Chapter 94 Escape Happy Lantern Festival

His hand was cold, but perhaps because her wrist was too hot, her pulse was like an engine, beating out a wave of heat, making the junction of their skin slightly warm.

She also nodded softly.

Just as they finished speaking, the faint sound of voices began to drift closer from the distant forest. They both jerked upright, looking warily toward the source of the noise, like two startled deer.

"Do you want to run?" Xu Sirui asked.

Zhu Yingning hesitated for a moment and said, "Run." As for comforting Liu Guifang, he could wait until he arrived in Beijing and then call her to communicate.

She lent him a hand, pulled him up from the ground, and ran wildly through the mountains in the opposite direction of the crowd.

It was a village consensus not to venture into the mountains at night, and Zhu Yingning rarely violated this agreement. The more one relied on nature for their livelihood, the more reverence it held for them. But the circumstances were unique, and she had to be extremely alert. She memorized the mountain's path and guided him nimbly along the narrow paths.

Finally, we safely returned to the main road at the foot of the mountain from the other side.

"What time is it?" she asked him.

Xu Sirui glanced at his phone: "A little after four in the morning."

"Okay, wait then."

"Waiting for what?"

"Around 4:30 a.m., someone from another village will drive by here to sell vegetables in town. We can give him a ride."

At around 4:30, a rickshaw appeared on the side of the road. An old man as old as a walnut kernel was riding the rickshaw towards them. His thin body was swaying in the wind, and his skinny fingers were gripping the handlebars like dead wood, with his bones outlined by his skin.

Although Xu Sirui was someone who enjoyed being served by others most of the time, seeing the old man's attitude, his conscience still pricked him up. He hesitated and asked, "Are you sure he can give us a ride...?"

"Of course not." Zhu Yingning glanced at him strangely, as if wondering why he would ask such a question.

As he spoke, he stepped forward, stopped the old man's tricycle, and explained in dialect that they wanted to take him for a ride to town. The old man nodded. Zhu Yingning then helped him down from the pedicab, letting him sit on the back board. He then straddled the pedicab, one foot on the ground, the other on the pedal, and gripped the handlebars tightly.

"You want to ride?" Xu Sirui raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Yes." She deserved it as a matter of course.

In just one second, Xu Sirui had a fierce struggle between his conscience and his desires in his mind. He felt that it was too obscene to let a girl ride a bike for him, but if he didn't let her ride, the job would have to fall on him. Under normal circumstances, it was not impossible for him to ride it reluctantly, but the key point was that it had been eighteen hours since he last closed his eyes and slept, and he had walked such a long way to come to the village to find her, and had just run in the mountains for so long that his legs had lost feeling. For the sake of his own life and health, he decided to be obscene if he felt it was obscene.

So he nodded in agreement with a thick face and sat in the back of the car with the old man under his contemptuous gaze.

Zhu Yingning pedaled hard, and the tricycle slowly set off. It was a rough start, but once it got the hang of it, it sped up. The wind whistled past, bringing a cool breeze.

The back of the tricycle was loaded with cabbage and Chinese kale, leaving only a palm-wide gap at the rear for someone to sit. The old man dangled his legs over the tricycle, but Xu Sirui's legs were too long to do this. He would be dragged down below his calves, crippling him. He had to bend his knees and maintain a difficult position. Not only was he tired, but the old man next to him would occasionally glance at him, his old mouth making meaningless smacking sounds and shaking his head in frustration.

Xu Sirui: “…”

He endured it.

After enduring for three to five kilometers, the old man's ridicule did not subside, but became more and more intense. He sighed loudly, as if he wanted to let out all the foul air in his chest.

Xu Sirui couldn't stand it any longer, but he couldn't hit the old man, so he could only reach out and pull the corner of Zhu Yingning's clothes: "Stop the car."

She slowed down the car and braked to the side of the road: "What's wrong?"

"Get down." He jumped out of the car, walked to her side, and urged her to the back, his face like a smear of spice on a painting.

“…”

It was obvious that his stubbornness had risen again. Zhu Yingning was neither able to cry nor laugh. He slid off the seat, shook his head and walked to the back.

**

After arriving in the town and saying goodbye to the old man, Zhu Yingning continued to look for a ride that could take them to the city.

This time, they targeted a truck bringing in goods for a convenience store. The driver was a young man, wearing only a base layer of autumn clothing and a fleece jacket. His arms were strong, and he moved the goods with remarkable agility. Zhu Yingning approached to negotiate, but the driver looked at her suspiciously, then at Xu Sirui, and ran his fingers through his hair. "Wait until I finish moving the goods."

"I'll help you." Zhu Yingning rolled up his sleeves and was ready to go forward to help, full of energy and more resilient than a cow.

Xu Sirui quickly grabbed her, thinking to himself, "Please don't help me anymore, auntie." If she helped, he would inevitably suffer - of course, he could also choose not to help, but his thick skin had been worn away by the old man just now.

Xu Sirui was too lazy to put in the effort for something that could be solved with money. He went into a convenience store, bought a short, gold-wrapped Zhonghua cigarette, and tossed it to the driver.

The driver took it subconsciously, opened his palm, looked at it, was stunned, put it in his arms, nodded his chin towards the back of the car, and said in a pleasant manner: "You guys go sit in there first, we will be done soon."

The rear compartment of the truck was raised high, and Xu Sirui climbed up and pulled her along.

They found an empty corner and squatted down. Zhu Yingning held the cigarette receipt in his hand, looking worried and sighing.

"What's with that expression on your face?" He wanted to laugh.

"Rotten capital, damn money." She said with a bitter face, "Eighty-five a bag... Why are you such a spendthrift, Xu Sirui?"

