Sleeping So Close They Couldn’t Bear to Part
Jun Yueyue flung her phone straight at the man who was grappling with Fang Anyu. It struck him in the face, bounced off, and landed somewhere far away on the floor.
At that moment, the external elevator was still slowly descending. The man pulling at Fang Anyu had been hit in the face by the phone, and he howled in pain. The commotion was so loud that it drew almost everyone’s attention.
“You damn—!” The man was one step below them on the stairs. Clutching his face, he glared at Jun Yueyue, then walked a few steps down the open-style elevator and got off first. But he did not leave. Instead, he stood there with a dark expression, staring at Jun Yueyue and Fang Anyu.
He was very tall, even taller than Fang Anyu, and he was strongly built. A red mark had been left on his face from the hit, and the expression with which he stared at the two of them was extremely vicious.
Jun Yueyue ignored him completely. She turned her head to look at Fang Anyu and saw that his wrist had been twisted until it was bright red. In his hand, he was holding a wallet, which he was handing to a young woman carrying a child.
The young woman had not even realised that she had dropped her wallet. She was busy soothing the crying baby in her arms. When Fang Anyu handed the wallet back to her, his wrist red, she instantly understood what had happened.
Jun Yueyue also understood at once. She pulled Fang Anyu’s wrist over and looked at it. It had been twisted quite badly, but when she felt the bone, there did not seem to be any issue.
By now, everyone on the elevator had reached the first floor. Anyone with eyes could tell what had happened—the thief had tried to steal from the woman holding the child, and Fang Anyu had stopped him.
This sort of thing was not unusual. What was unusual was that the thief, despite being caught red-handed, did not leave. Instead, he arrogantly stared at Fang Anyu and Jun Yueyue, pointed at Fang Anyu, and said, “He’s the thief! I caught him stealing! That woman is his accomplice. Don’t think the two of you are getting away easily today!”
He was a repeat offender, skilled and practised. He was rarely caught. Even when he was caught for petty theft, he would not be sentenced for long. He looked fierce and had two accomplices. They roamed this area committing crimes and were very active here. The shopkeepers who regularly worked in the mall were basically all familiar with them. Sometimes they would quietly warn customers shopping in their stores, but with this kind of organised theft, very few people dared to get involved for fear of revenge. If a few hundred yuan were lost, then it was simply lost. No one would truly call the police, so the thieves had become more and more rampant.
Being framed after doing a good deed—Jun Yueyue had not encountered such a thing since mutating in the apocalypse. As for Fang Anyu, strictly speaking, he had barely ever gone outside, so he had certainly never encountered it either. For a moment, both of them were a little stunned.
Although Fang Anyu was very isolated from the outside world and only understood it through television and books, it was not as if he had some heroic complex and loved meddling in other people’s business. With his reaction speed, even if he wanted to meddle, he would first have to realise what was happening. The real reason was that the man had not targeted the woman with the child at first—he had targeted Fang Anyu.
Seeing Fang Anyu carrying so many shopping bags, all of them filled with expensive items, the man had practically searched all four of Fang Anyu’s front and back pockets. He had even pulled out Fang Anyu’s little notebook before Fang Anyu finally noticed.
This man was also bold. Perhaps relying on his fierce aura and the fact that no one dared to provoke him, he actually flipped through Fang Anyu’s little notebook right in front of him. When he found no money, he looked at Fang Anyu’s pretty-boy face and saw that after being searched for so long, even after turning back to look at him, Fang Anyu still did not dare make a sound. The man contemptuously stuffed the notebook back at him and even spat.
Then, completely fearless, he did not even move away. He simply stood beside Fang Anyu and reached out to steal from someone else, giving Fang Anyu plenty of time to react.
Fang Anyu finally realised that this person was a thief. When the man pulled the wallet out of the bag of the woman in front, Fang Anyu reached out, snatched it back, and stuffed it back into her bag.
The man pulled it out again. Fang Anyu reached out to snatch it again. The man immediately lost his temper and twisted Fang Anyu’s hand. Jun Yueyue happened to see it in time and smashed him in the face with her phone…
When the man shouted, he was honestly rather frightening. The people who had originally been watching the show began to scatter. The woman holding the child was the victim, and logically, she should not have left. But when the man shouted, the child, who had already been fussing, immediately burst into loud tears.
