By the roadside, the northern wind howled fiercely. It was biting, and the bare branches of trees stood in twisted shapes like grimacing faces. Yet on the hill, the moon shone bright like a polished mirror. The clear, silver-white moonlight spread across the layered ridges as if it had been soaked in icy water. Behind Xiang Yuan lay the vast Gobi Desert, and beside her stood two men as still and cold as ice sculptures.

Ten minutes later, the car arrived.

After confirming his number with the driver, Gao Leng got into the front passenger seat without a word.

Xiang Yuan, whose seat had just been taken, froze for a moment. Then, quick-eyed and quick-handed, she stretched out her leg to block the door and gritted her teeth as she asked in a low voice, “Why are you stealing my seat?”

Gao Leng ignored her and asked the driver calmly, “Is this her seat?”

The driver, showing no courtesy, replied, “Nope.”

Gao Leng raised his eyebrows, said nothing more, and shut the door. But just before it closed, he added expressionlessly while holding the handle, “Didn’t you just say you thought my boss was handsome and kind of liked him?” Then he spread his hands in a mock invitation. “Come on, VIP golden seat, it’s all yours.”

“……”

The black Nissan Teana cruised steadily onto the road. Scenery blurred as they sped along. Gao Leng, feeling irritated, fiddled with his phone for a few minutes before locking the screen with a snap. Propping his head on his hand, he stared out the window, reflecting on whether he was a textbook case of ‘blaming the Earth’s gravity for constipation^[1]blaming external forces or making absurd excuses for one’s own inability or failure’.

Also, the boss’s agreement to help earlier was really just to cover Gao Leng’s ass.

Xu Yanshi had a sharp tongue. He spoke without holding back and had offended quite a few people. Friends were few, but those he genuinely treated as friends, he often looked after— though not always in a way others could easily understand.

Was he warm?

Yes.

His warmth was the kind that ordinary people probably couldn’t comprehend. In Gao Leng’s team, they were used to being roasted by the boss. So when he occasionally asked, ‘Have you eaten?’ it felt like rare apocalyptic-level concern from Voldemort himself.

The two of them had been college classmates, with a bond that ran deep. Though Xu Yanshi never said much, Gao Leng knew he was slow to learn, not particularly bright, and if it hadn’t been for the boss covering for him behind the scenes, there was no way he could’ve made it this far.

Back in university, they hadn’t gotten along particularly well. Xu Yanshi rarely interacted with other classmates. Gao Leng remembered Xu Yanshi had been preparing for grad school back then, practically living in the library. His academic performance was so stellar that even the notoriously strict surveying professor, nicknamed ‘Iron Judge Bao^[2]Bao Zheng; a strict and upright historical judge’, would praise him to anyone who would listen, calling him his prized student.

Gao Leng never expected the two of them would end up interning at the same company— Weilin Electronics.

Weilin Electronics specializes in automotive electronics like car navigation, positioning, and trackers. It had once been a big name in the industry. Now, GPS has all but monopolized the market. But thanks to Weilin’s early entry and strong reputation, it remained one of the few companies still collaborating with China’s Beidou satellite system.

However, in recent years, the smart automotive electronics market had grown fiercely competitive. Weilin’s market share had dropped significantly. Last year, even their legacy products declined in sales. Headquarters had issued a warning. If the new product this year didn’t show improvement, one of the branch offices would be shut down. The situation was dire.

For students in surveying like them, unless they pursued graduate school, those with mediocre grades usually couldn’t endure the harsh fieldwork surveying required and often switched to programming instead. IT companies were many and varied, and jobs in that field were easier to find. So Gao Leng landing that internship had been pure luck— a blind cat bumping into a dead mouse.

He never would have guessed that Xu Yanshi also ended up at Weilin.

With his qualifications, Xu Yanshi could have easily gone to grad school and pursued a high-level research path in satellite positioning. That would’ve been way more prestigious.

So when Gao Leng saw him on reporting day, his jaw nearly hit the floor. The legendary student of the Wuhan University Surveying Department had become his colleague. At the time, they weren’t close. Gao Leng didn’t dare bother him. He just greeted him nervously and scurried back to his workstation.

Back then, Xu Yanshi, in Gao Leng’s eyes, was a cosmic-level male idol— admirable, distant, and untouchable.

He never imagined that after becoming colleagues, Xu Yanshi wouldn’t actually be that hard to get along with. In fact, once, during a meeting, when Gao Leng got stuck answering a question about an algorithm, Xu Yanshi even helped cover for him, saying, “He didn’t participate in this project, so it’s normal he doesn’t know.”

Their superior, originally just planning to scold a little, blew up after hearing that. He slammed the table so hard it nearly flipped, roaring, “This is his project, and you’re telling me he didn’t participate?!”

“Really? Then I must have remembered wrong.” Xu Yanshi said coldly.

He always wore the same expression, unbothered and unaffected. Occasionally, when their superior got furious enough to yell at him, “Xu Yanshi, shut up! Who’s the boss here, you or me?!”

