Chapter 35: The Man of the Wasteland

Qiu Yiyao was startled by the sudden embrace. She did not catch what the person was shouting, but her instinct told her it was Bai Peiyu.

"You Bai, let go of me!"

She struggled desperately, her hands digging into the thick, muscular arm and pinching hard. But she immediately felt something was wrong; the arm was covered in coarse hair, as if the person were wearing a fur coat. Who would wear a fur coat in this weather?

The man continued to shout, "I’ve got myself a wife..."

The strange, rough voice made Qiu Yiyao freeze. She instinctively looked toward the spot where Bai Peiyu had been standing earlier. Under the moonlight, Bai Peiyu stood silently, his white shirt standing out starkly against the darkness. He looked like an outsider watching a show that had nothing to do with him, with no intention of stepping in to help. Realizing that Bai Peiyu had brought her to this wasteland on purpose, his goal became clear.

"You bastard, how despicable." Qiu Yiyao shouted in anger.

The man kept giggling, his hand beginning to grope clumsily toward her chest.

"I'll fight you to the death!"

Qiu Yiyao let out a roar and, using every ounce of strength she possessed, gritted her teeth and slammed her head into the man’s forehead. As expected, the man let out a howl of pain and released her, crouching on the ground and whimpering.

"It hurts, bad woman... you are a bad woman..."

From start to finish, his tone was like that of a three-year-old child, a sharp contrast to his hulking frame. Qiu Yiyao tumbled to the ground, the gravel biting into her skin. She didn't bother to rub her sore spots, instead scrambling up with a frown and rushing toward Bai Peiyu. She raised her hand and slapped him across the face. "You jerk! I actually thought you might be a little different from those things, but I didn't expect you to be just as cunning and vile."

Bai Peiyu said nothing and did not retaliate, as if the slap had never landed. He walked past Qiu Yiyao to the man and said sternly, "Are you done crying? If you are, go back immediately."

"Not going back," the man said, his voice thick with tears. "I want a wife."

"Wife my foot," Qiu Yiyao retorted. Still fuming, she stepped forward and kicked the man in the shoulder, knocking him over. "Go find a wife in the grave, you filthy pervert!"

Thinking of how he had held and groped her just moments ago, she felt a wave of nausea, which only made her kicks more vicious. The man raised his hands to protect his head, crying even louder. His wails echoed across the wasteland, sounding hauntingly eerie.

After a long bout of kicking, Bai Peiyu finally reached out and grabbed Qiu Yiyao’s arm, pulling her aside. "Have you vented enough?"

"No." Qiu Yiyao was not usually a person of such volatile temper, but the grievances she had suffered lately made her want to seize this opportunity to let it all out. She kicked at Bai Peiyu’s legs. "I'll kill you all! You bunch of heartless demons. If you won't let me leave, then no one is going to have a good time."

Bai Peiyu did not argue, allowing her to vent her fury.

Suddenly, the man scrambled up from the ground, lunged over, and hugged Qiu Yiyao’s waist, shouting, "Bad woman, don't hit my brother!"

"Brother?" Once the realization dawned on her, Qiu Yiyao was as excited as if she had found concrete evidence. "And you say I'm sick? That my previous experiences were hallucinations? How do you explain this now? How could an outsider like you have a younger brother here? If this isn't a conspiracy, what is it?"

She pushed the man away with disgust. "Go find your brother! Why are you hugging me?"

The man obediently went over and hugged Bai Peiyu’s leg. "Brother, I'll protect you."

Bai Peiyu bent down and patted the man’s head, explaining calmly, "I picked him up on the street. His family suffered a tragedy, and he fell seriously ill. He has no one left."

Qiu Yiyao clearly didn't believe him. "Ha, do you think I'm as stupid as he is? If you really want to convince me, take me out of this town. Otherwise, I won't believe a word you say."

"Leaving here is simple. Go to the ticket station and buy a train ticket. But are you really willing to leave Uncle Qiu here alone to guard the old house?"

Thinking of that ticket window covered in spiderwebs, Qiu Yiyao sneered, "What? Now you want to overturn all my real memories? There’s no one at that ticket station."

"Whether it’s real or fake, why don’t you go see for yourself tomorrow?"

"No. I won't fall for your tricks ever again."

Qiu Yiyao was certain she wasn't sick; everything was just an excuse they used to confuse her. But Bai Peiyu just let out a cold laugh. "Coward."

He stepped forward, grabbed Qiu Yiyao’s arm, and started walking toward the riverbank, calling out to the man, "Lixuan, go home by yourself."

Seeing the two of them leaving without him, Bai Lixuan grew angry. He shouted in the direction they were heading, "Brother, you want the bad woman and not me? Hmph! I'm not talking to you anymore!" He sat on the ground, refusing to get up, like a child desperate for adult attention, waiting for someone to come and coax him.

Bai Peiyu pulled Qiu Yiyao to the riverbank, where the streetlights illuminated the surroundings. Qiu Yiyao pulled her hand away. "Where are you taking me now?"

"To the place you want to go?"

"What?"

Before she could understand, a motorcycle approached from the distance, its "put-put-put" sound piercing the quiet night. As the vehicle neared, Bai Peiyu strode into the middle of the road. The rider slammed on the brakes, nearly flying off. He whipped off his helmet in a rage and cursed, "Are you crazy? Trying to pull a scam here?"

"Get off." Bai Peiyu looked at the man with contempt.

The man was stunned, unable to believe his ears. "Say that again."

"I told you to get off." Bai Peiyu’s voice was icy, devoid of any warmth, as if a general were commanding a soldier.

Perhaps the man felt uneasy due to his tone, or perhaps he just decided it wasn't worth the trouble. He glanced at Qiu Yiyao behind Bai Peiyu and dismounted without another word.

To Qiu Yiyao, however, this felt like a coordinated setup. How else could a motorcycle appear so conveniently just as the topic of the ticket station was raised? She had been to the riverbank several times before and had never seen a single motorcycle.

"Get on. What are you spacing out for?"

Qiu Yiyao looked up to see that Bai Peiyu had already climbed on.

"Don't you guys have the ability to transform things? Why go through all this trouble?" She muttered to herself, but she obediently climbed onto the back of the motorcycle. She wanted to see what kind of trick Bai Peiyu was going to pull next.

As soon as she was seated, the bike surged forward. Qiu Yiyao instinctively reached out and wrapped her arms around Bai Peiyu’s waist. A man was truly different from a woman; through his shirt, she could clearly feel that there wasn't an ounce of extra fat on his waist. His skin was firm, which made her feel envious. Thinking of her own frail, bony frame, her confidence in her appearance dwindled even further.

...

Ten minutes later, the bike passed through a small square and stopped in front of the ticket station. It was still locked up tight, but under the glow of the streetlights, she could clearly see that the doors and windows were perfectly clean—there were no spiderwebs at all. On an electronic screen to the side, ticket prices and train schedules cycled continuously. The night she had come here, there had been no such screen.

"Seeing is believing. Are you satisfied now? If you want to leave town, come buy a ticket yourself tomorrow morning."

Qiu Yiyao had clearly seen those things changing that night; she wouldn't be stupid enough to believe anything. Just as she was about to retort, she caught a glimpse of something black darting quickly past the electronic screen.

She remembered the faceless dwarf.

Suddenly, she had a new idea.