Chapter 149

"…"

Samson Nan acted like he hadn’t heard her. He turned his face, staring out the train window.

He seemed lost in thought.

After a brief pause, he finally turned back.

"Let’s go."

As he spoke, he reached out and ruffled her hair twice.

He angled his body to slip past her, but she stepped in front of him faster and blocked him.

"…"

Raina Nan tilted her head up, staring straight at him.

"Ah…"

Samson let out a soft sigh, shifted his feet, stepped half a step to the left, then feinted and tried to slip past on the right.

He thought he could get away. Instead, she grabbed the back of his shirt from behind.

"Let go."

"No."

"OK."

He raised both hands and gave up on running, lowered his head, and just looked at Raina.

"Say it. What do you want?"

"You answer my question first…"

"What question?"

"You!"

She glared at him, opened her mouth, then shut it again. Her ears were burning red.

Such a shameless way to play dumb… and it only made it harder for her to say it out loud…

"I… I…"

She ground her teeth, her gaze drifting everywhere but his face.

"That kiss…"

"That one, huh."

Samson cut her off, scratched his head, and glanced out the window.

"…"

A brief silence.

"If I say it was an acci—"

"If you dare say ‘accident’, I’ll beat you to death."

Raina cut him off this time, pointing right at him.

"…"

Samson froze for a second. Clearly, he hadn’t expected her to be this forceful all of a sudden.

"Heh, do you have to be that fierce~? Little girls shouldn’t be all about fighting and killing~"

He laughed and patted her shoulder.

"Quit joking around with me!"

She didn’t seem in the mood for jokes at all.

"Little One, you want me to cry or something…?"

"Hmph!"

"Yuyu, I…"

"…"

She clenched her fists tight, looking at him.

"…"

When he still didn’t say anything, she finally dropped her gaze to the floor and muttered softly:

"Can you answer me properly, just once…?"

Cry? She was the one who actually wanted to cry.

Unbelievable. He hadn’t answered a single question. Just kept dodging and circling around her…

…

"Yuyu…!"

While the two of them were stuck like that, Tong Xiaoling came running into their car.

She took one look at the scene in front of her.

"You two…"

She glanced left and right. When she saw neither of them speaking, she finally said:

"Sorry to interrupt, I’ll let you get back to… whatever…"

She was about to leave.

"Tong Xiaoling!"

Samson called her back.

"If you’ve got something to say, just say it."

"Ah? Oh…"

Tong Xiaoling stopped and stood there, sneaking a look at the silent Raina beside them.

"So, uh… they just announced this train won’t be stopping in the middle, so I came to ask if you guys want to order lunch on the train."

"Oh, it’s that late already, huh."

Samson checked the time. It was already noon.

"Come on, let’s eat~"

He bent down as he spoke, reaching for Raina’s hand.

"…"

Raina shot him a look and flung his hand away.

"I can walk on my own."

"Whoa~ look at you, you can walk by yourself now~"

"!"

Fuming, she kicked him hard in the calf.

Then she walked off on her own toward the front.

"What’s up with her?"

Tong Xiaoling turned back to look at him.

"She’s on her period."

He rubbed his calf and muttered under his breath.

"I’m telling you, stop asking for a beating."

"Asking for a beating? This is literally how we always talk. You got a problem with that?"

"Hey, what’s your problem? I’m being nice here, you know?!"

"Then let me be nice too and tell you—mind your own business less."

He said that and headed forward as well.

"…"

Tong Xiaoling stood there, totally confused.

It took her a while to recover.

"What the hell! Is he sick or what?!"

"…"

By the time the train rolled into Oslo, it was already night.

Their flight home was in two hours, so they waited in the departure hall.

"Who’re you texting?"

Wei Wei leaned his head over, staring at Yun Luojia’s phone screen.

"Zhuang Yan. She wanted to come see us off. I told her not to…"

"It’s so late already. Don’t trouble her~"

"Yeah."

Yun Luojia put her phone down and, from the corner of her eye, glanced at Samson sitting across from her.

"Hey, question."

She lowered her voice.

"What’s up with them?"

"What?"

"You seriously didn’t notice? On the way here, Samson and Yuyu haven’t said a single word to each other."

"Oh~"

Wei Wei thought for a moment, then dropped his voice a bit.