“Okay.” Xu Yanshi would adjust his thin glasses with his middle finger— an elegant, silent gesture of rebellion.

That was when Gao Leng became a true fan. Now that was what it meant to be dark and sharp. A true king.

Whenever Gao Leng got upset and sulked, he always ended up shamelessly patching things up himself. Most of the time, Xu Yanshi didn’t even know why he was mad. But even a fool could tell this time that Gao Leng was clearly throwing a tantrum. And even if Xu Yanshi had been in the wrong, he wasn’t the kind to coax anyone. Besides, Gao Leng really was acting like a nagging little girl. Let him stew in the front seat for a while.

So the journey continued in silence, with stars flickering above.

……

In the back seat, Xiang Yuan wrapped herself tightly. The bow on her hood had been tied into a dead knot, which she pulled even tighter, and then, still uneasy, she tied another knot on top of it.

Seeing her act like she was about to be assaulted, Xu Yanshi turned his head away with a blank expression. His lips tugged into a faint, mocking smirk.

It was another one of his deathly sarcastic reactions……

Young Xu Chengli kept a cold face from beginning to end, watching an animated movie on his iPad— the English version. It looked like 《The Lion King》 or something similar, with realistic special effects and stunning visuals.

Xiang Yuan stared for a while before casually asking, “What movie is that?”

Xu Chengli answered without hesitation, “《Peppa Pig》”

Who are you trying to fool?  Xiang Yuan rolled her eyes.  I know what that pig looks like.

Then she suddenly remembered that Xu Yanshi had been good at English. Back in high school, there had been a legendary group of top students in their year who often represented the school in competitions and won awards. Xu Yanshi had been one of them. He was like a permanent fixture in the school’s trophy display case. In the narrow, shabby cabinet, it was always filled with his colorful award certificates.

Sometimes, girls from other schools would come to take exams. When they saw his handsome, serious face in the case, they would squeal with excitement and stomp their feet while whispering, fangirling like crazy.

“Xu Yanshi is from No. 6 High? I thought he was from No. 3! With grades like that, why didn’t he go to No. 3 High?! Last time he gave a speech, even the foreign teacher from the language school applauded and said his pronunciation was amazing. Does he have a girlfriend?”

Back then, Xiang Yuan had explained, “He’s a friend of my boyfriend’s. We’re not that close.” And that had been true.

But her classmate had been completely lacking in morals, nudging her shoulder with a suggestive look. “You can always change boyfriends. This one’s way more attractive than Feng Jun.”

Although Xiang Yuan had smiled and jokingly warned her classmates at the time that she would tell Feng Jun, she had actually felt a bit wistful inside.

After she started dating Feng Jun, Xiang Yuan would occasionally hear Xu Yanshi speaking English on the phone with someone. Although it sounded nice, she still couldn’t help but mock him a little, thinking it was way too pretentious for a high school student.

It wasn’t until later that she found out his mother was Chinese-American, and he had immigrated with his parents when he was just three years old. His Chinese wasn’t very fluent, and he could barely finish a full sentence. Xu Yanshi didn’t seem to get along well with his mother and wasn’t keen on listening either. Sometimes, halfway through a conversation during a meal, he’d get annoyed and simply switch to fluent English.

Back then, she’d thought that with English that good, he could easily work as a translator, or maybe even become a dashing diplomat. Then again, maybe not a diplomat. What if two countries got into a political dispute, and he stood on the sidelines shouting, ‘Go team!’ Besides, being a diplomat was already pretty far removed from ordinary life, and he was already distant enough from it. Better to let him stay a little closer to the human realm. After all, with so many devils in the world already, what difference would one more Xu Yanshi make?

But now, she wondered, what was he doing these days?

Just then, the driver suddenly turned and asked Xiang Yuan, “Miss, the Nanyu Garden you’re headed to, is that on Chunjiang Road?”

Xiang Yuan was caught off guard. The apartment at Nanyu Garden was the last asset her grandfather let her have. Other than that, she was just a broke girl in Lizhou City with less than two thousand yuan in her bank account. The old man had been ruthless, completely cutting off her path forward.

“No.” Xiang Yuan quickly pulled out her phone and checked the address. “It’s on Fushan Road.”

“Fushan Road?” The driver repeated, sounding doubtful. He turned to ask Gao Leng, “Do you know where that is?”

Gao Leng shook his head.

“Then you’d better set up navigation.” The driver said. “The one I’ve got is synced with the system. I can’t change the destination manually.”

“You don’t have an in-car navigation system? My phone’s almost out of battery.” Xiang Yuan said, giving her phone a little shake.

“Who installs that junk? It’s expensive and useless.” The driver grumbled, rummaging through the armrest compartment. He pulled out a wrinkled charging cable and handed it to her. “Plug it in first, and just tell me the directions later.”

Xiang Yuan didn’t want to draw attention to herself, even though Xu Yanshi clearly hadn’t recognized her.

“I’ll open CarPlay for you.” She said. “Just follow the screen. I don’t want to get the directions wrong. I’m not familiar with this area.”