The woman looked back at Fang Anyu and Jun Yueyue, then quickly walked away with the child in her arms. Everyone knew the truth, but among the many people coming and going, not a single person spoke up for the two of them.
When the man saw the situation, he smiled. He shouted even more arrogantly and waved to someone not far away, calling his accomplices over. Today, he was determined to teach this nosy pretty boy a lesson!
Jun Yueyue froze for a moment, then almost wanted to laugh. Mainly because she truly had not encountered something like this for many years. She had never backed down even when facing man-eating zombies in the apocalypse. Did this man think he could intimidate her? In his dreams.
She let go of Fang Anyu’s wrist, took off the small bag she was carrying, and hung it around Fang Anyu’s neck. Then, unhurriedly, she took his little notebook and wrote a sentence—
Stand still and don’t move.
But this big brother could not wait any longer. While she was still writing, he came over. Thinking he stood on the moral high ground, he grabbed the chain of the bag around Fang Anyu’s neck and yanked it. The chain tightened around Fang Anyu’s throat, and he was flung to the ground.
Jun Yueyue’s expression instantly darkened. She threw the little notebook to the ground and stepped forward to pull him away. The thief shook off her hand, and Jun Yueyue immediately staggered back several exaggerated steps. With an “Aiyo,” she fell to the ground.
Now things were easier—no matter what, the person who struck first was in the wrong.
Jun Yueyue quickly climbed back up. Looking in the direction from which the thief’s accomplices were coming, she took two steps back and shouted at the thief, “Big brother, let’s talk this out! Look, who’s behind you?”
The man did not take Jun Yueyue seriously at all. He gave a disdainful sneer. One hand was still gripping Fang Anyu’s collar. Hearing Jun Yueyue’s words, he turned around.
Jun Yueyue seized the chance. From his side, she took two running steps, using the momentum of her whole body to launch herself forward, and sent a flying kick straight at him.
She was no longer the Barbie with King Kong strength from after the apocalypse. She no longer had the ability to take down one person with one punch. With her thin arms and thin legs, she did not have any massive destructive power. This was also why that guy had not taken her seriously at all.
But Jun Yueyue had still experienced countless battles. Of course, she was not stupid enough to overestimate herself. Right now, she was indeed a weak little chicken, but the ten-centimetre killer heels she had just bought were not weak at all. They were sharp and pointed—
This thief was a habitual offender. He had also encountered people who resisted fiercely before, and even people who knew a move or two and could subdue him. But he truly had not expected that after living half his life in this line of work, he would end up having his stomach pierced by a high heel.
Jun Yueyue had not held back in the slightest. She had gone all in, aiming to make him instantly lose the ability to move. With the force from her running start, her own body weight, and those heels sharp enough to crack the ground, plus the fact that it was summer and the man was only wearing a T-shirt, her kick had originally been aimed at his kidney. Her intentions were extremely sinister. But the miniskirt limited how high she could raise her leg, so her kick ended up landing in his stomach.
Of course, the way she landed was not pretty either. This body was still too weak. Not only did she hurt her arm badly when she fell, but she also strained the muscles in her thigh. The pain made her bare her teeth, and she did not dare move.
However, her earth-shattering kick also stunned everyone present. The thief, clutching a high heel and holding his stomach, realised that air seemed to be leaking from his abdomen and dropped to his knees. When blood began seeping through the gaps between his fingers, shrieks rose and fell all around them like pigs being slaughtered.
The accomplices who had originally come over to support the thief saw the scene and immediately slammed on the brakes. They turned and fled faster than anyone.
Fang Anyu climbed up from the ground and crouched beside Jun Yueyue to support her. Jun Yueyue had fallen right next to the big brother whose stomach was leaking. Not far away was the blood seeping from between his fingers and spilling onto the ground.
But Fang Anyu was very calm. He did not look frightened or surprised at all because Jun Yueyue had kicked a hole in someone’s stomach. He did not even look at the guy groaning in pain. He helped Jun Yueyue up. Even in this situation, with shopping bags dangling all over him, he had somehow not lost a single one.
Someone nearby had already called the police. Just then, Fang Anyan, who had heard the address over the phone and had been so anxious he was practically a firework shooting into the sky, finally rushed in through the main entrance with people.
He ran up to the two of them and was just about to explode at Jun Yueyue. She had taken his brother out for the entire day without a trace, dared to block his number, and even dared to hang up on him!
But when he reached them and saw the bloody scene, his legs immediately went weak, and he nearly knelt on the ground.
