The next day, Lin Wenxi told his roommates that he was going to visit a relative in the city and left the dorm. In fact, he did not have any relative here. Before getting to the long-distance coach station, he deliberately took a wrong bus in the city to take a detour as a way of avoiding his friends.

When Lin Wenxi was wandering around in the city, his friends set off together from their university.

Wang Zhengjuan drove a Rolls Royce, carrying Zhou Nannan and Shu Xiaoman. Chen Wanxin’s driver drove a slightly outdated Land Rover, carrying her, Zhang An’an and Wang Xiang. Zheng Kai and Zhao Yuan wore helmets and rode motorcycles that they rented. Now they were roaming beside the two cars like two bodyguards.

Zhao Yuan was surprised when he found out that Chen Wanxin’s driver looked somewhat familiar. He suddenly remembered that this man had worked as a military instructor during the military training, and his name was Luo Yang.

Chen Wanxin looked slightly unhappy all along the way. She had asked Luo Yang to drive a limited-edition Lamborghini to fetch her, but Boss Mo stopped her and told her that her father did not allow her to do that.

There was a Volkswagen in front of them, and its driver seemed to be a novice. It never changed its lane and remained more than 10 meters behind the car in front of itself. As such, it was often overtaken by other cars. Chen Wanxin, who was sitting in the front-passenger seat, could not tolerate following this Volkswagen car anymore. She glared at Luo Yang, Luo Yang smiled embarrassedly and said, “Boss Mo told me to drive you home safely and not to stir up any trouble.”

Chen Wanxin shouted grumpily, “How can you tolerate following such a stupid novice? What a good-for-nothing you are!” She suddenly lifted up her hand and pushed the steering wheel to the left. Luo Yang grumbled and quickly stepped on the brake. Unfortunately, he still failed to avoid a rear-end collision with the car in the front.

The group stopped. They moved their cars, took pictures, and called the traffic police. After quite a long time, they set off toward the long-distance coach station again. Fortunately, they arrived there in time.

After dropping Zhang An’an and Wang Xiang at the station, Chen Wanxin, who lived in the city, casually chatted with Zhao Yuan for a moment and left with Luo Yang. Wang Zhengjuan and Zhou Nannan said that they were going to start a self-driving travel.

“Don’t you need to go home for the Chinese New Year?” asked Shu Xiaoman.

Wang Zhengjuan shook her head affirmatively, and Zhou Nannan seemed hesitant to speak. Zhang An’an looked at them dubiously. She remembered that Zhou Nannan had once told her that the reason she came to the university late was that she had to take care of something in her family. She gently pulled Shu Xiaoman’s coat to give her a hint that she should stop talking now.

Zheng Kai rushed to a coach after casting a quick glance at Chen Wanxin. Zhang An’an, Shu Xiaoman and Gu Xi, who lived in another province, needed to go to the train station next door.

When Wang Xiang was about to leave for the train station together with Zhang An’an, he spotted Lin Wenxi in the waiting room of the coach station. He immediately ran into the room and asked Lin Wenxi, “Is your relative a coach driver or the stationmaster here? Where’s your relative? Ask him or her to come out now.”

In fact, Lin Wenxi was just waiting for his coach here.

“Oh, he has to deal with something urgent, so I have to go home now.” Lin Wenxi said flatly.

“Didn’t you have to inform him before visiting him? How come he suddenly had to deal with something urgent? Even if he did have something urgent, he should’ve called you?” Wang Xiang continued to question Lin Wenxi, trying to force him to admit that he was avoiding his friends deliberately.

“Well, he suddenly died from an acute myocardial infarction.” Lin Wenxi said with a blank expression.

“You—!” Wang Xiang was rendered speechless. He suddenly understood why Zhao Yuan had once sighed that it was just meaningless to argue with Wenxi.

“What a shameless liar you are!” He sighed while thumping his chest and stamping his feet.

Lin Wenxi glanced at Zhang An’an and then said slowly, “Stop whining. This is not the worst. You know what. You’re going to get into a serious trouble very soon.”

“What do you mean?” asked Wang Xiang.

“It’s a secret.”

“Wenxi, you!!” Wang Xiang was fed up with Lin Wenxi’s attitude and really wanted to grab his neck to choke him.

“Within one minute, we can hear someone shouting hysterically at you,” Lin Wenxi smiled and said.

