Returning Home

The drinks were quickly served, and everyone poured their glasses, raised them in a toast across the table, and downed them in one gulp.

Then came the games and drinking, and the joyful atmosphere lasted until half past twelve in the morning.

Except for Su Yang and Pan Ning, everyone else was already a bit tipsy.

Considering they had a flight to catch the next day, and everyone had drunk about as much as they could handle, they called it a night and went back to their rooms before one o'clock.

Zhuang Mengli had drunk a bit too much that day, and since she had also gone to bed late the night before, she went straight to sleep after returning to her room without sending Su Yang a message.

Jiali and Winnie were the same—they were even more drunk than Zhuang Mengli, and they crashed as soon as they got back to their room.

Nothing happened that night.

At seven thirty on the morning of September 30th, Su Yang woke up early. The weather was still good that day, clear skies as far as the eye could see.

The short and slightly eventful trip to the island nation came to an end. Earlier, they had planned to go to the seaside to find a deserted island and try some wilderness survival, but the girls weren't interested, so it didn't happen.

Next, after returning home, Su Yang had something to take care of—a race against a professional rally driver.

He had promised Qin Su he would help with the racing, and since he had agreed, he wouldn't stand her up. If he wasn't going to do it, he wouldn't have agreed in the first place, but once he did, he would give it his best.

Of course, the fact that Qin Su was good-looking also played a part; otherwise, he probably wouldn't have agreed from the start.

"After getting back to Haicheng today, I'll go to my parents' place for a meal. Then tomorrow or the day after, I'll contact Qin Su and help her get that matter handled. Once that's done, I can start the next task."

"Every day is so busy now—work one after another. Keep it up!"

Half an hour later, everyone else had also gotten up, packed their luggage, and had a simple breakfast in the restaurant.

After breakfast, they said goodbye to Han So-yeon, Jiali, and the other six, and then took the hotel's courtesy car to Chitose International Airport in Sapporo.

The flight was delayed by twenty minutes and took off at ten fifty.

It took about four hours to fly from Sapporo to Shanghai, and everyone took a nap in the air. At three in the afternoon, the plane landed safely at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport.

As soon as they returned to Shanghai, the temperature shot up from 20 degrees to 33 degrees Celsius, and the feeling of summer was back.

Zhuang Mengli and Jiang Xiaotang said goodbye to the others and took a car home. The rest waited at the airport for an hour before boarding a flight to Haicheng.

After a day of traveling, it was six thirty by the time Su Yang and the others finally got back to Haicheng.

Since they had been abroad for several days, everyone parted ways and went home.

Su Yang hailed a taxi and headed toward his parents' place at Four Seasons Cloud Court.

In the car, his phone rang.

"Hey, Dad."

"You should have landed by now, right?" Su Dagang's voice came through on the other end.

"Yeah, I've landed. I'm in a taxi now, should be there in about half an hour."

"Good, your mom is already cooking. We'll eat as soon as you get here."

"Great, do you have any booze, Dad?" Su Yang laughed.

"Booze? Of course, do you think your dad would be anywhere without alcohol? You little rascal."

"Haha, good to have some. I haven't had any of our country's baijiu in days—the stuff over in Japan just doesn't hit the same."

"Drinking is fine, but don't get addicted, got it? It wouldn't look good for a young guy to become a drunk."

"I know, I'm not hooked."

"That's good. Gotta go, I'm watching TV."

"Okay, see you soon."

"Wait! Hold on!" Just as Su Yang was about to hang up, Su Dagang called out quickly.

"What's up?"

"Is Xiao Pan not with you?"

"No, she went home."

"Oh, right. I thought she was with you, so I was going to tell your mom to cook a few more dishes."

"No, I'll bring her back another day."

"Alright, then. That's it."

The call ended, and Su Yang leaned against the window, gazing blankly at the scenery slipping past outside.

Thirty-five minutes later, Su Yang arrived at the door of Apartment 1501, Building 2, Four Seasons Cloud Court, and rang the doorbell.

Even though he had bought this house, he had forgotten to keep a key for himself and hadn't registered his fingerprint either.