The police and ambulance arrived together. For a while, the scene was extremely chaotic. Fang Anyan had no time to vent his anger at Jun Yueyue. After checking that neither of them had any obvious injuries, he began helping them deal with the whole messy scene.
The thief was taken to the hospital. The people who had originally stood by and watched, now seeing that the criminal had lost all ability to harm anyone and that his accomplices had run away, all came forward to speak on behalf of the two of them, provided they had witnessed what happened and had not left.
This was actually very infuriating. If so many people had been united against the criminal earlier, the thug would not have dared to be so arrogant, and things would not have escalated to this point.
But seeking benefit and avoiding harm was human nature. Jun Yueyue was rather indifferent about this kind of thing. She even saw the original victim whose wallet had been stolen—the woman who had clearly run away immediately while holding her child—emerge from some unknown corner and also testify for the two of them.
In the end, through Fang Anyan’s efforts, the mall’s surveillance footage was obtained, proving that the two of them had indeed acted bravely for a just cause.
As for the later matter of injuring the man so badly, Fang Anyan handled the dispute. Jun Yueyue had a good idea of what the outcome would be. Although she did not have much of a moral bottom line, and even killing someone would not cause any waves in her heart, this world was different from the apocalypse. It still had laws. Otherwise, back when the man had first started provoking them, she would have split his head open with her high heel. There would have been no need to wait until he made the first move.
Still, seeing Fang Anyan, who had been arguing with her like two enemies these past two days, stand calmly and sharply on the moral high ground to speak on behalf of her and Fang Anyu, Jun Yueyue’s good impression of this male lead—which had already fallen into defeat—quietly rose back up a little.
“The victim is my older brother,” Fang Anyan said. “My brother is deaf and mute. He is disabled! That man hit my sister-in-law. He hit a woman and a disabled person—both vulnerable groups. Which side should your police be investigating for responsibility?”
The police officer, holding his notebook for statements, wanted to ask Fang Anyu and Jun Yueyue a few questions, but Fang Anyan blocked him.
“How many times do I need to tell you that my brother is deaf and mute? My sister-in-law has already been so frightened she can’t speak!” Fang Anyan folded his arms. Behind him stood two drivers, both coincidentally dressed in black, giving him the full aura of a domineering CEO. “I have already called my lawyer about this matter. I will temporarily cover the medical expenses, but my family members were hurt. According to eyewitness accounts, they even had accomplices. This is terrifying. Has public security in Qiuhai City become this weak? What if they had been knife-wielding criminals? If I had not arrived in time today, I truly do not dare imagine what might have happened…”
Jun Yueyue hugged Fang Anyu, obeying Fang Anyan’s claim that she had been “so frightened she couldn’t speak.”
Listening as Fang Anyan elevated the matter from one thief to the level of a terrorist attack, she buried herself in Fang Anyu’s arms and laughed until her face turned red.
In the end, however, everyone still went to the police station. After giving their statements and coming out, Fang Anyu did not need to pretend. Without his little notebook, no one could communicate with him. Jun Yueyue also very professionally performed the role of a frightened, weak woman, shrinking into a chair with flickering eyes.
She described the helplessness she had felt when seeing her disabled husband being beaten, and how she had never intended to hurt anyone at the time—it had only been a desperate act of self-defence.
By the time she came out of the interview room, Fang Anyan and Fang Anyu were waiting outside. It was already night, and the wind was very cool. Jun Yueyue was wearing short sleeves and hunched her shoulders slightly.
With a sour expression, Fang Anyan took off his jacket and draped it over Jun Yueyue’s shoulders. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and led her outside, while Fang Anyu followed behind them.
However, when Fang Anyan and Jun Yueyue reached the car door, Fang Anyan turned around and realised that Fang Anyu had not followed. He was still standing on the step from earlier and had not come down.
Fang Anyan ran back to pull Fang Anyu. Fang Anyu lowered his eyes, his expression unclear, but refused to move.
Jun Yueyue sat in the car, watching the two brothers tug at each other on the road, and suddenly laughed.
Jun Yu, who was sitting beside her, could not help asking, “Sister, what are you laughing at?”
“At a little kid throwing a tantrum,” Jun Yueyue said, looking out the window. Seeing Fang Anyu take one step forward and two steps back, while Fang Anyan grew so anxious he was nearly bouncing on the spot, she opened the car door and got out, walking toward them.
