Chapter 71. [Revised] She was torturing him, and he was too...
When He Yan returned after washing his face with cold water, he looked at Wen Xue, who was sitting in the driver's seat, in astonishment.
Her eyes were smiling, and her tone was gentle yet firm: "I'll drive the rest of the way, you can rest."
She had driven quite a few times in the past year, and considering the traffic conditions in Xicheng, her driving skills were pretty good. This was her first time on the highway.
“Then I can’t sleep,” he said honestly.
"Driving while fatigued is bad," she gently reminded him.
He Yan chuckled and nodded in agreement, but instead of going to the back seat, he sat directly in the passenger seat, adjusted the seat slightly to make himself feel less cramped, and leaned back comfortably, raising his chin. "I was watching you drive for the first time, and I'll be watching you this time too."
He quipped, "Unlike in the city, driving slowly on the highway is dangerous and illegal."
"……I know."
She kept her eyes on the road and stepped on the gas. There were some things she hadn't told him. That night, when he took her for a drive, she was indeed scared and flustered at first, but whenever she felt anxious, just seeing him out of the corner of her eye made her feel at ease.
The same is true now.
She wasn't afraid at all.
Once the speed exceeded 100 km/h, all worries, pain, torment, and hesitation were left behind.
He Yan didn't disturb her, only occasionally reminding her to change lanes in time. The rest of the time, he stared intently at her profile, her hands on the steering wheel, and her habitually straight back while driving.
He knew she would drive well.
Now she has the ability to go wherever she wants.
Wen Xue could naturally feel his gaze. Strangely enough, whether in the past or now, his gaze had never made her uncomfortable.
Neither of them spoke, and they listened quietly to the radio broadcast.
Around five or six in the morning, they made a last-minute decision to exit the highway in an unfamiliar city hundreds of kilometers away from Xicheng. It was still dark when they drove along the road. In the misty fog, they could vaguely see sanitation workers sweeping the roads.
"It's quite cold here, let's find a better hotel to rest first."
He Yan lowered the car window, and a blast of cold air rushed in, causing Wen Xue, who was driving, to shiver.
The person also fully regained consciousness.
After arriving in the city center, the car circled the fountain in front of the hotel. Wen Xue parked the car, He Yan took the luggage, went through the revolving door, and went to the front desk to check in. "Two double rooms."
After handing the card and ID to the receptionist, he leaned down slightly and whispered, "If you're sleepy later, go to sleep first."
"I'm not sleepy." Wen Xue shook her head, still feeling excited. Several hours had passed, and despite the long journey, she didn't feel tired at all.
"Okay." He Yan then asked the receptionist, "What time does breakfast start?"
The receptionist was typing away on her keyboard. She looked up with a professional smile on her face and said, "The breakfast buffet is from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. You can just go to the restaurant on the first floor and give them your room number."
He Yan nodded.
"If you're not sleepy, rest in your room." He raised his hand to look at his watch. "It's almost seven o'clock. Have breakfast before you go to sleep."
As they drove along, it felt like they had returned to their old way of getting along.
Wen Xue smiled and nodded: "Okay."
After checking in, the two took the elevator to the upper floor. The quiet corridor was covered with thick carpets. Wen Xue was worried about disturbing other guests, so she walked very lightly. She stopped at the door of the room, and He Yan turned to her and handed her both cards, his voice tinged with laughter: "Same as always, you choose first."
She couldn't help but chuckle, took the room key, swiped it against the room number to open the door, and tiptoed inside.
The room has a floor-to-ceiling window that offers a beautiful view of the river.
She stood by the window gazing into the distance, then turned around and called out to him with a look of surprise, "He Yan, come and see!"
He Yan, standing at the door, was unaware of what she had seen that made her so excited. He stepped inside, and when he came to her side and followed her gaze, he was stunned. Dawn was breaking, and the sky was gradually brightening. They had actually caught a sunrise.
Wen Xue stared blankly at the horizon.
She suddenly remembered the sunrise she watched from the rooftop last winter, led by him, and how similar it was to today, to this very moment.
…
Considering the safety of driving at night, Wen Xue and He Yan basically drove during the day and rested at night for the next two days.
With the mindset that "since we're already here," they got up very early on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year. They were going to a mountain dozens of kilometers away from the city. Wen Xue had a big breakfast, but as soon as she got in the car, she started to feel sleepy. With the U-shaped pillow she had bought hanging around her neck, she tilted her head and dozed off.
He Yan glanced at her, a faint smile appearing on his face.
He drove very steadily, trying to minimize bumps. There were quite a few tourists during the Spring Festival. When he parked the car closest to the ticket office, Wen Xue was still asleep. He stared at her intently and brazenly for a while before getting out of the car quietly. The car door was ajar and not closed tightly.
