If the first time was an accident, it was one Xue Rui had expected.
But this hug completely baffled him. The surprise was so great that it even washed away his physical discomfort.
"Is… is it any better?" Lin Ruoxi asked softly, her head bowed.
It was her first time being this close to a boy. Her cheeks were burning, and her mind went a little blank.
"Yeah, much better. But you can let go now," Xue Rui said.
Despite Lin Ruoxi's slender frame, she had a surprising amount of strength. Her slim arms were squeezing him so tightly he could barely breathe.
'This girl is so gullible,' he thought. 'It was obviously a joke, but Lin Ruoxi actually took it seriously.'
The bus wasn't just filled with students; there were also many elderly men and women who looked like they were from the countryside, carrying large bundles of things.
These students were exceptionally well-mannered. Not a single elderly person was left standing. The students stood with their heavy backpacks, chatting with classmates about interesting things that had happened at school.
Suddenly, an elderly man next to Xue Rui stood up. "Young man, you take the seat. Stop teasing the young lady."
"This… Sir, are you looking down on me?"
"Hmph, this old man runs ten kilometers every morning," the old man snorted.
Xue Rui didn't stand on ceremony. In front of a bus full of students, he brazenly sat down.
"Xue Rui! Have you no shame? Don't you understand what it means to respect your elders?" someone couldn't help but blurt out.
Many on the bus recognized Xue Rui. After all, his reputation at Hedong Second Middle School was immense.
"The old man told me to sit. And what does respecting your elders mean? It means completely respecting an elder's opinion," Xue Rui said, completely shameless.
"Well said, young man. You have to respect an elder's opinion."
"You!" The teenager was left speechless by their little duet, his face instantly flushing red.
The old man nodded, satisfied. It reminded him of his own son, who insisted on arranging his twilight years according to his own plans, not his father's.
In truth, that wasn't what the old man wanted at all. He found this young man to be quite open-minded—much better than his own son.
Xue Rui glanced at the old man's wiry muscles. 'He's definitely not bluffing,' he thought. He recalled seeing plenty of old men exercising in the morning, running in tank tops in the dead of winter.
Meanwhile, these students acted like they were dying after running a three-kilometer race in PE, but this old man was an athlete who ran ten kilometers every day. His overall physical fitness was much better.
"Here, here." Xue Rui patted his thigh, gesturing for Lin Ruoxi to sit on his lap.
"N-No, that's okay," Lin Ruoxi said, waving her hands dismissively.
Xue Rui had no intention of giving up the seat. Lin Ruoxi was clearly handling the swaying bus better than he was; standing for a while would be no problem for her.
But after the old man stood up, he started making idle small talk with Lin Ruoxi.
"How old are you this year?"
"Sixteen."
"Where do you live? What do your parents do?"
...
"Old man, are you taking a census or something?"
Xue Rui winced. The old man had launched right into a barrage of nosy questions, and they just so happened to strike at Lin Ruoxi's biggest vulnerabilities.
He stood up, pushed Lin Ruoxi down into the seat, and struck up a conversation with the old man himself.
Of course, Xue Rui was the one taking control of the conversation.
"Sir, how old are you this year?"
"Where does your son work? Has he found a wife yet?"
"Is your grandson doing well in school?"
...
"Stop the bus! Hey driver! Stop the bus!"
Finally, unable to withstand Xue Rui's relentless questioning, the old man got off at an early stop, muttering curses under his breath.
"Don't be mad, sir! Weren't you just asking the same kinds of questions?"
Xue Rui felt that people really ought to walk a mile in another's shoes. After all, when young people were faced with the same questions, they didn't fly into a rage.
"HAHAHAHA! Kid, you're really something else."
The driver had been listening to the whole exchange. 'This kid is a goddamn prodigy,' he thought, 'being able to piss off an old man like that.'
They were nearly out of the city center by then, and many people had gotten off. Xue Rui moved up to the front and started chatting with the driver, offering him a cigarette while they were stopped at a red light.
The driver glanced at the brand, a look of surprise on his face, and tucked it behind his ear for later.
These old-fashioned buses weren't equipped with cameras yet, so as long as you hit it off, you could pretty much chat for the entire trip.
It was a far cry from a dozen years later, when there would be so many rules, including one that forbade passengers from talking to the driver.
"Hey, how does your pay work, anyway? Why do you guys drive so fast?"
The adult world was a drab place, all about money and status. Xue Rui guessed it had to be related to income.
"The bus is the company's, the fares go to the company. We're just lowly grunts. We make forty or fifty yuan for a single route," the driver said, his expression turning bitter.
"No wonder."
Xue Rui finally understood. These bus drivers had to stick to their routes, which were riddled with stops and prone to traffic jams. Anyone would get frustrated in their shoes.
Every delay pushed back the departure time for their next run, which meant less income.
A mystery that had puzzled him for over a decade was finally solved. The reason was more or less what he had suspected.
"You need a Class A license to drive a bus, right? You could make a living doing other things. You're really sacrificing for the greater good, making a huge contribution to the city," Xue Rui said with a laugh.
"That's right. I've got an A1."
The driver said with a proud expression. 'This kid sure knows how to talk,' he thought.
After chatting for a while, Xue Rui learned from the driver that it would be another half hour before they reached their destination. He decided to move to a back seat and get some sleep.
In his dream, he smelled the fresh, clean fragrance of an orange, and the ride felt exceptionally smooth.
After dozing for a while, Xue Rui's eyes fluttered open. The bus was empty now, the only sound being the low roar of the engine.
The setting sun painted the horizon, and for a moment, Xue Rui had the strange feeling that he'd been abandoned by the whole world.
He blinked, and then he realized his head was resting on Lin Ruoxi's shoulder.
As for Lin Ruoxi, she was sitting bolt upright, one arm held gently in front of him as if to brace him, afraid the driver might slam on the brakes and send his head crashing into the seat in front.
She hadn't noticed he was awake. She took a piece of orange peel from her pocket and held it gently under his nose. With a light pinch of her fair, delicate fingers, the zesty scent instantly bloomed in the air.
'What an angel,' Xue Rui marveled inwardly.
No wonder he hadn't felt the bus rocking. It was because Lin Ruoxi was holding him steady.
And that explained the orange-scented dream, too.
"Where'd you get the orange peel?"
As he spoke, Xue Rui's head remained lazily on Lin Ruoxi's shoulder.
"You're awake… The orange was from breakfast. I saw on TV that orange peels can help with motion sickness, so…"
Heard up close, Lin Ruoxi's voice was soft and surprisingly gentle.
Xue Rui remembered that his patient meal that morning had come with an orange. He asked:
"You don't get motion sickness. Why did you save the peel?"
After a long pause, Lin Ruoxi said slowly, "I like oranges."
In reality, Lin Ruoxi liked oranges because the fruit could be eaten and the peel could be steeped in water to make tea. It was one hundred percent usable, unlike other fruits that left a lot of waste.
"You know, my nickname is actually Orange."
He couldn't help himself. He just had to tease this silly girl again. "I didn't quite hear you. Say it again. What is it that you like?"
"I… I like orange peels," Lin Ruoxi said, her face flushing.
"Nope. You just said 'oranges,'" Xue Rui corrected her.
'But he heard me just fine, didn't he?' Lin Ruoxi thought.