Wandering in the vast darkness

008 Please be a little harsher on me

In a daze, Yu Wenhao felt the car stop. He quickly opened his eyes and saw that the car was parked in front of a villa. The gate of the villa was open, but the girl did not drive the car in. Instead, she parked it outside the gate. She turned her head and saw that Yu Wenhao was awake. She then told him that she had arrived.

"Is this your home?" Yu asked.

The girl nodded: "I'll just grab something and come right out. You wait here for me. It's too cold outside, so I'll leave the car running."

Yu said hello.

The girl unbuckled her seatbelt, but instead of immediately opening the car door and getting out, she greeted Yu Wenhao:

"Wait for me for ten minutes. If I don't come out after ten minutes, call me and urge me to come out. Be fierce, say whatever you want, just make me come out."

Yu Wenhao chuckled, speechless: "What kind of operation is this?"

"Don't worry about it, just keep urging me. I'll die if I have to," the girl said.

Yu asked, "I understand. It's just swearing. I can swear."

The girl smiled and nodded before opening the car door and getting out.

Yu Wenhao sat up straight and watched the girl walk through the gate, along the dappled path illuminated by the courtyard lights, across the yard, and finally disappear into the villa.

The car's air conditioning was on full blast, making it somewhat stuffy. When Yu Wenhao opened the car door, the sudden chill that rushed in from outside made him shiver.

He closed the door again, rubbed his face with both hands, took a deep breath, then reopened the door, got out of the car, grabbed the down jacket that was inside out on the passenger seat, and put it on.

This villa area is very large. Yu Wenhao looked around and saw villas stretching all the way to the foot of the distant mountains under the starry sky. It was already past ten o'clock at night. Apart from the low hum of the car engines around him, the whole community was quiet. The streetlights and the lit windows seemed to be frozen, shivering with a cold light.

Yu Wenhao was unfamiliar with Lin'an to begin with, and having slept the whole way, he had no idea where this neighborhood was in Jincheng Town, nor did he care to find out. He felt that this world was too far removed from him, and he probably would never live in such a neighborhood in his lifetime.

He sniffed and inhaled a breath of crisp, cool air. The air was filled with the fresh scent of leaves and a faint fragrance of some unknown flower—it smelled wonderful.

He looked toward the villa where the girl had disappeared. Several windows in the villa were lit, but he didn't know which window was the girl's room.

It was clear that this girl came from a well-off family, and she herself was also quite accomplished. Yet, this girl, who should have been like a fairy, had all sorts of strange traits. Yu Wenhao thought to herself that her procrastination would likely trouble her and her family for a long time, like a rain cloud constantly hanging over this villa.

For both her and her parents, this is an indelible shadow, making their otherwise perfect family seem incomplete.

Yu Wenhao understood this situation. Before Qianqian got sick, their family was a very happy family. After Qianqian fell ill, a gap was left in the family. He and his wife tried their best to fill the gap, but they were helpless and in a mess.

Yu checked the time; ten minutes had passed, and the girl still hadn't come out.

He got back into the car, picked up his phone, and called her.

As soon as the call connected, Yu greeted everyone and asked, "Did you find what you were looking for?"

"Oh, I found it."

"No, oh no, come out right away once you find it," Yu Wenhao said.

"Oh, no, no, okay, I'll be right out." The girl said and hung up the phone.

When Yu Wenhao made the call, he wasn't prepared for it to work, or for the girl to appear at the villa's door. If it were that simple, he wouldn't have needed to come along. Yu Wenhao already understood the girl's purpose in wanting him to come: to make him an unshakeable tail, forcing her to return to Hangzhou.

Just like she said, if he hadn't come with her, she might not have gone back to Hangzhou today, and she definitely has important things to do in Hangzhou tomorrow.

Yu Wenhao waited for five minutes, and sure enough, the villa was still quiet. Yu Wenhao picked up the phone and dialed again. As soon as the call connected, all she heard was a string of "oh oh".

"Master, I'm all done, I'll be out soon, really, right away!" The girl blurted out before even saying hello.

Yu Wenhao said, "You can't be right away. Can I give you five more minutes? If you're not here in five minutes, I'll drive away."

Although the girl told Yu Wenhao to yell at her and say whatever he wanted, Yu Wenhao couldn't bring himself to do it. He knew she was a patient, and although neither she nor her family would want to admit it, Yu Wenhao knew she was a patient, just like Qianqian, only with a different illness. How could he yell at a patient?

Yu Wenhao could only coerce her by threatening to drive the car away.

Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, the girl suddenly breathed a sigh of relief on the other end of the phone and greeted Yu Wenhao:

"Okay, sir, you can either drive the car away or park it where it was before. Just leave the car keys at the hotel reception. I won't go. I'll have someone pick up the car tomorrow."

Yu Wenhao was both amused and exasperated. "You're really generous. You just let someone drive away with your Ferrari without even knowing why?"

Yu Wenhao thought for a moment and said, "Fine, you're amazing, I admit defeat. I'll wait for you. Driving such a nice car, I'm afraid if something happens on the road, I won't be able to afford to pay for it."

"No, no, I won't make you pay for it. You can really drive it away."

"Alright, even if you're generous, I still don't dare to open it. I'm begging you, please come out quickly, miss," Yu Wenhao said.

The girl sighed, remained silent for a moment, and then said, "Okay, I'll be right out."

Six or seven minutes passed, and there was still no response. Yu called her again and said:

"I have things to do back in Hangzhou, and I can't wait any longer. I'll walk from the main gate in now. If you haven't come out by the time I get to the inner gate, I'll knock on the door with my fist and call your whole family out. I'll tell them that I'm your boyfriend, and see what you do then."

The girl was terrified and immediately cried out, "No, no, Master, I'm really coming out right away, please wait a little longer."

"I'm not waiting any longer, I'm going inside now," Yu Wenhao said, and then hung up the phone.

He got out of the car and stood by it for a minute or two before starting to walk inside. When he was almost at the villa's door, the door opened and the girl came out, carrying two sets of clothes that were actually overcoats.

She puffed out her cheeks and walked towards Yu Wenhao, looking away and not daring to look at him. Yu Wenhao went up to her and said with a smile, "Thank goodness, you've finally come out."

Upon hearing this, the girl burst out laughing.

Yu Wenhao reached out and took the clothes from her. The two walked to the gate, where the girl closed the villa's gate and then opened the car's trunk. Yu Wenhao was startled to see that the trunk was already filled with sets of clothes covered with sets of clothes.

Yu asked, "You came back just to get these two sets of clothes?"

"yes."

Yu Wenhao pointed to the trunk and said, "But there are already so many clothes here?"

"I just felt that none of these clothes were suitable, so I thought of coming back to get them," the girl said.

"Such a grand occasion, what are you doing tomorrow? A blind date?" Yu Wenhao asked.

"Go away, what blind date? It's an interview!" the girl scoffed.

"Okay, okay, interviews are indeed important, even more important than blind dates," Yu Wenhao said, closing the trunk.

The two walked ahead, and Yu greeted the girl, saying, "I've never driven a Ferrari before, can I drive it?"

The girl looked at him suspiciously: "Are you upset that I'm driving too fast?"

One sentence exposed his true intentions, which made him a little embarrassed, but he quickly composed himself and said:

"No, really no, I'm just craving it. If I miss this opportunity today, I don't know when I'll ever be able to drive a Ferrari again."

"Okay, then you drive," the girl said.