Wen Xue was half-asleep when she felt a sudden weightlessness. She woke up with a start, her mind still not fully clear. In her daze, she saw that she was the only one in the car and subconsciously reached for her phone on the armrest. But as she unlocked the screen, she belatedly realized that it wasn't her phone.
However, having already formed muscle memory, she successfully unlocked the device by entering the numbers 1220, but a slight sound exploded in her ears.
She stared blankly at the wallpaper, which was a blurry photograph of a young woman looking back under the night sky.
This is He Yan's cell phone.
When did he change the password?
When was the wallpaper changed?
These two questions made it hard for her to breathe. Her phone felt hot, burning her palms. She frantically tried to lock the screen and put it back as if she hadn't seen anything, but she didn't hold it properly and accidentally dropped it into the gap between the seat and the armrest.
When He Yan returned after buying the tickets, he saw her leaning over in an awkward posture through the windshield. She strode to the car, opened the passenger door, and her fair face was slightly flushed. Her eyes were filled with panic as she stammered a few words of explanation.
Why are you so anxious about such a small thing?
He was both amused and exasperated. He stuffed the tickets into his pocket, leaned into the car, and she leaned back nervously, breathing rapidly, unsure where to look. He firmly occupied her entire field of vision.
He Yan quickly found his phone in the gap, smiled, and glanced at her.
The two looked at each other, very close, their gazes locked.
Wen Xue silently looked away, her heart pounding with anxiety, unable to find a way to settle down.
He Yan lowered his eyes, gripped his phone tightly, straightened up, and said in a casual tone, "The tickets are bought, let's go."
"Um."
Before queuing to take the cable car, Wenxue went to the restroom. People were coming and going, and it was noisy and bustling. But she felt like she was trapped in a transparent glass dome, with thin air. She couldn't hear other people's voices. She turned on the tap and washed her face with cold water, but she didn't feel cold. She only felt a dull pain.
At that moment, she clearly realized that she was tormenting him, and he was tormenting her.
What will their relationship be like in the future?
Standing in the middle of a dilemma, neither family nor lovers, entangled and pulled, unable to return to the past, with no bright future.
When Wen Xue came out of the restroom, she composed herself and walked towards He Yan, who was waiting at the door, with a calm expression.
The two followed the queue to the back of the line to take the cable car up the mountain. The mist was swirling and the mountain was steep. He Yan calmly looked out of the cable car and remained silent for a long time. Then he turned his gaze and noticed that the woman sitting opposite him had her eyes tightly closed, as if she was very scared.
He glanced at it with interest. "You're not afraid of flying, so why are you afraid of riding a cable car?"
“I wasn’t afraid,” she defended herself.
"Look," he said cryptically, "it's not so bad to fall down."
Wen Xue opened her eyes and said softly, "Mmm."
Maybe if I fall down, all my troubles will be gone.
He no longer had to worry about her leaving.
She doesn't need to feel reluctant or guilty.
These inexplicable and ominous words were probably only understood by the two of them. After a few seconds of silence, they smiled at each other.
The cable car stopped at its destination, shaking slightly. He Yan got off first, habitually extending his arm. Wen Xue hesitated only for a moment before helping him down. They still had a long, winding staircase to climb to the summit. The view from the top was completely different.
Some people took the opportunity to promote taking photos as souvenirs, and after taking the photos, they immediately received laminated photos. The price was not cheap, and other tourists shook their heads and left after inquiring.
"Let's take a picture," He Yan asked in a consultative tone.
Wen Xue wanted to say that several tens of yuan per photo was not cheap, but then she thought about it and realized that they didn't seem to have a single group photo, so she nodded and said, "Okay."
The boss was delighted, picked up the camera, focused it, and even taught them how to pose.
Unfortunately, He Yan didn't listen to instructions and didn't even manage a proper laugh.
The boss was utterly exasperated and joked with them in his not-so-standard Mandarin, "Young man, your girlfriend is so beautiful, aren't you happy looking at her?"
He Yan's body stiffened.
Wen Xue remained calm, her eyes still smiling, as if she hadn't understood what he meant.
The two took a standard tourist photo. The tall and handsome man put his hand on her shoulder, and she moved closer to him, her eyebrows curved, her face without a trace of gloom or worry. Although he didn't smile, his eyes were very peaceful.
He Yan was so fond of the photo that he looked at it several more times after returning to his car on the way down the mountain.
Wen Xue said with regret, "People took photos at the places we visited before, we should have taken photos of all of them."
“It’s no big deal. There will be plenty of opportunities in the future.” His voice was deep, pausing for half a second. “Right?”
As he said this, his eyes never left the photo, and his tone was as natural as if he were discussing the weather.
She paused for a moment, then said softly after a long pause, "Yes."
