Rebirth: He Decides to Lie Flat
Chapter 291 - 291 288 Picking Someone Up (Second Update)

Chapter 291: Chapter 288: Picking Someone Up (Second Update) Chapter 291: Chapter 288: Picking Someone Up (Second Update) With this rumor spreading further, it won’t be long before Jiajia and I will supposedly have a child going to fetch soy sauce.

Great, saves me the trouble of feeding and changing diapers.

“It’s no big deal, not worth getting angry over,” Jiang Yan consoled Yu Hang, “An engineer at the electronics factory returned from Germany with two SLR cameras with high resolution. I am waiting for them to finish studying it, to see if I can get one for you.”

Yu Hang was majoring in Photography at the School of Communication; his dad had already bought him two cameras, but he wasn’t satisfied with either. Hearing that Jiang Yan had cameras from Germany, he immediately cast aside the ridiculous rumors and inquired about some of the details.

He didn’t really need to ask; he knew that if Jiang Yan said an electronic product was good, it definitely wouldn’t be bad.

After agreeing on a time to eat, the two hung up the phone.

The next day, Jiang Yan got up early, having asked Jing Junyang for his car keys the night before, and headed for the train station with Mu Jiawen just before six.

Song Qingping and Huang Kai were on the train that left at ten o’clock the previous night and would arrive at half past six in the morning.

The two students and their parents had already come in advance; they arrived in Beijing yesterday afternoon and called to say that the hotels were fully booked and hard to reserve.

In the end, both families stayed at a hotel slightly farther away from Beijing University. They were going to book a room for Song Qingping too, but he told them there was no need as his student had booked him a place in the guesthouse.

At that time, both families wondered why he didn’t just book theirs too if he could arrange accommodation beforehand for himself. After all, the guesthouse of Beijing University is so convenient and cheap.

But they really misjudged Song Qingping—it wasn’t that he hadn’t considered it; he just didn’t want to go through that thankless task again.

A few years back, he arrived in Beijing a few days earlier due to some work. The students participating in the competition hadn’t come yet, so he took the liberty of booking rooms for them and their parents. However, when they arrived, they complained about the poor conditions and environment of the guesthouse.

They were picky, but couldn’t cancel the booking since nearby hotels were full.

Later, one of the student’s parents sarcastically remarked that as the president of the Yunzhou Calligraphy and Painting Association, wasn’t Song Qingping too modest when traveling?

Since that incident, he never booked rooms for students again. They could book whatever they wanted; he was saving himself the trouble and effort.

In Beijing early in the morning, it was not yet bright, and breakfast carts were sporadically parked along the road. There were few cars, and a trip that would normally take over forty minutes was completed in less than half an hour.

After Jiang Yan parked the car, Mu Jiawen unbuckled her seatbelt, turned to him and said, “Should we buy a car too?”

Her mother had transferred all the money from selling paintings into her account without spending a penny. The balance on Jiang Yan’s card was also in her hands. Not to mention this, her brothers had given her money for her birthday and over New Year… Jiawen counted on her fingers, without even touching the funds in fixed deposit, the scattered money alone was enough to buy a Volkswagen like Jing Junyang’s.

Having been frugal in the past and often short of money, now, even though she had plenty, Jiawen still didn’t have the habit of spending lavishly.

A significant portion of the larger sums were put in the bank for fixed deposit. Although the interest wasn’t much, just seeing it stay in her bank account made her very satisfied.

The tens of thousands she had loose were for her and Jiang Yan’s regular expenses.

Jiang Yan thought for a moment. On weekends he had to go to the electronics factory, and sometimes he even had to rush over after school from Monday to Friday. Old Li from the bakery needed supplies, and he would either borrow Jing Junyang’s car or drive Yu Heng’s, but continuing like this was not a solution.

“One of these days we’ll go take a look,” he said.

Then he said to Mu Jiawen, “Do you want to take a driving test during the summer holiday?”

She could already drive her brother’s car around the neighborhood. A systematic course should allow her to get her license quickly.

The two chatted as they walked to the exit to wait for Song Qingping and the others to come out.

Song Qingping had not splurged on a sleeper berth, and given his age, sitting up all night had nearly broken his back. He yawned incessantly as he walked out with Huang Kai, saying, “Once we get to the guesthouse, I need to rest for half the day before checking out the venue. If they contact you, say we’ll be there in the afternoon.”

“Sure, I need to sleep too,” Yu Hang replied.

The two soon reached the ticket checkpoint at the exit. Not expecting Mu Jiawen to be there, they didn’t glance towards the exit at all.

After showing their tickets, they walked straight out.

“Teacher!”

Hearing Mu Jiawen’s call, Song Qingping was momentarily stunned. He stopped and turned to look. Around five meters away in the crowd, a young girl in a simple white hooded sweatshirt layered with a black vest was waving and striding toward him.

“You girl, didn’t I tell you not to come pick us up? What time did you arrive?”

“Just got here not long ago.”

With Jiang Yan, a tall figure, standing behind Mu Jiawen, Song Qingping and Huang Kai hadn’t noticed him until they got close and he reached out to help them with their luggage, prompting them to suddenly snap back to reality.

“Ah, you came too?” Huang Kai said in surprise, not expecting this young man to value him so much as to come along with his junior sister to pick him up early in the morning.

Jiang Yan was somewhat speechless, “Come on, let’s talk in the car.”

The teacher and student followed Jiang Yan and Mu Jiawen to the nearby Volkswagen. Seeing Jiang Yan take the driver’s seat, they were both surprised.

“This car…”

“It’s a friend’s, specifically borrowed to pick you guys up,” Jiang Yan explained.

Not wrong of course; it was indeed borrowed for this purpose, though frequently.

Song Qingping didn’t have much of a reaction, but Huang Kai felt a bit embarrassed, given that he hadn’t been very friendly to Jiang Yan when he followed his junior sister to the gallery before.

But that wasn’t his fault—who could blame him when Jiang Yan always wanted to freeload off his junior sister’s paintings?

Song Qingping shifted his focus from Jiang Yan and the car back to Mu Jiawen and asked, “Have you been painting since starting university? Do you have time to practice? You didn’t come back over winter break, so I don’t know if you’ve improved or regressed.”

“I’m still painting. I haven’t regressed. I’ll paint one for you to see later,” she assured him.

“As long as you haven’t regressed, that’s good,” Song Qingping was pleased. He had many students, but only Mu Jiawen had such talent and gift.

They chatted all the way and soon arrived at the “Holiday” hotel near Beijing University.

Initially, Song Qingping and Huang Kai didn’t realize they weren’t at the guesthouse. Only when Jiang Yan parked and before they had a chance to open the doors themselves, hotel attendants rushed to open the doors for them.

Song Qingping hesitated a moment, then looked up at the hotel attendant who had opened the door for him, his face registering surprise.

But his expression vanished after just a second, replaced by composure as he got out of the car. Waiting for Mu Jiawen to alight, he whispered, “Why did we end up here?”

The five-star “Holiday” hotel—he had been coming to Beijing University every year, how could he not know of this hotel’s caliber?

Even without that knowledge, didn’t the grand entrance give a hint?

Huang Kai was also stunned, following suit with a whisper, “Are there no rooms in the guesthouse?”