Xiaofeng’s hand paused on the door of the car as she followed Ye Cheng’s gaze and saw several people with flashlights heading towards their car.
Looking at the white light opposite her, Xiaofeng shivered at the thought of a possibility, had they encountered road bandits?
In her previous life, she heard her dad talk about some things from the nineties, typically about truck drivers running into road or village bandits.
Considering the current situation, had they come across road bandits?
Ye Cheng looked ahead, his expression hidden in the darkness, but the faces of the people approaching became clearer and clearer.
There were five of them, all tall and strong, the kind that could intimidate others easily. This place was a necessary passageway to the national highway, and this group knew it well, which is why they dared to brazenly set up a blockade here.
The leader of the group was a thin tall man with little flesh on his face, his cheekbones protruding. He raised his flashlight, took a glance inside the car, and discovered a young couple.
Young people wouldn’t require much effort; unless they were experienced hands, they’d easily submit. He walked forward and knocked on the car door, signaling for the people inside to get out.
Ye Cheng rolled down the window, looked down on them from his higher position, raised his eyebrows, and asked with a voice cold as ice, adding a few degrees of chill to the dark night, "Is there a problem?"
The thin man looked at him and sneered with a hint of ridicule. "Good-looking, the type that’s especially good at deceiving women," he remarked with cold laughter, "Bro, stuck and can’t get out, right? Need our help to push you out?"
Xiaofeng didn’t speak, just silently watched Ye Cheng.
She suddenly had the intuition that Ye Cheng would definitely be able to handle the current situation.
Because Ye Cheng sat there silently, with an unwavering stare that made her feel that besides being a doctor, he might also be an old hand at this.
Ye Cheng pursed his lips, the flashlight’s beam reflecting off his face, casting a cold light: "What’s the price?"
The other side, hearing Ye Cheng’s tone, deduced he wasn’t just some naive youngster taking his car out for the first time but more like a seasoned veteran: "A thousand."
A thousand? Xiaofeng furrowed her brows; these people were indeed brazen, demanding a thousand outright.
"Little brother, it’s your first time on the road, right?" Baldie said from behind, sweeping a flashlight over Ye Cheng and finding a sign nearby, "See those words? If you want to pass through here, leave a toll."
The sign was hidden out of plain view, and one would not notice it without careful observation.
Ye Cheng raised an eyebrow, "Now I see it."
Hearing this, the other men exchanged glances. It seemed they were dealing with someone reasonable, and reasonable was good; it saved them a lot of trouble.
"Pay a thousand first, and we’ll help you get the car out." The pit wasn’t small, it was deep, and the vehicle wouldn’t come out on its own, it needed manual assistance.
So, if these two wanted to get out tonight, there was only one way: pay them to push the vehicle out because anything less than a thousand, and they wouldn’t budge.
Xiaofeng, using the light from the flashlight, glanced at the road ahead. There were many barriers, and if one didn’t look closely, they would think the road was flat, but in reality, there were large pits dug underneath, waiting for vehicles to fall in.
"Gentlemen," Xiaofeng shifted slightly in her seat, "this is my first long trip with my older brother and we’ve never come across something before. We’re not familiar with these kinds of rates, but isn’t a thousand a bit too much? The total money we have on us for this trip isn’t even a thousand."
Her reference to Ye Cheng as her older brother caught him off guard.
Older brother? He certainly wasn’t her older brother.
The thin tall man, upon hearing Xiaofeng’s voice and looking over, realized that the girl in the car was especially pretty. He had thought they were a young couple, not siblings.
"Since it’s your first time out, we can reduce it a bit, eight hundred at the least. If it’s any less than that, we’ll just go back to sleep, and you can wait here." If they could solve it amicably, then better to keep it amicable. Besides, the girl was so pretty, it’d be bad if they scared her by getting rough.
Xiaofeng’s lips twitched. She’d only earn around a thousand from delivering these goods, and here he was, asking for eight hundred in one go—it was as if she’d made the delivery for nothing.
But that wasn’t the key issue. The key was that this wouldn’t be her only trip down this road. If this route to Provincial City was taken often, the number of times she’d pass through here would definitely not be few. If she compromised this time, what about the next, or the time after that?
"Older brother, we really don’t have that much," Xiaofeng said evenly, choosing to first see how far the other party would go, "Otherwise, we won’t trouble you folks; my older brother and I can also lift the vehicle ourselves."
Ye Cheng was strong, and if she relied on her spatial abilities, her own strength wouldn’t be insignificant either—lifting a vehicle should be feasible.
Hearing Xiaofeng’s words, the thin tall man laughed heartily, "Ha-ha, guys, did you hear that? They want to lift the car out themselves."
Those behind him, upon hearing Xiaofeng’s words, also laughed uproariously, "The young lady sure talks big, as if she’s some kind of strongwoman."
That’s women for you, narrow-minded. Do they even know how much a cargo truck weighs? With her meager strength, she wants to lift a truck? Quite the boastful one, she is.
The thin tall man looked at Ye Cheng and then back at Xiaofeng, who claimed tall tales, his lips curving slightly, "If you really can lift the car out of the pit, naturally, we won’t charge you."
He was curious to see if this pair of youngsters had such an ability.
If they didn’t, they’d have to pay up, and if they couldn’t pay, things could get ugly.
Xiaofeng smiled faintly, "You mean it?"
"Of course, my word... is my bond." Damn it, he thought, feeling a sudden skip in his heart when she looked at him—it wasn’t a good sign.
"Alright," Xiaofeng nodded, then looked at Ye Cheng with a smile, "Older brother, they don’t believe we can lift the car on our own. Should we show them?"
Poor things, if they don’t see a demonstration, they won’t understand what shock is.
Xiaofeng winked at Ye Cheng, clearly suggesting he play along.
Ye Cheng had a good idea of what Xiaofeng was planning. Such antics would have been beneath him in the past, and if he had to move anything, it would be the few troublesome folks in front of him.
But when Xiaofeng looked at him with that expectation, he knew he couldn’t refuse and nodded in agreement, "Okay."
Seeing the pair decided to get out of the car, the thin tall man signaled the others with his eyes. It was good that they were willing to step out of the car; whether they could get back in depended on their mood.
In the end, if an issue could be solved with money, violence should be avoided when possible.
Ye Cheng was the first to exit the vehicle. After getting down, he ignored the surreptitious glances from the men behind him, walked over to the passenger side, helped Xiaofeng open the door, and reached out to catch her.
The cargo truck’s seat was much higher than those of a normal car. She was pregnant, and it was normal for Ye Cheng to help her down.
Xiaofeng hesitated at the hand Ye Cheng extended.
— Should she take it, or not?