Chapter 18: Heading Home

Chapter 18: Returning Home

On Friday, the day scheduled for the return trip, Gao Yun arranged for a chartered plane and a fully enclosed cargo truck through the freight airline recommended by the Ferrari sales manager, Du Ping. He packed his 812 GTS along with the luxury goods he had purchased over the past few days to be shipped back to Hu City.

He and Darya returned to Jin City via first-class commercial flight, then booked a private car from there to complete the journey home.

Along the way, Darya brought up an old grievance, complaining that Hu City was too small—it didn’t even have an airport. She lamented that having to transfer vehicles was a hassle, and if they were in a larger city, they wouldn't have needed to find a separate freight company; they could have just chartered a plane and arrived with both the people and the cargo together.

Gao Yun had heard similar complaints from her when they previously broke up, and hearing it again now was inevitably a bit annoying. While it was true, the inconveniences of a small city weren't limited to just transportation. There were gaps in medical care, education, entertainment, employment, and entrepreneurship—differences in every visible and invisible aspect of life. Gao Yun understood this, and now that he had money, he also wanted to move to a better city. However, "home" was a place where he could criticize it himself, but if an outsider called it bad, he would get angry—even if that outsider was his girlfriend.

Moreover, objectively speaking, Gao Yun didn't think now was the right time to leave Hu City. He could certainly use his "emotional" index to splurge wildly, just like protagonists in other "god-tier" wealth novels—spending recklessly in luxury hotels, nightclubs, and entertainment venues in first-tier cities, inviting envy and jealousy, satisfying his own vanity, and indulging in debauchery every night.

But Gao Yun didn't like that lifestyle. Especially after three days of retaliatory consumption—buying a Ferrari and numerous luxury items—he suddenly realized a truth: happiness bought with money is of a low quality.

"I have never touched money; I have no interest in money. Because the happiest time of my life was when I earned 91 yuan a month, back when I was a teacher."

When he had no money, Gao Yun would have thought that statement was nonsense, but now, he genuinely agreed with it.

Simply put, money is a tool, not the goal of life. Those without the tool long for it, and those who have it seek to realize their life’s purpose.

Gao Yun now wanted to improve his three indices—Attributes, Skills, and Honors—to earn monetary rewards, and use those rewards to further improve himself. He wanted to focus on leveling up in the quiet and peaceful "newbie village" of Hu City. Once he reached the level cap here, he would move on to the next map and take in more diverse scenery.

If the level cap for Hu City was 10, Gao Yun figured he was at most a level 7. Excluding skills like fitness and dating, his combat skills were still a long way from those of Liu Xinsheng, the head of the Ace Combat Gym; there was plenty of room for improvement. The same applied to skills like breakdancing and guitar.

Those were the objective reasons for not leaving Hu City for the time being. Emotionally, Gao Yun wasn't ready to leave either; he needed to settle his family and friends and bid them farewell, didn't he?

Hearing Darya begin to complain in Russian about the environment inside the private car, Gao Yun noticed a clear change in her. It is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but difficult to go from luxury back to frugality. Darya, who was already spendthrift with money, had clearly become even more inflated after these three days of luxury consumption.

She was actually turning her nose up at an Audi A4L private car? She had only been riding in a Ferrari for three days!

Gao Yun glanced at her and couldn't be bothered to respond.

After 1:00 PM, the freight company’s truck arrived at his doorstep two minutes ahead of them. Workers moved the luxury goods and gifts upstairs. Gao Yun swapped his Tang DM in the garage for the Ferrari 812 GTS, thinking to himself that he really needed to find a new house soon, or he wouldn't even have a place to park his cars.

As soon as he got home and before he could even rest or have a drink of water, a WeChat message arrived from Li Jianchen, saying he had found a great location for the gym in the New District that would certainly satisfy him, and asking when he would have time to go take a look.

Gao Yun had just replied "Tomorrow at 8:00 AM" when a call from his father, Gao Zhishan, immediately followed.

Gao Zhishan’s tone was indifferent: "You're back?"

"Yeah, you saw me the moment I got home?" Gao Yun held his phone and walked to the bedroom window to look out: "Dad, have you been watching me this whole time?"

Gao Yun and his parents had bought their apartments together in the same complex, situated in front of and behind each other. If the curtains weren't drawn, the bedrooms were perfectly visible. To put it even more exaggeratedly, when the wind was light, if Gao Yun was cooking dinner, they could guess what it was by the smell alone.

