Chapter 16

Out of Kerosene, Let’s Sleep Together

Outside the bathroom door, Jiang Yuan covered her face with her small hands, her mind replaying the term of endearment she had just heard.

“What did Lin Senmu mean just now? Why did he call me ‘bao’? And he said it twice!”

“Was he trying to call me ‘baobao’ but deliberately split it?”

From their first meeting to their current interactions, Jiang Yuan actually had a lot of affection for Lin Senmu. He was also the only boy she had ever had physical contact with.

But one was from Jiangnan, and the other was far away in Xiangchu. Even though they could see each other when they woke up and before they went to sleep, the trip would eventually come to an end.

If it weren’t for these reasons, Jiang Yuan probably wouldn’t have restrained her budding feelings.

She was afraid that if she acted impulsively, it would be like a moth flying into a flame, leading to tears and the regret of not being able to hug each other through a phone screen.

At the same age, girls always think more deeply than boys.

“Ah, if only Lin Senmu were from the same place as me!”

Jiang Yuan lay on the double bed, staring blankly at the car roof.

Not long after, she heard the sound of the door lock and saw Lin Senmu come out and enter the bathroom, intending to wash her underwear.

But once inside the bathroom, Jiang Yuan looked around and widened her eyes, “Where are my clothes?”

She quickly ran out and happened to see Lin Senmu hanging her pants by the window!

“Ah!”

“Lin Senmu, stop!”

Jiang Yuan’s face turned crimson, and she rushed over in a flash, snatching her things away.

“What’s wrong?”

Lin Senmu looked completely confused.

“How could you take a girl’s things?”

Jiang Yuan glared at him, both embarrassed and anxious.

“I washed them for you!”

Lin Senmu pointed to Jiang Yuan’s two-piece set.

“You, you, you…”

Only after being reminded did Jiang Yuan realize that Lin Senmu had washed them clean, but who asked him to wash them!

“You washed them twice for me, so I washed them once for you. My Chinese teacher taught me that there should be give and take in life!”

Lin Senmu smiled innocently, like an honest person who wouldn’t let others suffer.

“Ah, this!”

Yuan Yuan had no retort and hated Lin Senmu’s Chinese teacher.

“Give me the socks too, don’t you hang them!”

Jiang Yuan snatched her white socks back.

After hanging the clothes by the car window, Jiang Yuan casually said, “Lin Senmu, did you do anything bad in there just now?”

“No.”

Lin Senmu, caught off guard, instinctively replied.

“Oh.”

Hearing his immediate response, Jiang Yuan let out a long sigh of relief. She had suddenly thought of this, and the more she thought about it, the more her mind wandered, and she couldn’t help but test Lin Senmu.

As expected, Lin Senmu definitely wouldn’t be that kind of person.

Lin Senmu caught the implication and pretended to be heartbroken, shouting, “Wow, Jiang Yuan, you actually don’t trust me!”

“No, I trust you a lot!”

Jiang Yuan stuck out her tongue, secretly blaming herself for doubting Lin Senmu!

Lin Senmu suddenly grinned mischievously, “Not this time, but after your reminder, who knows about next time.”

Jiang Yuan slapped him and snorted, “There won’t be a next time, you won’t touch my things tomorrow.”

“You’re not allowed to touch my socks either.”

Lin Senmu continued to tease.

“Do you think I really wanted to wash them for you?”

Jiang Yuan was annoyed.

“Wasn’t it? The first two times you washed them without even asking, did you do anything in there?”

Lin Senmu taunted her.

“Lin Senmu, you’re despicable, I’m going to hit you!”

Jiang Yuan pounced on him and bit his arm with a growl.

“Huh? Why aren’t you following the usual script? We agreed to fight, but you ended up biting me?”

Lin Senmu held Jiang Yuan’s small head and pushed her away.

“Hmph, mind your own business!”

The two of them bickered as usual for a while.

For the rest of the night, Jiang Yuan continued to lie in bed watching dramas. After spending the night together and waking up unscathed, she felt increasingly at ease with Lin Senmu and had mostly let her guard down.

Lin Senmu, lying on the overhead bed in the van, checked if the Martian Old Thief had any updates.

Finding that there were still no updates, he had nothing to do but play games.

Today, he glanced in Jiang Yuan’s direction less frequently. After all, spending so much time together had given him a bit more resistance to the girl’s beauty.

The night grew deeper.

The interior of the van was pitch black, with only a beam of moonlight shining through the skylight, faintly illuminating the boy sleeping peacefully on the overhead bed.

The girl on the double bed was not a quiet sleeper. Drool hung from the corner of her mouth, and the thin summer blanket had been kicked to the floor by her.

She turned over, grabbed the pillow from her neck, and hugged it, her small hands fidgeting with it.

“Lin Senmu, don’t come over!”

“Lin Senmu, you can’t!”

“Nonsense, Yuan Yuan is definitely not small!”

Jiang Yuan’s sleep-talking skills were on full display.

Unfortunately, Lin Senmu was sound asleep and completely unaware. Otherwise, he would have immediately recorded and saved it.

The van’s air conditioner blew out warm air.

In some parts of the western regions, the weather was very hot during the day but extremely cold at night.

Suddenly, the van’s engine died.

Before long, Jiang Yuan on the double bed was shivering from the cold, and Lin Senmu on the overhead bed had curled up into a ball.

Soon, both of them woke up.

Jiang Yuan rubbed her arms and then her hands, “What’s going on, Lin Senmu? I’m so cold!”

Lin Senmu rubbed his sleepy eyes and went to the driver’s seat to check the situation. He said with a headache, “Ah, we’re out of gas. The van automatically shut off, and the heater stopped too!”

“What should we do? How will we leave tomorrow?”

Whenever faced with such sudden situations, Jiang Yuan always relied on Lin Senmu by her side.

“Don’t worry. When it’s light, I’ll contact rescue services to bring us some gas.”

Lin Senmu comforted her.

He had thought about handling it now, but the surrounding area was too vast, and he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to describe the location clearly.

Besides, it was already 4 a.m., and unless it was a special emergency, it would be rude to wake someone up from their sleep.

“Oh,” Jiang Yuan said obediently.

“My bad, I didn’t pay attention to the fuel level earlier.”

Lin Senmu felt a bit apologetic.

He had driven a long distance today and walked a lot at the scenic spots. After returning to the van from Wood Lake, he was exhausted and forgot to check the fuel tank.

He didn’t have much experience; it was his first road trip.

“It’s okay,” Jiang Yuan said as she got back into bed, wrapping herself in the thin blanket.

Lin Senmu watched her yawn repeatedly, then took his own thin blanket from the overhead bed and laid it over Jiang Yuan’s blanket. “You should sleep now. Two blankets should keep you warm!”

Jiang Yuan didn’t lie down immediately and asked, “What about you?”

“I’ll stay up until dawn!”

Lin Senmu took out his travel bag, which contained a sun-protective jacket. He found it and put it on.

This was the same sun-protective jacket Jiang Yuan had worn when the train ran out of water!

Jiang Yuan silently lay down on the bed. She closed her eyes but soon opened them again.

She quietly glanced at the boy playing with his phone at the dining table, noticing that Lin Senmu kept rubbing his arms and legs, seemingly freezing.

Would Lin Senmu catch a cold from the chill?

With this thought, the hesitation in Jiang Yuan’s eyes vanished. Biting her lip, she whispered, “Lin Senmu, come and sleep on the bed.”