"When are we going to reach there?" Duan Wei rubbed his eyes and closed the ebook he just completed reading.
"The GPS says in 30 minutes." Fang Bai stretched his stiff neck left and right. The clucking of the bones sounded so nice.
"The night market in this place is quite famous." Duan Wei started looking at the local news and interesting information on the internet. He just wanted to move around for some time. Sitting at one place for a long time made him tired, but not actually moving around unlike his regular exercising and busy schedule almost made him insane.
"Oh my, I'm so tired. Now I just want to go to bed and collapse." Rong Qing was sitting on the passenger seat next to Tang Rong, who was driving. She was far from her usual well-groomed self, with chicken nest hair above her head and make-up already washed away after a couple of splashes of water on face in between.
"Wait, do we have to clean up everything when we get there?" At this point, Rong Qing couldn't even imagine doing any kind of work. "If yes, bye bye. I'm staying in a hotel tonight."
"Don't worry, we don't need to do anything. Ge already arranged some housekeeping staff for us. They have already cleaned the place and prepared some dinner for us. And if there is some work, leave it to us boys" Fang Bai spoke with a caring face. Rong Qing suspiciously looked back at this person who stopped yawning and became active all-of-a-sudden. She rolled her eyes in realization when she saw Li Jin taking a second glance at Fang Bai.
Someone get this guy an Oscar.
"Hey, listen to this, "Duan Wei deliberately increased his voice to get everyone's attention, "I saw the news, the meteor shower in City S turned out to be a disaster."
This immediately attracted everyone's attention.
"An accident occured; the meteors somehow fell on the tourists instead of falling on the calculated trajectory. Twenty three people were heavily injured and two died."
"One of them was some famous scientist from our country who just came back from America. He and his wife were killed because of the impact of a meteorite that fell on their camp. They died in hospital, and this news got famous because of them."
"Thank goodness we didn't go there." Rong Qing's eyes were wide like saucers.
Duan Wei continued to read the news article.
"But the strange thing is that not just in City S, the asteroids fell on different places all over the Globe! Even the scientists don't know how this happened. You know, even if there was a meteor shower, it should happen only on one half of the Earth, but the strange thing is that even the countries on the opposite side of the Earth encountered meteor showers! No-one ever predicted that!"
"Many public properties were damaged all over the world. A huge meteorite even fell on an office building in one country! Hundreds of people were working there."
"Flat Earthers are now clamoring all over the social media that they are right."
This was such a huge incident. The whole car descended into silence for a few seconds.
"How's Junjie?" Tang Rong suddenly asked from the driving seat.
Fang Bai immediately straightened his back and took out his phone to call Junjie. He remembered that everyone was also anxious and decisively kept the phone on speaker.
The phone call connected after a few rings.
"Ge, how are you?"
(Author's note: 'ge' means elder brother. It's a term of endearment.)
"...Xiao Bai? Have you reached there? I asked the staff to prepare some food for you."
"No ge, we are on the way. How are you?"
"I-... I am perfectly fine. Why, what happened?"
"We just saw the news and called to ask you. Is everything over there good?"
"Yeah, what can be wrong here? Don't believe any stupid news. Nothing will happen to me, you should just enjoy the trip with peace of mind." Everyone visibly heaved a sigh of relief after hearing this.
"My peace of mind is you, ge." Fang Bai cheekily replied. He was finally relieved that his ge was fine.
"Fang Bai, I think that brother Junjie should stay with someone for tonight. I just saw the news that the meteor shower has just started. Maybe it will happen more tonight, and the location is unpredictable." Li Jin, who was quietly sitting on the backseat of the car suddenly spoke up.
"No Li Jin-" It seemed that Fang Junjie also heard his voice.
"Yeah. Ge, why don't you stay with Long You tonight? There's actually a meteor shower going on everywhere, and it is very dangerous. We all here have each other and there are bodyguards too. We will feel relieved if there is some company with you." Fang Bai knew Junjie's nature very well, so he did not let the other complete his sentence.
There was some shuffling on the other side of the call.
"Long You… h-he came after you went in the morning. H-he just left this afternoon. I d-don't think it is good to call him back."
"But he is your boyfriend, he should accompany you during danger." Fang Bai reasoned, thinking that Junjie might be shy and didn't want to cause inconvenience to Long You. He knew that Long You was a capable man, and however much he hated him for stealing his brother, Long You really liked Junjie. So he trusted that man enough that he'll take care of his elder brother.
"But…"
"No 'buts' ge. He should take some responsibility as your partner. He promised me that he will look after you when we aren't there. "
The other side was silent for some time and Fang Bai thought it was an agreement. He immediately opened the chatting software side by side and sent a quick and concise message to the number saved as 'Evil Thief'. Miraculously, or ironically, the man who usually replied to his message after 24 hours suddenly popped online and sent a quick 'OK'.
Fang Bai was just speechless.
"Okay, I-I'll contact him later." Fang Junjie replied from the other side of the phone.
"No need. I already told him and he agreed."
"What! Y-you… *sigh* okay. You all take care of yourself."
"Okay ge, we are about to reach the villa soon. Talk to you later!"
"Bye!"
Li Jin's tensed shoulders relaxed for a moment. He was relieved that Fang Junjie's protection was ensured. He had absolutely zero sympathy left in himself, to be honest, he never had one to begin with. He just felt a sense of empathy towards Junjie.
He looked at the darkening sky outside and he felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. That night was here again, the same night that was one of the most cruel nights in his previous lifetime.
This same day in his previous life, Li Jin was being followed by certain unknown people with bad intentions so he couldn't live in his home. He was just running around everywhere. That night he was staying in some random hotel and passed out due to exhaustion. At midnight, he just woke up to the sound of his door being pounded heavily by some force, and strange noises were coming from outside. Full of panic and apprehension, he jumped out of the room and tried to understand the situation. One moment, he even thought that those people had caught up with him.
When he looked out of the window at the whole town that seemed alive at the moment, with chaos here and there, it was then that he realized that everything had changed. And he didn't have anyone other than himself in this huge world, whom he could depend on for survival.
"We're here." Tang Rong announced and pulled up the car outside a simple villa.