“Brother, you… Aiya, what exactly is wrong?” Fang Anyan reached out to ask Fang Anyu for the little notebook, but Fang Anyu covered it inside his pocket and refused to give it to him. His refusal to communicate was extremely obvious.
Jun Yueyue walked up to the two of them and smiled as she held out her hand toward Fang Anyu. Fang Anyan said from the side, “I don’t know what’s wrong with my brother. He’s standing here and won’t leave, and he won’t tell me…”
He stopped halfway through, because he saw Fang Anyu take out the little notebook and place it in Jun Yueyue’s hand.
Fang Anyan felt as if arrows had pierced through his chest and back, each one a penetrating wound. Jun Yueyue smiled and glanced at Fang Anyan. Although in her heart she despised Fang Anyu for being far too childish, she could not stop a hint of showing off from appearing in her eyes.
Jun Yueyue wrote in the little notebook—
Why are you standing here and not leaving?
Fang Anyu took it, looked at it, and quickly began writing. Clearly, he had already thought about it for a long time.
As soon as Jun Yueyue had come out after giving her statement, he had wanted to speak to her, but Fang Anyan had beaten him to it.
Fang Anyu wrote quite a lot. Jun Yueyue was a little surprised. She took it and roughly read through it. It said that Fang Anyan had scolded Fang Anyu earlier, telling him that if he ever encountered something like this again, he should not get involved.
What Fang Anyan said was actually not wrong. Fang Anyu himself was deaf and mute. Although he was fairly tall, he could not communicate with others and could not understand what other people meant. Criminals were not going to go back and forth writing in his little notebook with him. He had no fighting ability either, so of course he was not suited to handling this kind of thing.
Fang Anyan was speaking from the perspective of family. He was sincerely concerned about this older brother. Jun Yueyue could understand that. But she flipped the little notebook forward, looked at the conversation between the two brothers, and glared at Fang Anyan.
Then she wrote in the notebook—
Don’t listen to your younger brother. What you did was right.
Fang Anyan endured the pain in his heart and did not leave. When he saw what Jun Yueyue had written, he immediately shouted from behind, “Don’t instil that kind of thinking into my brother! Don’t you know what his situation is?! Let me tell you, Jun Yue, I haven’t even settled the matter of you privately taking my brother out yet! Today, nothing serious happened, but if something had, I wouldn’t let you off!”
Jun Yueyue ignored Fang Anyan’s shouting. She handed the little notebook to Fang Anyu and even reached out to pat his head. Then, who knew from which pocket, she pulled out a packet of popping candy and, right in front of Fang Anyan, poured it into Fang Anyu’s mouth.
“What are you feeding my brother?!”
Fang Anyan reached out to snatch it away, but Jun Yueyue slapped his hand. “It’s just candy. What, do you think I’d poison him? Enough, Mr. CEO. I saw Jun Yu in the car too. Are we going to Xiude Town? Whatever else there is, let’s talk after we get there…”
Fang Anyu had been fed popping candy and had also lowered his head to read Jun Yueyue’s words. Finally, his heart felt better. His reactions were only a little slow; it was not that he did not understand right and wrong. Whether from books or television, he knew that what he had done today was good.
But Fang Anyan had just said that he was not allowed to do this again, that what he had done was wrong. Fang Anyu felt that Fang Anyan was wrong. He had to ask Jun Yueyue, because the two of them had been together today. She knew what the situation had been like at the time.
Jun Yueyue’s answer undoubtedly made Fang Anyu feel much more comfortable. At the same time, he was a little angry at his younger brother. Fang Anyu himself had not even realised that he rarely had this kind of rebellious emotion, and he almost never got angry at Fang Anyan. This sort of emotion, normal for ordinary people, was abnormal for him.
As they walked toward the car, Fang Anyu even refused to let Fang Anyan hold him. Instead, he took the initiative to hold Jun Yueyue’s hand. Feeling the popping candy crackling nonstop in his mouth, his mood and footsteps seemed to crackle along with it…
This time, it was Fang Anyan’s turn to follow behind the two of them. If special effects could be added, he would already be bleeding all over the ground. He was not stupid, nor was he slow. Of course he could sense that Fang Anyu was angry with him.
But his brother had never been angry with him before…
It had only been one month since he married that woman… He had only gone wild with her for one day… Fang Anyan felt an extremely stifled emotion, a difficult-to-describe discomfort. But if he truly showed it, even he himself would think he was sick.
