Chapter 168: Peace of Mind

Inside the car.

Lu Nan steadily drove the car along the mountain road, skillfully avoiding sections with large potholes.

“She went completely berserk—it was terrifying. The two of us nearly got poisoned by her,” Lu Nan said as she handed a bottle of water from the front seat. “The hospital’s still a ways off. Drink some hot water to warm up first.”

The wind outside was fierce. Even when hiding in the grass, they had sought out sheltered spots to avoid catching a cold from the gusts.

Song Wenwei was different. Lu Nan knew full well that she had been out in the open for a long time, standing right in front of Xia Zhengyun, bearing the brunt of the wind. If she didn’t warm up, she’d catch a cold the moment she got home.

“Okay.”

No sooner had she agreed than a wine-red thermos cup appeared in Song Wenwei’s line of sight. A hand with distinct knuckles gripped the cup and gently raised it.

As if assuming she hadn’t noticed, it shook again deliberately.

“Here you go.”

Song Wenwei’s expression froze. She took the thermos in bewilderment. It was half full of water—she gave it a light shake to check.

She voiced the doubt in her heart:

“Where’d you get this cup from?”

It couldn’t be something she swiped from a cabinet, could it?

“From Xia Zhengyun,” Lu Nan replied without a second thought. Worried Song Wenwei might object to it having been used by someone else, she added, “Don’t worry, it’s new. An old man shoved it at me when I was heading out just now, and he specifically said it was brand new.”

“And the water…”

“Oh, the warm water? I boiled it while waiting for you two. Look at my hand…” Lu Nan extended her right hand toward the back seat, positioning it right in Song Wenwei’s view so she could see clearly.

“There’s still ash on it from burning the wood earlier.”

In the dim car light, the four fingers were clearly smudged with a thin layer of ash. As the car jostled over the mountain road, Lu Nan’s outstretched hand swayed with it.

“How about it? Heart moved yet?”

Song Wenwei clutched the cup and didn’t deny it. “Yeah, and a bit heartbroken too.”

Lu Nan happily bobbed her head, suppressing a grin at the corner of her mouth.

“Of course—I’m going for that sympathy.”

“You…” Song Wenwei said helplessly.

Lu Nan slapped the steering wheel. “Oh right, I forgot to tell you—the old man was really nice. Afraid we’d go hungry, he stuffed a few pieces of chocolate at me too. I made him try one first in case it was poisoned. Want some?”

Song Wenwei waved it off. “I’m not hungry for now. And that doctor? She wasn’t from the old man too, was she?”

There was no such thing as that many coincidences in the world. The doctor couldn’t have just stepped out and then Lu Nan happened to be squatting nearby. Song Wenwei suspected the doctor was someone Lu Nan had brought along.

“Nah, that one I picked up halfway,” Lu Nan said. “I told her I was sent by Xia Yubing to help them, so she’d trust me. Didn’t matter if she believed it or not—she insisted on coming with me, so I brought her along.”

“Didn’t expect Xia Zhengyun to get zapped unconscious.”

“You’ve had way too many lucky encounters,” Song Wenwei said, considering another possibility. “Are you making up stories to fool me again?”

Lu Nan immediately refuted, “No! I’m not!”

Song Wenwei: “……”

She silently grumbled inwardly: Starting solo, full gear from scavenging?

She took a shallow sip of the warm water. The heat flowed into her stomach, dispelling the chill from standing in the wind for so long. It felt like emerging from an ice pit into a blazing furnace.

—

The car jolted.

Xia Zhengyun opened her eyes and scanned her surroundings. Her memory stopped at the moment Xia Yubing had forced the car to halt.

This place was a blank spot in her recollection.

The rocking car and the dark windows outside all told her one thing: she had been captured again.

However, the car’s interior didn’t match Xia Yubing’s style, so Xia Zhengyun didn’t dwell on it.

She gazed out the pitch-black window. Had so much time already passed?

She had unknowingly slept for so long. Xia Zhengyun didn’t move, but her ears twitched as she listened to the breathing in the car—two people.

The car moved slowly onward.

With her peripheral vision, Xia Zhengyun sized up the person beside her. She was propping her head against the car window, a scarf wrapped around her neck.

Xia Zhengyun remembered that scarf—Xia Yubing had worn one just like it.

She closed her eyes. The air was utterly still. This was a mountain road; she could hear car horns in the distance, not far from the main highway.

