Lin Yiran woke up in a community hospital ward.

Her eyes fell upon the old hospital room, the gray-white sheets that couldn’t be washed clean, the iron bed frame, the IV stand, and the needle in her hand. The electronic clock on the wall showed it was already ten in the morning.

Whether it was an old community hospital or a top-tier hospital in the city center, they all had the same smell. This faint scent of disinfectant made Lin Yiran instinctively nauseous.

During her mother’s final months, she had practically lived in the hospital, accompanying her.

Lin Yiran fell into a brief state of confusion, not knowing why she was here. For a short moment, she didn’t even know what time it was.

In her daze, it was as if she had returned to her mother’s hospital room. At that time, she still had her mother. She didn’t have to hide from her father’s debts, she was about to take the college entrance exam, and was about to begin the most beautiful years of her life.

“Oh, you’re awake?”

Someone sauntered in from outside, holding a phone. Seeing Lin Yiran’s eyes open, they asked her.

Lin Yiran looked over. She didn’t recognize this person, who appeared to be about her age.

“Brother Qiu asked me to keep an eye on you here, to wait until you woke up before leaving,” Lin Chang said with a somewhat cocky tone, his gaze rudely scanning Lin Yiran a couple of times.

Lin Yiran didn’t speak, shifting her gaze away from him and not looking at him again.

There wasn’t anything wrong with Lin Yiran’s body. She just hadn’t eaten for several days, and combined with excessive fear, she had momentarily gone into shock. After arriving at the hospital and being put on a glucose drip along with some nutrients, she looked much more energetic.

Lin Chang sat on the chair by the bed, sending a message to Qiu Xing: [Brother Qiu, she’s awake. What’s your relationship with her?]

Qiu Xing was probably busy and didn’t reply to him.

Lin Chang then continued sitting there, occasionally glancing at Lin Yiran. His gaze was impolite, looking her up and down before returning to her face.

Despite Lin Yiran’s disheveled state these past few days, it didn’t diminish her beauty. Her fair skin, pale from lack of blood, made her appear even more fragile. Her hair was spread messily around her, yet had a kind of disheveled beauty.

“Experimental High School?” Lin Chang glanced at her school uniform and asked.

Lin Yiran didn’t make a sound, either not hearing him or not wanting to respond.

They had both just finished the college entrance exam and were about the same age, but they weren’t the same type of person. One was an uneducated young hooligan, while the other was visibly an obedient good student. Lin Yiran didn’t want to talk to Lin Chang, and Lin Chang didn’t try to make conversation with her either. A long silence fell over the hospital room.

During this silence, Lin Yiran was thinking about where she could go next.

She definitely couldn’t go back home, and she couldn’t go to her stepfather’s house either. Her grandmother’s and paternal grandmother’s homes weren’t local; if she wanted to go there, she would need to go to the station and take a bus. She wasn’t confident about that, not knowing if those people would find her. Besides, Lin Yiran didn’t want to go. Her disheveled state, these dramatic experiences after her mother’s passing—she didn’t want others to see them.

She was somewhat afraid of the sympathetic looks from familiar people. As if losing her mother made her so pitiful.

Lin Chang sat for a while longer. Qiu Xing still hadn’t replied to his message, so Lin Chang said, “Now that you’re awake, I’ll leave. Brother Qiu paid downstairs. You can settle any difference later.”

Lin Yiran nodded and said, “Thank you.”

Lin Chang stood up and left. Lin Yiran looked at the empty bed on the other side, her mind briefly going blank.

“By the way.”

Lin Chang, who had left, poked his head back in half a minute later, looking at Lin Yiran and saying, “What’s your relationship with Brother Qiu?”

Lin Yiran said, “No relationship.”

“Ah.” Lin Chang subsequently smiled, stepped back in, fumbled in his pocket, and pulled out a few hundred-yuan bills. He took one, used the pen hanging at the foot of the bed to write a string of numbers on it, folded it twice, and stuffed it into Lin Yiran’s school uniform pocket.

