Hearing you say that makes me a little excited.

In the end, it was Isa who won. With her rich experience singing mountain songs, she could stretch her voice into a thread, rising and falling like a tightrope, yet never breaking, and with such intensity that Chen Sufen had to cover her ears!

What truly saved the three of them was the peculiar bond between them.

No matter how you looked at it, with the entire vehicle tipped up so that only the two right wheels touched the ground, Chen Sufen still chose to reach out and throw herself toward Bai Haonan.

Another woman might not have managed such a move in a car on the verge of overturning, but she did, as if to prove that even in death, she would die with him.

Isa was already clinging to Bai Haonan, so the three of them ended up squeezed together in the driver’s seat on the left. Perhaps by pressing all their weight onto that side, they managed to force the car back down, preventing what could have been a disastrous flip.

With a sudden bounce as the car landed, Bai Haonan exhaled deeply, floored the accelerator, and glanced at the chaos behind them—motorcycles scrambled in pursuit. Confident that the rough terrain would let him shake them off without flashy drifting, he asked, “So, Isa, you really grew up eating potatoes?”

Only someone with his big heart and good memory could continue the conversation after such a scare. Isa finally stopped shrieking, but instead began kissing Bai Haonan’s face wildly, like a passionate wildcat. Chen Sufen had let go and returned to her seat, handing a tissue to the driver. “Your face is covered in saliva. You should mind your hygiene. Earlier, you mentioned people here use drugs?”

Isa kept her arms wrapped around him, but turned her head toward the window, hiding her fair, beautiful face. After a long silence, she spoke. “You wouldn’t understand.”

Bai Haonan patted the arm around his neck, and unlike her delicate face, he felt how strong it was. “Tell me, I want to hear.”

Isa did treat him differently. “We only started making money when the tourist area was built, but money isn’t worth much; everything’s expensive, because everything has to be brought in from outside. Even a single brick must be bought elsewhere. The land on the mountain is barren and can’t grow grain, and we’re not allowed to clear fields or hunt. So, since we were little, all we could do was plant potatoes and eat potatoes…”

Chen Sufen suddenly understood. “No wonder the streets are full of roasted potatoes, fried potatoes, mashed potatoes.”

Isa’s voice was clear, but her mood was low. “Mom said that in the past, our walking marriages were good—everyone respected the rules. But after the tourist area came, everything got messy. Those who went to the county to fool around got into drugs, AIDS, and wasted a lot of money on those things. My mother died because of this, and my sister too…”

Chen Sufen was shocked. “There’s AIDS here?!”

Isa’s voice turned icy, colder than ever. “We have walking marriages. Once you accept someone, they come at night and leave in the morning. If you get along, you stay together; if not, you part ways. Women run the household and raise the children. But when my mother was alive, things were already getting messy. She always told me, right up to her death, to seize any chance to leave, to fight to get out, even if it meant dying trying.”

Chen Sufen empathized. “Study, you could study…”

Isa tightened her hold on Bai Haonan, her tone tinged with mocking laughter. “After compulsory education, do you think any of us here have grades good enough for school? Don’t give me that nonsense about knowledge changing fate. People like you, sitting comfortably in air-conditioned rooms eating watermelon, telling us that—‘if you’re hungry, why not eat meat?’ You just don’t understand.”

Bai Haonan was more interested in walking marriages. “So how did you get engaged? Can anyone just sleep together?”

Isa’s voice warmed, with a hint of laughter. “That’s what you want!” But she explained, “That’s how it used to be. We didn’t insist on monogamy or living together. If you got along and acknowledged each other, you could have children. Those with skill and charm—those men could have women everywhere. Didn’t you hear last night, all the girls wanted to compete for you?”

Chen Sufen mocked, “That’s true. Guys like him are most popular in primitive places!”

Bai Haonan was almost wistful. “Are there still places that follow these customs completely?”

Isa snorted. “It’s all messed up. More people go out to work, more fool around in the county, outside businesses come in and build tourist areas, and everything is chaotic. More and more good-for-nothing men take advantage and ruin girls. Some traditions are disappearing. Smooth talkers, dishonest, useless, lazy types aren’t the real men—they’re chased away!”

Chen Sufen applauded enthusiastically. “Well said! Well said! This guy is exactly that kind of man!”

Isa didn’t believe it. “No, he isn’t!” Then she added, thinking it over, “After my mother got sick, I was only seven or eight, and she kept warning me—never use drugs, never give myself to those scoundrels. But my father, when I was little, wandered around cheating people and arranged my engagement to someone else. I don’t even know my father!”

Unexpectedly, Chen Sufen didn’t mock or express surprise. She quickly glanced at Bai Haonan, whose fingers gently patted the arm around his neck, his touch tender. “It’s okay, it’s okay. I don’t have a mother either…” He smiled and glanced at Chen Sufen. “My dad’s not much—goes to work, drinks, plays cards, totally useless. My mom left me when I was little, supposedly ran off with some rich boss. So, men and women are pretty much the same. Fidelity depends on money.”

Isa hugged her husband’s head with a trace of pity. “I won’t!”

Bai Haonan laughed. “Didn’t you just say it? Smooth talkers, dishonest, useless, lazy types get kicked out. It’s just another way of saying you can’t earn money. So Isa, don’t rely on me—I’m unreliable. I brought you out here because it was fate. I’ll give you all the money I have, and you can figure it out yourself.”

Still in her honeymoon phase, Isa stared wide-eyed. “Why?! Why can’t I stay with you forever?” She even leaned forward to look at Bai Haonan’s face.

Chen Sufen, as if she could read Bai Haonan’s mind, explained for him. “He really can’t show his face if something happens—even his identity… Wait, do you have an ID? I see you really left with nothing, not even a penny. You’re brave. Aren’t you afraid he’ll sell you?”

Isa hesitated, then fished an ID card from her robe and handed it over. “I always carry it. Actually, I…”

Chen Sufen glanced at it, then shrieked, “Bai! Hao! Nan! You… scoundrel!”

The driver was baffled. “What did I do?”

Chen Sufen tried to slap him with the ID card. “Look! Look! She’s only sixteen! You’ve broken the law!”

Bai Haonan was incredulous. “Sixteen?”

Isa was unfazed. “So what? In our tribe, girls can marry at fourteen.” Then, with clever surprise, “Bai Haonan? Is your name Bai Haonan?”

Chen Sufen was bouncing in the passenger seat, before dropping herself back with a sigh. “Gambling, deaths, fake identity, intentional violence—now, now, this is an underage girl! Can’t you calm down?”

Bai Haonan shamelessly inhaled through his teeth. “Hearing you say that actually excites me a little!”