“Haah…”

The driver let out a huge yawn.

Xia Zhengyun’s fingers slipped into her pocket for the dagger. She rose, yanked the person beside her over, and pressed the small knife to her neck in one fluid motion.

The woman beneath her jolted awake from the movement.

“Take me to M City,” Xia Zhengyun said.

Song Wenwei’s eyebrow arched at that. M City was a long way away. Even if they drove the car to ruin, it would take two full days.

Besides, hadn’t Xia Zhengyun just passed out from her episode?

Lu Nan had never seen such a fierce patient. She pleaded, “Don’t kill her! Whatever you want, I’ll agree—as long as you don’t kill her…”

Song Wenwei: “……”

Her drama queen phase was back.

Xia Zhengyun paused for a beat. The voice sounded familiar, like she’d heard it somewhere.

“Cut the crap—drive now,” Xia Zhengyun said.

“Have you lost your mind from the crash or something?” Lu Nan kept driving but glanced back once she confirmed the road ahead was straight. “Stop messing around. Hospital first, then we talk.”

“What are you talking about?”

Only when Lu Nan turned her head did Xia Zhengyun recognize her. She wasn’t the Xia Family driver she’d expected—the driver was the colleague from the variety show recording earlier.

Wait.

Then who was the person she was holding the knife to now?

Xia Zhengyun slowly withdrew the blade and pinned the woman against the window. Upon seeing her face clearly, she froze in place.

“Hey?”

Song Wenwei forced a smile and waved.

“What day is it?” Xia Zhengyun’s voice trembled as she released her hold on the woman.

Her mind raced to piece together what had happened. How could Lu Nan and Song Wenwei be in the same car as her? They should have left long ago. Wasn’t she in Xia Yubing’s car?

“The 18th,” Song Wenwei said cautiously, glancing at Xia Zhengyun. She carefully nudged the knife away. The woman’s eyes shifted from confusion to utter disbelief.

“Do you remember what happened earlier?”

“Do you remember our names?”

Song Wenwei fired off the two questions.

“What happened earlier?” A bad feeling hit Xia Zhengyun. “Did I… not recognize you two just now?”

Song Wenwei met her gaze and nodded solemnly.

Memory was the vessel of every person’s identity—different memories shaped different people. Losing prior memories might not harm Xia Zhengyun much, but something seemed off.

She would periodically lose chunks of memory, either recalling them slowly or, like now, blanking out everything from a day ago—even recent events.

The realization chilled her to the bone. She would no longer be a normal person.

“What’s going on? I…”

A warm hand rested on her shoulder. Xia Zhengyun looked blankly—it was Song Wenwei’s. Despite being held hostage, she showed no fear and even cared for others.

“No need to worry too much. You’re still alive and well,” Song Wenwei said.

Xia Zhengyun lowered the hand with the knife a few inches. She didn’t understand what was happening, but she was certain of one thing: she was out of Xia Yubing’s surveillance. That was enough.

As for how she ended up in the same car as these two, she needed to figure that out.

“What… happened earlier?” Xia Zhengyun asked slowly.

Song Wenwei recounted the events in detail, with Lu Nan chiming in occasionally.

Only then did Xia Zhengyun understand: in the missing memory, she had escaped death once more.

“Thank you,” Xia Zhengyun said.

They had saved her again. She lowered her eyes—the knife had just been at Song Wenwei’s neck. This was the second time.

The second time she’d held a knife to her…

“It’s fine. What happened earlier is in the past,” Song Wenwei comforted her from the side.

She could clearly see the pained, reborn expression on Xia Zhengyun’s face. Though she didn’t know the details, it clearly wasn’t good.

Lu Nan watched the knife intently through the rearview mirror, wishing she could glare it away from Song Wenwei. “Uh, can you put the knife down first? Don’t hurt her.”

“Sorry.”

Xia Zhengyun tossed the knife aside upon hearing that. It clattered to the floor.

A woman’s apologetic voice said, “Sorry. Thank you both.”

Song Wenwei bent down to pick up the knife, sheathed it, and handed it back to her. “Keep the knife close and secured.”

The small dagger was exquisite, with intricate floral patterns engraved on it. Xia Zhengyun took it and slipped it back into her pocket, feeling an unprecedented sense of peace.

She had escaped. That was all that mattered.