“Then if you don’t have a relationship with him, you can find me if you need anything,” Lin Chang said with a smile, his eyes showing half-genuine, half-teasing interest. “We’re about the same age. You’re pretty, so finding me would be useful. If you’re willing to date me, everything is negotiable, okay?”

Lin Yiran would normally avoid people like this, not even sparing them a glance. But at this moment, she was in a state of rigid numbness, with her perception of everything around her dulled. She only stared woodenly at the empty bed on the other side, not even bothering to respond.

After speaking, Lin Chang walked out twirling his car keys, walking as if his heels never touched the ground, swaggering.

*

Qiu Xing drove with the window half open, the wind gusting in, blowing his hair into a mostly messy, standing-up state. In the middle storage compartment, the pages of a notebook rustled, blown back and forth by the wind.

The truck sped along the highway. Qiu Xing, with his phone wedged against his ear, shouted into the wind, “Your signal is too poor! I can’t hear clearly!”

The other end shouted back, “It’s your signal that’s poor! My signal is full!”

Qiu Xing yelled, “Can you hear me now!”

But as soon as he finished saying this, the signal dropped again, leaving only the static of signal interference in the phone.

After calling out “Hello” a few more times, Qiu Xing hung up and tossed the phone aside. But the phone wouldn’t stay quiet, continuing to ring, with calls coming one after another.

Half an hour later, the truck stopped in a service area’s parking lot. Qiu Xing pressed the thin notebook against the steering wheel, wedged the phone between his shoulder and ear, and used a pen to note down the address and phone number the other person was saying.

“What’s the surname?” Qiu Xing asked.

“Chen, Chen Weisheng. Your father hauled goods for him for several years, but later someone else undercut him. Your father, with his bad temper, didn’t contact him again. You should call him Uncle Chen.”

The person spoke in a twangy dialect, telling him to call “Uncle Chen.”

“Uncle Chen, I got it,” Qiu Xing smiled. “Thank you for always looking after me, Uncle Luo.”

“Just verbal thanks. You’re just like your father, all talk,” the person on the phone laughed while scolding him, then added, “My second factory has enough for half a truck. Pick up mine after unloading.”

“Okay, is it urgent? If it’s urgent, I’ll have Brother Hui go over,” Qiu Xing said.

“Not urgent. I saved it for you. I told the cargo owner it would arrive next week. Alright, hanging up.”

Qiu Xing responded properly. After the other side hung up, he tossed the notebook aside, leaned back against the seat, and closed his eyes for a brief rest.

A few minutes later, Qiu Xing jumped out of the truck, carrying toiletries to the restroom.

When he returned, one hand held toiletries, the other bread and water, eating as he walked. He seemed accustomed to eating in a hurry like this, swallowing large bites of bread in just a few mouthfuls, his brows slightly furrowed as if thinking about something. The water on his face and head hadn’t dried yet, reflecting scattered points of light in the gentle morning sun.

His phone rang again in his pocket. Qiu Xing bit into the bread, took out his phone, looked at it, and answered, “Speak.”

“Brother Qiu, where is that place again? Brother Hui and I seem to have passed it, but we didn’t find the wooden sign you mentioned,” Xiao Quan asked confusedly on the phone.

Qiu Xing asked, “Which way did you two go?”

“The route you told us,” Xiao Quan said. “Exit the highway, take the small road south, turn at the third entrance on the dirt road.”

Qiu Xing asked with furrowed brows, “Didn’t you two go there last time? Couldn’t find it last time and still can’t find it this time?”

“Did we go there before? I don’t think so,” Xiao Quan hesitantly said. “I don’t remember going there.”

Qiu Xing asked again, “Can’t even use navigation properly, right?”

“The navigation just keeps telling us to turn around, but I feel like we haven’t reached it yet. I haven’t seen the third entrance. I’m afraid the navigation might be wrong.”

