Qiu Xing had taken a taxi to get there, as trucks without permits weren’t allowed into Linzhou’s downtown area. His truck was parked at the highway exit, next to a traffic police car, so he wasn’t worried about anything being stolen.
Lin Yiran climbed into the truck without being asked.
The inside of the truck was just as it had been when she had left it before, only a bit messier than when she had last tidied it up. Qiu Xing had a habit of putting things down randomly after using them and rarely cleaned up, so the truck was always in disarray.
The air freshener placed in the front had almost completely evaporated, drying quickly under the daily sun. Only a few dried clumps remained, emitting a faint, low-quality fragrance.
Lin Yiran placed her backpack by her feet just as she had done before, but this time she had an additional bag, making the space more cramped.
Qiu Xing got into the driver’s seat, started the engine, and drove away.
The cabin was quiet for a while. Qiu Xing was naturally a man of few words, and Lin Yiran didn’t know what to say. If she spoke, she could only say “thank you” to Qiu Xing, but she had already said it too many times.
That night, they again stopped at a service area. When Lin Yiran took her toiletries to the restroom, Qiu Xing stayed with the truck, so she didn’t take her backpack with her.
Being back in Qiu Xing’s truck meant losing the ability to shower daily; she could only clean herself as best as possible in the service area restroom. But Lin Yiran still felt good about it, much better than in the small room she had rented.
When she returned to the truck, Lin Yiran noticed some changes. The miscellaneous items that had been scattered on the upper bunk were now packed into boxes and moved aside. Qiu Xing’s clothes that couldn’t fit in the boxes were stuffed into a paper bag and tucked into a corner of the lower bunk.
“You sleep on the bottom, I’ll sleep on top,” Qiu Xing told her.
Lin Yiran wanted to say it wasn’t necessary, that she could sleep sitting up as before. She had always been afraid of troubling Qiu Xing, but after causing him so much trouble already, saying something like “don’t bother” now seemed superfluous.
So Lin Yiran softly replied, “Alright.” Then added, “Would it be inconvenient for you up there? I can take the upper bunk.”
Qiu Xing asked, “Can you climb up there?”
Lin Yiran looked up and said, “Yes.”
“Then you go up. I need to get up in the middle of the night,” Qiu Xing said, then took his toiletry bag and got out of the truck.
Qiu Xing stuffed the thin blanket from his lower bunk up to the top. The blanket, having been in the truck for years, naturally had the not-so-pleasant smell of the vehicle.
Lin Yiran stood on the middle platform, bending to spread the blanket evenly, then took out the bed sheet she had brought with her, folded it narrowly, and laid it on top.
There was only one pillow in the truck. Lin Yiran took a few pieces of clothing from her backpack, rolled them up, and used them as a pillow.
By the time Qiu Xing returned, she had already climbed up and lit the mosquito coil. Qiu Xing locked the truck from the inside, leaving only the front side windows half open.
The lower bunk had small windows on both sides that couldn’t be opened, with curtains that could be drawn, but Qiu Xing never used them.
Another truck had just parked nearby, quite close to them. Lin Yiran’s upper bunk had no windows, so she couldn’t be seen from outside. This narrow little horizontal bunk could only fit one person, and when she opened her eyes, all she could see was the cabin ceiling. In this truck parked under the open sky, within this small confined space, Lin Yiran was wrapped in a strong sense of security, feeling grounded and stable. She quickly began to feel drowsy.
“Just stay in my truck until you start school. Don’t use your ID card for now,” Qiu Xing said from below when Lin Yiran was almost asleep.
Lin Yiran opened her eyes, pursed her lips, and said apologetically, “I know having me along is a bit troublesome, but I really…”
She continued with some embarrassment, “I really don’t dare to be alone. I’ll try not to cause you any trouble. I’m sorry, Qiu Xing.”
Qiu Xing’s voice remained cold and detached: “I can’t look after you all the time. If you need something, speak up. Deal with any inconveniences yourself, or tell me if you want to leave.”
“Okay,” Lin Yiran said once more, “Thank you.”
After saying this, Qiu Xing went to sleep. Lin Yiran lay there, her mind blank for a moment, and then quickly fell asleep as well.
She had the deepest sleep in a long time. During the night, she vaguely heard Qiu Xing getting in and out of the truck but didn’t wake up.
She slept dreamlessly until early the next morning, opening her eyes to find the truck already moving on the road.
The heavily loaded truck rumbled loudly, and Lin Yiran was shocked that she had slept so soundly.
From her angle, she could see the top of Qiu Xing’s head. Perhaps from sitting in the truck for too long, Qiu Xing wasn’t sitting as straight while driving, taking a relatively relaxed posture with his back slightly curved. His left elbow was propped on the window edge, and his right hand rested on the steering wheel.
Although she couldn’t see his face, she could imagine his expression and gaze—certainly calm, looking ahead.
Lin Yiran had woken up in a position facing forward, slightly curled up. She maintained this position for a while without moving, her eyes open, quietly looking ahead.
The view looking forward from here was different from the view from the passenger seat.
Large clouds in the sky merged into sheets, stretching endlessly above them. Where the clouds didn’t cover, the sky was a clear blue. The blue had substance, both pure in its blueness and seemingly transparent.
Having just woken up, looking directly at the bright sky made it difficult to keep her eyes open. Lin Yiran squinted, watching the endless road and sky.
How beautiful, she thought.
She hadn’t brought her phone up with her last night; it was in the storage box in front. The noise of the moving truck could cover the vibration of the phone, so the screen lit up and darkened repeatedly. By the time Qiu Xing noticed it, there were already four missed calls.
