Chapter 39: The Snowy Journey Home and a Call from Mom
Jiang Chen held the steering wheel with one hand and took a fork from Lin Wan with the other. On the fork was a piece of perfectly seared sirloin, still sizzling with droplets of oil.
"Try the flavor." Lin Wan stood beside the driver's seat, her body swaying slightly with the motion of the car. To maintain her balance, her knee occasionally brushed against the outside of Jiang Chen's thigh.
Jiang Chen took a bite, and the juices exploded in his mouth.
"Sister Wan's cooking is beyond reproach." Jiang Chen swallowed the beef, his eyes still fixed on the white, snowy road ahead. "Better than a Hilton chef."
Lin Wan's face reddened slightly, but she couldn't hide the smile in the corners of her eyes.
She didn't retreat to the rear cabin. Instead, she sat down on the wide armrest box next to the driver's seat, holding the plate like a diligent caretaker.
"Then eat more," Lin Wan said softly. "Driving all afternoon is mentally exhausting."
On the sofa in the back, Chen Man was slumped like she had no bones, swirling half a glass of red wine. Her eyes were somewhat glazed as she stared at the road signs occasionally flashing by the window.
"Fifty kilometers to go." Su Qingge looked at the navigation on her phone, her voice breaking the somewhat sickly-sweet silence. "The entrance to the city expressway is just ahead. If the road isn't blocked, we'll be in the city in half an hour."
There was a hint of tension in her voice.
"Stop looking at it." Without turning his head, Jiang Chen reached back and accurately snatched the debt list from Su Qingge's lapāthe one she had flipped through countless times. "We'll talk about it when we arrive. The sky isn't falling."
Su Qingge was stunned for a moment. Looking at her empty hands, she didn't get angry. Instead, it was as if her spine had been removed, and she sank back into the leather seat.
"Mm," she responded softly.
Just then, an abrupt ringtone echoed in the cabin.
It was the most classic kind of ringtoneāmonotonous, shrill, and highly piercing.
The three women in the car stopped what they were doing simultaneously.
This wasn't any of their ringtones.
Jiang Chen slowed down and pulled an old phone with a slightly cracked screen from the inner pocket of his windbreaker (he hadn't had time to get a new one yet, which in the eyes of the three women, was him just experiencing life).
The moment he saw the caller ID, the originally cold and hard lines of his profile instantly softened.
Two words pulsed on the screen: Mom.
"Hello, Mom." Jiang Chen answered the phone. He didn't intentionally lower his voice, but his tone was so gentle that Lin Wan, who was right next to him, stared in surprise.
"Xiao Chen..." The distorted voice of a middle-aged woman came through the phone, accompanied by the whistling of the wind and the noisy shouting of a market. "I saw on the news that there's heavy snow in the province and the roads are closed. Are you still at school? Can you buy a ticket?"
Jiang Chen glanced at the knee-deep snow outside and then at the luxury car worth tens of millions. His tone was calm: "I'm on the road. I'm carpooling with a few friends. It's very safe. I'll probably... get home in a day or two."
"Carpooling? That must cost a lot of money, right?" His mother's voice carried a hint of worry. "Safety first. If you really can't make it back, just spend New Year's at school. I'll send you some cured meat. Your dad just went to check; the bridge at the village entrance is covered in ice. It's freezing here, too..."
"I can make it back," Jiang Chen interrupted his mother's nagging. "I've arranged everything."
The cabin was very quiet; all three women were listening intently.
Looking at Jiang Chen's back, Su Qingge felt a bit of an ache in her heart.
She hadn't received a call like this in a very long time.
Struggling in this arena of fame and fortune, there were only exchanges of interest, never this kind of pure concern.
"Alright, that's good then." His mother let out a sigh of relief on the other end. "By the way, you're about to graduate. How's the job hunt going? Don't worry if there's nothing suitable yet. The harvest was decent this year, we can still support you..."
"Mom." Jiang Chen interrupted her again, a trace of a smile touching his lips. "Don't worry about work. I've taken on some freelance projects recently and made some money."
