At six in the morning, Qiu Xing was already on the highway.

He was still heading south to unload the last half of his truck at the final destination, then fill up the entire truck again before driving straight back without any more cargo transfers along the way.

Qiu Xing never drove with an empty truck, nor did he have to wait at freight stations for assigned shipments like other truck drivers, some of whom waited ten to fifteen days just for a short haul. Qiu Xing never lacked cargo. He had several regular clients and fixed routes that rarely changed.

This was why Qiu Xing kept his two most worn-out trucks instead of selling them. He drove one himself and hired two drivers for the other.

These were once his father’s best freight routes. His father had built everything from nothing with these routes, expanding from one truck to two, three, then ten, eventually establishing a transport company and then a factory.

When his father eventually lost everything he had earned, Qiu Xing kept nothing except these two nearly worthless, decommissioned trucks.

His phone rang beside him. Qiu Xing glanced at it—it was Zhang Quan, the driver of the other truck.

Qiu Xing answered, “Hello, Xiao Quan?”

Zhang Quan said something on the other end, but his voice was soft against the wind noise, and Qiu Xing couldn’t hear clearly.

“What did you say?” Qiu Xing asked.

Zhang Quan raised his voice a bit: “Brother Qiu, the fuel’s been stolen.”

Qiu Xing’s voice remained calm as he asked, “When did it happen?”

“This morning when we tried to start the truck, we saw there was no fuel.” Zhang Quan explained nervously, “Hui drove most of yesterday, so I thought he should rest. I let him stay at the service area last night. But I didn’t go inside! I slept in the truck. I even got out to check around midnight, but I might have fallen into deep sleep near dawn. I was too tired, Brother Qiu.”

Qiu Xing didn’t want to say much. After a few seconds of silence, he said, “I understand.”

“Brother Qiu, don’t be angry. I’ll be more careful next time. I just sleep too deeply. I’m sorry,” Zhang Quan promised over the phone. “I guarantee it won’t happen again.”

Qiu Xing laughed silently with mockery and said, “Your guarantee is worthless.”

Zhang Quan apologized again: “I’m sorry, Brother Qiu.”

Qiu Xing asked, “Still at the service area?”

“Yes, I wanted to ask if we should refuel here?” Zhang Quan asked.

“How else would you continue?” Qiu Xing said. “Put in five hundred yuan worth at the service area. That’ll get you to Bazhou. When you reach Bazhou, go to Xiao Tian to refuel. I’ll call him to set aside fuel for you.”

“Got it. Thank you, Brother Qiu.” Zhang Quan repeatedly agreed.

Qiu Xing hung up and tossed his phone aside.

Long-haul driving was grueling work, which was why others said Qiu Xing was trading his life for money. There were many “rats” on the road who stole fuel, batteries, and cargo. That’s why Qiu Xing never slept in a room at the service areas even when he parked his truck there.

Someone always needed to be with the truck. Any sound meant immediately checking outside, or something would likely be stolen.

Qiu Xing had lived in his truck for three years and never slept through the night. He got up to check at every sound, and he’d never had anything stolen.

The other truck had gone through several drivers, and something was stolen every few trips. Qiu Xing said he would deduct anything stolen from their wages, but in practice, a half tank of fuel cost over a thousand yuan, and if he made such deductions, the drivers would quit.

Qiu Xing’s trucks were difficult to drive. There was too much work and almost no time to rest at home, so drivers were reluctant to work for him. So despite Qiu Xing’s bad temper, he couldn’t afford to make deductions whenever he wanted or fire people at will.

*

Lin Yiran woke up in her room. She had only fallen into deep sleep near dawn, having woken up repeatedly throughout the first half of the night.

After waking, she didn’t get up immediately but lay with her eyes closed for a while.

Another new day.

Less than two months before she would start school.

After washing up, Lin Yiran shouldered her bag and went downstairs. She planned to buy some bread at the nearby bakery and then go to the bookstore.

The landlord uncle was eating noodles downstairs and saw her coming down. “Going out, young lady?” he asked.

“Good morning, Uncle,” Lin Yiran smiled politely. “I’m going out for a while.”

“It’s going to rain today. You’d better take an umbrella,” the landlord said.

“All right, thank you, Uncle.” Lin Yiran said goodbye to the landlord and left the guesthouse.

She needed to take a bus to the bookstore. Lin Yiran had previously exchanged money for small change at the market to make bus fare easier.

