All four of them lived in the same residential community, so they just hailed a minivan to take them back.
"It’s really such a coincidence that we all live in the same community," Fan Chen was genuinely surprised.
Huang Jing, sitting in the last row, was a bit speechless; most of the company’s staff lived in this community or the nearby ones.
After all, it was convenient for going to work, and for colleagues with children, they would choose homes within a good school district for their kids’ education.
Upon hearing her friend’s words, Shen Lan also closed her eyes, truly a textbook example of what made people cringe.
The ones who found this conversation cringeworthy were Shen Lan and Huang Jing, whereas Xia Ke didn’t think there was anything wrong with it at all.
Looking at Xia Ke, who seemed to find everything so coincidental, Huang Jing could only think, "Girls who’ve grown up simply can’t stay put, huh."
Well, since she knew they had feelings for each other, it was better for her, the idle one, to quietly leave.
The car quickly arrived at the community, and everyone, carrying their luggage, got out, "Shall we have dinner together tonight?"
Huang Jing and Shen Lan turned towards Fan Chen, who had spoken up, "I won’t be joining."Even though she had eaten on the plane and slept most of the way, she still felt tired.
She had work tomorrow, so Huang Jing just wanted to rest well and regain her strength.
Especially since she hadn’t been home for the past few days, even with the doors and windows shut, the house was sure to be a mess, and if nothing unexpected happened, it would need a good cleaning.
Thinking about this, Huang Jing sighed internally; it was great to go out and have fun, to make herself happy in various ways.
But once back home, there was luggage to unpack and cleaning to do, which was really exhausting.
She truly wished, if possible, that someone could help her clean, although that was just wishful thinking.
After saying goodbye to Xia Ke and the others, Huang Jing thought she would part ways with them soon, only to find they were entering the same building.
What surprised her even more was that they were on the same floor, which really amazed Huang Jing.
You see, the floor she lived on consisted of smaller units, the kind she lived in, suitable for bachelors, especially those with a modest income.
For someone like Shen Lan, it was already strange that he didn’t buy a house; like what Fan Chen said, earning money but not spending it, then what’s the point of making money at all.
But unexpectedly, he went even further: not only did he not buy a house, but the fact that he rented—and it was a small one at that—surprised them even more.
Perhaps this was the world of a genius, truly beyond the comprehension of ordinary people like her.
Well, it was his choice, his arrangement, someone intent on retiring at 35 certainly needed to save money diligently, for that was the foundation for his livelihood.
Shen Lan wasn’t surprised by Huang Jing’s astonished gaze; his colleagues knew he rented a small place, and their astonishment was to be expected.
So one more surprised person didn’t really trouble him.
Huang Jing took out her keys to unlock the door, "Goodbye."
Shen Lan nodded to her, then took out his keys to open his door and entered.
Once inside, Huang Jing wheeled her suitcase straight to the living room, as she was about to clean the whole place anyway.
The first thing she did was to open all the windows and balcony door; the wind blowing in carried a hint of warmth, "Summer is almost here, huh."
Soon, when it got a bit hotter, she could eat and drink on the balcony, and even watch TV there.
Standing on the balcony, she took a moment to gaze out, "I’m really more suited to the urban landscape."
Though a view of trees and blue skies was truly nice, she couldn’t help it; she was just an ordinary person.
After standing on the balcony for a while, Huang Jing went back into her room to organize her suitcase, then started to clean. After she finished everything, naturally, she began to feel hungry.
I needed to eat something, so I opened the fridge and, well, I had practically cleared it out before setting off.
Without anything to fill my stomach, Huang Jing sighed helplessly, "It looks like I’m destined to go out."
I had to go out to buy some food and drink, otherwise the emptiness of the fridge felt quite strange.
I left the windows open, hung up the freshly washed clothes, and then fed more garments into the washing machine, letting it carry on with its work.
Waiting at the elevator, it wasn’t long before I saw Shen Lan coming out, which was a bit surprising.
"You are?" Shen Lan seemed surprised, as he had just mentioned he would rest well upon returning.
"My fridge at home is completely empty, not even a bottle of water."
"Even if I really don’t want to go out, I can’t just stay in," Huang Jing explained briefly.
"Your place?" I casually asked, not waiting for Shen Lan to respond.
"I’m in the same boat, nothing in the fridge, and I’m a bit hungry too?"
Shen Lan knew Huang Jing could drive but didn’t have a license. He would have ignored it if they hadn’t run into each other, but now that they had met, he couldn’t just look the other way.
"Let’s have dinner together and then go to the supermarket, I’ll drive," Shen Lan offered.
Going out to eat with Shen Lan made Huang Jing hesitate, but she agreed. Although Shen Lan tended to keep to himself at work and didn’t interact much with colleagues.
But don’t think he wasn’t popular in the office. Huang Jing had seen a list ranking the handsome men of the company, and Shen Lan’s name was quite high on it.
She used to have a boyfriend, so of course, she wasn’t interested in such things, until a girl from the next group enlightened her.
Talking about how amazing and cool Shen Lan was, Huang Jing still remembered thinking that someone who was smart, capable, and good-looking must really be favored by the heavens.
Of course, he wasn’t without flaws. The flaw was his coldness.
Now, after interacting with him for some time, Huang Jing came to realize that although Shen Lan appeared somewhat distant, he was actually quite kind-hearted.
He wouldn’t nag about it but would help you out of the blue and then act as if nothing happened.
Huang Jing didn’t know why Shen Lan always showed up with that cool, distant expression in front of everyone. Maybe it was his protective color, shielding him from all sorts of ill-intended people.
There was also the possibility that he had social anxiety but didn’t want to lose face by admitting it, so he used his expression to scare people off.
Thinking about Shen Lan’s personality, Huang Jing would have expected him to buy a conservative car or maybe an SUV. But to her surprise, he had chosen a sports car.
It wasn’t even a very fancy sports car—a BMW sports car—which wasn’t that expensive for Shen Lan. It was just unexpected.
It was weird for someone who seemed so steady to drive a sports car, Huang Jing thought.
After Shen Lan started the car, he slowly drove out of the garage, heading toward the supermarket, "When I was a kid, I thought this model looked so cool."
"I always thought that once I had the money, I would buy a car ."
For some reason, Shen Lan offered a bit of an explanation.
Is this supposed to be an explanation? Huang Jing found it a bit odd, but what car to buy is a personal choice after all.
Although it was odd, it was still pretty normal for a man to like sports cars.
"Then I made some money and bought one, but after driving it a few times, it felt average to me."
"I hardly drive it; it’s usually just sitting there." Besides living not too far from the company, it was also because he didn’t really like the car that much.