"You don’t know? After you went to the station this morning, those two have been off since breakfast~"

"Really? What happened?"

"How would I know?"

Wei Wei chuckled.

"If you’re curious, you can go ask him~"

"…"

Yun Luo froze for half a second, then stood up and went to sit beside Samson.

She turned her head slightly. He was staring at his phone screen, clearly not noticing her.

So she didn’t say anything either. She just dug out her earphones from her bag, ready to put them on.

"What’s wrong?"

Samson suddenly spoke and turned to look at her.

"N-nothing."

She straightened up a little, flustered.

Half a second later, she asked quietly:

"What’re you looking at?"

"Hm?"

He blinked, then glanced down at his phone.

"Oh, my dad’s asking when we’ll be home."

"I see~"

Ding-dong.

Another notification popped up.

Samson glanced at it and didn’t open it.

Ding-dong.

Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong…

The messages kept coming.

"…You’re not gonna look?"

"Sigh…"

Samson gave a bitter smile and handed her the phone.

"Who is it…"

The screen was full of messages.

"Are you there?"

"When are you guys coming back?"

"Is my sister there?"

"Do you not have signal over there?"

"Call me when you see this."

"She didn’t catch a cold, did she?"

"Are you there?"

…

…

"…"

Yun Luojia got goosebumps just reading them.

"W-who is this…?"

"…"

Samson tipped his chin toward Lin Ruoxi up ahead.

"Her sister."

"Uh…"

Yun Luojia covered her mouth, her expression impossible to describe.

"She’s insane. She blasts over twenty messages at me every day… I can’t take it."

"Pft. Why doesn’t she message Ruoxi directly?"

She couldn’t help laughing. She’d only seen Lin Ruoxi’s sister once at a parent-teacher meeting, and her impression was: the woman barely talked.

"What else? She’s got pride~"

"Just like you?"

"…"

He fell silent, then gave a small, bitter shake of his head.

"…Am I that much of a creep?"

"Mm…"

She frowned slightly and actually thought about it.

After a while, she pinched her fingers together.

"You’re better by just a tiny bit~"

"…"

Samson stared at her, speechless.

"Can we have a normal conversation?"

"Haha, I’m kidding~"

She covered her mouth, laughing.

"…"

He didn’t reply. He leaned back against the seat and tilted his head up, staring at the domed ceiling of the terminal.

After a short silence, he spoke again, his voice low:

"Is it that weird… the way I am?"

"…"

Yun Luojia propped her chin on one hand, a thoughtful little smile on her face.

She tilted her head, looking at him.

"I wouldn’t dare say anything reckless~"

"…"

Samson bit his lip and glanced at her.

Then he showed a faint, helpless smile.

"Then don’t."

…

"But, you know…"

She stood up and took two steps forward.

Then she turned back to look at him.

"I just think Yuyu’s pretty pitiful."

Once she said that, she headed off toward the front.

"…"

Samson sat there, dumbfounded.

Dropping a line like that and walking off—wasn’t that just making it hurt more…

…

"Samson! Let’s go!"

It was time to board. Wei Wei’s voice came from the front.

"Yeah."

Samson answered, hesitated for a moment, then got up.

When he reached the gate, everyone else was already there.

Tong Xiaoling was giggling about something with Lin Ruoxi.

Samson looked around.

"Wait, where’s Raina?"

"Huh?"

Lin Ruoxi finally reacted.

"Oh, right. Where’s Xiaoyu?"

"She wasn’t with you guys?"

"S-she said she was going to the bathroom, and then…"

Tong Xiaoling started to panic. She checked the time—there was less than half an hour between boarding and takeoff.

"Call her, call her!"

They dialed, but no one picked up.

"I’ll go find her!"

"You guys get on first."

Samson grabbed Tong Xiaoling’s arm.

"Luo Jia, tell the staff we’re still missing one. We’ll be right back."

"Got it, hurry!"

"I’ll be quick…"

He said, then turned and ran.

He checked the bathroom first, calling her name a few times. No answer.

Then he rushed back into the departure hall. Even though it was a late-night flight, the hall was still pretty crowded.

Finding one person wouldn’t be easy.

He scanned the area, anxiety creeping up.

"Raina!"

"Ran—!"