Ding-dong, ding-dong.

"Coming!" Su Dagang's voice came from inside.

A few seconds later, the door opened, and Su Dagang pulled it back, looking at Su Yang. "Don't you have a key?"

"No."

"Didn't you register your fingerprint either?"

"I forgot."

"You, kid, day in and day out. Register your fingerprint now so you can let yourself in from now on."

"Sure." Su Yang smiled, registered his fingerprint at the door, and then stepped inside.

A big house has its pros and cons. The good side is it's spacious and comfortable—when relatives or friends visit, there's room to spare, and it gives you face.

The downside is that when it's too big, it can feel a bit lacking in warmth.

For example, back in the old house in Yangcheng, as soon as you walked in, you could hear Mom bustling away in the kitchen.

In this house, you could hardly hear a sound. From the front door to the kitchen, you had to pass through the entryway, a massive living and dining room, and a tea room before reaching the kitchen—it was just too large.

Su Yang closed the door, followed Su Dagang to the living room, and then turned his head and shouted toward the kitchen: "Mom, I'm back!"

"Hey! Good, have a seat! Dinner will be ready soon!" Chen Liping replied from the kitchen.

Su Dagang smiled and said, "Come on, sit down. How was your trip to Japan with your friends? Did you have a good time?"

Su Yang walked over to the sofa and lay back. "How should I put it? Overall, it was okay, but they're all East Asian countries. A lot of things are pretty similar, so there wasn't that strong sense of being in a foreign place."

Hearing this, Su Dagang frowned. "What do you mean? Don't get that whole 'strong' stuff—I don't follow."

"I mean, a lot of things over there feel the same as here, especially the people—they look similar too. So it felt like I hadn't even gone abroad."

"So, is China still more fun?"

"Of course, but if you've never been, it's still worth a visit. Mainly because it's close."

"What places did you go?" Su Dagang asked.

"We didn't go to many places. On the second or third day after we arrived, a typhoon hit, and we were stuck in the hotel for a few days. After that, we went to Hokkaido, took a soak in hot springs, stuff like that."

"Hit by a typhoon? Nothing went wrong, right?"

"No, we stayed in the hotel during the typhoon."

"Okay then. But listening to you, Japan doesn't sound all that fun," Su Dagang shook his head and laughed.

"When us young people go there, we just wander around, eat local food, and drink. So it probably sounds boring to you."

Su Yang sat up and continued, "By the way, Dad, you should take Mom out to travel too. You two don't have much going on these days—you can just go sightseeing."

Su Dagang nodded and smiled. "We're actually planning to go on a trip in a few days, with your Uncle Guan and his wife."

"Oh, really? Where are you going to?"

"They said Sanya."

"Nice. You haven't been to the seaside yet, so this time you can have some good fun—eat seafood and enjoy the ocean views."

"Yeah, that's exactly why we picked Sanya, since we've never been to the coast."

"Then go for it. I'll cover the travel expenses." Su Yang picked up the tea on the table and took a sip.

Su Dagang waved his hand and said, "What are you paying for? The money you transferred to us before will last us a lifetime, we don’t need you to chip in."

"The travel fund is different. It’s settled, I’m sponsoring you."

Su Dagang let out a helpless yet happy laugh. "Alright, alright. You pay, you pay."

"That’s more like it. Speaking of which, I’ll probably be going abroad again in a few days."

"You’re going abroad again?"

"Yeah, I need to head to Europe."

"That far?"

"Can’t help it. Work has some arrangements, so I have to go."

"Fine, I won’t ask too much about your work. But no matter what you’re doing out there, always stay safe!"

"I know~"

Soon, Chen Liping finished cooking the meal.

The family of three sat together and enjoyed a warm, delicious dinner.

During the meal, Chen Liping couldn’t help but nag him, but Su Yang now really savored the feeling of being nagged.

In the past, when Chen Liping nagged him, he couldn’t help but resist inside, and even argued back from time to time.

Now it was different. When he came home, if Chen Liping didn’t nag him, he felt like something was missing.

[Ding, detected that the host greatly enjoyed the dinner with his family. Reward: 3,000,000]