First Encounter with Hong Dou

The climate of all four seasons was like early spring: cold stopped at cool, heat stopped at warm. Dali's seasonal temperature differences were not especially large, making it quite pleasant.

A September breeze lifted the beautiful thirty-two-year-old woman's hair. She wore loose black jeans and little boots, a white deep-V undershirt beneath a light green trench coat, with sunglasses on her face and long hair flying in the wind.

She stood by the roadside, pinning a silver suitcase in place with her leg as she looked down at her phone.

It was quite an eye-catching sight. The veteran drivers who were usually all smiles and harmony but became irritable the moment they gripped the steering wheel began slowing down slightly fifty meters before reaching her. One car slowed, then every car slowed. With unspoken understanding, they all drove past the woman slowly. That was how men were.

Life was life, and one's old wife was one's old wife—none of that stopped men from appreciating beauty. Women were probably the same; whenever they saw someone handsome, they would always take a few extra looks. It was humanity's shared pursuit of beauty.

Xu Hongdou naturally did not notice. The lanes here were clear, and lightly tapping the brakes was not all that obvious. She stood at the roadside, looking around as she waited for a car. A few had passed by earlier, but they had failed to agree on a price, so she had not gotten in. In any case, she had plenty of time on this trip, and it was still morning. There was no rush.

Just as she picked up her phone again to chat with someone, a car entered the corner of her vision.

She looked up and saw a black pickup truck, covered in dust and stains, slowly