He was a little jealous. It was like a little companion who had always been especially, especially close to him and had no other friends besides him had suddenly joined someone else’s little group and no longer wanted to play with him…
Although this thought was extremely childish the moment it appeared, Fang Anyan sat silently in the car, and even after they had been driving for quite some distance, he still could not get over it. He kept glancing at the rear-view mirror.
The front passenger seat was empty. Three people were squeezed into the back seat. Jun Yueyue sat in the middle, her legs bent uncomfortably. On top of that, Fang Anyu kept intentionally or unintentionally leaning toward her, making it even more cramped.
Jun Yueyue endured it for a while. Only once the car had driven out of the city did she pat the back of Fang Anyan’s seat and say, “Pull over. One person sit in the front. We’re being squeezed to death back here!”
Fang Anyan pulled over. But who would go to the front became a problem. Jun Yueyue did want to sit in the front, but if she sat there and left Fang Anyu and Jun Yu in the back, it would not be appropriate. If it were the original owner, she could indeed have done something like that. But Jun Yueyue had no intentions toward Fang Anyan at all. She could not even be bothered to look at him. The only reason they had not fought yet was purely because she had assessed that she could not beat him.
So Jun Yueyue could not go to the front. She pushed Fang Anyu and pointed at the front seat. Such a simple gesture was something even a fool could understand, but Fang Anyu acted as if he did not understand at all, looking at Jun Yueyue with a face full of confusion.
In the end, Jun Yueyue’s gaze fell on Jun Yu. “You sit in the front.”
Jun Yu froze. Normally, in this kind of situation, her sister would never give the seat to her. Her sister liked Fang Anyan. Although the two of them had been arguing constantly these past few days, and her sister’s style had suddenly changed completely, when they had come out of the police station earlier, Fang Anyan had still had his arm around her sister…
Jun Yu’s thoughts were especially sensitive. Jun Yueyue, on the other hand, was so thick-nerved you could build a villa on top of them. She did not notice Jun Yu’s thoughts at all. Instead, she met Fang Anyan’s probing gaze through the rear-view mirror and gave him a look.
She nodded her chin toward Jun Yu.
Fang Anyan did not understand what she meant and frowned slightly. Jun Yueyue simply slapped the back of his seat. “Get out and carry Jun Yu to the front!”
Fang Anyan turned back to look at Jun Yu. Jun Yu lowered her head, her face quietly turning red. But Fang Anyan had no intention of moving. Instead, he glared at Jun Yueyue.
Jun Yueyue smiled. “What? If you don’t carry her, do you expect me to? Or do you want your brother to carry her? Or do you think Jun Yu can walk to the front by herself?”
Fang Anyan glared at Jun Yueyue, unfastened his seat belt, opened the car door, and got out. Jun Yu’s face was extremely red. Luckily, it was night-time, so it was not very obvious.
Fang Anyan carried Jun Yu to the front, then returned to the driver’s seat and continued driving forward. It would take a full day and night to reach Xiude Town. Originally, they had planned to set off in the afternoon and find somewhere to rest by night.
But Jun Yueyue and Fang Anyu had caused such a huge incident. By the time everything was resolved, it was already midnight. They had no choice but to drive through the night, because Fang Anyan’s company schedule was limited.
The car continued to drive steadily. With only Jun Yueyue and Fang Anyu left in the back seat, there was much more space. Jun Yueyue put some distance between herself and Fang Anyu, closed her eyes, and leaned against the seat, thinking back to the plot and the test that Old Master Jun would arrange this time.
Although Jun Yueyue knew the “exam question” in advance, she had no intention of passing. What she was pondering was how to disappoint Old Master Jun, so that the family business and heavy responsibilities would all be placed on Jun Yu’s shoulders, while all she herself had to do was receive money…
She closed her eyes, thinking about a future where she could live a blissful young miss’s life with money. She did not notice that Fang Anyu’s gaze had been fixed on her face the entire time, and that he was silently leaning closer and closer toward her.
Fang Anyan’s gaze had also been fixed on the back seat the whole time. Through the rear-view mirror, he watched as the two yellowish, curly-haired heads in the darkness, almost identical to each other, drew closer and closer, and then closer still, until they were finally pressed tightly together.
Looking further down, the two of them were already cheek to cheek, hugging each other in a bundle, sleeping as if they could not bear to part.
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