Can’t Take My Eyes Off You

Perhaps because of this, Jiang Yao watched the man with curiosity. She saw him standing in the middle of the crowd, observing the passersby who walked past him while craning his neck and looking around as if he was waiting for someone.

Jiang Yao saw the man’s face when he eventually turned around. He was a middle-aged man with a ragged and unwashed appearance—his face wrinkled and raunchy, and his hair was messy. Standing from a distance away, Jiang Yao noticed that the man was muttering to himself. People who walked past him were either strode away faster or simply passing through while ignoring him.

“Oh, the man’s a cuckoo,” Jiang Yao whispered to herself.

“What are you looking at?” When Lu Xingzhi walked towards her, Jiang Yao was staring so intensely at a direction a distance away that she didn’t even realize he had returned. He snuck a bottle of soda into Jiang Yao’s hand. Right at this moment, the conductor started checking the tickets for their coach.

When Jiang Yao regained her focus, she turned and smiled at Lu Xingzhi while taking the bag filled with snacks in his hand. She opened the bag, glanced inside, then giggled. The bag was filled with pudding, sweets, sunflower seeds, biscuits, and drinks. What were all these? Did he think he was coaxing a three-year-old girl?

“Let’s go,” Lu Xingzhi urged as he picked up the luggage. Then, they stood side by side, waiting to have their tickets checked.

Jiang Yao plastered a mischievous smile on her face as she peeled off the candy wrapper and placed the candy at Lu Xingzhi’s lips. “Have some candy.”

Lu Xingzhi tiled his head to the side reflexively. “It’s for you,” he said, implying that he never ate junk food.

“Try it, it’s very sweet.” Jiang Yao nudged the candy to his lips again.

Lu Xingzhi twisted his head again. “No thanks, you eat it.”

“You bought this, don’t you want to try some?” Jiang Yao took it back and ate it. Frankly speaking, she didn’t like eating candy and junk food too, but since Lu Xingzhi had already bought it, she didn’t tell him. Besides, she decided not to reject his offer as Lu Xingzhi didn’t seem like someone who could make jokes.

Lu Xingzhi walked one step ahead of Jiang Yao as they were approaching the gate. When he looked down to retrieve the tickets, there was suddenly a commotion from the crowd around him, and then Jiang Yao’s horrid scream echoed across the platform.

Anxious, Lu Xingzhi quickly turned around and gaped in extreme shock at the dire scene.

“Jiang Yao!” Lu Xingzhi dropped the luggage in his hand and ran straight at Jiang Yao. He kicked away the madman, who was holding Jiang Yao tightly. He then pulled Jiang Yao, who was in an extreme state of shock, into his embrace and held her tight. “It’s alright, it’s okay now.”

Jiang Yao was crying out loud in his arms. Lu Xingzhi looked at her, he felt his heart broken into pieces and annoyed at the same time. He should have let Jiang Yao walk in front of him at all times, he shouldn’t have let her out of his sight.

“My dear! My darling! You’re back at last!” The madman who fell to the ground after being kicked climbed up and hurled himself toward Jiang Yao and Lu Xingzhi. He kept shouting at Jiang Yao, calling her his wife. When he saw Lu Xingzhi hugging Jiang Yao, he went nuts and threw punches at Lu Xingzhi. “Let go of my wife! Let go of her!”

Lu Xingzhi was a soldier, so the punches from the scrawny and delusional lunatic felt like marshmallows on him.

Lu Xingzhi swiftly avoided the punches while shielding Jiang Yao in his arms. He was getting agitated as he watched the madman calling Jiang Yao his wife.

“Look closely, she is my wife!” Lu Xingzhi shouted at the madman.

It was a piece of cake for Lu Xingzhi to protect Jiang Yao with one hand and tackle the madman with his other hand. Seeing that the madman was struggling with great effort, he let Jiang Yao go and lunged himself toward the madman, pinning him down on the floor.