Qiu Xing switched to holding the steering wheel with his left hand and picked up the phone with his right.
He glanced down at it—an unfamiliar number. He answered directly.
“Speak.”
Lin Yiran held her breath and looked down, hearing Qiu Xing say, “That’s none of your business.”
“Go find whoever you need to find. What use is finding her? She doesn’t have money to repay anyway.”
Qiu Xing laughed mockingly: “If her father could take care of her, would things have come to this? You’re dreaming.”
The person on the phone said something inaudible, and Qiu Xing was silent for a moment before finally saying, “Then keep looking. When you find him, that’s when we’ll talk.”
After saying this, he hung up, turned off the phone, and tossed it casually into the storage box.
Then he resumed his original posture, as if nothing had happened.
Lin Yiran had heard the entire phone call regarding her.
Qiu Xing’s tone had been completely nonchalant, neither frightened like she would have been, nor showing any anger or hostility.
He sounded as if he didn’t take the other party seriously at all. Under his attitude, Lin Yiran also felt the situation wasn’t so frightening anymore.
Lin Yiran climbed down from the upper bunk and quietly moved to sit in the passenger seat.
Qiu Xing turned to look at her: “Awake?”
Lin Yiran had just come down and hadn’t tied her hair yet. Her hair hung down her back, and the wind coming through the car window blew most of it up. When Qiu Xing looked over, Lin Yiran had intended to look back at him to respond, but her hair covered her face, and Qiu Xing only saw a dark, fuzzy head.
Lin Yiran quickly pushed her hair aside and hastily gathered it into a ponytail.
“I’m awake,” Lin Yiran answered awkwardly in a hurry, “I’m awake.”
Qiu Xing, unprepared for the flying hair, was startled for a moment. Then, his usually impassive face showed a hint of amusement.
“Your hair is too long,” Lin Yiran tucked the messy strands around her ears behind them, and seeing Qiu Xing smile, she felt like smiling too. “I’m sorry.”
“You startled me,” Qiu Xing said.
Lin Yiran said sheepishly, “I didn’t even know you started driving this morning. I was sleeping too deeply.”
Qiu Xing turned back to the road and said, “As long as you didn’t fall.”
The upper bunk had almost no barriers; the short metal railings were only useful for hanging clothes and couldn’t prevent someone from falling. But Lin Yiran slept very still, not tossing and turning, so there was no problem as long as the ride wasn’t too bumpy.
From this day on, Lin Yiran officially took up residence in Qiu Xing’s truck.
In this old, battered truck, she had acquired a small bed of her own.
That day, Lin Yiran bustled about in the back of the truck, standing up and crouching down on the middle platform. Qiu Xing paid no attention, focusing on driving, letting her quietly rearrange things in the back like a nesting mouse.
She replaced Qiu Xing’s dirty bed sheet with the one she had brought from her rental room and put a matching pillowcase on the pillow.
The thin blanket she had laid under herself on the upper bunk last night was also covered with a clean duvet cover.
She folded Qiu Xing’s bag of wrinkled clothes neatly one by one and organized the items haphazardly piled in boxes, arranging them tidily. She placed the boxes in the space between the lower bunk and the passenger seat.
There was an old towel stuffed in Qiu Xing’s driver’s side door, which he used to wipe his hands when they were dirty. Its original color was no longer discernible.
Lin Yiran took it, and during a rest stop, she went to the service area to buy a small basin.
So by the evening, the once dirty and messy truck had almost completely transformed.
The upper and lower bunks were covered with Lin Yiran’s pink bed sheets and pillowcases. No clutter was visible at a glance. Lin Yiran’s backpack was placed on the upper bunk, next to the stack of clothes she used as a pillow.
The dashboard was also neat, with all the dust wiped away. Two or three freshly washed clothes hung on the small railing of the upper bunk, partially covering Qiu Xing’s lower bunk like a half curtain.
The truck was filled with a mixture of laundry detergent, soap, and air freshener—a sweet fragrance.
Qiu Xing had helped her change the water twice during the day when they stopped at service areas, but the rest of the time he was driving, so Lin Yiran did all the tidying herself.
When it was time to sleep that night, Qiu Xing returned to the truck and said, “This truck hasn’t been this clean since the day it was manufactured.”
Lin Yiran smiled and said, “Next time we stop in a city, if there’s enough time, I’d like to buy some things.”
“Sure,” Qiu Xing said.
That night, Qiu Xing was surrounded by a subtle fragrance.
On the pillow, the bed sheet, and the clothes hanging nearby—all had a faint scent of laundry detergent.
The smell wasn’t strong, but it was distinctly present. It was a pleasant, rather comfortable scent.
Qiu Xing was always very tired, his mind filled with many concerns, leaving no spare time to think about other things.
But perhaps because the human brain has a memory area dedicated specifically to smells, that night, in the hazy time between closing his eyes and falling asleep, Qiu Xing found himself recalling many distant images.
He thought of his family’s small courtyard, his father coming home with swimmer crabs, carrying a huge winter melon on his shoulder. His mother is sitting in the yard washing his school uniform. In the middle of the yard, two of his white short-sleeved shirts and his deep blue soccer team uniform hung on the clothesline, swaying back and forth in the breeze.
Of course, this period didn’t last long. Qiu Xing’s time was limited; he fell asleep quickly.
After all, sleep was a luxury, and even while sleeping, he had to keep his senses alert to sounds outside.
But this gentle, subtle fragrance made Qiu Xing’s sleep more relaxed, and even the furrow that often appeared between his brows softened considerably.