Qiu Xing said, “Coming from the east, it’s the third entrance. From the west, it’s the first entrance. Which way did you come from?”

“Which side is this… Oh no, we came from the west. We’ll look for a place to turn around then.”

Qiu Xing hung up. He had received too many such calls to get angry anymore. Zhang Quan and Li Hui were two drivers hired by Qiu Xing, working together and taking turns driving one truck. Li Hui was a very honest person, over fifty years old, hardworking, but too slow-witted to understand instructions and quite taciturn. Zhang Quan had just turned twenty this year. At first, he seemed quite clever when speaking, but over time, it became clear he wasn’t much better, with his mind not focused on the right things. Between the two of them, they couldn’t make up one normal brain, but Qiu Xing had gotten used to it.

Qiu Xing threw away the bread wrapper, opened the mineral water, and drank half the bottle. He took the remaining half-bottle of water and toiletries back to the truck. He was hauling half a truck of copper wire and didn’t dare leave it unattended for too long. Losing even one package would cost him dearly.

Hauling copper wire earned more, but also caused more worry.

Qiu Xing had been driving continuously for more than ten hours. He had barely slept the night before, only stopping at a service area when extremely tired to sleep for forty minutes.

There were still over eight hundred kilometers to go, and he had to deliver by tonight, which meant Qiu Xing would have to continue driving without rest for another full day.

Qiu Xing parked the truck at the unloading factory before sunset.

Copper wire was expensive. Whether loading or unloading, someone had to supervise. Both the driver and the cargo owner had to be present, both counting. If the numbers didn’t match, it would be very troublesome.

So after driving for so long, Qiu Xing stood for another three hours overseeing the unloading.

After unloading, payment was made on the spot. Qiu Xing pocketed a thick wad of cash, his trouser pockets stuffed full. Qiu Xing got into the truck, backed it out of the factory compound, and drove to Brother Lin’s repair shop.

“You’re back?”

It had been five days since Qiu Xing left. Seeing Qiu Xing jump down from the truck, Brother Lin greeted him from a distance.

Over there, Brother Lin’s family had set up a grill for barbecue. Besides Lin Chang and Brother Lin’s wife, several workers worked for them.

Qiu Xing tossed the truck keys to Brother Lin, who invited him to sit down and eat.

“Haven’t eaten yet, right?”

Qiu Xing didn’t stand on ceremony, bent down to pull over a small stool to sit on, picked up an unused pair of chopsticks from the table, and directly picked up a piece of meat to eat.

“Just had a piece of bread this morning. Driving for so long numbed me; I couldn’t even feel hungry,” Qiu Xing said.

Sister-in-law Lin repeatedly exclaimed “Aiya, aiya,” scolding him, “You can’t do this. You’re ruining your body. You’re so young—are you earning money at the cost of your life?”

Qiu Xing took an empty plate, picked up a piece of steamed bun, and took a bite. He looked up at Sister-in-law Lin and said, “No choice, Sister-in-law. I need to earn money.”

“There’s no way to earn money like this. How can one person drive a big truck without even someone to take shifts? It’s so dangerous when you get sleepy at night! You should hire a driver. Listen to Sister-in-law.”

Qiu Xing nodded as he ate the steamed bun. Sister-in-law Lin knew he wasn’t listening. This kid Qiu Xing was the most stubborn and wouldn’t take advice.

A worker nearby said quietly, “Trading life for money. The father went down this path, and now the son follows.”

Qiu Xing acted as if he hadn’t heard, just lowering his head to eat.

“Hey, Brother Qiu, who was that girl last time? I asked you, but you didn’t reply to me. Lin Chang remembered this after a while and asked him.

“Neighbor’s kid,” Qiu Xing answered.

“Are there still people living in your area? I thought only you still lived there,” Lin Chang thought about that dilapidated place and said, “It’s practically an urban village now, right?”

