It was still considered the New Year period, but most people had already returned to their daily routines. The highway was quite bustling with cars coming and going, many of them still sporting small New Year couplets.

Zou Yang connected his phone to the Bluetooth speaker in the backseat. The moment music filled the car, it brought a feeling of being “on the road,” giving even the scenery outside a cinematic vibe.

Actually, Zou Yang didn’t have many opportunities to go on long drives like this.

After all, if he wanted to have this kind of fun at home, he could only rely on his dad. And his dad was “very busy” all year round. Plus, sitting in his dad’s car, even if they drove thousands of kilometers, there would be no joy of traveling, only the grueling torment of suffering.

“Let’s buy some food when we pass a rest stop later,” Zou Yang said, holding his phone up to the window. “Liu Wenrui distracted me earlier, and I forgot to go to the supermarket next door.”

“Hungry or just craving something?” Fan Jun asked.

“Craving,” Zou Yang said. “Whenever I’m in a car, I want to eat something.”

“If you’re hungry, I can’t help you, but if you’re just craving something,” Fan Jun smiled, “look in my bag in the backseat.”

“Hm?” Zou Yang immediately put down his phone, reached back, and hauled Fan Jun’s bag over. “Holy shit, it’s so heavy. What did you bring?”

“Didn’t bring much.” Fan Jun said.

Zou Yang unzipped the bag, took one look, and froze. “You…”

The bag was completely filled with snacks: seaweed, potato chips, dried fruit, spicy gluten strips, chicken claws, duck necks, plus several bottles of water and drinks.

“You bought this much?” Zou Yang was shocked. “We wouldn’t even bring this much if we went out for a picnic.”

“I just thought…” Fan Jun also glanced at the contents of the bag and laughed. “It was pretty fun, I didn’t really pay attention to how much I grabbed. Is it too much?”

“Not at all,” Zou Yang pulled out a pack of seaweed. “This way I can eat as much as I want… What do you want to eat?”

“I don’t really like snacks,” Fan Jun said. “I bought them just for you.”

Normally, Zou Yang wasn’t much of a snack eater either, but when riding in a car, he did like to periodically pop something flavorful into his mouth.

While eating snacks, he held up his phone and recorded videos.

Every video would end with the face of the driver, Fan Jun, like a built-in anti-theft watermark.

After recording three videos, he put down his phone, leaned against the car door, and looked at Fan Jun’s left hand.

The angle Fan Jun could raise his left arm was limited. When driving, his left hand just assisted; he mostly used his right hand. This was pretty normal; a lot of people drove this way.

However, Fan Jun’s left hand seemed unable to stay propped up like that for long periods. From the edge of his sleeve, Zou Yang could see two short strips of kinesiology tape extending down his arm.

Zou Yang checked the time. One hour had passed.

For a normal drive, this amount of time wasn’t long, but when he saw the sign for a rest area, he still said, “Let’s pull over at the rest stop ahead.”

“Hm?” Fan Jun glanced at him.

“Need to use the restroom,” Zou Yang said.

The rest area was quite crowded with many families. The moment Fan Jun parked the car, Zou Yang hopped out.

“In… that much of a hurry?” Fan Jun asked.

“Yeah.” He responded and dashed toward the restrooms.

He didn’t know if Fan Jun needed to use the restroom too. If they both went in together and he just stood there for ages doing nothing, it would look incredibly fake.

He could only beat him to it, duck into the restroom to wash his hands, and come right back out.

Fan Jun hadn’t gone inside the rest stop facility. He stood by the lawn outside. From far away, Zou Yang could see him gripping his left hand and slowly stretching it. It was probably acting up again.

Zou Yang didn’t overthink it. He walked over and asked directly, “Arm bothering you?”

“A little tight,” Fan Jun smiled, rolling his left arm. “It’s fine.”

“How about I drive in a bit?” He pulled Fan Jun’s arm over and gently kneaded his forearm.

Fan Jun had never explained the detailed condition of his arm to him, so he didn’t know the proper way to relieve the discomfort. He could only treat it like basic muscle soreness—pinching and massaging it.

“We’re on the highway,” Fan Jun said. “Isn’t your driving even worse than Liu Wenrui’s?”

Zou Yang thought for a moment. “I drove better than him when we were learning.”

Fan Jun smiled, gripped his hand in return, and gave his arm a squeeze too. “I’m fine. Let’s go.”

Fine.

Zou Yang didn’t say anything more and got into the car.

He didn’t stare at Fan Jun’s hand, but out of the corner of his eye, he could see that after resting for a bit, Fan Jun’s hand looked completely normal.

Forget it. If it’s fine, it’s fine.

They were traveling, how pleasant.

Though in this season, there really wasn’t much scenery to look at outside the window—just a bleak winter landscape.

