"Grandpa, Grandma, stop teasing me. She's really just an ordinary friend," Su Qinian put down his phone and tried hard to explain. "She had a math problem she didn't know how to solve, and I was teaching her." An idea flashed through his mind, and he came up with an excuse on the spot.
His grandparents, who had been through the ups and downs of society for so many years, could easily tell that this was a makeshift excuse. They were about to dig deeper.
Just then, Su's mother came into the living room and said they were about to leave.
Su Qinian let out a sigh of relief. He picked up his phone, quickly put on his shoes, and stood outside waiting for his family.
So close! If they had asked any more questions, the truth would surely have come out.
How could he outwit his grandparents?
...
At 9 a.m., Lin Jinran got off the train. First, she used a map app to search for the location of 221 Yunhou Road and checked the most convenient route.
It would take an hour by bus to reach the Martyrs' Park, and 221 Yunhou Road was nearby.
Carrying the basketball gift, Lin Jinran got on the bus. An hour later, she arrived at the Martyrs' Park smoothly.
It was around 10 a.m.
Lin Jinran looked around. The left side of the Martyrs' Park was numbered 201. As she walked further left, the numbers were 200, 199. It seemed the address she was looking for was on the other side.
She'd be there soon.
Full of confidence, Lin Jinran was afraid of getting lost, so she specifically used the map app for navigation.
After all, when she was in the capital before, she was really directionally challenged. She had gotten lost and been mercilessly mocked by Xu Jiaxin and Shen Tingsi.
201, 202... 213, 214...
Huh? Why couldn't she see the next number? Where was 215?
Lin Jinran looked confusedly at the place where 214 was located. It was a store, but it was closed for the Chinese New Year.
The map navigation told her to walk into the gap between 213 and 214.
Was she supposed to take a small path? Lin Jinran hesitated.
But soon she convinced herself.
If she couldn't find the way, how could the navigation app be wrong?
It surely couldn't. It was much more reliable than her.
So Lin Jinran didn't have any doubts and followed the navigation app into the small alley.
After passing through a not - very - long alley, the view suddenly opened up.
There was a pond in the park and an elderly university across the pond.
Lin Jinran twitched the corner of her mouth. The navigation must have taken her to the wrong place.
Inside the park? She was going to someone's home, not the Martyrs' Park.
The navigation vibrated, reminding her to keep walking forward.
Lin Jinran immediately turned off the navigation. She didn't believe she couldn't find the place. It was just a few hundred meters away.
It couldn't stump her.
But 15 minutes later, Lin Jinran regretted her boast. Now she was paying the price.
The navigation always told her to walk into the park, turn a corner after entering, and then take a small path.
But the small path entrance on the navigation was clearly a wall. Did she have to climb over it?
Who on earth walked this way?
Was the navigation really that unreliable?
Standing at the entrance of the Martyrs' Park, Lin Jinran took out her phone and clicked on Su Qinian's message box. She really wanted to send him a message saying, "I'm at the entrance of the Yunshi Martyrs' Park now. I can't find your home. Come and help me."
It would be so embarrassing.
This was so far from her original plan.
What about the surprise she had planned? It was going to turn into a shock instead.
She was supposed to give Su Qinian a surprise appearance.
Lin Jinran pursed her lips, hesitating.
No, it would be too shameful.
Lin Jinran leaned against a pillar in the Martyrs' Park and banged her head against it a few times. She murmured, "God, please help me find Su Qinian's home. Okay? This distance of just a few hundred meters, has it become a spirit?"
Maybe God heard Lin Jinran's plea. A shocked voice came from not far away.
"Lin Jinran?"
Lin Jinran trembled all over. She stared fixedly at the pillar she was holding, on the verge of tears. "No, this isn't how I wanted to find Su Qinian's home. I wanted to find it by myself."
"Lin Jinran? Is she your deskmate?" Another familiar voice came.
This voice seemed to be... Su Qinian's mother?
Lin Jinran wracked her brains for a long time and finally remembered whose voice it was.
It turned out that not only Su Qinian was there, but his mother was also there.
And the way she was hugging the pillar now...
"Lin Jinran, Niannian, she's your deskmate. Could she be the girlfriend you've been waiting for all morning?"
Girlfriend?
The blood in Lin Jinran's body almost rushed to her head. She guessed that this was the voice of Su Qinian's grandmother.
Girlfriend? What did that mean?
Su Qinian, his mother, his grandmother?
Su Qinian's whole family had seen her?
At this moment, Lin Jinran's face flushed red like a cooked hairy crab.
Slowly, painfully, she turned her head and saw Su Qinian, his mother, and... his grandparents rolling down the car window...
Didn't that mean they had seen her banging her head against the pillar?
Lin Jinran was so ashamed that she wished the ground would open up and swallow her. Thoughts of escaping the earth flooded her mind.
She saw Su Qinian get out of the car and walk towards her worriedly.
Every second seemed to drag on forever.
What should she do? How could she explain this crazy and absurd behavior?
Lin Jinran quickly searched her mind for a solution. This one wouldn't work, and that one wouldn't either. What should she do?
Before she could come up with a solution, he was already in front of her.
She was still hugging the pillar. She looked up at Su Qinian, opened her mouth slightly, not knowing what to say.
It was very quiet around them. All she could hear was their breathing.
"Lin Jinran, why are you here?" Su Qinian asked.
"Su Qinian... Happy birthday. This is your birthday gift," Lin Jinran blinked gently. Realizing she was still hugging the pillar, she quickly let go and stuffed the gift into his hands.
Huh? Su Qinian looked down and saw a carefully - wrapped gift. The gift bag had a print of his favorite basketball player.
Su Qinian smiled and whispered, "Thank you, Lin Jinran. Thank you for traveling far and wide just to give me birthday wishes."
She hadn't forgotten. She just wanted to give him a surprise.
He was truly surprised and overjoyed.
"Who traveled far and wide to give you a gift? I just passed by and decided to give it to you. You're just lucky," Lin Jinran explained awkwardly. Suddenly, she remembered what his grandmother had said about the girlfriend and started to question him.
"By the way, what did your grandmother mean by 'girlfriend'? You'd better explain it clearly, or I won't let you off easily."