The next morning, Zhou Rong had a headache — the old armoured vehicle was gone.
Carrying his gun, he turned a couple of times, roaring out, “Si Xiaonan!”
“Si Xiaonan, you better come out now. I’m not joking, quick!!”
The sound of an engine drew closer, and the armoured vehicle slowly made its way over from the other end of the street, stopping in front of the steaming Zhou Rong. The window wound down, and the driver seat will piled with milk powder, candy, and dehydrated cake. Si Nan had an assault rifle slung around him, and in his hand was a jar of honey. As he ate it, his face was tinted a light red.
When Zhou Rong saw that his shoulder was stained with the dark red colour of blood, he knew Si Nan had made a solo trip to rob a supermarket, and exploded. “Leaving the team without official permission! A lack of discipline! Comrade Si Nan, if you were an official member, I would have beat you up personally! Leaving without saying anything, did you consider the consequences?!”
Si Nan stared coldly at him.
“What are you looking at?! If you don’t want to comply, just…”
Zhou Rong had yet to finish, and Si Nan suddenly threw two cartons of cigarettes at his head before swiftly winding the window back up. With a foot to the pedal, he drove towards the main road.
“Hey! Bastard!” Hit by two cartons of Chunghwa cigarettes, he yelled after the vehicle.
Si Nan was truly angry.
Zhou Rong finally ended his tour of plunder. Carrying the two cartons of smoke, he drove his vehicle with a dark expression. The two vehicles drove down the expressway in a row out of B City, and returned to the industrial zone in the evening before night fell. The vehicle Si Nan was driving suddenly sped up, making a turn and headed to the factory’s back garden through a side road.
Was he trying to imply that they should go their own ways?
Turning the steering wheel abruptly, Zhou Rong chased after, a distance behind Si Nan. A few minutes later, he saw him stop by the back gate of the industrial zone. Si Nan jumped off his vehicle with some food items, and with a few moves, he flipped over the fence.
Zhou Rong got Chuncao to watch the vehicle while he silently followed after. With a run, he leapt over the fence, then climbed up the gingko tree beyond the fence and sneakily looked downwards.
Si Nan was still moving forward, following the deserted path and walking towards the ammonia treatment plant. There was an abandoned garage surrounded by weeds.
A slender figure was crouching at the empty space under a window at the back of the garage. Hearing footsteps, that person turned their head, and delightedly came forward.
— It was Wu Xinyan.
Being far away from them, Zhou Rong could not hear what they were saying. He watched them for a moment, an unpleasant feeling welling up within him, and he gave a long exhale.\n“Comrade Xiao Si is an adult — If you have the time to care about other people’s matters, why don’t you start thinking about how to get a partner yourself instead?” Zhou Rong stood up and ruffled Chuncao’s hair. He laughed, and returned to his usual, careless manner. “Daughter, be good. Go get some potatoes for your father, don’t forget the chili and soy sauce.”
***
“That’s mine,” Si Nan said indifferently.
Wu Xinyan, “…”
Wu Xinyan pulled her extended hand back, giving up on that jar of honey. Instead, she turned to that vacuum sealed pack of braised eggs.
Si Nan lifted his lids. His possessiveness over the braised eggs were evidently not very strong, and his thick eyelashes again swept down.
There were no lights in the abandoned garage. In the winter night, everything was dark. The howling winter wind could be heard, as though a herd of zombies were groaning in the distance.
Eating the braised eggs, Wu Xinyan shrank within her blanket. She did not seem able to tolerate the quiet, and so broke the silence. “Hey… Why do you have such a sweet tooth?”
Si Nan rarely took the initiative to start a conversation with outsiders, but he would answer the questions they posed him. “I don’t know.”
“Do you like anything as long as they’re sweet?”
“No.”
“Don’t you find them cloying?”
“No.”
“…”
“My body needs sugar,” Si Nan said indifferently. “I often have low blood sugar.”