Gao Zhishan retorted: "Stop the nonsense. Why didn't you say anything when you got off the plane and arrived home?"

"I didn't have time; I just walked through the door."

Gao Zhishan asked: "Did you drive that Ferrari back?"

"It's over a thousand kilometers away. I hired a freight company to ship it back; it's already in the garage."

A few days ago, when his older sister, Gao Peng, saw Gao Yun’s social media posts and learned the Ferrari was his, she had immediately called to confirm. Gao Yun repeated the same "earning money" excuse he gave his colleagues and friends. Gao Peng was overjoyed, and their parents were informed of the news as well.

Gao Zhishan said: "Your sister and her family are here. Come over quickly, bring Darya so we can meet her, and tell us about your situation."

"Eat dinner here. Have him bring a bottle of light soy sauce from the supermarket downstairs," his mother, Wang Xia, called out from the background.

"Did you hear that?"

"Alright, I'll be there soon."

Gao Yun hung up the phone and looked at Darya on the bed. He didn't know when she had put down her phone and was now lying there staring at him.

Although the two had dated before, they had never met the parents. His parents only knew their son had a Russian girlfriend, and based on Gao Yun’s past, they hadn't taken it too seriously. *It’ll fall apart sooner or later, so what if she’s a foreigner?*

But now they were back together. As the first ex-girlfriend he had reconciled with, and a foreigner at that, it was only natural for them to want to meet her.

Gao Yun was indifferent about meeting the parents, because his first two exes had taught him that meeting the parents really meant nothing. You meet them, it doesn't mean you're getting married, and it doesn't stop a breakup at all! Sometimes, meeting the parents only made the breakup happen faster.

Fortunately, the two had prepared for this while in Hangzhou. Darya had even bought some gifts for Gao Yun’s family, even though the money was technically Gao Yun’s.

"Is this outfit okay?"

Gao Yun looked her up and down. Today, Darya’s clothes and shoes were Prada, totaling just over 30,000 yuan; she wore tight blue jeans, a stretchy white shirt, and soft sheepskin white sneakers. Only the Cartier white gold bracelet on her wrist stood out—worth 100,000 RMB.

"Not bad, it's quite simple," Gao Yun nodded: "The makeup is fine too, it suits you."

"Really? That's good."

Darya’s eyes were a bit complex. Gao Yun had seen that look before; it contained both anticipation and fear of the unknown.

"Will they ask when we're getting married? You know, we only just got back together..."

"Hahaha." Gao Yun gave a sincere fake smile, thinking to himself that she was overthinking it—they would probably ask him in private when they were going to break up. He comforted her out loud: "It's just a simple meeting, don't have any burden."

The two gathered the prepared gifts, and Gao Yun stopped by the supermarket downstairs to buy a bottle of light soy sauce. Carrying the bags, they arrived at his parents' house.

His father, Gao Zhishan, was 67, a retired cadre who spent his days playing mahjong and occasionally using his connections to attract investment, moonlighting as a broker.

His mother, Wang Xia, was 65, a retired post office worker, now a full-time housewife.

With their pensions, the couple lived a secure life without much to worry about or any heavy labor, so they were in good health.

His sister, Gao Peng, was 39, and like Gao Yun, she was a staff member in a government agency.

Her husband, Qiao Liran, had chosen to head north for a better life for their family, working as a mid-level manager at a software development company in the capital. He usually rented an apartment in the capital and returned to Hu City every weekend. This time, he happened to be back just as Gao Yun returned from Hangzhou.

Their child, Gao Yun’s nephew Qiao Huan, was a 15-year-old chubby boy who had just started junior high and was at an age full of energy. Hearing the doorbell, he immediately opened the door.

"So much stuff?" Qiao Huan's round face was full of surprise. He didn't even notice Darya behind him as he hurried to take some of the bags: "Did Uncle buy me anything?"

"Nike AJ34, in the red bag you just took. Try them on and see if they fit."

"Ah, I see them!"

As they spoke, they entered the house and dropped the bags on the floor.

"Brother is back."

Gao Peng and her husband Qiao Liran rose from the sofa to greet them with smiles. His mother, Wang Hui, wearing an apron, brought out a plate of sliced fruit from the kitchen and set it on the coffee table. His father, Gao Zhishan, who had been watching TV in the bedroom, walked out as well. The whole family stood in the living room to welcome them.