Chapter 333

Chapter 333 -262

The sky was still steeped in an inky blue that had yet to fade. A faint ray of dawn light, like a delicate, gilded thread, quietly pierced the heavy curtain of night from the southeastern horizon.

It was the sixth day since Gu Heng had returned from Changbai Mountain. Wang Wan Ning had already left Ji Province the day before yesterday. Gu Heng was now at the wheel of his Maybach GLS 600, parked in the underground garage of the Beichun High-speed Railway Station’s North Plaza.

Today, there were only four days left until the Lunar New Year.

The high-speed railway station was bustling with people, all of them travelers from the Northeast heading home.

Families reunited, and friends met again.

There was laughter, and there were tears.

Someone once said that for every kid from the Northeast, their rite of passage was a one-way ticket out of their hometown. Right now, that sentiment couldn’t feel more true.

Gu Heng sighed wistfully in his car before picking up his phone and starting to scroll again.

‘What the hell is Han Yijia up to now?’

Gu Heng glanced at the message Han Yijia had sent him two minutes ago, muttered to himself, and casually sent back a “?”.

After replying to Han Yijia, Gu Heng closed WhatsApp. The person he had come to the station to pick up was now in sight.

BEEP BEEP!

Gu Heng slammed on the horn. The loud blast made a young man with a buzz cut, standing a short distance in front of the car, jump with fright.

He whirled around at the sound, and when he saw Gu Heng in the driver’s seat, his eyes went wide as saucers.

“What’re you staring for with those bull eyes? The hell you looking at?!”

“Get in the car already! I’m starving from waiting for you!”

Gu Heng lowered the window and leaned out, yelling with a grin.

“Holy shit!”

“A Maybach GLS!”

“What’s your deal?”

“Did you win the lottery or something?”

This young man with the buzz cut, staring with wide eyes and a look of utter disbelief, was none other than Gu Heng’s best friend since childhood, Wan Jiakai.

“Wait a minute!”

“Even if you did win the lottery, you couldn’t afford a Maybach GLS!”

Wan Jiakai pulled open the passenger-side door. He stared at the Maybach GLS’s luxurious interior, then back at Gu Heng, who looked and carried himself completely differently than he had just half a year ago. Suddenly, his expression turned strange. “Gu Heng, don’t tell me you’re being kept by some rich sugar mama?”

“So what if I was?”

“With looks like these, you think it’d be hard for a guy like me to find someone to live off of?”

“Wait, for real?”

“You’re actually being kept by a sugar mama?”

Wan Jiakai slid into the car, his eyes wide with amazement. “I gotta say, this sugar mama treats you right. She even lets you drive her Maybach GLS! I saw this car at the Yanjing International Auto Show a while back. It costs over three million, all told!”

“Hey!”

“Where the fuck are you touching?”

Gu Heng’s face darkened as he watched Wan Jiakai’s hands, which had been stroking the car’s interior, start to wander over to his thigh.

“Heh heh…”

Wan Jiakai scratched his head and grinned. “Well, you know what they say: glamorous in public, suffering in private. I’ve heard a lot of these rich ladies are perverts who get their kicks out of tormenting pretty boys like you.”

“Get lost, get lost, get lost!”

“Stop worrying about things that aren’t your business!”

“The sugar mama keeping me is great, actually. She’s not only young, beautiful, and classy, but she’s also fair-skinned, gorgeous, and has legs for days!”

Since Wan Jiakai had already invented this explanation in his own head, Gu Heng decided to just go with it.

On the way over, he had been wondering how he was going to explain his sudden wealth to Wan Jiakai. After all, they knew each other way too well—Jiakai knew his situation like the back of his hand, and they had never lost touch.

So now that Wan Jiakai had “misunderstood,” Gu Heng figured he might as well let him. It saved him the brain cells he would have spent inventing some other explanation.

“Yeah, right!”

“If I believe that, I’m your son!”

Wan Jiakai scoffed, not believing a single word Gu Heng said.

“Hm?”

“But aren’t you already?”

Gu Heng asked, feigning confusion.

“Audacious!”

“To dare to perform the Reversed Celestial Spirits!”

Wan Jiakai grumbled, but even though he hadn’t seen Gu Heng in over half a year, there was no awkwardness between them. They were laughing and joking just like old times.

“So what?”

“What’re you gonna do about it?”

The smile hadn’t left Gu Heng’s face since he’d seen Wan Jiakai. “Come on, come on. What do you want to eat? My treat.”

“I’m good with whatever.”

Wan Jiakai replied casually as he fastened his seatbelt.

“Want to get hot pot?”

“Nah, the smell will stick to us.”

“Korean barbecue?”

“Too hot!”

“What about Sichuan food?”

“Too spicy!”

Gu Heng’s expression began to sour, and his grip on the steering wheel tightened.

“Seriously?”

“Then what in the world do you want to eat?”

Gu Heng asked irritably.

“Whatever~”

Wan Jiakai shrugged, a nonchalant look on his face.

“Then you can go eat shit!”

Gu Heng was so exasperated he laughed. He reached over, unbuckled the seatbelt Wan Jiakai had just fastened, and made a move to open the passenger door. “Get the hell out. If you buy a ticket now, you can still catch a high-speed train home!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!”

“I was just kidding!”

Wan Jiakai quickly stopped Gu Heng, smiling placatingly. “Hey, you kept asking! We’re brothers who haven’t seen each other in forever, do you even need to ask what we’re eating? It’s gotta be barbecue and beers, obviously!”

“Hot pot, Korean barbecue, Sichuan food… that’s all stuff you eat when you’re out with a girl!”

“A real man has a big meat skewer in his left hand and a big mug of beer in his right!”

“That’s all there is to it!”

Wan Jiakai re-fastened his seatbelt, all the while placating Gu Heng with a grin.

“Champion Scholar Pavilion, then,” Gu Heng said, rolling his eyes at Wan Jiakai. This time, he didn’t bother asking for his opinion and just made the decision himself.

“Champion Scholar Pavilion?”

“That place is always packed.”

“With the New Year this close, isn’t the line going to be all the way down the street?”