There were no schools on this route, so the morning bus wasn’t crowded. Lin Yiran sat in the back, swaying with the rhythm of the moving bus.

The bus passed a river flowing through the city. The rainy season had made the water abundant, flowing steadily and bringing vibrant life to this ancient city.

Lin Yiran took out her old phone to take a photo, feeling that this city was quiet and stable.

*

The relatively stable days continued for a while. Lin Yiran went to the bookstore during the day and returned to her small room at night. The nights were harder to endure than the days. During the day, she was among people, surrounded by safety everywhere she looked, but at night felt nowhere safe.

One evening, a family set up a grill for a barbecue on the platform outside her window. They ate and drank, even stringing up lights for their nighttime gathering.

Shadows constantly moved outside her window. Lin Yiran kept her room dark, ensuring it appeared unlit from outside, until the gathering outside dispersed. Only then did she go to the bathroom to shower, and even afterward, she dressed completely. She always made sure she could leave any place at a moment’s notice.

Only after getting fully dressed did she return to the bathroom to dry her hair. The hair dryer she bought at the general store was the cheapest one—it made a loud noise when turned on, but produced little air, and emitted a slight burning smell when used for too long.

Lin Yiran had long, thick hair, so drying it took quite a while, but worried about the dryer’s high temperature, she only dried it halfway.

After putting away the hair dryer and leaving the bathroom, Lin Yiran’s footsteps suddenly halted. She stared fixedly at the window—the lights from the family’s barbecue hadn’t been taken down yet, so there was still light outside. At this moment, there was a human-shaped shadow near the window, very close to it.

Lin Yiran stood at the bathroom door, stopping all movement, even holding her breath.

She stared anxiously at the window, watching the silhouette swaying slightly, moving back and forth.

Lin Yiran’s entire body trembled. Her phone was by the bed, her backpack on a chair by the door.

She took several deep breaths, lightened her footsteps, and moved along the wall step by step. When she was very close to the window, she suddenly rushed forward and yanked the curtain open. The old curtain rod and iron rings made a harsh scraping sound—

Despite being mentally prepared, seeing someone there when she pulled the curtain open made Lin Yiran’s heart lurch violently and then begin to pound frantically.

The person outside was startled too, shouting “Ah!” and jumping back two large steps.

It was a chubby boy who looked about twelve or thirteen with a short, flat haircut. Before Lin Yiran pulled the curtain open, he had been slightly bent over, peering through the narrow gap in the curtains.

He seemed surprised that there was someone in the room. After seeing Lin Yiran, he froze for a few seconds, then turned and ran away, taking with him the lights that the family had hung up earlier.

Even though it was just a boy from next door, and perhaps he had no malicious intent—only a child’s curiosity about unknown tenants—this incident still left Lin Yiran unable to close her eyes for the entire night.

She kept staring in the direction of the window, with every rustle making her nerves tense.

This simple and old small room was enough to shelter her, but barely. Lin Yiran looked at the completely curtained window in the darkness, her eyes dry, her heartbeat never returning to normal.

Having not slept at all during the night, Lin Yiran didn’t go to the bookstore the next day, nor did she go out. She chose to sleep during the day and didn’t even eat anything.

Her tense nerves never relaxed. In her shallow sleep, Lin Yiran had many fragmented dreams. In her dreams, she was always panicked, always hiding or running desperately.

She didn’t go out all day, just wrapped herself in the blanket, alternating between sleeping and waking.

After dark, as she dozed and dreamed fitfully, the short sound of a text message woke Lin Yiran with a start.

The panic from her nightmare hadn’t yet dissipated. Lin Yiran lay with her eyes open for a long while before reaching for her phone. She thought it would be spam, but when she opened it, it wasn’t.

[Are you in Linzhou?]

Having just woken up, her thoughts weren’t very clear. Since only Qiu Xing knew her number, Lin Yiran initially thought this was from him.

Her finger was poised over the keyboard, about to reply, but after becoming more alert, she stopped.

This wasn’t Qiu Xing’s number, and Qiu Xing wouldn’t ask her like this.

At that moment, another message came through.

Lin Yiran suddenly felt that she hadn’t actually woken up from her previous nightmare but had directly switched to another one.

—The message contained her current address.

Precise down to the name of this guesthouse on this street.

Lin Yiran’s face turned pale, and her fingers holding the phone trembled.

Fear swept over her, leaving her rigid as she lay on her side, unable to move.

