Song Wan, who had fled, returned to Jingcheng once again after flying freely for three days, seven hours, and seven minutes.
Along the way, Song Wan racked his brain but couldn’t figure out how Gu Jingzhou had found him.
He peeked secretly at Gu Jingzhou next to him, who had his legs crossed and was processing work on a tablet, but several times when the words reached his lips, he didn’t dare to ask.
Until the plane landed.
Song Wan saw several people standing below, the most eye-catching among them being Du Bingqiao’s red head.
At this moment, Song Wan felt like a criminal caught after fleeing, about to undergo interrogation. Standing at the cabin doorway and looking at the stairs, he was ten thousand times unwilling in his heart.
“What is wrong with you child! How could you play a vanishing act without saying a single word!”
A wealthy lady wearing a shawl trotted over, followed by a man whose expression was displeasure itself.
These should be the original owner’s parents, Song Hemian and Shen Shu.
Song Wan sluggishly went down the steps, preparing to receive his “parents'” reprimand.
However, Shen Shu pounced over and pulled him straight into her arms.
“Wanwan!”
The woman’s embrace was warm, and her hair carried a fresh scent.
Song Wan froze in place, the light in his eyes gently swaying.
He had no parents in his original world and was raised by his aunt. In order not to add a burden to his aunt, he started living at school when he was very young, being very frugal with food and clothing, and secretly hiding his real age to do odd jobs outside once he reached high school.
When the illness first found Song Wan, he had thought about giving up at one point. He looked into many insurance policies, wanting to list his aunt as the beneficiary and then stage an accident.
It was only after he met a kind-hearted person willing to sponsor his treatment that he put away that thought and began trying hard to live on.
Song Wan spent five years living in the hospital, and generally only contacted his aunt and younger female cousin through phone calls.
Family warmth was very unfamiliar to him.
Shen Shu held him tightly, her voice carrying a worried, tearful choke, “You really scared mother to death! Do you know that over these past two days, your father and I almost turned Jingcheng upside down!”
“We used every connection we could use, contacted every person we could contact, and even reported it to the police, I almost thought I would never see you again, sob…”
On the other side, Song Hemian shook hands with Gu Jingzhou, who had gotten off the plane.
“President Gu, thank you so much, we’ve troubled you. If not for you, his mother and I really wouldn’t have known what to do.”
Gu Jingzhou said in a deep voice, “No trouble at all, it was just a small effort.”
Song Wan felt his heart trembling along with Shen Shu’s sobs. He swallowed hard with difficulty, his feet as if taking root.
This was somewhat different from what he had imagined.
Song Wan had originally thought that if he vanished, he vanished; he wasn’t the protagonist anyway, so how big of a stir could it cause? He estimated that almost nobody would care.
Yet in reality, during the few days he was missing, someone was frantically searching for him.
He was not the protagonist of this book, but in certain people’s hearts, he seemed to be very, very important.
Song Wan couldn’t describe this feeling. It felt like a stone blocking his chest, his mood heavy and stifled, truly feeling like he had done something wrong.
Song Wan’s fingers tightened and released, and he raised his hand somewhat helplessly, vaguely touching Shen Shu’s strands of hair.
The wind at the airport was very strong. Gu Jingzhou stood not far away watching for a moment, and did not stay long.
He turned around and got into the Gu family’s car. Inside the car, Gu Xuan, who had been sticking to the glass watching the gossip unfold, was insanely curious.
“Brother, how did you know where Song Wan went? Even the police could only track him taking the high-speed train, did you put a locator on him?”
“Something like that.”
“Ah???”
Gu Jingzhou closed his eyes and began to rest his mind.
Although Song Wan had replaced his phone SIM card, that miniature camera had been bound to Song Wan’s phone.
In this entire matter, the only thing he spent a bit of effort on was finding the seller of the camera and retrieving the IP location of Song Wan’s phone from the seller’s background system.
Finance University Exchange Group (No Teachers Version), the discussion inside the group was lively and intense.
[Pure-Hearted Female Cockroach: Reliable news, Song Wan, who was missing for several days, has been found!]
[Bro Don’t Laugh: How long has it only been? I think he did it on purpose, if he really didn’t want to come back, how could he be found so easily?]