Wang Xiang felt blood rushing to his head. When he was about to get mad, Lin Wenxi added slowly, “Look, An’an looks—really—anxious… Is she late for her train?” It took him half a minute to complete this sentence. Wang Xiang finally realized what Lin Wenxi was talking about and looked back at Zhang An’an. She kept looking at her watch and looked agitated. Wang Xiang gnashed his teeth and looked at Lin Wenxi maliciously. He gave him a thumb-up. The next moment, he felt that it was not right and gave Lin Wenxi the middle finger.

When Lin Wenxi was busy teasing Wang Xiang, Zhao Yuan silently picked up the ticket at the foot of Lin Wenxi. His destination was Yangzi County, and his seat was Seat No. 38.

Upon seeing the ticket, Zhao Yuan could not help but sigh secretly. “Lin Wenxi is also from Yangzi County. That means he understood what Zheng Kai and I said last night when we were chatting in our dialect. He’s really good at concealing his emotions! He lied to us that he was going to visit some relative in the city before his departure. He must’ve taken a bus to this station to avoid me, but he probably never expected that he and I were going to take the same coach and even sit next to each other…

“Alas, why do you have to act like this, Lin Wenxi?

“If you don’t act like this and don’t mind going back to our hometown together with me, I’ll be bitterly disappointed and believe that you don’t care for me at all. But now, I have to say that you’re really adorably stupid. The more you try to hide, the more you get yourself exposed.”

Zhao Yuan smiled lightly and put the ticket back on the floor.

Lin Wenxi picked up the ticket and sat calmly.

Not long after that, they heard the station announcement. “Dear passengers, the long-distance coach No.XXX heading for Yangzi County is going to leave the station within 15 minutes. Please pack your belongings and get on the coach through the 11th gate.”

Lin Wenxi continued sitting calmly. He was waiting for Zhao Yuan to get on his coach. He planned to change his ticket after Zhao Yuan’s departure. He could’ve gone to change his ticket now, but he just could not do that in front of Zhao Yuan.

When there were 10 minutes left, Lin Wenxi still managed to remain composed.

Five minutes later, Lin Wenxi felt somewhat anxious and hesitantly asked Zhao Yuan, “Which coach are you going to take?”

“Oh, the next one,” Zhao Yuan looked at his watch and said, “It seems that it hasn’t arrived yet.”

Lin Wenxi hurriedly picked up his suitcase and said bluntly, “Excuse me, I have to leave now.” He quickly ran away. Zhao Yuan sighed slightly and followed him.

Shortly after Lin Wenxi took a seat on the coach, Zhao Yuan got on the coach and sat next to him.

“Didn’t you say…” Lin Wenxi was surprised and stuttered.

“Oh, I found someone to exchange tickets with me just now,” said Zhao Yuan.

Lin Wenxi knew that Zhao Yuan was lying. He thought grumpily, “How can you find someone to exchange tickets with you within such a short period of time?” He twitched his mouth and said, “Shameless liar.”

“Oh, am I a shameless liar? “Did you tell the truth when you said that your relative suddenly died from an acute myocardial infraction?” Zhao Yuan retorted smilingly.

Lin Wenxi was rendered speechless.

Zhao Yuan kept talking about his school life back in South City High School all along the way. Lin Wenxi kept pretending to be asleep while listening attentively to Zhao Yuan.

He sighed emotionally in his heart. “I had no friends back in the high school. My parents were overprotective and only allowed me to play together with my father’s driver Hong Xuan. They always sent Hong Xuan or his subordinate to protect me. Back then, I liked to keep everything to myself and never talked much with Hong Xuan. Although he’s younger than my father, he has served in the same troop together with my father before. Hong Xuan is a man of few words. He just took me to do exercises after school.

“Zhao Yuan’s high school life is so different. He had brothers, girls and wonderful stories.” Lin Wenxi enjoyed listening to Zhao Yuan’s stories.

One hour later, when they reached the West Station of Yangzi County, Zhao Yuan told Lin Wenxi something before his departure. He said, “A hedgehog has protective spines on his body. They’re its armor. The other side of the armor is against its soft body. I’m your armor. I want to protect you and stay close to you all the time.”

Upon hearing that, Lin Wenxi was stunned and stood in a daze. He thought, “Zhao Yuan never talked like this before. He must have a hard time recently.

“You know what, Zhao Yuan. I really want to be together with you. I even want to leave with you now”