She felt like a corpse.

The old small room was cramped and crowded, yet somehow empty. Lin Yiran felt both like a corpse and like a mouse hiding in a hole.

If the message she had seen was real, if everything at this moment was real, if this wasn’t a dream—

Then she feared both darkness and daylight.

*

Qiu Xing arrived at the freight station after dark and was talking with the client.

The client was his father’s old friend who had always treated Qiu Xing well. When talking to them, Qiu Xing always smiled, very different from his usual self, seeming quite clever—only then did he somewhat resemble someone in his early twenties.

These uncles often said he was smarter than his father. His father had been stubborn and headstrong in his youth, with a temper that made him speak harshly at times.

Unlike Qiu Xing, who was so likable.

“Uncle De, last time you cheated me out of six tons. Don’t pretend I don’t know,” Qiu Xing said, holding an unlit cigarette the client had offered him between his lips.

“Who cheated you?” The other man shook his head in denial.

“I know the tonnage, Uncle. Don’t hide it from me. I nearly got fined on the highway. I had to go over the scales three times to lighten the load by two and a half tons,” Qiu Xing sounded quite aggrieved. “You’re my uncle, if you want to cheat me, just cheat me, but let me know first! I wasn’t prepared. If I’d been fined, I would have driven for days for nothing.”

“Impossible, absolutely not,” the client exhaled smoke, smiling.

“Still denying it?” Qiu Xing also smiled, bumping the other’s shoulder. “I didn’t call you at the time—did you think your nephew wouldn’t know? Don’t you know whether your nephew has a count when he crosses the scales?”

The other man stopped talking, just chuckling.

Qiu Xing asked him: “How much this time?”

“Thirty-three and a half tons,” the man said.

“The actual weight? Don’t let me cross the scales and find it’s forty,” Qiu Xing said.

The client nodded with a smile: “Actual weight.”

Qiu Xing bumped him again and said, “I don’t believe you. There must be some padding. Calculate it as thirty-five for me.”

“When I say actual weight, it’s actual weight. There’s no padding this time.”

Qiu Xing started acting unreasonably: “Then you cheated me out of six tons last time. You’ve got such a big business, and you’re cheating your nephew? Thirty-five, thirty-five.”

The other man bit his cigarette without speaking, just smiling.

Qiu Xing turned and called out to someone on the other side: “Accountant Wang, thirty-five tons! Will you pay me or will the client pay me?”

Accountant Wang called back: “I’ll pay!”

Qiu Xing emphasized: “Thirty-five tons!”

Accountant Wang shouted again to indicate he’d heard.

Uncle De laughed and cursed him from the side: “You little rascal, never letting yourself lose even a bit!”

His phone vibrated in his pocket while Qiu Xing was still bantering with Uncle De. He casually took it out and glanced at it.

Lin Xiaozhou: [Qiu Xing, is this you?]

Followed by a string of numbers.

Qiu Xing replied: [No.]

Lin Yiran didn’t reply again. Qiu Xing held his phone casually and continued talking with Uncle De.

Uncle De asked how much he still owed, and Qiu Xing said not much.

Uncle De said: “I may cheat you a little, but if you’re really in trouble, tell Uncle, and I’ll help you out. Owing someone is owing someone, but if you owe me, I’ll just deduct it slowly from your freight charges.”

“Thank you, Uncle.” Qiu Xing smiled slightly and said, “It’s almost paid off. I don’t need it now, but I’ll tell you when I really can’t manage.”

“Back when I was in trouble, begging everyone for help, your father gave me thirty thousand,” Uncle De threw his cigarette butt on the ground and crushed it. “Those thirty thousand helped me recover. Otherwise, I might have sold the factory then.”

Qiu Xing knew about this. Because of this, for many years, whether it was Qiu Xing’s father’s transport company or now Qiu Xing himself, the freight charges Uncle De paid were much higher than the normal price, and he never delayed payment. Using Qiu Xing’s truck cost more than using others’, but Uncle De still kept the business for him. After all, he felt secure with Qiu Xing—not just anyone’s truck could be trusted with several hundred thousand worth of goods.

Uncle De invited Qiu Xing to have dinner at his home and stay overnight, leaving in the morning. Qiu Xing didn’t refuse, saying he was already hungry.

After Uncle De went to ask his wife to prepare dinner, Qiu Xing remembered and sent another message to Lin Yiran.

Qiu Xing: [What’s wrong?]