(1)
The blue sedan, still running, was like a movable iron plate, heating up the already-warm breeze and making one feel like a roast duck in a glass display case—
A few more minutes and you’d be done.
Ye Ronghua had half his body inside the trunk, shifting the suitcase around to squeeze it next to the computer tower wrapped in a black plastic bag. He gave it a few test shakes to make sure it wouldn’t tip over, then crawled back out, drenched in sweat.
“Ha… this should do it. Anything else?”
“I don’t think so…” An Jing scanned the luggage in the trunk with some uncertainty, fanning herself with her hand. “That’s it. Everything’s here.”
“Alright, let’s get in the car.” Ye Ronghua wiped the sweat off his forehead. “It’s crazy hot today, man. Let’s get back in and blast the AC.”
“It’s about ninety-five degrees or so.” An Jing pulled open the door and plopped into the passenger seat. “Cousin, roughly how long is the drive?”
“About four hours or so. Take a nap—you’ll be there when you wake up. If you need to use the bathroom along the way, just tell me and I’ll stop at a service area.” Ye Ronghua slammed the door shut, making the whole car shake. “Before I got a car, I couldn’t wait to drive one. Now that I’ve had my fill, sitting down for a long trip like this just makes me drowsy…”
An Jing buckled her seatbelt and glanced at the center console, seemingly unable to find a spot for cassette tapes or CDs. “If you’re tired, pull over at a service area and sleep, cousin. I’m not ready to die yet.”
“Man, the car hasn’t even started moving and you’re already saying stuff like that!” Ye Ronghua rolled his eyes. “Relax, I’ll be fine driving. No problem at all.”
“Just don’t be one of those people whose eyes are open but who’s actually asleep.” She gave him a sidelong glance. “Want some coffee to wake you up?”
“Coffee? It doesn’t do much for me. I already had a can and I’m still sleepy.” Ye Ronghua let out several yawns in a row as he spoke. “Who even said this stuff wakes you up anyway?”
“I think it’s useless too—it just makes me sleepier.” An Jing seemed to catch the yawns from him and followed suit. “By the way, cousin, how come there’s no place to put a disc in this car?”
“Heh heh, this is the top trim, alright.” At this, Ye Ronghua perked right up. “Mine reads memory cards directly, and you can even plug in a USB drive. See, there’s a screen right here—this thing is awesome. It has satellite navigation! Updating the maps is a bit pricey, but my car gets free map updates for two years. I just head to the 4S shop every few months to update it.”
“Wow, I was wondering if that was just a big screen, but it actually is one.”
“The buttons next to it control the screen options. Not only can you listen to music and look at maps, you can even watch movies. If you’re bored, I can put one on for you.”
“Really?”
“Of course. Let me see… I’ve only got two movies on this card right now—” The cousin pressed a few buttons next to the screen and switched to the movie playback interface. “Oh, the previous file got corrupted so I deleted it. Just one now. Initial D. Seen it?”
“I’ve seen it, but I wouldn’t mind watching it again.” Thinking about how this was Zhu Ying’s favorite movie, An Jing felt a sense of fondness for it. “Won’t it distract you from driving?”
“Nah, I just listen to the audio. I’ve watched this one several times already.” Ye Ronghua shook his head, pressed a few more buttons to start the movie. The small screen was filled with grain, its quality far worse than An Jing’s monitor—felt about on par with one of those cheap MP5 players.
But it was still something new, and it made you curious enough to watch for a while.
“How is it?” Ye Ronghua pressed the gas and slowly merged onto the provincial road. “Way better than Huihui’s cassette player thing, right?”
“It’s totally high-tech. But Huihui Jie’s cassette player is pretty interesting too. I love the sound of the tape opening and closing.”
“Those cars are outdated. Old-school, you know?”
“Cousin Ronghua, I never noticed before, but you’re a bit vain, aren’t you?”
“Cough, what are you talking about? Just teasing.” Ye Ronghua suddenly felt a little defensive. “I did spend a good chunk of money on this car, so I want to show it off a little, alright?”
“This car really is way more comfortable than Huihui Jie’s.”
“Heh heh, and it’s blue—way more special than those white or black cars. I had to wait a full two weeks extra just to get this color.”
“Too bad the inside isn’t blue.”
“A blue interior? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a car like that… They’re usually gray, black, or brown.”
“Is that so? I feel like I’ve seen some cars with red seats.”
“Those are aftermarket racing seats…”
Once they started talking about cars, even with the big age gap between them, there was plenty to chat about. Ye Ronghua’s spit was flying everywhere, and he got especially excited talking about high-end sports cars. He even brought up that Parking Wars game and asked if An Jing played it.
