The snow in City C was exceptionally heavy, blanketing everything in white. Red lanterns adorned the bare branches of trees lining the streets, creating a festive atmosphere for the approaching New Year.
Wu You was quite efficient, borrowing a seven-seater van from a friend to wait at the airport.
Ke Xun and Wei Dong arrived first, both bundled up like bears, wearing down jackets, scarves, hats, and masks.
Ke Xun's eyes peeked out from between his mask and hat, his eyelashes fogged up: "Holy crap, it's freezing here! I've already put on my thickest clothes, and I almost peed my pants from the cold when I came out of the airport terminal."
Wu You, with her short hair and no hat, looked much more resistant to the cold than the two men: "Don't worry, although it's cold here, few people freeze to death. The most common deaths are from licking the iron railings by the roadside."
Ke Xun: "..."
Wei Dong: "..."
The three of them crawled into the car to warm up and continued waiting.
"Where are you staying? Have you booked a hotel?" Wu You asked.
"Yes, don't worry about it," Ke Xun replied.
"Where did you book? I booked there for Fang Fei too." Wu You said, taking out her phone.
"Fang Fei's coming too?" Wei Dong asked.
Wu You nodded: "She contacted me last night, saying she's already on holiday, saw us chatting in the group, and said she wanted to come and visit."
"Why bother traveling back and forth in this cold weather?" Wei Dong shrank his neck, "The group of us is enough."
"Anyway, she doesn't need to visit relatives. I'll entertain her when she comes, and we can go sightseeing." Wu You said.
"How do you know she doesn't have relatives?" Wei Dong asked.
"She mentioned it casually when we chatted privately," Wu You said, "She seems to live alone and rarely contacts her family."
"Oh." Wei Dong thought about Fang Fei's usual behavior; she did seem very independent.
After waiting for an hour, Luo Cheng, Zhu Haowen, and Fang Fei arrived one after another, and Wu You drove off.
"Girl, are you sure you can handle this?" Wei Dong watched Wu You tremble as she crawled along the icy road, gripping his seatbelt tightly. "How many years of driving experience do you have? You look like you're driving under the influence."
"..." Wu You stared straight ahead, not daring to blink. "I just got my license..."
"Wow!" Several voices exclaimed at once.
"Sister, can you put down the steering wheel and let me drive?" Luo Cheng tentatively reached out.
"Are you a steady driver?" Wei Dong clearly didn't trust Luo Cheng. "Don't tell me you usually drive around drainage ditches."
"Brother, I can handle sports cars and SUVs, I think this kind of minivan should be fine too," Luo Cheng said.
"Be careful, the road is slippery, and you're not familiar with the road conditions." Wu You pulled over and gave the driver's seat to Luo Cheng.
Luo Cheng confidently stepped on the gas and steadily drove the car back onto the road.
"Hey, Luo Bo," Wei Dong praised him, "I didn't know you had any good points."
"...What are you talking about? I have plenty of good points," Luo Bo skillfully maneuvered on the ice, "When it comes to driving, I'm a veteran driver."
"...Yeah, even you, a kid, have a girlfriend." Wei Dong tucked his neck into his scarf, closed his eyes, and leaned back, "Don't talk to me, sexy single dog, playing dead online."
"Is that place far?" Ke Xun asked Wu You, "It's almost noon, why don't we find a place to eat first?"
"Sure, it's on the way," Wu You said, "There's a braised mutton restaurant a little further ahead, it's really delicious."
"Okay, let's go there." Ke Xun said, taking out his phone to send a message to Mu Yiran to let him know he was safe.
But he had only sent half of the message when Luo Bo suddenly slammed on the brakes, and everyone in the car lurched forward, Wei Dong even got snot running down
his face. "What's going on?" Ke Xun stood up slightly and looked ahead.
"There was a rear-end collision," Luo Yu replied, still shaken
. "We were just a centimeter away from kissing. Luckily, I'm a martial arts expert." Wu You, in the passenger seat, jumped out of the door in fright, ran to the front of the car to examine it closely for a while, and then sat back down. "It really was just a centimeter away! Luo Yu, you're something else! I borrowed this car; it would be hard to explain if it got scratched or bumped."
"This isn't good," Wei Dong said, glancing out the window. "We're stuck here, and neither of the cars on either side is moving."
"It's just a rear-end collision, why aren't either of them moving?" Wu You jumped out of the car again and kept walking forward, not returning for a long time.
After waiting for a while, the crowd, worried that something had happened to her, locked their cars and got out to look for her.
There were at least twenty or thirty cars in a chain-reaction collision ahead. When they got to the front, they saw a crowd gathered around something, with occasional gasps of surprise.
The crowd went closer to look and saw blood splattered all over the ground under one of the cars, and a person lying motionless under the wheels, as if they had been in a car accident.
Someone said, "This death is too gruesome, I don't even dare to look there... Is there anyone brave enough to go over and cover his head? It's not good to leave it exposed like this, there are women and children passing by."
However, after asking several times, no one dared to go forward and cover the body.