As he shouted, someone poked him in the back.

He turned around.

"Little One? Where’d you run off to?"

"…"

Raina stood there without saying a word.

"What are you doing here? We’re boarding, you know that?"

He reached out to pull her, but she stepped back, dodging his hand.

"…"

"What’s that supposed to mean?"

Samson stared at her, completely confused.

"…"

She stayed silent and looked off to the side.

"I don’t want to go back."

"Huh?!"

He thought he’d misheard.

"Did water get into your brain or something?"

He reached out again.

This time she hid her hands behind her back.

"…?"

"I don’t want to go back…"

"What’s that supposed to mean?"

"…"

"You mean you’re staying here? Not leaving?"

"…"

She didn’t look at him, just nodded.

"Wow. You got any common sense at all? You planning to stay here as an illegal?"

"None of your business…"

"You’re really something, Raina~"

He let out a cold laugh and frowned.

"…"

"I’m guessing it won’t be long before they deport you as an illegal immigrant. Then we’ll go pick you up at the embassy. Heh~ that scene will be real glorious."

"…"

She still stared off to the side, ignoring his scolding.

Under the lights, Samson lowered his head, looking at her blurred profile.

After a long moment, he put away the mocking look and spoke softly:

"You sure about this?"

This time his voice was much deeper.

"Yeah."

Her answer didn’t even have half a second of hesitation.

"That so…"

He sighed.

"Suit yourself~"

Unexpectedly, he gave in just like that.

"…"

"We’re about to leave. You got anything you wanna say to your brother?"

"…"

She paused for two seconds.

"No."

…

"OK."

He didn’t say anything else.

He took a few slow steps backward.

"Take care of yourself."

He said it weakly, then turned and walked away.

"…"

She stood there, frozen.

Her heart was racing.

When she looked back, his figure was already gone.

…

She stared in the direction he’d left for a long time.

Then, like the power got cut from her body, she suddenly dropped to the floor.

In silence, she pressed her forehead against the glass wall of the terminal.

Through the huge panes she could see the planes outside, each one’s wing light glowing red as it lifted off from the runway.

"…"

She had no idea what she was doing.

She’d even forgotten what she’d just said to him.

Her shoulders trembled slightly. She covered her mouth to keep herself from making a sound.

But the second she closed her eyes, hot tears poured out uncontrollably…

That drained, hollow feeling rushed through her in an instant.

Guess this was it…

…

…

Suddenly, a strong force yanked her up.

Before she could react, her feet had already left the ground…

"…?!"

She snapped her eyes open.

By the time she realized what was happening, she was already slung over someone’s shoulder.

It was Samson.

…

"Put me down! Put me down!"

"Behave!"

Like a hunter carrying a wild boar, he jogged forward with her on his shoulder.

"Let me down!"

She struggled, but it was useless.

"I told you not to bother with me!"

"Shut up! You really think I can just leave you alone?!"

He raised his voice and shouted:

"I’m telling you, Raina, if you—ah, shit!"

He hadn’t even finished speaking when she suddenly bit down hard on his neck.

“Little One, what the hell, are you a dog?!”

“…”

He ran while gritting his teeth against the pain.

Then suddenly, it went quiet behind him.

“Little One?”

…

He called out, but there was no response.

“Raina?”

“Not dead yet!”

She hadn’t completely given up struggling, but her voice was much softer.

“Are you crying?”

“None of your business…”

Her voice was thick with tears, and they just kept falling.

All the foreigners around them were staring, which only made her want to dig a hole and hide.

“Little One, look at you, aren’t you embarrassed? You’re leaving and you still pull this on me?”

“And whose fault is that?!”

“I…”

He was speechless.

“Okay, okay, it’s all my fault. If you wanna hit me or yell at me, wait till we’re on the plane, alright?”

“You said it?”

“Yes, I said it, I said it!”

“…”

Only then did she seem to calm down a little.

Her lips trembled slightly as she muttered under her breath.

“Then if I tell you to jump off the plane, will you jump?”

“Damn, that’s brutal.”

“Will you jump or not?!”

She pinched his back hard.

“I’ll jump, I’ll jump! Happy now?”

“…”

“You’re acting like a total lunatic…”

he muttered to himself.

“Say that again?!”

“I didn’t say anything…”

…