CFRFGC Chapter 39

⌈Just missed out on a fortune of a billion!⌋

The morning street was practically deserted.

Lu Ran held the dog’s leash in one hand and nibbled on a steamed bun with the other.

The weather had been pleasant recently.

The skies were clear, and now, after the winter solstice, the sunrise came a little earlier each day.

Golden sunlight bathed his back with warmth.

Lu Ran led Da Huang toward the pet boarding shop.

Da Huang stayed close to his side, its two round, dark eyes fixed on the steamed bun in his hand.

“Not a chance,” Lu Ran said calmly, taking another bite. “You already had your dog food.”

Da Huang yawned, letting out two urgent little whines, eyes still locked on Lu Ran’s bun.

Lu Ran couldn’t take the intense stare anymore.

“All right, just a tiny bit.”

With that, he tore off a small piece of the bun’s outer layer and stuffed it into Da Huang’s mouth.

Da Huang instantly walked with a new spring in its step.

After dropping Da Huang off at the pet shop, Lu Ran turned and headed toward the café where he worked.

He’d been feeling a bit unsettled lately.

Because of his past experiences, Lu Ran disliked having familiar people intrude on his work life.

But these past few days, it seemed someone was always showing up—either Ji Min, connected to Shen Xingyu and trying to offer him a new job, or Shen Xingzhuo, who seemed to have done a complete 180, persistently sending him money.

It all seemed positive on the surface.

Yet it left Lu Ran feeling slightly uneasy.

He cut through the nearby park to take a shortcut and, after a few steps, noticed a familiar figure up ahead.

Instinctively, Lu Ran quickened his pace to get a better look. His face lit up with surprise and delight as he called out.

“Uncle Butler! It really is you?”

Butler Chen looked a bit surprised himself.

He glanced at the morning dew on Lu Ran’s hair, smiled, and asked, “Young man, working hard as usual?”

“Of course.”

Lu Ran often found Ji Min to be a cranky nuisance, but he had a genuine fondness for the kind Butler Chen by his side.

Perhaps it was because Butler Chen always looked at him with warmth.

There was never a hint of judgment or curiosity about his background or his ambiguous ties to the Shen family.

“Uncle Butler, aren’t you working today?” Lu Ran asked.

Butler Chen chuckled. “Getting older, I’ve started taking more days off each week. Today, I’m meeting an old friend for a chess game.”

He showed Lu Ran the chess set he was carrying.

Lu Ran was a bit surprised.

Could it be that Ji Min, that notorious taskmaster, actually allowed days off?

Seeing his thoughts, Butler Chen shook his head and asked with a smile, “You thought my job was 24/7, year-round?”

Lu Ran scratched his head and nodded sheepishly.

Butler Chen found this amusing.

Did Ji Min even know that this was how he was viewed by this young man?

The two of them walked along a small path by the edge of the park.

From there, they could just make out a construction site nearby, half-finished and now sealed off.

Currently, the site is under investigation.

Court officials were posting closure notices on it and safety lines had been set up around the area.

Lu Ran and Butler Chen stopped to watch for a moment.

Suddenly, Lu Ran realized this was a Huang family construction project.

Previously, that blond-haired kid driving a sports car had hit his dog. When Lu Ran posted the video online, it triggered a wave of unexpected consequences.

The Huang family had been investigated.

All sorts of hidden issues within the family were unearthed.

Butler Chen noted, “This project was found to have issues with its load-bearing materials and will be dismantled in the coming days.”

Lu Ran exclaimed, “Good thing they found it out.”

There had been plans to build a mall here. If something had gone wrong, it would have caused serious casualties.

“You have yourself to thank for this,” Butler Chen said, looking at him.

“Me?” Lu Ran was a bit puzzled.

He shifted his gaze and said, “Wasn’t it… Mr. Ji’s doing?”

Butler Chen, carrying his chess set, started walking again. “Mr. Ji’s time is limited; he rarely intervenes in other businesses’ affairs.”

Lu Ran followed behind, his mind drifting.

Because the Huang family had come up, the events of that night resurfaced in his mind.

When he was utterly exhausted and had made a complete scene, Ji Min’s spacious, dark car became the first place where he’d ever slept so peacefully in his life.

“What do you mean?” Lu Ran asked Butler Chen.

Butler Chen glanced at him with mild surprise, thinking to himself that he’d done a good deed today. Looking at Lu Ran, he softly explained.

“Mr. Ji didn’t originally have any plans against the Huang family. He just happened to feel like helping you, to give them a warning. But in investigating, these other issues came up, so he decided to take care of it along the way.”

Lu Ran stopped in his tracks.

He raised his head and looked at the elder in front of him.

The golden winter sunlight brushed over his long, thick lashes and fell into his dark eyes, casting a glimmer there.

For the first time, that obediently curved gaze seemed to hold a hint of confusion typical for his age.

His lips moved and he asked in a soft voice, “Why would he help me?”

Butler Chen’s eyes softened with a trace of affection as he looked at him. “Because you once asked him for help.”

Butler Chen still remembered it clearly.

Before Lu Ran had gotten into the car that day, the partition in the back seat had already been lowered.

The rear was quiet.

Only the boy’s voice could be heard as he spoke to his dog, sounding a bit young and innocent.

Later, the silence returned in the back.

Amid that quietness, a faint, hoarse voice seeped through the thin partition, a voice filled with every ounce of despair and pleading.

“Help me.”

“Please, help me.”