"Made money? How much? Is it enough for your living expenses?"
"It's alright." Jiang Chen pulled the car steadily to the side of the road, turned on the speakerphone, and switched to his banking app. "I'll transfer some to you first. You and Dad can get some New Year's supplies. Isn't that old fridge at home broken? Get a new one."
In the transfer amount column, he entered a '1' followed by five '0's.
One hundred thousand.
For him now, this amount wasn't even pocket change.
But he knew that if he transferred a million or ten million, it would only scare his parents into the hospital and do no good.
Money had to be given bit by bit; there had to be an adaptation process.
"Ding." The transfer was successful.
"I've transferred a hundred thousand to you," Jiang Chen said into the phone. "Go ahead and check it."
"How... How much?!" The voice on the other end suddenly jumped an octave, as if her tail had been stepped on. "A hundred thousand?! You child, what did you do? You didn't do anything illegal, did you? Where did all this money come from?!"
"A legitimate project, a bonus for writing code." Jiang Chen casually made up an excuse, his tone so certain it was impossible to doubt. "Spend it without worry. If it's not enough, I have more."
After much persuasion, he finally managed to calm his startled mother down.
Hanging up the phone, Jiang Chen let out a long breath, feeling more tired than he had after driving hundreds of kilometers through the snow.
He tossed the phone back onto the center console and restarted the car.
"Was that your mother?" Chen Man leaned over the back of the driver's seat, getting close to Jiang Chen's ear, her warm breath fanning him. "She sounds quite young. Little brother, you're so filial; you'll definitely be a good husband in the future."
"Sit back." Jiang Chen looked straight ahead, his voice returning to its previous coldness. "We're about to enter the city. President Su, give me directions."
The black knight roared as it sped onto the city expressway.
Ahead, the silhouette of the Mudan Provincial Capital loomed in the wind and snow.
The lights of the skyscrapers shone through the swirling snow, blurring into an orange glow.
That was the light of the civilized world, and also the light of the arena of desire.
Su Qingge sat up straight, adjusted her slightly wrinkled suit collar, and pushed her gold-rimmed glasses back up the bridge of her nose.
"Go to the High-Tech Zone," her voice turned cold. "Tiansheng Building."
That was where her company was located. It was also her final stronghold.
"Going to the company this late?" Lin Wan asked with some concern. "Shouldn't we find a place to stay first?"
"Those people won't let me sleep in peace."
Jiang Chen didn't speak; he just silently pressed harder on the gas pedal.
Half an hour later, the black knight drove onto the main road of the High-Tech Zone.
There were very few cars on the road, with only a few snowplows operating occasionally.
When the car turned the last corner and the glass curtain wall of the Tiansheng Building appeared before them, the atmosphere in the car instantly froze.
The plaza in front of the building was not as empty as imagined.
Even on a snowy day like this, there were still several tents pitched at the bottom of the steps.
Seven or eight people in heavy cotton coats were gathered around an iron barrel, burning a fire for warmth. The red flames reflected on their purple-frozen faces and illuminated a banner stretched out nearby.
Although half-covered by snow, the shocking black characters on it were still clear:
"Su Qingge, pay back the money!"
"These lunatics..." Su Qingge's hands gripped her seatbelt tightly, her knuckles turning white. "In such heavy snow, do they have no regard for their lives?"
"People will die for money." Chen Man sneered from the back. "President Su, it seems your title of 'Heartthrob' isn't just for show; so many people are here waiting for you."
Jiang Chen slowly drove the car over.
The shadow of the massive vehicle loomed over the group.
"Sit tight." Jiang Chen unbuckled his seatbelt and took a thick black overcoat from the side to drape over himself. "Since they're being so hospitable, we should go down and say hello."
He turned his head to look at the pale-faced Su Qingge and held out his hand, palm up.
"Let's go, President Su." Jiang Chen's eyes were as calm as water. "I'm taking you to reclaim your lost territory."