Chapter 45

Chapter 45

She had just settled into her seat, not yet able to relax, when out of the corner of her eye she saw in the rearview mirror the two SUVs far behind changing formation.

Like a chain unlocking its clasp, the two SUVs that had been trailing the lead vehicle suddenly pulled alongside each other. In the silent wilderness, the roar of their engines merged with the night, catching up once more.

Qu Yixian, already full of suppressed anger, sneered when she saw this, her gaze sharp, locking precisely on the two SUVs behind that were trying to overtake with increased power.

“They’re trying to encircle us on the highway. Have you ever done this?” she said, pointing to the Explorer slowing ahead to cooperate with the vehicles behind in blocking their path. “Hit the front of their car, push them forward.”

At nearly two hundred kilometers per hour, the Explorer couldn’t brake abruptly. Ramming the front would force it to keep moving. When the speed dropped to its minimum, the front car would suddenly accelerate, sharply swinging its front in a countering move, blocking the cruiser and the road ahead.

By then, the vehicles behind would have already caught up, biting the cruiser’s rear. Front and back, a triangular encirclement would form.

“One kilometer ahead, Yadan formations will appear on both sides of National Highway 315. The Yadan formations are mostly weathered, so they’re small with fine sand at the base. The gaps between them only allow one vehicle through, not suitable for closely tailing,” Qu Yixian traced the GPS screen with her hands, repositioning the coordinates.

She had just realized that Fu Xun’s risky maneuver was aimed at reaching the South Baxian entrance she had marked. He knew that once they entered the Yadan formations, she would be able to shake off this hostile convoy.

But the current situation was unfavorable; they couldn’t wait for them to enter South Baxian from Highway 315. They needed to act quickly, leveraging their strengths. Otherwise, tonight’s outcome would be uncertain.

No sooner had she spoken than Fu Xun, almost without hesitation, corrected the vehicle’s speed and pressed the accelerator, ramming forward.

The moment the front and rear vehicles made contact, the car shuddered, and a sharp scraping collision echoed from the point of impact.

Qu Yixian clearly felt the change in speed.

Fu Xun merged back into the right lane, the distance to the Explorer nearly a meter, constantly constrained by the deceleration pressure of the vehicle ahead, continually slowing down.

From the moment she suggested ramming the car, Fu Xun had been estimating the front car’s speed; otherwise, he couldn’t accelerate exactly ten kilometers per hour at such a close distance, pushing the Explorer steadily forward.

Perhaps intimidated by the cruiser’s reckless maneuver, the other driver dared neither lift off the gas nor brake. Everything went exactly as Qu Yixian predicted: the Explorer was forced to continue, and the two parallel vehicles behind accelerated again, quickly closing in.

Fu Xun controlled the steering wheel, knowing the cruiser’s condition better than anyone.

Watching the rising water temperature on the dashboard and the visibly decreasing fuel level, he pressed the accelerator, accelerating again, pressing tightly against the Explorer’s rear.

In this brief offensive, the cruiser accelerated three times, keeping a distance of more than five meters from the car behind.

Seeing the GPS coordinates drawing near, Fu Xun frowned at the winding uphill ahead and warned Qu Yixian, “Once we’re uphill, the cruiser won’t accelerate much, and we’ll be passive. The Explorer will speed downhill, swing the car around. If they counter successfully, the cruiser will be forced to stop downhill. When the cars behind catch up, we’ll be trapped just a few hundred meters from the coordinates.”

Qu Yixian loosened her hands from the seatbelt, climbed from the front passenger seat to the back, grabbed the rope from the trunk, and tied it to the roll bar.

Fu Xun glanced quickly in the rearview mirror.

Qu Yixian was tying the other end of the rope around her waist. Her knot was a standard towing loop, which tightened under reverse force and wouldn’t come loose easily.

Perhaps noticing Fu Xun’s gaze, she lowered her head, checking the knot’s security while giving him reassurance, “I’ve done rock climbing and rappelling. This is just tossing something out the trunk, nothing dangerous.”

Fu Xun pressed his lips together, saying nothing.

His silence instantly filled the car with a stifling tension.

Qu Yixian sensed his displeasure, but only sensed it.

He gave her no more time for distraction. As the cruiser hit the uphill, he floored the accelerator, lowering his voice to instruct, “In three seconds, I’ll open the trunk. Just push the empty box out. I’ll handle the rest.”

Qu Yixian nodded, taking a deep breath.

Her gaze went through the windshield to the Explorer already drifting out of control. She focused, then looked to the rear.

“Three.”

“Two.”

…

In the brief silence, Fu Xun shot her another glance with his peripheral vision.

“One.”

