“Elderly sir, wake up, we are about to land.”
Amidst the soft call, Su Bingren slowly opened his eyes.
He rubbed his somewhat bleary eyes and looked out the window. The plane was gradually descending, and the familiar silhouette of Chang City became increasingly clear in the morning light.
“We’re here. Thank you,” he said with a kind smile to the flight attendant as he tidied the thin blanket covering him.
He was sitting in a window seat in economy class, surrounded by strangers. No one knew that this elderly man, dressed in a plain jacket, was the father of Su Jin, the CEO of Jinse Technology.
The plane landed smoothly, and the passengers stood up to begin retrieving their luggage.
He waited patiently until the passengers in the rows ahead had finished taking their bags before unhurriedly standing up. From the overhead bin, he took down a leather suitcase that looked quite old.
Holding a cane, he leisurely walked through the jet bridge and merged into the flow of people in the arrivals hall, his cane clicking against the floor.
At the exit, Song Li had already been waiting for a long time.
She spotted that steady figure in the crowd immediately and stepped forward to greet him, bowing slightly. “Mr. Su, you’ve had a long journey.”
When Su Bingren saw her, a gentle smile appeared on his face. “Song Li, didn’t I say there was no need to make a special trip to pick me up?”
“The Miss instructed me to ensure you arrived home safely,” Song Li said respectfully as she took the suitcase from his hand.
“That’s just how she is.” Su Bingren shook his head with a smile. With his hands behind his back, he followed Song Li toward the parking lot with a composed gait.
“How has she been lately? Is the company busy?”
“The Miss is doing well. Knowing you were returning today, she stayed home specifically to wait for you.”
“Waiting for me at home?” Su Bingren smiled. “That’s perfect then. This time, I really must have a good look at that young man she mentioned over the phone.”
“What was his name … Lin Luan, right?”
“Yes, Mr. Su,” Song Li replied.
***
A moment later, in the parking lot, a low-profile black sedan stood waiting for its owner.
Song Li stepped forward to open the car door for Su Bingren. At the moment he bent down to enter the car, a breeze happened to blow by, ruffling his graying hair.
The eyes beneath that hair were as kind as a pool of water.
A pool of deep spring water.
*Grumble …*
Su Jin sat on her sofa, her gaze occasionally flickering toward the wall clock before quickly darting away, looking completely distracted.
Lin Luan, meanwhile, was wearing a high-quality, dark gray cashmere sweater that Song Li had bought. He looked every bit like a refined, home-oriented man.
He sat beside Su Jin, slowly leafing through a finance magazine.
Clearly, he had already entered “boyfriend mode.”
“Su Jin, according to the time, Song Li should have picked up your father by now.”
“Ah, yes …” Su Jin glanced at Lin Luan, feeling a bit flustered.
‘What on earth? Is this Lin Luan the same person as yesterday?’
‘Is he acting? Can a person act this realistically?’
Su Jin was starting to lose track of reality.
She couldn’t tell — she really couldn’t tell.
Just as Su Jin was frantically complaining to herself, her phone suddenly rang.
Startled, Su Jin scrambled to pick up the phone. The caller was Song Li.
“Hello, Song Li?”
Song Li’s voice came from the other end. “Miss, I have picked up the Master. However, he has decided to change the itinerary temporarily.”
“He said he wants to treat Mr. Lin to a casual meal, so he won’t be heading home first.”
“Huh?” Su Jin was stunned. “A meal? Now?”
“Yes,” Song Li’s voice paused for a moment as if she were confirming the address.
“The Master booked a private room at Yunshan and asked me to take him there directly. He instructed that you and Mr. Lin should meet him at the restaurant immediately.”
“I am taking the Master to the restaurant now, so I’m afraid you will have to arrange your own transportation.”
“… Alright.”
Su Jin hung up the phone. She still hadn’t quite reacted and stared blankly at Lin Luan.
“What’s wrong?” Lin Luan put down the magazine and asked with concern. He had already guessed the gist of the situation from Su Jin’s brief words.