“Just eat and be quiet. Your mouth is too loose,” Sister-in-law Lin reached from behind and slapped the back of Lin Chang’s neck, then went inside to get beer.

Lin Chang shrank his neck. After his mother left, he said quietly to Qiu Xing, “She’s quite pretty.”

Qiu Xing could no longer remember what Lin Yiran looked like.

In these years of tumbling around on highways, living in a daze, neither human nor ghost, his mind could remember nothing besides cargo matching, routes, and earning money.

Or perhaps other things simply didn’t enter his mind.

When he returned to his dilapidated home that night, it was again midnight. Qiu Xing glanced at the neighboring courtyard, saw that the main gate was wide open, though the house had no lights on. All the window glass had been smashed, with broken glass scattered throughout the yard.

Like every time, Qiu Xing washed off the dirt from his body with cold water in the courtyard, changed into a pair of shorts, lay down on the bed, and immediately fell asleep.

Tomorrow, there was no need to get up early, a rare day of rest.

But when Qiu Xing was awakened by a scream, the sky had just brightened. The iron gate crashed against the wall with a muffled bang. Qiu Xing opened his eyes, the sudden awakening giving him a headache, his brows knotted into a fierce furrow.

Lin Yiran had already come to check quietly several times. The courtyard had always been empty, with no sign of anyone coming or going. It seemed that after she ran away that day, this group of people had ransacked the yard thoroughly and then left.

She would have to come back sooner or later. All her things were inside—clothes, ID card, bank card, and a broken phone. Even if she didn’t take these, she had to retrieve her document folder; she needed to go to school.

She had to come back once, pack all these things, and then never return.

From then on, in this world, she would no longer have a home.

The moment she saw someone sleeping in the house, Lin Yiran was so frightened that her breath stopped. She immediately halted, turned around, and retreated.

However, the person had already awakened and, seeing her, immediately jumped up. Lin Yiran fled in panic.

The person, wearing only underwear and cursing, chased after her barefoot. This terrified Lin Yiran, draining the color from her face.

“You’re still running?! Let’s see where you can run to!”

Lin Yiran had just stepped out of the main gate when she was caught up to. The person behind her grabbed her hair and forcefully pushed her to the side. Lin Yiran screamed as she crashed into the iron gate, her face immediately scraped by the rusted, cracked iron sheet.

“If your father won’t come back, you can’t leave either. Come, let me have a good talk with you!”

The man’s gaze wandered brazenly over Lin Yiran, his words “have a talk” sending chills down one’s spine.

Lin Yiran used all her strength to struggle, but couldn’t break free from a burly adult man. The man dragged her into the courtyard by her hair. Lin Yiran screamed in despair.

In the moment when her hair became too loose to grab and he switched to grabbing her collar, Lin Yiran unzipped her school uniform jacket, ducked down, and escaped, turning to run.

The man was hindered by the school uniform in his hand, and Lin Yiran had already run out of the courtyard.

Qiu Xing, with a gloomy face from not sleeping well, had just come out from the neighboring gate. Lin Yiran ran straight into him. Qiu Xing reflexively raised his arm. Lin Yiran looked up, saw it was him, called out, and hid behind him.

Lin Yiran tightly gripped Qiu Xing’s tank top, clutching it in panic, crying and saying, “Help me, help me—”

The man in underwear had also chased out, looking somewhat surprised to see Qiu Xing.

Qiu Xing’s tank top was gripped so tightly by Lin Yiran that the collar was pressing against his neck. He pulled it forward, and with a grim face asked the man in front, “Are you finished or not?”

The man was also confused, not knowing where Qiu Xing had come from, and asked him, “Who are you?”

“Her father owes you money. Go find her father. Picking on a young girl is shameless.” Qiu Xing picked up an iron rod from the doorway and struck the door forcefully. The sound made one’s heart numb.

“Get lost,” Qiu Xing said, looking at the man. “You can’t beat me. Go get your accomplices.”