Wu Xinyan sighed in relief. “I was still thinking about having heard others saying that only people who had experienced a lot of suffering like eating sweet stuff. If you were to have a tragic story, then I would really be unable to handle it — Fortunately, I’ve only thought too much into it.”
“… Be a bit more normal.”
Si Nan took out that pack of candied apple he could not bear to eat from his pocket. He then started eating it, and the sound of chewing could be heard in the dark.
After a while, Wu Xinyan’s voice could be heard again, and this time, she was a little hesitant. “Say, would that Wan fellow really come here tonight?”
“He will.”
“… Why?”
With a chunk of candied apple in his mouth, Si Nan mumbled. “If Zhou Rong asked where did you go, Feng Wentai would definitely say that you ran away yourself, and are missing. That bodyguard with the last name Wan knows that when Zhou Rong starts asking others about it tomorrow, he would no longer have the opportunity to get to you anymore. So, he would definitely grasp this last chance tonight.”
“Also, you’ve said that the Wan fellow has followed you here today,” Si Nan swallowed the candied apple, licking his sticky fingers. “Tonight, when everyone is asleep, he would definitely come here.”
Nodding, Wu Xinyan’s face was pale.
On the ground were two sets of bedding lying parallel to each other. Si Nan and Wu Xinyan each nested within one set, and in between was a pile of snacks. After Wu Xinyan finished the braised eggs, she wanted some chocolate. Just as she picked a piece up, she suddenly thought of something and politely asked, “Can I eat this?”
“You can.” Si Nan said, “Chocolate is one thing I don’t eat.”
“… Why?!”
Before Si Nan had to time answer, they suddenly heard a series of light footsteps that stopped outside the window.
He was here!
A shudder ran through Wu Xinyan’s body, and chills spread to her limbs. With a pleading gaze, she turned towards her side, only to see Si Nan glancing towards the back with a preoccupied look. “… Zhou Rong?”
Suspicious, he stood up, his blanket wrapped around him. “What are you doing standing there?”
The person outside the window who never spoke a word finally coughed, and it really was the very unique mellow, bass voice of Captain Zhou. Somehow, it sounded a little guilty. “Yo, Comrade Xiao Si! I… I was unable to fall asleep, so I was strolling about randomly. Have you eaten?”
Si Nan replied him with a cold silence.
“…” Wu Xinyan greeted him nervously. “C-captain Zhou, g-g-good evening…”
Si Nan signalled at her to ignore him.
Zhou Rong was extremely awkward. “Good evening, good evening. Why aren’t the two of you going back to the dorm? Without any lights or fire, isn’t it cold huddling here?”
“We…” Just as Wu Xinyan spoke, Si Nan again signalled at her. This time, he even creased his forehead unhappily.
Wu Xinyan, “???”
She tilted her head, looking at Si Nan. Si Nan frowned, looking back at her.
Zhou Rong chuckled a couple of times. “You guys should head back to the dorm. It’s fine. It’s not good if you catch a cold out here in the cold weather. I’ve gone through this before, everyone understands this. You guys are still young…”
Wu Xinyan sincerely felt that she should provide an explanation, she really should explain the situation. However, Si Nan’s expression evidently did not want her to say anything. The two of them silently looked at each other for several seconds, and Wu Xinyan finally could not help herself but explode. “What exactly is going on between the two of you?!”
Si Nan said, “He yelled at me.”
Outside the window, Zhou Rong, “…”
“He even said that he wanted to beat me.” Si Nan spoke frostily. “Who exactly will be beating who? I’ll leave him with one hand.”
Wu Xinyan’s jaw dropped.
Zhou Rong’s embarrassment had reached the apex of his life. “Si Xiao Nan! I’m wrong, I’m here to apologise to you! I shouldn’t have shouted at you in the morning, don’t be angry anymore. Come, I’ll give you something to eat…”
A rustle of a plastic bag. Zhou Rong took something out.
“Here,” He said. “Come on out. I’ve brought you a large piece of Dove chocolate.”