Su Jin opened her mouth, her expression somewhat complicated. “My dad … he’s not coming home. He went straight to Yunshan and booked a private room. He said he wants to … invite you to dinner. He wants us to go over now.”
She emphasized the words “invite you to dinner,” her eyes filled with a trace of helplessness.
She knew the storm would come quickly, but she hadn’t expected it to be this fast — not even a moment of peace.
Lin Luan smiled slightly upon hearing this and stood up to straighten the collar of his cashmere sweater.
“Sure.” His tone was natural. “Where is the address? Let’s not keep your father waiting.”
Su Jin was stunned for a second before shaking her head.
“You really are something. I’ve never seen anyone so eager to attend a Hongmen banquet.”
“Isn’t this bound to happen sooner or later?” Lin Luan laughed. “Alright, let’s head out.”
“Okay, okay …” Su Jin responded, turning to the drawer in the entryway to look for car keys.
She remembered that besides the car Song Li had driven away, there should be keys for a few spare sedans in the garage …
But after searching the drawer for a while, her brows furrowed deeper and deeper.
‘That’s strange. Those keys should clearly be here.’
Looking at her anxious back, Lin Luan asked softly, “What happened?”
“The keys …” Su Jin straightened up, her face filled with frustration. “I think … I left the spare car keys in Song Li’s car last time.”
In other words, there wasn’t a single drivable car at home right now.
The air went silent for a moment.
Su Jin pressed her hand to her forehead, feeling like nothing was going right today.
It was clearly unrealistic to ask Song Li to turn back, get the keys, and pick them up. Not only would it waste time, but it would also make her father think they were inefficient.
Take a taxi? In this high-end villa district, basically everyone had a car. No ride-hailing driver would ever bother coming out here.
As Su Jin was brainstorming a solution, Lin Luan walked over to the giant floor-to-ceiling window, his gaze directed toward the commercial street on the outskirts of the villa district.
“Actually … I have an idea,” Lin Luan said.
Su Jin followed his gaze and saw a row of neatly parked … shared bicycles on the street not far away.
“You don’t mean …” Su Jin’s eyes widened.
“Time waits for no one. Yunshan isn’t that far from here. Riding a bike might be faster than waiting for a car.” Lin Luan turned back and smiled. “Besides, it’s low-carbon and environmentally friendly — isn’t it?”
“No! Absolutely not!” Su Jin refused instinctively.
She didn’t refuse because she thought riding a bicycle was beneath her … it was because she didn’t know how to ride a bicycle at all!
“Then does General Manager Su have a better, faster way?” Lin Luan asked.
Su Jin was speechless.
Indeed, this was the most efficient way at the moment.
A few minutes later, on the tree-lined path outside Su Jin’s villa.
Lin Luan skillfully pedaled a blue shared bicycle, the frame leaning slightly to accommodate his long legs.
Behind him, Su Jin sat awkwardly on the rear rack, one hand carefully gripping the side of his waist while the other nervously pressed down on her skirt, which was being blown about by the wind.
The breeze brushed past, carrying the coolness of early autumn and ruffling the hair at Su Jin’s temples.
Looking at Lin Luan’s broad back and experiencing this completely foreign mode of travel, her heart was a mess of emotions.
This was the first time in her life she had sat on the back of someone’s bicycle. From the moment she was born, she had been chauffeured everywhere. A bicycle was something completely alien to her.
‘Is this embarrassing? Maybe a little.’
‘But … it doesn’t seem that bad?’
Lin Luan rode very steadily, his speed neither too fast nor too slow as they traveled through the dappled shadows of the trees.
He began humming an unknown tune.
“Hey …” Su Jin couldn’t help but speak. Because of the bicycle’s vibration, her voice was a bit shaky. “You … you seem very skilled at this?”
Lin Luan let out a light laugh, his voice drifting back with the wind. “I used to give Wanwan rides to school like this all the time.”