Upon receiving an affirmative answer, He Yan looked relaxed and carefully placed the photo in the glove box under the steering wheel.
…
On the evening of the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, they were driving back on the highway, just like the previous two days. Even on the outskirts of the city, the temperature was much lower than in the western part of the city, and the wind was biting cold. He Yan, who had lived in his car for many years, keenly sensed that something was wrong. After stopping at the nearest service area, he learned from other people that there was a section of road that had collapsed a few dozen kilometers ahead.
It's obvious that even if they didn't pass by, they would definitely be blocked.
Without hesitation, He Yan and Wen Xue decided to exit the highway. After driving for a while, they arrived at a completely unfamiliar town. The sound of snowflakes or snowflakes hitting the windshield was unclear. Along the way, whenever a hotel sign was erected, He Yan would stop and ask if there were any rooms available.
Based on his years of experience, he needed to find a place to stay as soon as possible.
Wen Xue sat in the car, watching him get out of the car again and again, and come back with a stern face each time.
She was astonished: "Are all the rooms full?"
He Yan's expression softened, and he reassured her, "It's alright, let's look again."
She took out a tissue to wipe the blurry car window and focused intently on finding a hotel. The town wasn't that big, and there weren't many hotels. After driving down a slightly out-of-the-way section and searching for a long time, she finally found a curly-haired owner nodding at this inconspicuous little hotel. "Yes, there's one room left. Do you want it?"
Wen Xue was stunned and hurriedly looked at He Yan.
They had been out for several days and this was the first time they had encountered such a situation, so she was inevitably unsure of what to do.
He Yan frowned, glanced at the time, and whispered to her, "Let's go to the city center."
The shopkeeper spat out sunflower seed shells a few times, saying, "It's 60 or 70 kilometers from the city center, and there are no rooms available anymore. You must be one of those tourists trapped by that collapse, right?"
As Wen Xue hesitated and He Yan pondered, the roar of a car behind them tore through the night sky, and then the driver rolled down the window and shouted, "Boss, are there any rooms left!"
The boss glanced at the man and woman standing at the front desk and was about to say "yes" when Wen Xue interrupted, eagerly saying, "Yes, we want it, we arrived first."
Are you sure you want it?
"want."
The boss called out to the driver outside, "That's all for now!"
The driver muttered a curse under his breath.
The boss gestured with his chin, "Prices will all go up during the Chinese New Year, 188 yuan, 200 yuan deposit, give me your ID card."
Wen Xue retrieved the ID card from a hidden compartment in the bag and handed it over, letting out a sigh of relief.
She always trusted her intuition and felt that if she missed this opportunity, she might never get another chance.
He Yan's brows had been furrowed since earlier, and his face was gloomy. He took out his wallet, pulled out four bills, and gave them to the shopkeeper.
"You need to give her your husband's ID card too," the shopkeeper said to Wen Xue without even looking up, his fingers twirling awkwardly on the keyboard.
In fact, the boss was not the first person to misunderstand their relationship. Wen Xue was used to it, but this was the first time she had encountered someone who called her "husband" so casually, and she was stunned for a few seconds.
With a thud, He Yan's ID card was placed on the front desk.
She caught a glimpse of his serious face on the ID card out of the corner of her eye, and quickly looked away.
He Yan explained slowly, "She's still a student, and I'm her brother."
The owner, who was registering the check-in information, looked up in surprise. She glanced at him, then at Wen Xue beside him. They looked like a perfect match and were very affectionate. It turned out they weren't a couple. She had misjudged them.
The hotel was old and had no elevator. After getting their room keys, they had to use the stairs. The corridors were covered with carpets whose original color was no longer recognizable, and there was a faint musty smell in the air. It was completely different from the hotel they had stayed in the previous two days.
He Yan turned around helplessly: "Let's try our luck in the city. You can't stay here."
"Why take your chances?" Wen Xue didn't look at him. "Why drive 60 or 70 kilometers to look for it, only to come back if you can't find it? There's no need."
They drove for five or six hours today.
She wasn't tired, but she worried that he was.
After hearing this, He Yan stopped mentioning going to the city. Over the next few days, he made the decisions most of the time, but once she made a decision, he would listen to her.
Wen Xue arrived at the room door, swiped her room card, inserted it into the card slot, and the lights in the room turned on. The room was very narrow and small, and everything was laid out at a glance: a bed, a table and chairs, and nothing else. She felt like leaving.
It's not that I dislike the room being small, but rather that I don't know how to sleep.
He Yan frowned, stepped inside first, glanced around, casually tossed another room card onto the table, then strode back to the door, stood in front of her, and looked at her with a complicated expression. "It's getting late. You sleep in the room. I'll go to the car. We're not familiar with this place, so remember to lock the doors and windows. Call me if you need anything; I'll be downstairs."
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