CH 22

Translated by Chan

Edited by Shiny

Chapter 22 – The Moon Tonight

The moon was especially bright tonight.

Speaking of irony, the world of humans worsened day by day but nature’s scenery was becoming more and more beautiful instead. There was no haze nor pollution. The blue skies carried fluffy white clouds every day and a bright moon and countless stars at night.

Bai Youwei closed her eyes, trying to fall asleep. However, sleep was not forthcoming and she opened her eyes resignedly before trying once again. Everything that happened today kept playing out in her mind. 

“Aren’t you going to sleep?” She whispered softly to Shen Mo who was beside her.

“I will sleep after you sleep.” Shen Mo responded calmly.

He was still not sleepy yet. Besides, it was really awkward for them to lie side by side. After all, they had just met today.

Bai Youwei responded, “It will be too late when I fall asleep.”

Shen Mo did not mind. “When we were training, I only slept for 4 hours every day. It’s plenty.”

Bai Youwei thought about it and could only admit that this man has great stamina. In the game, he had run while carrying her for three rounds, but he had scarcely broken a sweat and barely panted for breath.

She closed her eyes once more, but she was still not sleepy. After lying there for a while, she sat up with her arms propped up and said, “I’ll look at the map with you.”

Shen Mo showed her half of the map.

His right arm was nestled within a mass of warmth and softness. He paused for a bit.

“How do I read this?” Bai Youwei stretched out her head to ask.

Her lower body was feeble. To sit, she needed to lean or lie on something, so it was very difficult for her to sit upright.

Shen Mo’s arms that had been slightly tensed relaxed quickly. He then taught her how to read the map with his fingers.

Ever since mobile satellite maps were popularized, people rarely chose to read paper maps. They usually only bought a copy as a souvenir when they were traveling.

“This is the Hushaan Expressway. Now we are around this area… From this point on, there are dolls on the second half of the road. So, we have to change our route to Hurong Expressway tomorrow, led by those people who went out to explore today. Then, we have to take a detour from Zhenjiang to Yangzhou…”

Looking at the densely-packed routes and the mosquito-sized toponyms, Bai Youwei started to feel a little dizzy.

After forcing herself to listen for a while, her awareness started drifting more and more. 

Unwittingly, her attention moved to the man’s fingers.

Shen Mo had a pair of extremely pretty hands.

His fingers were long and slender and his joints were distinct. The lines were smooth and strong, from his sturdy forearm to the end of his fingertips. The slight protrusion of each meridian was surging with power, it was the type she envied the most.

Her gaze travelled upward, following his hand. She saw his clavicles, his adam’s apple… The black bangs cast a dim shadow between his eyebrows, only the outline of the bridge of his nose was high and clear. His extremely low voice as he read out the unfamiliar toponyms could not help but remind Bai Youwei of the cello her father collected.

Now the “cello” looked at her and asked in a low voice, “What’s wrong?”

“I’m tired.” She lay down, took the rabbit doll as a bolster and hugged it to sleep.

Shen Mo was rendered speechless.

After a moment of silence, he set the map aside and questioned, “Is it cold?”

Bai Youwei seemed to be deep asleep as there was no response.

Shen Mo stared at her quietly for a moment before getting up and going out.

After he left, Bai Youwei opened her eyes.

Her eyes were calm like water.

In the dead of the night, a man and a woman, alone together. This was not a big deal, but it could not stop people from letting their imagination run wild. Once they started overthinking, their hearts would feel unsettled. And once their hearts were unsettled, there was no stopping it.

Bai Youwei also used to have a hero-saving-princess type of teenage dream, but that was before her legs had become paralysed.

After she became disabled, how to live with dignity became her number one priority in life. It was much more important than love.

Moreover this did not even count as love. It was merely a coincidence that she encountered a dangerous situation and she just happened to have a man around her who also simply happened to treat her well.

It was said that men and women who had experienced a life-death situation together would be attracted to each other easily. She did not know if it was true or not, but it didn’t matter. After all… everything would be over once they reached Yangzhou.

She closed her eyes, forcing herself to fall asleep as soon as possible.

The sound of footsteps could be heard from the direction of the door. They were slow and messy. There was more than one person.

Bai Youwei turned her head and looked over and saw three youths walking towards her languidly.

It was those people who had gone out exploring.