His phone, however, was very lively.

Liu Wenrui had told the other two that he and Fan Jun had gone on a “business trip.” Li Zhiyue and Zhang Chuanlong, who had been bored to death celebrating the New Year at home and constantly thinking about returning to school early, immediately perked up.

[Zhang] Video.
[Liu] They’re living it up right now, no time for us.
[Li] Video.
[Liu] Video.

Zou Yang smiled, opened his phone, and started recording. He panned from outside the window to the inside of the car, then turned the camera to Fan Jun: “Say hi.”

“Hi.” Fan Jun smiled and gave a very standard greeting.

Zou Yang then aimed the camera at the pile of snacks on his lap, and finally turned it to himself: “We’re driving, stop messing around.”

Sending the video to the group chat invited countless insults.

Zou Yang stopped reading the messages, set his phone aside, and slowly ate from a bag of potato chips. “When you go out with He Chuan, who drives?”

“If we go far, we take turns,” Fan Jun said. “If it’s not too far, he drives more.”

“Why?” Zou Yang immediately asked.

“It’s his car,” Fan Jun said.

Well reasoned and well founded.

Zou Yang pinched a potato chip and held it to Fan Jun’s lips: “Want one?”

“Mm,” Fan Jun replied, and bit the chip away.

After driving for nearly another hour, Zou Yang was just trying to find an excuse to pull into another rest stop when the car drove onto an off-ramp, preparing to exit the highway.

Zou Yang packed up the snacks on his lap, tossed them into the backseat, and after they drove through the toll booth, said, “Let me drive for a bit.”

Fan Jun didn’t speak. He kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, not even turning his head a fraction.

Although the music was playing in the car, Fan Jun had heard every word he said prior to this.

Now he was playing deaf.

Incredibly forcefully.

Zou Yang turned off the music and repeated, “Let me drive for a bit!”

Fan Jun couldn’t keep pretending. He turned to glance at him: “Country road. It’s narrow.”

“There aren’t even any cars,” Zou Yang said.

Fan Jun went silent again. He didn’t even pretend anymore, just straight-up acted deaf.

Zou Yang was a bit speechless and turned to look out the window.

“Check the front right tire,” Fan Jun said.

“What’s wrong?” Zou Yang rolled down the window.

“Tire pressure feels off,” Fan Jun said.

“This piece of junk,” Zou Yang stuck his head out the window, looked at the front right tire, and froze. “Ah, it’s flat.”

“Thought so,” Fan Jun frowned, and the car slowed down. He glanced at the GPS. “There’s a fork ahead, let’s see if we can find a spot to pull over.”

“Change to the spare?” Zou Yang asked.

“Yeah.” Fan Jun nodded.

The fork led down to some kind of factory at the end. The turn was relatively wide with no cars around. Fan Jun parked on the side of the road, opened his door, and got out.

Zou Yang also got out. Surely changing a spare tire required some help.

They were in the suburbs. The moment he stepped out, the wind nearly snatched his head off. Zou Yang zipped his jacket all the way up to his chin and walked around to the back of the car.

Fan Jun was grabbing the jack from the trunk. Seeing him approach, he simply said, “Go stand by that wall. It’s cold.”

“I’ll help,” Zou Yang said.

“No need,” Fan Jun walked toward the front right tire with the jack. “Wait somewhere out of the wind.”

Zou Yang didn’t say anything.

Fan Jun paused. He probably felt his words were too blunt, so he turned back and added, “When I’m done changing it, you can drive for a bit.”

“Mm.” Zou Yang hummed in agreement, but didn’t go to the wall.

Anyway, his “Mm” was in agreement to the “you can drive for a bit” part, not the “go wait by the wall” part.

Fan Jun felt around near the front tire, shoved the jack underneath, and hoisted the front end of the car up. He used his right hand for the entire process.

When he stood up and turned around, seeing Zou Yang still standing by the car, he paused. “What is it?”

“Let me play with it for a bit.” Zou Yang tried a different phrasing.

Fan Jun said nothing, just looked at him with a slight frown.

Zou Yang stayed silent as well, staring back.

“I’ll do it myself,” Fan Jun said.

“I can’t even just take the tire off?” Zou Yang asked.

“If you hadn’t tagged along, it would just be me on this trip,” Fan Jun said.

“But I’m here right now,” Zou Yang didn’t back down.

“Will you be here every time?” Fan Jun asked.

“I won’t have to change a tire every time either,” Zou Yang said.

Fan Jun opened his mouth but couldn’t get a word out.

A moment showcasing the profound expressive power of the Chinese language.

Zou Yang leaned against the car door, still watching him.

Fan Jun stayed silent for a long time. When he finally spoke, it was the same sentence: “Wait on the side.”