When Butler Chen raised the partition again, he realized it was the sleeping boy muttering in his dreams.

Even at his age, Butler Chen didn’t fully understand it.

How could a nineteen-year-old boy release such desperate pleas for help in his sleep?

It was supposed to be the age brimming with youthful vitality.

Yet he seemed submerged in a lifeless abyss.

Ji Min, sitting in his wheelchair, hadn’t moved.

He closed his eyes, fatigued, without giving any reaction, as if he hadn’t heard a thing from the back seat.

But after Lu Ran got out of the car…

Butler Chen had heard a command: “Look into that sports car.”

And that was what triggered the series of events involving the Huang family.

Now, he quietly observed the young man who was momentarily stunned.

It was because he had once heard Lu Ran’s plea for help that every time Butler Chen saw him, he couldn’t help feeling a hint of affection. He had always thought this young student must have had a rough life.

Lu Ran was still frozen.

Not until a group of kids with backpacks dashed by did he snap out of it.

So it wasn’t… because of Shen Xingyu?

He had indeed dozed off in the car back then. In a vague dream, he’d found himself lying in a hospital bed once again, completely immobilized.

There had been no one by his side, not even the slightest sound.

All he could do was stare helplessly at the ceiling, silently pleading for help in his mind, though he didn’t even know who he was asking.

He had never expected… that someone would actually hear him.

Facing the elder’s gaze, Lu Ran instinctively felt that this uncle—so similar to Director Lu—wouldn’t lie to him.

Reflecting on how he’d misunderstood Ji Min all along, Lu Ran’s ears began to feel warm.

Heat crept up his cheeks, mixed with a faint embarrassment and the shame of having trampled on someone’s good intentions.

“Well… I…”

He stepped forward and tugged on Butler Chen’s sleeve.

“What is it?” Butler Chen asked gently.

Lu Ran slowly retracted his hand, lowered his head, and mumbled, “Nothing.”

He said it was nothing, but the thought of it lingered in his mind the entire day.

He was so distracted while working at the coffee shop that he nearly rang up the wrong orders, leaving Xiao Wang extremely curious.

Lu Ran wasn’t entirely embarrassed.

Aside from the embarrassment, there were other feelings as well.

He recalled a volunteer sister he had met during his childhood at the orphanage.

That sister had come with a large bag of Lays snacks.

Lu Ran had been quite shy as a child.

While the other kids crowded around the sister, asking for treats, he pretended to be completely uninterested in the snacks, burying himself in his homework.

In truth, he had secretly envisioned the taste of the potato chips in his mind.

The rich flavor of potatoes exploding on his tongue would surely be delicious.

But he could only imagine it in his mind.

Little Lu Ran wanted to get closer and wished he could sweetly call out to the sister like the other children to ask for food.

But he didn’t have the courage.

He could only bury his head deeper into his homework.

When he finally looked up to find an eraser, unexpectedly, a potato chip was offered to him.

The sister gently asked, “Do you want to eat this?”

The prideful child swallowed hard, still pondering how to politely refuse.

But before he could say anything, his mouth was suddenly filled with a chip.

Lu Ran had no particular obsession with the taste of the chips.

Yet at that moment, the sensation that exploded in his mind and chest was something he would never forget.

It felt like a pot of boiling water was bubbling in his chest, gurgling up to the surface.

Warmth surged through his limbs, making even his fingertips tingle.

That was Lu Ran’s first encounter with the active kindness of a stranger.

Such moments in his life were as rare as greenery in a desert.

The feeling of gratitude left a lasting impression that would never fade.

Little Lu Ran quickly grew fond of that sister.

He would wait by the window every day for her to come back.

But later, the teacher said that sister had graduated and left the city.

Now, Mr. Ji had nothing in common with that sister from back then.

They were of different genders.

He wore a stern expression all day and wasn’t as cheerful as that sister.

He also often clashed with him.

However, after hearing the butler’s words, a feeling unexpectedly surged within Lu Ran, just like back then.

The pot of warm water in his chest bubbled once more.

It lingered for a long time.

He was to be sent abroad for studies and was also being offered a job change.

They were all there to help him?

Wait a minute!

Studying abroad?!

Suddenly, while packing takeout, Lu Ran froze in place.

Seeing his grim expression, Xiao Wang was startled and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Lu Ran pounded his chest and stomped his feet, saying, “It’s nothing.”

Just missed out on a fortune of a billion!

After packing the takeout bags, Lu Ran lifted his head, just about to say, “How about I deliver it myself?”

But as he looked up, he saw Xiao Wang already leaving with the bags, full of energy.

In the evening, Xiao Wang went out to deliver dinner again.

Lu Ran was pondering how to tell Xiao Wang that he could deliver Ji’s takeout himself tomorrow.

He simulated eight hundred different scenarios in his mind.

Before he could make a decision, a familiar face walked into the store.

Lu Ran looked up and saw Chen Sheng.

“What are you doing here?” Lu Ran asked bluntly.

Chen Sheng felt a bit awkward from the question.

But he still steeled himself and said, “Isn’t this to apologize?”

“Apologize for what?” Lu Ran inquired.

Chen Sheng scratched his head a few times, but ultimately approached and said, “For those things that happened before. We all feel quite bad about it, so we want to treat you to a meal.”

Lu Ran thought about declining.

But Chen Sheng immediately added, “A seafood feast.”

After a moment of silence, Lu Ran felt it would be good to give them a chance.

And also give those seafood a home.

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