awkwardness or shyness.
On the other hand, Jun Yueyue and Fang Anyu had no sleepiness after lying down. Jun Yueyue faced the wall, deliberately not replying to Fang Anyu’s messages. In reality, she did not know what to say.
“I was starting to have thoughts about you, but now I really, really regret it, so I don’t want to talk to you or see you”?
What the hell would be the difference between saying that and sounding insane?
Jun Yueyue had not even been cowardly when zombies had torn her apart and eaten her. But now, with her back to Fang Anyu, lying there until half her body had gone numb, she still did not dare turn around. Although she could not see, she just knew Fang Anyu was definitely looking at her.
Her phone had received many messages. Jun Yueyue turned off the sound and simply pretended she could not hear them. She kept using mobile data to browse the news, trying to shift her attention. But her attention was still all behind her. Fang Anyu’s gaze was like thorns at her back, making her unable to lie peacefully.
Before long, the messages on her phone were approaching fifty. Jun Yueyue lay facing the wall. She was no longer even browsing the news. She kind of needed to pee.
But she did not dare move. She pretended she had fallen asleep. Her leg was already numb, as if many ants were biting it.
She did not know why she was this nervous. She even forgot that Fang Anyu could not hear at all. She did not even dare breathe loudly, afraid Fang Anyu would hear that she was not asleep.
After holding herself stiff like this for who knew how long, Jun Yueyue truly could not bear it anymore. She moved her foot very slightly. Then she felt Fang Anyu, who had been lying not far beside her, suddenly sit up—
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