As soon as he finished, the car alarm and the crisp click of the trunk latch opening rang simultaneously.

The sand and wind whipped up on both sides of the road surged in through the open trunk.

Shielded by the blinding wind, Qu Yixian, waiting for the trunk to fully open, looped the rope with one hand, grabbed the empty box with the other, stood at the edge of the vehicle, and in the stunned view of the cars behind, released her grip.

The wind pouring in from the vehicle’s cabin seemed like an invisible hand dragging the empty box backward and smashing it.

Caught completely off guard, one of the two SUVs behind, driving side by side, sharply swerved to avoid the box. The other, seeing the box coming straight at it, instinctively hit the brakes.

But the speed was too high; even braking immediately could not avoid the empty box hurtling toward its front.

Though light, the box thrown at high speed carried tremendous force.

It slammed into the SUV’s windshield with a jolt, pushed by the wind, knocking off the right-side rearview mirror, and finally fell to the ground, shattering into pieces.

The windshield cracked rapidly, the impact point spider-webbing across the glass, leaving only shattered fragments.

Amid the roaring wind, Qu Yixian curled her lips, pressed the trunk release, and arrogantly gave the other SUV, whose speed had slowed, the middle finger.

If she had a loudspeaker, Qu Yixian almost wanted to shout at the car: “Next time, it won’t be an empty box I throw.”

She untied the rope and slid back into the passenger seat.

Just as she settled, something wet stuck to her ankle. Shivering, she looked down and saw Diao Chan crouching there, looking up at her with innocent, pleading eyes.

Qu Yixian glanced at Fu Xun, focused on driving, then at Diao Chan, who had appeared from who-knows-where. After a brief internal struggle, she moved her leg back and reluctantly said, “Climb up yourself.”

Diao Chan, with short legs, tried twice to grab Qu Yixian’s knee but failed. It looked at her again with wide eyes, giving a pleading expression.

Its furry face, shiny black eyes, and twitching pink nose made it look utterly innocent.

If she didn’t know this ferret’s tricks, Qu Yixian would have been fooled.

She lifted it by the back of its neck onto her lap.

Thanks to good training, in this critical moment, Diao Chan seemed to understand the situation, curling quietly in Qu Yixian’s arms, only its black eyes alertly scanning the surroundings.

Seeing it behave, Qu Yixian didn’t pay it any more attention.

She focused on the vehicles behind the cruiser, narrowing her gaze.

After forcing one SUV to stop, the remaining SUV struggled to catch up.

The cruiser’s uphill power couldn’t match the modified Explorer ahead. The front car, taking advantage of the twisted situation, sped over the steep slope, far past Qu Yixian’s set coordinates, slammed on the brakes, and quickly turned to counter them on the empty highway.

Fu Xun didn’t slow. Using the downhill momentum, he floored the accelerator. As the coordinates neared, the Explorer, sensing their intent, abandoned the counter, swinging its rear to block the entrance of the Yadan formations.

This was unexpected.

Fu Xun reacted swiftly, glanced at the pursuing SUV, and suddenly asked Qu Yixian in a hoarse voice, “Do you like my big G?”

Qu Yixian froze.

Before she could react, she watched Fu Xun give up braking, accelerate instead, drift beautifully, the tires screeching against asphalt. Dust and sand flew behind, whipped high by the stopped wind, then fell, scattering over the road.

Qu Yixian barely held onto the grab handle. After a violent collision, inertia threw her toward the windshield, only for Fu Xun’s arm to press her back into the seat. In the dizzying blur, the Explorer was slammed forward by the cruiser, clearing the Yadan entrance.

Fu Xun pressed his lips tight, quickly retracted his hand, shifted to reverse, then drove the cruiser sharply into the Yadan formations before the pursuing SUV could catch up.

After the violent collision, the dashboard cover shattered. Overheated and damaged, the engine roared incessantly, like a coughing, fractured old man.

Qu Yixian couldn’t care about the car’s damage; her stomach churned painfully.

She reached down, feeling Diao Chan’s four claws gripping her clothes, and breathed a sigh of relief—it hadn’t flown out. Thank goodness.

——

The cruiser drove deep into the Yadan formations, heading toward the heart of South Baxian.

The formations ahead were no longer the small Yadan near the entrance. Each mound rose several meters, like graves protruding from the earth, maintaining varied shapes against the wind.

The cruiser, like a panting ox, threaded between two mounds and climbed a high ground. Moonlight gently poured down, illuminating the dense mounds standing silently.

Qu Yixian, looking at this somewhat unfamiliar Yadan formation, pressed her lips together several times and asked Fu Xun, “Tonight… when did the moon appear?”