ATLAS TRANSLATES

Chu Zhi turned her head, and suddenly their faces were directly opposite each other. The distance was so close that she could even see her own reflection in his dark eyes. The young girl froze for a moment, blinked, then blinked again, staring at him carefully for a few seconds before suddenly saying, “Senior, your eyelashes are so long. What brand of eyelash growth serum do you use?”

Cheng Yi, who had been thoroughly enjoying the scene, couldn’t help but burst out laughing at this comment.

He turned his head and looked at Young Master Lu, who had his upper body practically draped over the girl, and raised his eyebrows, saying, “He doesn’t use that stuff. Our young master is naturally blessed with beauty — he’s just missing his chance to be the emperor’s consort.”

Lu Jiaheng still had his chin resting on the young girl’s shoulder. He turned his head slightly, and Cheng Yi could see the young master narrowing his peach blossom eyes, giving him a cool look: “Would you like to get out of the car?”

He had his head stretched out, enjoying the moment like he was savoring tofu, taking advantage and still acting smug about it.

Cheng Yi rolled his eyes again, feeling that he’d rolled his eyes so many times these past two days that his eye sockets were starting to hurt.

Lu Jiaheng kept his chin where it was, naturally pressing against her from a diagonal angle from behind, bringing with him a slight sense of pressure and warm body temperature. His Adam’s apple protruded, pressing against her shoulder through the clothing. When he spoke, Chu Zhi could feel the subtle vibrations from his Adam’s apple, and his breath warmed her ear.

Chu Zhi’s ear tickled, and she instinctively shrunk her neck, but didn’t push him away.

Lu Jiaheng lifted his eyes slightly, moved his head away, and slowly sat back in his seat.

He leaned back into his seat, head against the headrest, slightly turned to look at her with deep eyes: “So don’t talk to them. Those two are too noisy, I feel like throwing up.”

Lin Boyang: “…”

Lin Boyang joined Cheng Yi’s eye-rolling army, rolling his eyes so hard they practically flew out onto the highway, foot on the gas pedal, zooming away.

Lu Jiaheng sprawled lazily in his chair and drawled, “Drive slower, I’m a bit dizzy.”

“…” Lin Boyang’s teeth ground audibly.

Driving already took longer than taking the high-speed rail, and with a sickly young master in the car constantly acting like he would die if they went over 80 kilometers per hour, it was already night by the time they got back.

Lin Tong fell asleep as soon as she got in the car, sleeping on and off several times. Chu Zhi also fell asleep later. Sitting in the middle without a headrest, her head fell back when she dozed off, facing the car roof with her snow-white neck stretched into a straight line.

The car was quiet. Lu Jiaheng raised his arm, gently cradling the back of her head and guiding it to rest on his shoulder, his movements gentle.

Cheng Yi watched, his expression blank for at least half a minute.

Lu Jiaheng appeared outwardly passive yet accommodating — if you flirted with him, he’d give you his number, maintaining a suave and gentle demeanor. But his true inner thoughts were actually quite cruel and harsh, typically lacking respect and patience for the opposite sex.

Though he would never let you see that, of course.

His personality was indeed a bit trashy, but everything has its cause and effect. Given his family situation, Cheng Yi thought it was already quite remarkable that he had only turned out this slightly crooked.

Moreover, among their group, except for the naive Lin Boyang, who didn’t have character flaws? Whose family didn’t have some spicy secrets that were better left unspoken?

Cheng Yi hadn’t really understood why he suddenly showed such enthusiasm for a girl, calling him late at night to help get a high-speed rail ticket.

A high-speed rail ticket — when Cheng Yi heard this, he was stunned.

This guy actually knew what a high-speed rail was?!

He was really curious, so he risked following along to take a look, and found this girl was indeed different.

Cheng Yi had never believed there could be people in this world without a dark side. Human nature was multifaceted; where there was light, there must be shadow.

But Chu Zhi seemed to have none.

She appeared incredibly pure and happy, radiating positive energy from head to toe. It seemed that just listening to her talk could make others happy too.

He began to understand why Lu Jiaheng was interested in her.

He had always thought it was just interest, nothing more.

Although Cheng Yi had been watching like it was a show and even helped him along, joking aside, he had never seriously considered this situation.

The idea of Lu Jiaheng actually falling in love with someone sounded about as likely as the super straight Lin Boyang suddenly turning gay — both ranked among the top three impossible events.

Now with both girls asleep, watching this series of actions, Cheng Yi finally lost his teasing smile. He scratched his temple and drew in a breath: “Aheng, what’s really going on here?”

Feeling the warm weight against his neck, Lu Jiaheng slid down slightly in his seat, adjusting his height to make the young girl leaning on his shoulder more comfortable.

He kept his eyes lowered, not looking at Cheng Yi, appearing unconcerned as he spoke in a very low voice: “What do you mean, what’s going on?”

Cheng Yi was even more stunned, stammering: “Holy shit, is Lin Boyang really going to lose ten years off his life?”

Lin Boyang glanced at him, unusually silent for once.

As the car passed through the toll station, Lin Boyang opened the window. The wind rushed in, blowing Chu Zhi’s fine, fluffy bangs against her nose tip.

She might have felt ticklish, because she slightly furrowed her brows in her sleep, blindly reaching up to scratch her nose, then nuzzled her head against his shoulder’s fabric, burrowing a bit deeper.

Like some fluffy, soft little animal.

Lu Jiaheng’s lips curved up, his voice light and faint, the end of his words drifting away: “I don’t know.”

Chu Zhi thought she might have been woken up by hunger.

Shortly after the car entered the city, she woke up.

Her head was leaning on Lin Tong’s shoulder, her legs taking up half of Lu Jiaheng’s space, her whole body tilted at almost forty-five degrees as she slept deeply, just short of lying across both of them.

Chu Zhi’s eyes were half-closed as she yawned so widely that tears formed. She slowly sat up straight and raised her hand to rub her neck.

She was sure she had fallen asleep leaning on Lin Tong’s shoulder, but for some reason, her neck felt particularly sore when she turned it to the right.

After sitting in her seat for a while, she turned her head while massaging her neck.

Lu Jiaheng seemed to be in the same position as before she fell asleep, looking as if he hadn’t moved at all. His hand rested casually on his leg, his head leaning lazily against the car window frame as he looked outside.

It was past seven in the evening, and night had fallen. Outside the window, the streets were busy with traffic, vehicles moving at high speed, their headlights mixing with the neon signs and dim street lamps to create streaks of light.

The lights flickered on and off, washing his quiet profile with colors like flowing water, making it look like a scene from some art film.

Chu Zhi raised her hand to rub the corner of her eye, her throat dry, voice slightly raspy: “Senior, are you still carsick?”

Lu Jiaheng turned his head, but before he could speak, Cheng Yi quickly cut in: “Your senior is sick, your senior needs to eat a bucket of Laotan Sauerkraut Beef Noodles to feel better,” Cheng Yi’s tone was very sincere, “Sour things work best, he always ate this when he got carsick before.”

Lin Boyang rarely agreed with him: “Make it two buckets.”

“Really?” Chu Zhi turned her head to look at Lu Jiaheng seriously, “Senior, do you want to eat some?”

Lu Jiaheng: “…”