Zou Yang didn’t move.

“Zou Yang,” Fan Jun looked at him, “…don’t push me.”

“What,” Zou Yang raised his brows, a little surprised. “You’re going to hit me?”

“Am I crazy? Why would I hit you?” Fan Jun didn’t say any more. He walked to the back of the car, grabbed a lug wrench, returned to the front tire, and started taking the tire off.

One look at this car and it was obvious it spent all its time running around the countryside. It was rarely washed or maintained, the tires were covered in mud, and the lug nuts were on incredibly tight.

Normally, it wouldn’t take Fan Jun any effort to unscrew these things. But right now, his left hand clearly couldn’t exert any force; it only served to steady the wrench, while all the power relied on his right hand.

He twisted a few times, but the wrench didn’t budge.

Zou Yang furrowed his brows. He couldn’t articulate the taste in his heart—it hurt, it was incredibly sour, and there was a faint simmer of anger burning within him.

Fan Jun braced his hand against the hood, lifted his leg, and kicked the wrench. The nut loosened. In silence, he started on the next one.

Zou Yang turned and walked away, leaning against the wall on the opposite side.

The wall was across the road. From here, he could only see Fan Jun’s upper body and couldn’t see the process of his operations. But he didn’t need to see it to imagine it—changing a spare tire single-handedly would be grueling no matter what.

Fan Jun got the front tire off, rolled it to the back, and started extracting the spare.

The spare tire for this car was stored underneath the chassis. He had to use the wrench to lower it first. That bolt was even tighter than the lug nuts. If the spare had never been used before, it meant that bolt had never once been loosened.

Anyway, Fan Jun managed to loosen it. It took a while, and in the end, he had to stand in the truck bed and kick it loose.

After bringing the spare tire over, Fan Jun stood frozen by the front wheel for a moment before crouching down.

Zou Yang stared at the front of the car. For a long time, he didn’t see Fan Jun stand back up.

After hesitating for a few seconds, he walked quickly over.

The moment he rounded the front bumper, he saw Fan Jun’s left hand pressed to the ground, his right hand gripping the fingers of his left hand and bending them upwards.

“Muscle cramp?” Zou Yang’s heart violently seized. He dropped directly to one knee, grabbed Fan Jun’s left wrist, pulled it up, braced the elbow against his own knee, and pressed down on his palm, pushing it back.

He could feel Fan Jun’s arm trembling violently. It probably hurt a lot too; Fan Jun’s brows were tightly knitted.

After holding the stretch for a while, Fan Jun softly said, “It’s fine now.”

Zou Yang eased his grip and massaged his arm for a bit longer.

“It doesn’t hurt anymore,” Fan Jun said.

“Mm,” Zou Yang responded, and let go of his hand.

Fan Jun shook out his arm and let out a soft breath of relief. “You…”

“Going back to squat by the wall,” Zou Yang said.

Fan Jun didn’t say anything.

“Wait for you to get a cramp again before coming over,” Zou Yang said. “Or just stay over there and wait for you to endure it on your own, right?”

Fan Jun glanced at him but didn’t speak.

“Isn’t that right!” Zou Yang suddenly lost a bit of control and yelled.

Fan Jun dusted the dirt off his hands, remaining silent.

“What are you being so stubborn for!” Zou Yang leaned into his right ear and yelled again.

“I can hear you,” Fan Jun said.

“Then answer me,” Zou Yang lowered his voice.

“This is my job now, a job I need to complete alone. When you’re here, you can help me, but when you’re not, it’s just me,” Fan Jun looked at him, his voice gradually rising as well. “There will always be all sorts of problems that need solving! If I can’t solve them, then it proves I can’t do this job!”

“Aren’t you getting treatment? Aren’t you already recovering!” Zou Yang said. “It’s not like it’s never going to get better! I help you when I’m here, and you handle it yourself when I’m not, isn’t that…”

“I don’t know how long it will take to get better!” Fan Jun interrupted him. “I don’t know! How long!”

Zou Yang looked at him: “So what?”

“For you, sure, ‘so what’,” Fan Jun said. “You’re not the one who can’t hear. You’re not the one whose hand won’t move. You’re not the one worrying every day whether you’ll have to rely on someone else’s help again.”

Zou Yang lost his voice.

“Zou Yang,” Fan Jun bent over and hoisted the spare tire up. “If it were anyone else, maybe I wouldn’t be this stubborn. But with you… I just can’t.”

Zou Yang remained silent, watching as he lifted the spare tire with his right hand. His left hand, afraid to exert any more force, struggled. He had to prop it up with his knee to shove the spare onto the wheel hub and align it.

Tightening the lug nuts afterward was much easier. Finally, he removed the jack. He planned to throw the flat tire into the back. When he moved to lift the tire, Zou Yang walked over and helped lift it together.

