Sentimentality didn’t suit them. None of them had romantic cells, so they were incapable of sighing over beautiful scenery or marveling at new surroundings. They were already fighting over the window seats in the taxis, while the driver waited awkwardly for the door they couldn’t seem to close.
Two yellow taxis moved through the thin morning mist. The winding roads and bridge after bridge looked blurred in the haze. Most of the shops along the street were still closed, though a few breakfast stalls had already been set up. There were all kinds of side dishes to add freely to congee, savory oil tea topped with chili and various seasonings, and bamboo steamers packed with buns and steamed bread, sending white clouds of steam into the air.
After getting out of the taxis, they boarded a bus. They spent the entire trip making bets—who would pay the bus fare, who would carry the luggage. It was understandable that there weren’t many passengers at this hour, but somehow the bus on their route contained absolutely no one except them.
Surely Su You Yan hadn’t chosen somewhere even the locals refused to visit.
The possibility was actually fairly high.
Maybe she had been influenced by the ghost story the night before, because Gong Zhu began getting suspicious of everything. “Someone go look at the driver’s face. What if he’s a faceless person?”
“You’re thinking too much.”
“Who can say? What if this is a haunted bus and the driver is taking us straight to the underworld?” Gong Zhu had originally looked worried, but his expression suddenly relaxed. “If that happens, maybe there’ll be an incredibly handsome King Yama who sees me and tries every possible way to scare me just so he can watch me make cute expressions, and then…”
“You can turn even a horror story into a BL plot?”
“What kind of story can’t be turned into BL?” Gong Zhu shot back.
“A story about the Kingdom of Women?” Ke Bu countered.
At that moment, Ying Xiu Jie volunteered. “I’ll go look.”
He slowly walked toward the front while everyone watched him. He whistled as though he were merely taking a casual stroll.
The moment he reached the driver and looked once, his expression changed.
The sight immediately hooked everyone else’s curiosity.
What had he seen?
Could Gong Zhu actually have been right? Was the driver really faceless?
How could something like that possibly happen?
“What did you see? It’s rare for anything to scare you.” Zhang Luo urgently questioned Ying Xiu Jie when he came back.
Ying Xiu Jie still looked distracted, as though he were thinking about something.
Chu Hao Yu nudged him. “Hey. Answer us already.”
The atmosphere among them instantly transformed into a suspense movie.
Ying Xiu Jie scratched his head. “The driver looks exactly like my uncle. Scared me for a second.”
Everything in their hands immediately flew toward him.
“What the hell?!”
The prosperous cityscape gradually disappeared.
They got off at a lonely bus stop. Beside the road stood a red, handwritten sign with an arrow drawn on it.
“Doesn’t this feel exactly like the opening of a murder movie? We’re going to get killed one by one by some pervert who lives around here,” Zhang Luo said, having clearly watched far too many things like that.
“We already have plenty of perverts among us. How about calling the movie The War Between a Pervert and the Other Perverts? Come on.” Ke Bu only wanted to get inside somewhere warm as quickly as possible.
“Let’s not draw lots for rooms this time. We’ll assign them based on the order everyone steps through the main entrance,” Chu Hao Yu quietly suggested to Su You Yan.
Ke Bu’s ears were far too sharp to miss it.
His originally quickened pace gradually slowed until he was walking side by side with Zhi Li.
Zhi Li looked at Ke Bu, his gaze clearly seeing straight through his thoughts.
Just as Zhi Li opened his mouth, Ke Bu immediately covered it with one hand. “Don’t say it out loud. You’ll embarrass me.”
Behind them, Ying Xiu Jie folded his arms and carefully studied Zhi Li.
Zhi Li could effortlessly avoid attacks as fast as Ying Xiu Jie’s, yet somehow he couldn’t avoid Ke Bu at all. Ke Bu was constantly grabbing his collar and shaking him, covering his mouth…
What exactly was the reason?
What exactly was the reason?
Was Ke Bu actually more skilled than he was?
Did Ke Bu know Zhi Li’s weakness?
Impossible.
Then what was the reason?
Ying Xiu Jie grabbed at his hair, giving himself a headache by thinking about it all alone.
A plainly dressed proprietress came out to welcome them.
Calling the place a resort was a stretch. It was much closer to a farm stay.
The scenery wasn’t bad. The guest rooms were simple but still clean and tidy. The so-called hot spring wasn’t large, nor was it a natural spring.
Ke Bu had absolutely no complaints about why, after coming all the way to a city famous for hot springs, they had chosen such an inconspicuous place. During the holiday, every good spot would definitely be packed with people.
He liked the peace and quiet here.
“We still get regular customers most of the time. You’re all from out of town, right? Here, we…” The proprietress spoke in somewhat nonstandard Mandarin as she explained why the place was so quiet and praised everything it had to offer.
Only after seeing that none of them looked disappointed did she relax. “You should rest for a while first.”
She quietly withdrew.
Ke Bu pushed open the window.
Outside stretched a field of green.
Gong Zhu had brought several pairs of swim trunks and was struggling over which one to choose.
Chu Hao Yu had brought several swimsuits too, except none of them were his.
Hooking one finger through a tiny bikini that barely covered anything, he recommended it to Zhou Xin He. “Xin He, we’re all family here. Don’t have so many reservations. Break through your limits. Look at the swimsuit you brought. Are you an elementary-school kid?”
Zhou Xin He shook her head repeatedly and refused even to look at what Chu Hao Yu was holding. “I’m wearing mine.”
“Can you all go back to your own rooms?” Ke Bu said, irritated that his peace had been disturbed.
Just thinking about taking off his clothes in weather this cold made him resistant.
“Stingy. Let’s all sleep in the same room these next few nights. It’ll be livelier.”
“How are we supposed to squeeze into such a tiny room? How starved for affection are you?”
“If it gets too cramped, you can leave. We’re not like you. We hardly ever get to sleep in the same room as Zhi Li. This is a rare opportunity.”
“How much do you people like him?!”
“Why do you think I’m such a pervert now? I owe it all to Zhi Li!” Chu Hao Yu declared with perfect righteousness.
Ke Bu couldn’t help feeling that this was probably not something he should be thanking Zhi Li for.
The lonely Su You Yan.
Gong Zhu, who had once felt inferior because he liked men.
Zhou Xin He, who was always getting bullied.
Ying Xiu Jie, who caused trouble everywhere he went.
Zhang Luo, who was so easy to overlook.
Zhi Li had drawn all of them into his strange world and his strange way of thinking.
And once they were inside it, everything about them was accepted.
Ke Bu thought that perhaps the most attractive thing about Zhi Li was that he stood completely opposite to conventional society.
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