When An Jing said she did, the topic shifted from cars to recent web games.
The cousin spent most of his workday sitting in front of a computer, and in his spare time, he’d leave web games running in the background, so he played way more than An Jing did. Some of them sounded pretty fun—like that game where you manage a nightclub, and another one where you could auto-battle monsters, similar to Legend, except you didn’t even need to download a client.
“Sometimes I log in to collect money, then buy some new stuff and plan things out—these management games are all pretty much the same, but they’re especially fun to play during work hours. Once I get home, I can’t even be bothered to open them. Haha, they’re just for killing time.” Ye Ronghua slowly came to a stop at a red light up ahead and glanced sideways at An Jing in the passenger seat. “We’ll hit the highway soon. Hm…? Fell asleep? Tsk… this kid, his hair’s getting longer and longer. How’s he starting to look more and more like a girl?”
(2)
On the open highway, passengers get sleepy—and the driver gets even sleepier. After just a hundred kilometers, Ye Ronghua had already yawned seven or eight times, and his eyes could barely stay open.
As for An Jing beside him, she was sleeping soundly, her head resting near the AC vent, even letting out soft snores.
“An Jing? An Jing?”
“Uh…?”
“Get up and use the bathroom. I’m stopping at a service area to rest anyway.” Ye Ronghua opened the door and stretched, and the hot air immediately rushed in, making the cabin feel much stuffier.
“Ah… okay.” An Jing nodded and groggily got out of the car. The blazing sun immediately made her feel like she was about to melt, and she leaned back, retreating into the car.
“What are you doing?”
“So hot—”
“Haha, it’s just a bathroom break. If you don’t go now, it’ll be a pain if you have to go halfway—the service areas are pretty far apart.”
“Ah… fine.”
“By the way, uh… is it okay for you to go into the men’s restroom looking like that?”
“Huh—?” Even though she really was a genuine girl now, An Jing hadn’t told her cousin about that yet. So she widened her eyes and shouted with displeasure, “What do you mean by that, cousin?!”
“I’m just saying, are you sure it’s fine? I mean, you look completely like a girl—that casual outfit makes you look just like one too.”
“Well, I can’t exactly waltz into the women’s restroom, can I?”
“That’s true, that’d be a bit inappropriate. Let’s go then.”
It wasn’t a very busy service area.
A few buses were parked in the lot, and the restroom entrance was quiet and empty inside. Only a handful of men were relieving themselves.
An Jing walked right in, just like she did at school.
The other men cast her puzzled looks, and a few even ended up peeing on their own hands. She, meanwhile, walked calmly into the stall next to them.
A man who had just followed her in stepped back out, checking several times to confirm it was indeed the men’s restroom before walking back in with a deeply confused expression.
Thinking about how, once she moved to the province capital, she’d be able to walk into the women’s restroom openly, a strange feeling stirred in An Jing’s heart.
That feeling was complicated, but the most important thing was that there was a hint of anticipation in it.
That anticipation wasn’t just about it being fun—it felt almost like stepping into a church to receive a sacred baptism… but thinking about it, it was just a bathroom. She had no idea where such a thought came from.
“Do I have to purify my heart to be worthy of being a girl? But what does that have to do with a bathroom? That thing isn’t clean at all…” An Jing locked the stall door and slowly squatted down. “Besides, girls aren’t beings untouched by the filth of the world either—physically or mentally. Take Awei and Ninth Love, for example. Awei’s heart might even be purer, even if he’s always so lecherous…”
An Jing shook her head, tossing out these strange thoughts that had somehow popped into her head.
When she came out after finishing up, the same scene played out again.
The men wore awkward expressions, and a few even looked somewhat apologetic.
An Jing found it amusing and couldn’t help but look around a little longer, which made two grown men bolt out of there in a panic, not even bothering to shake off properly.
As if they were the ones who had walked into the wrong place.
When An Jing stepped out, she saw her cousin washing his face at the sink by the entrance, his hair damp.
“All done?”
“Yeah. Cousin, your clothes are wet.”
“It’s fine. It’s hot out, they’ll dry in no time. Mainly just trying to wake myself up. Let’s grab a couple of cold drinks. What do you want?”
“Cola?”
“Not a very creative answer.”
“Tsk, so what are you having?”
“Snow Sprite.” The cousin said it with a perfectly straight face.
An Jing’s eyes nearly rolled to the back of her head. “Ahh, what a truly creative answer.”
“Haha…”