Hard to Deceive
Chapter 9: Farmer Wen and Snake Sang

There was a moment of silence.

At the same time, what happened on that New Year’s Eve night appeared in Wen Yifan’s mind. She was bumped by a passerby and accidentally fell into his arms. She apologized to him and he nodded.

The whole process was no different from strangers.

Even if Wen Yifan guessed that he recognized her, they both did somewhat guess it.

But she didn’t think he’d be so straightforward.

Since all of Wen Yifan’s response was just playing along with him from that start.

So, when she was still thinking that she could continue to do so, he couldn’t take it anymore. His facial expressions looked like he was thinking: Is it fun to pretend to not know each other?

He looked like he was always very sincere in treating everyone and every situation, and never beat around the bush doing hypocritical acts.

In conclusion, it was a tale of the ‘Farmer Wen’ and “Snake Sang’.

*from the tale of ‘The Farmer and the Snake’

Wen Yifan was silent for two seconds, and not caring less anymore, she said, “No, I thought you didn’t recognize me.”

Sang Yan’s lips twitched.

“Since I was wearing a face mask, my face was fully covered.” She looked at him calmly and said slowly, “I didn’t expect you to recognize me with your good eyesight.”

Sang Yan raised his eyebrows, “Good eyesight?”

He immediately added, “Ah, I’m sorry, I think you misunderstood.”

Wen Yifan, “?”

“It wasn’t me but my sister who recognized you.” Sang Yan looked calm without any guilt, “She told me that you were staring at me.”

“……”

Wen Yifan’s facial expressions didn’t change, and she answered, “That’s true.”

Sang Yan looked at her.

“Because, when I saw you,” Wen Yifan decided to beat him at his own game, she started to talk nonsense, “Your pants weren't zipped.”

“……”

Wen Yifan was afraid that he would misunderstand, she added, “There were quite some people around me discussing it.”

Sang Yan, “……”

“You don’t have to bother about it, it’s been several days.” Wen Yifan smiled and pretended to comfort him, “I’ll talk to you later, I still have some unfinished work to do, I’m going home.”

Before she could leave, Sang Yan suddenly called, “Hey.”

Wen Yifan, “?”

Sang Yan, “Do you remember where Su Haoan parked his car just now?”

She subconsciously nodded her head.

“Okay.” Sang Yan lifted his head, “Show me the way.”

-

Wen Yifan was quite baffled.

She thought he would offer her a ride out of courtesy when she helped him to replace the car. However, Sang Yan didn’t mention anything except saying goodbye to her when they found the car.

He didn’t have the slightest intention to send her at all.

Wen Yifan originally thought it was no big deal.

However, she observed the place only to replace that this restaurant was located in a very remote street. She checked the nearest subway station with her mobile phone, and the station was several kilometres away.

There weren’t many cars passing by the restaurant, and the surrounding was pitch black.

Wen Yifan hesitated and stared at Sang Yan’s car that hadn't started yet. She bit the bullet and knocked on the passenger window.

A few seconds later, Sang Yan pulled down the window and glanced at her coldly.

Wen Yifan whispered, “Could you give me a ride? This place is quite remote.”

Sang Yan answered, “Where do you live?”

Wen Yifan, “Jia Yuan City.”

“Oh.” Sang Yan looked away, “It’s out of my way.”

“……”

Wen Yifan had never seen someone as narrow-minded as him in her life. She smiled apologetically and said, “I’m not asking you to send me home. Could you just send me to the nearest subway station?”

Sang Yan stared straight at her, he reluctantly replied after a few seconds.

“Get in.”

Wen Yifan was secretly relieved, she got into the passenger seat and buckled her seat belt.

Sang Yan started the car.

It was insanely quiet in the confined space of the car.

Sang Yan didn’t play music and he didn’t have the intention to start a conversation with her.

She felt like she was treating Sang Yan as a driver if she didn’t talk to him. Wen Yifan took the initiative to start a conversation, “Why did you leave? Isn’t it a friends’ gathering?”

Sang Yan lazily replied, “Noisy.”

“……”

Wen Yifan didn’t know whether he was talking about the party or her.

She moved her lips but stopped talking.

Wen Yifan tilted her head and looked out of the window. The scenery was rapidly moving backwards, and the streetlights were pulled into a bright dazzling line. She started to daze off.

She recalled the conversation of hers with Su Haoan when they were on their way to the restaurant.

Wen Yifan and Su Haoan had indeed not met each other in seven or eight years.

But not with Sang Yan.

Wen Yifan didn’t tell anyone about it.

Judging from Su Haoan’s reaction, Sang Yan seemed like he didn’t tell the others as well.

It seemed like they were the only people who knew the story.

During the second semester of sophomore year, Wen Yifan and her family had to move to Bei Yu City due to her uncle’s career change. After that, she didn’t contact anyone from the high school other than Zhong Siqiao and Xiang Lang.

However, Sang Yan...

Originally, Wen Yifan also thought they would lose contact.

However, Wen Yifan forgot when it started, she would receive messages from Sang Yan every once in a while. He wouldn’t chat with her about anything else, nor had the initiative to ask her anything. He would only send her his scores and rankings of every quiz and test.

It lasted until the end of their sophomore year.

Wen Yifan happened to receive a text message from Sang Yan after the announcement of the final examination results of sophomore year. She struggled for a long time at that time, but she had still sent him her results. She slowly entered her results into the text message and pressed the ‘Send’ icon.

