Really Daring to Stop

Xiang Kun was quite surprised when the SUV pulled up beside him. Someone had actually been willing to stop.

The passenger-side window rolled down. A dark-skinned, middle-aged man with a crew cut looked him up and down a few times and asked in puzzlement, "Hey, why are you barefoot?"

Xiang Kun brought out the story he had prepared earlier. "Ah! My shoes broke while I was hiking, so I had no choice but to walk barefoot. Are you heading down the mountain? Could you give me a ride? You can drop me off at the foot of the mountain. I'll find another car from there."

The crew-cut man in the passenger seat glanced back at his companion behind the wheel and asked in a low voice, "Should we let him in?"

Normally, with his voice that low and the distance between the inside and outside of the car, someone standing outside wouldn't have been able to hear him. But with Xiang Kun's hearing, every word came through loud and clear. He didn't mind, though. Even if the people in the car had bad intentions and were trying to trick him into getting in so they could rob and kill him, he would just have to "defend himself" again.

Still, judging by what he could see, that possibility was minuscule.

The driver was also a middle-aged man who looked to be in his thirties or forties. He wore glasses and seemed rather refined. He didn't answer, just gave a slight nod.

The crew-cut man in the passenger seat opened the door and got out. "Get in. We're going the same way anyway. It's scorching out, and you're barefoot. You'll wreck your feet before you make it down the mountain."

The crew-cut man opened the rear door and climbed in, leaving Xiang Kun the front passenger seat—the back was already occupied by a quiet-looking girl of around sixteen or seventeen.

Xiang Kun thanked them as he took off his backpack and held it in his arms, ready to get in.

"Wait." The bespectacled driver suddenly spoke up.

Xiang Kun froze and pulled back the foot he had just lifted into the car. If they had suddenly changed their minds, he wouldn't have blamed them. He hadn't really expected to get a ride in the first place.

But the driver pulled the handbrake, shifted into Park, and got out. As he opened the tailgate, he said, "I've got a pair of slippers in the car. You can wear those for now. They're size 44. They should fit, right?"

After grabbing the slippers and a bottle of mineral water, the driver closed the trunk and came around to Xiang Kun. He set the slippers by his feet and handed him the water.

Xiang Kun took the water and thanked him, then prepared to put on the slippers.

"Um... the water's for washing your feet," the driver awkwardly reminded him.

"Oh, right." Xiang Kun looked down and realized just how filthy his feet were. A layer of dried mud, caked with dust, covered them.

He used the bottle of mineral water to give his feet a quick rinse, put on the slippers, and got into the passenger seat. When the driver climbed back in and the crew-cut man settled into the back, Xiang Kun thanked them again and again.

The car got moving. Through the rearview mirror, Xiang Kun noticed that the girl in the back had put on sunglasses after he got in.

The crew-cut man sitting beside the girl noticed Xiang Kun's gaze and smiled as he explained, "That's my daughter. She can't see."

Xiang Kun had already suspected as much, but hearing the crew-cut man say it so calmly left him unsure how to respond. He could only nod before changing the subject. "I stuck out my thumb five times on the way down from the mountain, and you're the only ones who stopped. I'd already figured I'd have to walk all the way down today. Thank you so much. You're really good people... Good people get rewarded."

"Hey, if you're going hiking, at least pick a pair of decent shoes," the crew-cut man said with a laugh from the back seat.

Xiang Kun gave a wry smile. "Couldn't be helped. I didn't know what I was doing. It was my first time hiking."

"With the way you're dressed—and no shoes—it's no wonder most people wouldn't dare stop," the driver said with a laugh.

"Yeah, I know. That's why I was surprised you were willing to stop," Xiang Kun said honestly.

"I could tell you weren't a bad person," the driver said.

"Oh? You can tell that?" Xiang Kun said. "Honestly, if I were driving and saw someone who looked like me standing by the road trying to hitch a ride, I wouldn't dare stop."

The driver said, "Where you were trying to flag down cars, there wasn't much along the roadside to hide behind, and the view was pretty open. That meant nobody could lie in wait nearby and rush us when we stopped. Also, people who are up to no good and deliberately trying to get a ride usually act pitiful, or make themselves seem helpless and harmless. But even though you didn't have any shoes, your expression was calm and your brow was relaxed. You weren't frowning or smiling. From your body language, you were saying exactly ten words: 'Stop if you want; I stuck out my thumb, that's all.'"

Xiang Kun and the crew-cut man in the back couldn't help laughing at that.

Although he thought the driver's explanation was a bit of a stretch, Xiang Kun still buttered him up. "You're incredibly perceptive. Did you study psychology?"

"Believe it or not, our line of work really does require some knowledge of psychology," the driver said with a laugh.

Before Xiang Kun could guess what he did for a living, the crew-cut man chuckled from the back and filled him in. "He's a police officer—and a detective. If you really were a bad guy or a fugitive or something, you'd be handing him a feather in his cap."

Xiang Kun understood. So that was the real reason.

But the driver shook his head and said seriously, "Not really. If I actually thought he might be a bad guy, I wouldn't have stopped with you and Little Apple in the car."

After chatting for a while, Xiang Kun was surprised to learn that the bespectacled driver, who looked so refined, was a detective. Even more surprising, the slightly dark-skinned, crew-cut middle-aged man in the back, who looked like a farmer, was a university associate professor.

Well, people really weren't what they seemed!

Of course, the two men were also quite surprised to hear that Xiang Kun was a programmer. The driver joked that if Xiang Kun changed into a monk's robe, he'd believe him if he said he was a wandering ascetic monk.

Xiang Kun said his company had just gone under, so he'd come out to travel, hike, take in the scenery, and clear his head. Naturally, he didn't mention that he'd already spent four and a half days in the mountains. He just said he'd started hiking on a nearby mountain, somehow ended up on this one, and nearly got lost. Luckily, he'd found the winding mountain road and followed it. The bad luck was that his shoes had broken.

Anyway, his story was a mix of truth and lies. If they ever tried to verify anything, the parts that were easy to check were mostly true.

The detective behind the wheel was named Li Sheng. He and Li Yang, the associate professor in the back seat, were brothers. The quiet girl Li Sheng affectionately called "Little Apple" was Li Yang's daughter.

They'd gone up the mountain that day to visit a relative at a temple and, while they were there, watch birds from the summit.

Xiang Kun could understand visiting a relative, but the mention of "watching birds" left him puzzled. After all, Li Yang's daughter couldn't see.

Li Yang noticed his confusion and explained, "My daughter can't see, but her hearing is much better than an ordinary person's. She can tell the calls of different birds apart. She can even tell what the birds mean when they call—whether they're warning each other, picking a fight, saying hello, or trying to attract a mate."

Xiang Kun could understand having sharp hearing. Back when he'd trained his sense of smell and hearing, he'd sometimes covered his eyes to focus his attention on those two senses. When you couldn't rely on your sight, your hearing and smell could both reach greater potential.

Being able to distinguish the sounds of different bird calls seemed normal, too. Given enough time to train, he could do it now as well. Of course, he had scents to help him, which made identifying the species easier.

But being able to tell what a bird was trying to communicate just from its call was seriously impressive.

Xiang Kun didn't think Professor Li Yang was exaggerating, so he asked the girl how she identified the meaning of bird calls.