Thinking of this, Li Xiaohao pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. After the phone rang three times, he abruptly cut the connection and tossed the phone onto the passenger seat.

At that moment, Yingzi was still sitting in the back. Seeing Xiaohao slam down the phone before it even connected, she assumed he was angry with her and said, “I’m sorry, I brought up a topic just now that upset you.”

“No, I accepted that fact long ago. Don’t overthink it,” Xiaohao said gently to Yingzi.

Just then, the Santana caught up to the moving van, pulling alongside it with only a dozen meters between them. Xiaohao pointed at the van and told Yingzi, “You were asleep last night. We came to help move at five in the morning, and your parents didn't have the heart to wake you, so they asked me to carry you down from the fourth floor. You really can sleep; you were snoring and drooling so much that half of my shirt got soaked.”

Yingzi glanced at Xiaohao’s shoulder; there was indeed a damp patch there, clearly her handiwork. Her face flushed, and she said apologetically, “I don’t know how I slept so soundly last night. Thank you for carrying me downstairs.”

As they were talking, a dark green Jeep cut in from behind, first sweeping past the Santana Xiaohao was driving, then overtaking the moving van, and finally weaving erratically in front of the van like an annoying mosquito. When the van veered left, the Jeep followed suit; when the van went right, the Jeep mirrored it. When the van slowed to yield, the Jeep decelerated as well, giving Li Xiaohao, who was stuck right behind the van, a terrible headache.

“What is the deal with that Jeep?” Li Xiaohao snatched his phone back up and yelled a stream of complaints toward the moving van driver. After a long pause, a muffled voice came through the receiver: “Mr. Nangong is not in a good mood.”

Hearing those five words, “not in a good mood,” Xiaohao fell silent. He eased the speed of his car to a crawl, deliberately widening the gap between himself and the moving van. He spoke into the phone using the same tone as before: “Then there’s nothing we can do about it.” With that, he terminated the call and placed both hands back on the steering wheel.

Of course, Yingzi only heard half of that conversation. The driver’s crucial remark about her father’s temper was lost through the handset. She simply assumed the Jeep was being aggressive, playing a high-speed racing game with them on the highway. However, after that call, whatever Yingzi said to Xiaohao seemed to go unheard; he remained silent, his gaze fixed steadily ahead.

Less than two minutes after the call ended, Xiaohao and Yingzi, sitting in the Santana, witnessed a horrifying sight. First, the Jeep weaving in front of the van suddenly changed lanes. Then, due to some unseen hazard, the moving van violently swerved hard to the right, smashed through the highway guardrail, and hurtled down into the ravine beside the road like a thrown object. With quick reflexes, Xiaohao jerked the wheel left, stopping the car safely.

Once they got out, they could see the situation clearly. Apparently, some vehicle had dropped a crate directly into the middle of the lane. The Jeep had spotted the obstacle first and sharply steered around it. The moving van, following closely behind and unprepared, saw the crate too late to avoid it. In desperation, the driver had yanked the wheel to the right, breaking through the barrier and plunging into the hollow below.

“Dad, Mom…” Yingzi watched the wreckage of the moving van lying upside down in the gully, standing at the gap in the guardrail and screaming herself hoarse down toward the road. Seeing no one climbing out, she began to cry and attempted to jump over the railing. Fortunately, Xiaohao grabbed her arm from beside her and pulled her back.