He probably didn’t think she would reply.

He replied after a while.

Our grades don’t seem to be too far apart, why don’t we go to a university?

After a while.

He sent a message again.

Okay?

……

Wen Yifan sighed softly.

She was stunned when she noticed they passed by several subway stations, and she reminded him, “I think you went past the station, I remember that there’s another subway station not far away. Can you stop me there?”

Sang Yan coldly said, “Am I your driver?”

“……”

Isn’t this what we agreed at the beginning?

Sang Yan seemed to be upset by what she had said. He didn’t stop but continued driving.

Wen Yifan couldn’t hold in anymore, “Where are you going?”

“Your home.” Sang Yan’s tone of voice sounded like he was scorning, “Where else can I go?”

“……”

Wen Yifan felt that they couldn’t have a peaceful conversation. There would always be an indistinct thorn when he spoke, making the conversation seem weird.

Wen Yifan only wanted to have a good conversation with him.

But, it seemed that there was no need to talk about it.

They arrived in Jia Yuan City before she knew it.

The neighborhood was built more than ten years ago, the buildings and facilities in the neighbourhood were very old, and there was not much space. It was full of walk-up apartments and the property management neglected the place. There was no security guard at the entrance at the moment.

The boom barrier was not even lowered down.

Sang Yan didn’t drive into the neighbourhood, he stopped at the entrance.

Wen Yifan unbuckled her seat belt and said politely, “Thank you very much today, I’ll treat you to dinner when you’re free.”

“Hmm?” Sang Yan leaned against the driver’s seat and turned his head sideways, he said playfully, “Thinking about the next meeting this soon?”

“……”

Wen Yifan was amused.

How popular was this so-called ‘The Icon’ of Depraved Street that he became in recent years?

To think it’d make him think that others would have something up their sleeves whenever they speak.

Or, he might have misunderstood me because of what I had said in the bar.

Wen Yifan decided to explain herself, “I mean what I said when I was in the bar previously…”

Sang Yan interrupted before she could finish, “Which?”

Sang Yan, “When you said it was a pity?”

“……”

Wen Yifan gave up, she ignored him and opened the car door.

“Drive safely on your way home.”

Wen Yifan walked into the neighborhood.

She lived in a building closest to the entrance of the neighborhood. She reached her building when she went into the neighborhood and turned right.

Wen Yifan pulled out her keys, opened the door downstairs, and went up slowly. There were six households on every floor, she walked up to the third floor where she lived, and her house was located at the end of the corridor.

Wen Yifan was about to walk towards her house when she noticed three men standing in front of her house, they were reeking in an unpleasant smell of alcohol. At that moment, they were smoking while joking around about all kinds of dirty jokes and vulgar words.

She didn’t know if they just got back, or if they had waited there for a while.

The lights in the corridor were broken, making the surrounding dim. She couldn’t see their faces. However, Wen Yifan could recognize one of them by his figure that he was the man who lived next door.

Wen Yifan suddenly recalled that it had been five days since the day she called the police.

She was going to stay at Zhong Siqiao’s house for the night. After signing the contract with Wang Linlin that night, she planned to replace a male colleague to help with her luggage the next day.

She forgot about all of her problems because of the dinner and her encounter with Sang Yan.

Wen Yifan stopped.

The keys in her hand made a slight noise.

The men immediately turned and looked at her.

The tiger tattooed man smirked, “Girl, you’re back.”

Wen Yifan didn’t know why they were standing there, but she felt uneasy.

“Brothers, this girl said that I harassed her.” The tiger tattooed man sighed, his voice was hoarse, “I am innocent, is it harassment to knock on the door?”

“Hey, have we met each other before?” Another man laughed, “Do you want to know what real harassment looks like?”

Wen Yifan turned and went downstairs without saying a word.

“Why did she leave?”

“Why would I know why she left? Girl! We’re not going to do anything! Can’t we just talk?”

“I won’t blame you! I just want to build a good relationship between us, we’re neighbors, after all, don’t make it awkward!”

They followed Wen Yifan downstairs as they yelled.

They were walking at a fast pace and smiling excitedly as if they were playing a game. They seemed horrifying under the dim light.

Wen Yifan didn’t even have time to take out her mobile phone to call the police. She ran to the first floor, opened the door and ran towards the entrance of the neighborhood. She wanted to ask for help from the security guard, but she suddenly remembered that when she came back, she didn’t see anyone in the guard house.

The neighborhood was not so remote, there was a food street if she walked out along the road.

Wen Yifan was thinking of running to a crowded place.

The footsteps behind her seemed to be getting closer and closer.

At that moment, Wen Yifan saw Sang Yan’s car was still parked at the same place outside the neighborhood. He was leaning against the passenger door of the car lazily, he looked like he was talking to someone on the phone.

Sang Yan looked up and met her eyes when he noticed some noise.

Wen Yifan couldn’t respond instantly, her mind flashed with the idea of asking him for help. But, she still chose to run towards the direction of the food street after reconsidering.

Wen Yifan was trying to run past him.

Sang Yan had hung up his phone call and called her out, “Wen Yifan.”

She looked up and met his eyes again.

He caught a glimpse of her facial expression and the three men who looked gruesome behind her.

Sang Yan looked calm.

“Come.”