[Tears Wet Small Mahjong: Haha, what stimulus did he receive this time?]
[AA Substitute Classmate: I guess he was crushed by Jiang Shen on this midterm exam and couldn’t take it for a moment, hahaha!]
It was common knowledge that Song Wan found Jiang Shen eyesore, but Jiang Shen was not only handsome, he was also first in the entire department. Everyone felt that Song Wan comparing himself to Jiang Shen was just looking for trouble and overestimating his own capabilities.
Everyone in the group spoke one after another. As they chatted, the topic drifted off course into a praise assembly for Jiang Shen, while occasionally remembering to throw in a couple of snide remarks about Song Wan in between.
Du Bingqiao glanced at the messages in the group and let out a light sneer.
Song Wan crushed by Jiang Shen on the midterm exam?
What a joke, Song Wan didn’t even participate in the midterm exam, he was out surfing the internet with him.
“Lunch will be ready right away, it’s all Wanwan’s favorites.” The Song family’s auntie brought over a plate of fruit. “Young Master Du, stay and eat together too.”
Du Bingqiao put away his phone, “Alright, Auntie.”
On the other side, Song Wan was applying disinfectant alcohol.
Last night was too dark to see clearly, and his knee had scraped off a bit of skin somewhere without him realizing.
Du Bingqiao looked with a numb expression as Song Wan directly pressed a cotton swab onto his knee, “Hiss, can’t you be lighter with your hand.”
Song Wan tore open a Band-Aid, “You’re not the one injured, what are you hissing for.”
“Don’t you know pain is contagious!”
Du Bingqiao crossed his arms in front of his chest. Originally he was very angry, feeling that Song Wan had tossed aside their several years of friendship to run away without a word.
However, seeing Song Wan silently treating his wound right now, the interrogation he had prepared long ago could no longer be spoken.
“Hey, did you run into some difficult matter? If you can’t tell your parents, it’s fine if you tell me, right? I’ll keep it a secret for you.”
Song Wan crumpled the scrap paper into a ball and threw it accurately into the trash can, “No, I just wanted to go out and play for two days, actually I would have returned on my own when the time came.”
Siri shouted loudly: [Liar!]
Song Wan: “Shut up.”
Pity that Du Bingqiao couldn’t hear their conversation, “Really?”
Song Wan coughed with a guilty conscience, “Of course, and I won’t run away in the future either.”
These words somehow hit a certain switch in Du Bingqiao, making him so happy he stood straight up from the sofa.
Du Bingqiao’s grades were as terrible as a pile of shit, and he spent all day outside eating, drinking, playing, and not attending to proper business. In the past, his dad always scolded him, but every time he scolded him, he would drag Song Wan out as a shield.
Song Wan playing the vanishing act this time had worried him sick; without Song Wan, who else could bottom out for him?
“Not bad, on account of you being very sensible, I allow you to play games with me tonight” Just as Du Bingqiao was about to pat Song Wan’s shoulder.
Song Wan said, “I plan to follow behind my dad in the future to learn how to manage the company.”
The room fell silent for two seconds.
Two seconds later, Du Bingqiao exploded, “Didn’t we agree to lie flat, slack off, hold hands, and whoever works hard first is a dog! You want to roll over me?!”
Song Wan really didn’t have the intention to roll over Du Bingqiao.
It was just that after thinking back and forth, if he didn’t run away, this was the only final method left to save himself preventing the Song family from going bankrupt.
The Song family’s assets could at least be ranked in the top ten in Jingcheng. As long as they didn’t go bankrupt, others wouldn’t dare to trample him underfoot.
The only tricky part was that the book didn’t write why the Song family went bankrupt; Song Wan could only find a way to discover the reason himself.
When Song Hemian heard that Song Wan had the idea of entering the company to learn, although he said on the surface that he thought the urgent matter right now was to get his grades up, inside his heart he was already bursting with joy.
It really wasn’t easy, his son had finally turned back from his astray ways, which was even harder than an iron tree blooming.
Song Hemian put down his knife and fork and wiped his mouth.
“How about this, it just so happens that recently the company negotiated a big collaboration, and tomorrow I still need to discuss and confirm some details with the partner. Since you have the mind to learn, you come along with me tomorrow.”