“For something like carrying heavy stuff,” Zou Yang said, “it’s normal for anyone to lend a hand. You can tell the difference, right?”

“…Mm.” Fan Jun hummed in agreement.

As he turned to head back to the car, Fan Jun said behind him, “You drive.”

“Mm.”

He hummed in agreement quite smoothly.

But upon sitting in the driver’s seat, Zou Yang felt a bit out of his depth.

He mentally reviewed the process and carefully confirmed where all the controls were. Fortunately, the layout was pretty standard. It was thanks to the fact that this car was as beat up as a driving school car; if it were a nice car, he might not have known how to drive it.

He glanced at Fan Jun in the passenger seat.

“Clutch, brake…” Fan Jun reminded him.

“Shut up.” Zou Yang turned the key, and the car started.

After that, it was basically muscle memory. He managed to get the car moving relatively smoothly, except for swinging halfway into the oncoming lane when turning back onto the main road.

“You drive this stretch,” Fan Jun said. “Swap with me when we get to the town ahead.”

“Mm,” Zou Yang kept his eyes glued to the road. “How far? How long will it take?”

“An hour.” Fan Jun said.

“No problem.” Zou Yang gripped the steering wheel tightly.

“At your current speed, it might take two hours.” Fan Jun said.

“I’ll speed up once I get used to it.” Zou Yang shot him a look, then peeked at the speedometer. 20.

That was a bit slow. He stepped on the gas and shifted into third gear.

“We’re not in a rush,” Fan Jun pointed forward. “Eyes on the road.”

Zou Yang clicked his tongue.

He never expected that one day, he too would hear the same warning phrases as Liu Wenrui while driving.

Zou Yang was indeed very smart and possessed strong physical coordination. Even though he hadn’t touched a steering wheel since getting his license, after driving for a while, he gradually adapted. He drove much more steadily than Liu Wenrui had previously.

Fan Jun adjusted the passenger seat upright. Although Zou Yang drove better than Liu Wenrui, it wasn’t good enough for him to lie back and sleep. He had to help watch the road.

The pain from the cramp in his left arm still hadn’t faded. Somewhere beneath the muscle, some tendon or nerve kept throbbing with pain.

He wanted to massage it, but didn’t want Zou Yang to notice and get distracted. He merely crossed his arms, hiding his left hand under his right arm, slowly opening and clenching his fist to stretch it.

Over an hour later, they arrived at the town. Zou Yang didn’t stop to swap drivers, and Fan Jun didn’t say anything either.

Since they were just passing through, the GPS routed them along the outskirts of the town, where there wasn’t much traffic.

Their actual destination was the next town over.

Zou Yang had gotten the hang of driving, but he was still a novice. He drove with rapt concentration the whole way and completely forgot to eat when lunchtime rolled around.

He probably wasn’t hungry anyway; he had been snacking the entire trip.

Fan Jun reached back and grabbed a random pack of dried tofu from the backseat.

After eating it, he felt even hungrier.

By the time they had passed the point of feeling hungry altogether, they finally arrived at their destination town.

Fan Jun swapped with Zou Yang and drove the car to the inn where he and He Chuan had stayed before. It was considered the best lodging option in town.

While checking in at the front desk, Zou Yang rubbed his stomach. “I’m hungry.”

“I’ve already starved past the point of hunger,” Fan Jun said.

“Our dining hall doesn’t have any food right now,” the young girl at the front desk said. “You’ll have to go look around the center of town.”

“Mm.” Fan Jun took the room key card and walked toward the stairs.

“No elevator?” Zou Yang asked quietly.

“No,” Fan Jun also lowered his voice. “It’s just on the second floor.”

“Oh.” Zou Yang turned his head to look around.

A standard room on the second floor near the stairs. It was quite clean—much better than staying in a dilapidated house in a village.

“A street view room, huh.” Zou Yang tossed his bag onto the bed and stood by the window, looking down.

“Yeah, people dance out there at night. It gets pretty lively.” Fan Jun went into the bathroom, washed his face, took off his shirt, and checked his left arm.

Beneath the kinesiology tape, he could see faint red marks left by the severe muscle cramp earlier.

He frowned and tried rolling his shoulder.

Not bad…

The slightly ajar bathroom door was pushed open. Zou Yang walked in, rolling up his sleeves. “Let me wash my hands. That steering wheel was definitely…”

Fan Jun stepped aside to make room at the sink.

Zou Yang stood frozen, staring at his torso. After a moment, he asked, “Are you taking a shower?”

“No,” Fan Jun looked down at himself. “Just checking… my arm.”

“Oh.” Zou Yang averted his gaze, went over, turned on the tap, and washed his hands with the splashing water.