He snorted, his voice rising slightly as he said, "What do you care about me?" He rested his head on his knees, looked at her with a smile in his eyes, and said lazily with a long tone, "Who are you to me? How can you care how I spend my money?"

"I..." She was speechless after his question. She glanced at the driver outside the car and lowered her voice to scold him, "I just don't want you to waste money. The driver was going to the city anyway, and we took his car, which didn't cost him much gas. Of course, we still have to thank him, because it's not his obligation to give us a ride. But we can still thank him properly without spending so much money."

Oh, now he seems to be a shrewd and mercenary person again, no longer as serious and upright as usual.

Xu Sirui suddenly became curious about whether she would bargain when buying vegetables, so he asked her about his doubts.

"I won't cut it if it's beneficial." Zhu Yingning answered tactfully.

He laughed twice and teased her: "I thought you were very honest."

"I'm not stupid, I'm honest." She pouted and retorted to him.

**

As the truck moved along the road, the iron plates around the rear compartment rumbled.

This monotonous white noise has an excellent hypnotic effect. Before long, Xu Sirui felt that his upper and lower eyelids were about to stick together.

The sky was already brightening. The rear compartment had no windows, and only a dim light filtered through from the area adjacent to the driver's seat. The bluish-white sunlight spread thinly across the iron floorboards of the compartment, like a confined spring.

"If you want to sleep, you can sleep for a while. I'll call you when we get there." Zhu Yingning saw that he was sleepy and said softly.

He shook his head: "No."

He said so, but sleepiness arrived like the rising tide of the Qiantang River, unstoppable. He rested his chin on his hand, his body swaying slightly as the truck braked and accelerated. In this swaying motion, his consciousness gradually detached, drifted away, and dissipated into smoke.

An unknown amount of time had passed when Zhu Yingning suddenly felt a heaviness on her shoulder. She turned her head and saw Xu Sirui leaning on her shoulder, already asleep.

He rarely showed any sign of gentleness and tranquility when he was asleep, having shed the peacock-like arrogance and pride he had when awake, and actually looked quite well behaved.

Her eyelashes are long, casting a fine shadow under her eyes, her eyebrows fly into her temples, her lips are like a touch of vermilion, and the skin on her cheeks is so delicate that no pores are visible.

Even after running around for so long, he didn't have any of the unpleasant smell of sweat that was common among adolescent boys. The shampoo from the shower gel and laundry detergent escaped from his collar, heated by his body temperature, and smelled clean and soft.

Why?

She suddenly felt that somewhere in her heart was just like this fragrance, warm, soft and clean, with no trace of it.

The sunlight was blocked by the buildings and trees outside the car, sometimes bright and sometimes dim. She stretched out her other hand, which was not pressed by his body, and paused in mid-air, then slowly dropped it, tracing his eyebrows and eyes with the shadows under her fingertips.

A horizontal stroke is a horizontal stroke, and a left-falling stroke is a left-falling stroke.

Straight lines are sharp, while arcs are delicate.

**

He woke up because the driver opened the trunk loudly. There was a loud creaking noise, and Xu Sirui's heart nearly jumped out of his chest. He opened his eyes abruptly and found himself sleeping on Zhu Yingning's shoulder. His first reaction was to wipe his mouth—even though he didn't have the bad habit of drooling in his sleep.

Fortunately, this time is no exception.

Without wiping his saliva, Xu Sirui felt relieved. He calmly sat up and asked the driver for no apparent reason, "Are we there yet?"

"We're here," said the driver.

Zhu Yingning also woke up after hearing their conversation. When the truck was halfway through the journey, she felt very sleepy and took a nap leaning against the truck. When she woke up, she was still a little confused.

The truck stopped in the city center. They got out and stood stupidly on the street, looking at each other in confusion.

Gurgle.

Not knowing whose stomach rumbled first, Zhu Yingning slapped his head and said, "Let's go eat first."

I found a restaurant nearby, and after entering, I suddenly remembered that today was the Lantern Festival.

The waiter came over with the menu, a smile on his face: "Today is the Lantern Festival. Every customer who consumes in our restaurant will receive a bowl of Yuanxiao."

Xu Sirui rubbed his sleepy face and took the menu. He was about to hand it to Zhu Yingning first, but then he remembered that she had no money with her this time and only brought one person with her. He would definitely have to pay the bill. According to her personality, if he handed the menu to her, she would definitely act polite and choose the cheapest dish on the menu. The thought of this gave Xu Sirui a headache. After all, she was not picky about food. He turned his hand and took the half-handed menu back to himself. He glanced at it casually and made the decision for her.

After registering them, the waiter left with the menu. After a while, he brought each of them a bowl of Yuanxiao with osmanthus wine, which was fragrant.

There were mostly families with children around, and it was very lively. They sat near the corners, feeling a bit like wanderers in a strange city without any relatives to worry about them.

She lowered her head, scooped up a Yuanxiao with a porcelain spoon, and held it between them.

"Hmm?" Xu Sirui didn't understand what he meant.

"Cheers," she said, looking at him.

Understanding what she meant, he smiled softly, scooped up a Yuanxiao from the bowl, tapped off the soup on the edge of the bowl, and gently touched the porcelain spoon against hers.

"Happy Lantern Festival."

in unison.

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The author has something to say: There is something urgent that needs to be dealt with at home, so I can only update 3,000 words tonight ><, and I will make up for it tomorrow night.

Since there will be a clip update tomorrow, in order not to affect the clip ranking, tomorrow night's update will be moved to 11:30 pm. You can come later to avoid missing it.