Ke Xun pushed through the crowd and squeezed into the inner circle to take a look. No wonder no one dared to go up; the victim's death was too gruesome. The wheel had run over his head, shattering his skull into a mangled mess, his brain matter spilling out in a pool of red and white fluid, and his eyeballs had popped out.
"Let's find something to cover him," Wei Dong said.
"Come and lend a hand," Ke Xun stepped forward. "Take off his coat and cover him with it."
Wei Dong and Zhu Haowen followed, and the three of them carefully removed the victim's coat and covered his head, concealing the blood on the ground.
The onlookers watched with astonishment and admiration as the three of them acted as if it were nothing more than a rain-soaked electric scooter, rather than a gruesome corpse. Especially the tall kid, who even picked up the two eyeballs that the dead man had thrown out and put them back in their sockets...
As the three of them walked back, someone said to them, "Wow, you're awesome, working at the crematorium, right?"
The three of them: "..."
Luo Yu and Fang Fei found Wu You, who had been vomiting by the roadside for a long time. When they saw Ke Xun walking over with blood on his hands, Wu You gagged a few more times.
Ke Xun wiped his hands clean with a handful of snow and said, "This car won't be able to move for a while. Let's find a restaurant by the roadside to eat."
"You guys... can you still eat..." Wu You wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "My god, I haven't recovered from the last painting yet, and now this happens again... I probably won't want to eat meat for the next few months... provided I'm still alive... You guys are too awesome, you even dared to lay a hand on me..."
Ke Xun didn't say anything. Wei Dong thought for a moment and smiled: "I'm used to it."
"Sister, you'll be as calm as a goose after experiencing a few more paintings." Luo Jin's face wasn't very good either, but it was better than Wu You's.
After finishing their meal, Ke Xun went to buy some New Year's goods. Everyone waited in the car for a while before the road slowly reopened. Luo Jin continued driving and steadily drove the car to their destination.
The great-grandmother lived with her family in an old residential area with gray brick walls, narrow stairwells, and dim lighting. The tall and imposing Ke Xun walked at the back, blocking the faint light filtering into the stairwell. Wei Dong, groping his way up the stairs in the dark, stumbled and kicked up a cloud of dust.
"Ke Xun, you better watch your step!" Wei Dong yelled, "Did you grow up eating Optimus Prime?!"
"I'm sorry, I forgot to take care of you, you 178cm miniature," Ke Xun leaned forward slightly, "Why don't you sit in my pocket and I'll carry you around?"
Several people laughed in the darkness. Wu You finished laughing and sighed, "To reach your current mindset, I don't know how many more life-or-death trials I'll have to endure."
Someone patted her on the shoulder, and everyone fell silent, continuing up to the second floor.
Great-Grandma's family had just finished eating when Ke Xun greeted them, presenting them with New Year's gifts. Great-Grandma was delighted, grabbing his hand and praising him repeatedly, "This child, so perceptive! Look at him, his physique, his little face, as handsome as a chubby baby in a New Year's painting!"
Ke Xun: "..." I'm still quite thin...
"Great-Grandma, these friends of mine have come to visit you, and we'd also like you to take a look at them," Wu You said bluntly after leading everyone into Great-Grandma's room.
Great-Grandma's room wasn't well-lit, making it rather dim. The old lady sat on the large wooden bed by the window, her old eyes hazy as she looked at the group of men and women standing before her.
The group stood respectfully, not daring to breathe, their eyes filled with complex emotions as they gazed at the old lady, wondering if their fate would become even more unpredictable in her eyes.
The old lady's gaze swept across everyone's faces before she finally spoke, pointing to Ke Xun, who was closest to her: "Her great-uncle's little niece is both beautiful and capable. I think she'd be a good match for you, young man..."
Everyone: "..." We didn't ask you to find her a partner...
"Great-Grandma, please take a good look at me." Ke Xun walked over, sat on the edge of the bed, and brought his face close enough for the old lady to see clearly. "I think I'll be having a run of bad luck this second half of the year, with one misfortune after another. I heard you can tell fortunes, so could you tell me if there's any way to change my luck?"
The great-grandma seemed to only now truly look at Ke Xun seriously, and she looked at him for a long time, until everyone even started to feel the room getting a little cold, before they heard the old woman let out a long sigh.
After the old lady sighed, she remained silent for a long time. Wu You, with her impulsive nature, couldn't bear the torment of being suspended like this. She rushed over, squatted down beside the bed, and took the old lady's hand: "Great-Grandma, please don't hide anything. Whether we stick our necks out or not, we'll be stabbed anyway, and we'll accept whatever the outcome. But please don't just hold up the knife to scare us without actually bringing it down. Hanging like this makes us suffer even more. Please have some pity on me and tell me what's wrong!"
The old lady looked at Wu You's slightly reddened eyes with her cloudy old eyes, squeezed her cold hand slightly, sighed again, and said, "From the moment you walked in, I could tell. None of you escaped; you've all been infected."
Although everyone knew it in their hearts, hearing it from an unrelated outsider still gave them a sense of despair, as if it had been confirmed.
"Infected with what?" Wu You asked in a trembling voice.
The old woman looked at her with pity and shook her head slightly: "I don't know, child... I don't know what that is, it's in your bone structure..."