“Sure.”

As Xiang Yuan lowered her head to set up her phone, Gao Leng— silent until now— finally couldn’t help himself. He inexplicably began ranting at the driver, “Actually, in-car navigation systems today do way more than just basic directions. They’ve got intelligent voice assistants, and the positioning is more accurate than phones. You couldn’t find the address earlier because your phone’s app hasn’t been updated. These days, in-car navigation systems update automatically. They’re incredibly convenient.”

“Convenient or not, I’m not installing it. What, you sell cars or something?” The driver gave him a look that practically screamed, ‘Get out of my car.’

Gao Leng shut up and didn’t argue.

He decided it would be better to wait until they reached the destination before righteously educating the driver on what it meant to be a GNSS engineer— even if his current job was nowhere near that title. Still, it was at least a related field.

The words ‘sell cars’ stunned Xiang Yuan. Her fingers paused mid-tap on the screen. No way……

Has Xu Yanshi fallen this far?

No wonder, back at the last class reunion, the folks from Class 9 had said that Xu Yanshi never showed up to any gatherings, not even joining the alumni group chat. They all said he was too aloof, acting like a flower on a high mountain that didn’t deign to mingle with mortals. Some even speculated that he was locked away in a secret lab doing terrifying science experiments or something.

And now…… he was selling cars?

That legendary figure from No. 6 High, once so dazzling, was now like this? The contrast was staggering.

No wonder he avoided his old classmates. He probably couldn’t bear the shame. After all, even those who’d done worse than him academically were now working in prosecutors’ offices or as government officials.

While feeling sorry for him, Xiang Yuan also thought back to the gossip she’d heard from Class 9 and found herself feeling sympathetic. She didn’t even know why she was upset. Her emotions were tangled and hard to explain.

See? That’s what you get for treating me badly back then. Karma’s real, isn’t it?

As that thought crossed her mind, another popped up. She quietly picked up her phone and sent a WeChat message to Xu Yuan.

【I heard Xu Yanshi’s not doing too well these days. It seems like he’s working at a car dealership. Didn’t your brother say he’s thinking of buying a car? Have him check it out, give a little business to an old schoolmate. Just don’t tell him I said anything.】

After sending it, she plugged in the charger and selected the navigation. When the display lit up with the CarPlay interface, the driver suddenly glanced back and asked, “You from Beijing? Here on vacation?”

Xiang Yuan replied honestly, “No. Here for work.”

The driver nodded and didn’t ask further. In a good mood, he hummed a little tune as he drove. Gao Leng sat in the front seat with a taut face, elbows tucked in, looking like he was mad at the world. In the back, Xu Chengli’s animated movie was nearing its end. The man beside him seemed exhausted. He had leaned back and closed his eyes the moment he got in.

Up ahead, a road sign indicated that they were entering Lizhou City. It felt like passing through a city gate. The streets grew livelier, streetlights shone in orderly rows, billboards lined the roads, and tall pagoda trees stood proud. Their straight trunks and the dappled shadows cast by the warm yellow lights fell across the pavement like mottled starlight. Not far ahead, old and new buildings overlapped, row after row standing tall.

The journey was finally drawing to a close.

After tonight, they probably wouldn’t see each other again.

Xiang Yuan quietly turned her head and took in Xu Yanshi beside her. His eyes were closed, and half his face was bathed in the glow of the streetlamp, revealing sharp, handsome features. There was still a trace of his youthful elegance in his brows. His head was tilted slightly back, Adam’s apple prominent, like the tip of a blade in snow— cold and piercing.

As the old saying goes, ‘Beware the perils of beauty.’

Just at that moment, Xiang Yuan’s phone suddenly rang— shrill and jarring. Her heart skipped a beat, and her mind went blank.

Xu Yanshi stirred, opening his eyes slightly and glancing toward her. That was when she snapped out of her daze, snatched up the phone, and answered it in a panic— completely forgetting that her phone was still connected to CarPlay.

Xu Yuan’s voice came through loud and clear, echoing in the car for everyone to hear.

“Xiang Yuan? Does Xu Yanshi really sell cars? That’s kind of tragic. I’ll ask my brother if he wants to change cars. But why are you helping Xu Yanshi, though? Don’t tell me you still have feelings for him?”

“……”

“……”

The end of the world could be no more embarrassing than this.

She might as well jump out of the car.

What was the password to her bank card again?

Did she still have a balance on Ant Credit Pay?

Xiang Yuan was utterly petrified.

And the worst part was, just a moment before, Xu Yanshi had caught her staring at him.

“Hello? Hello? Why aren’t you saying anything?” Xu Yuan was still clueless, dancing at the edge of death.

Xiang Yuan hung up the call and took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to face the situation. Just as she was mustering the courage to speak, she heard a voice beside her. It was cold and distant, yet carrying that unmistakable hint of teasing unique to him.

“Long time no see, Xiang Yuan.”

That Voldemort-level greeting was…… strangely sweet.