Lu Fan never in a million years imagined that on this trip back to his hometown, he would run into Jiang Yixia's daughter.
"Uncle?" Seeing that he was lost in thought, Jiang Silu waved a hand in front of his eyes. "Are you and my mom really friends?"
'Friends?'
Lu Fan pulled at the corners of his mouth, forcing a smile that was uglier than tears.
'He and Jiang Yixia were so much more than friends.'
"Yes, we were colleagues once." Lu Fan suppressed the roiling emotions in his heart, trying his best to keep his tone calm. "Your mother... is she doing okay now?"
Jiang Silu nodded, a hint of pride on her face, though her eyes betrayed a touch of heartache. "She's doing great. She opened her own flower shop, and business is booming."
Listening to her, Lu Fan felt a pang of guilt. 'She probably gave up on love completely after leaving me and just married someone else,' he thought. He immediately asked, "So... what about your dad? Does he run the flower shop with your mother?"
"I don't have a father." Jiang Silu's proud expression vanished, her face turning cold. She clearly didn't want to discuss the topic.
Lu Fan was stunned.
Just then, the shop owner chimed in, "Miss, your bike is fixed."
Jiang Silu immediately thanked him. "Thank you, sir. How much is it?"
"Twenty. The WeChat QR code is on the table."
Jiang Silu took out her phone, opened WeChat, and scanned the QR code.
But perhaps because her phone was too slow, the page remained blank.
This made her a bit embarrassed. Her cheeks flushed as she stepped outside the shop, looking for a better signal.
Lu Fan noticed the screen was cracked around the edges. He could tell the phone was several years old, so he took out his own to pay.
BEEP! "Payment received: 20 yuan."
Hearing the notification, Jiang Silu spun around. When she realized Lu Fan had paid, she said anxiously, "Uncle, I'll pay you back right now."
"Don't worry about it. Your mom and I are old colleagues. Just think of it as me buying a drink for an old colleague's kid. Doesn't that make it easier to accept?" Lu Fan said with a joking smile, trying to ease her sense of obligation.
Hearing this, Jiang Silu finally relaxed and thanked him shyly. "Well, thank you, Uncle. If you hadn't helped me today, I... I don't know what I would have done."
"I have a car. How about I give you a ride back to campus? I can have someone bring your bike over later," Lu Fan suggested.
"That's okay, Uncle, I can get back on my own." Afraid of being a bother, and seeing that the rain had stopped, Jiang Silu began to wheel her bicycle away.
As she was about to leave, she waved and said, "Goodbye, Uncle!"
"Goodbye. Be careful on your way back. Don't ride too fast," Lu Fan added.
"Okay! Oh, right, what's your name, Uncle? So I can tell my mom," Jiang Silu asked.
Lu Fan hesitated for a second before replying, "My surname is Lu. Just tell your mother you met an Uncle Lu."
"Okay, Uncle Lu. Goodbye!"
Watching her slender yet resilient figure recede, Lu Fan's heart ached as if pierced by a thousand needles.
Twenty years ago, he had arrived in this parallel universe by accident, transmigrating into the body of a man who shared his name.
The body's original owner had only a technical school degree and a dead-end job in an electronics factory, which made things incredibly difficult for Lu Fan at first. Fortunately, the appearance of a "Life Winner System" gave him the means to flip his fate.
At the same time, thanks to his handsome face and silver tongue, he managed to capture the heart of Jiang Yixia, who was there working a summer job.
Jiang Yixia was eighteen that year. She was radiant and beautiful, like an angel.
With the system's help, Lu Fan pursued two goals at once: he was swept up in a passionate romance while also starting his own business.
After three months together, Jiang Yixia gave him her first night, believing they would live happily ever after.
But the more money that piled up in Lu Fan's account, the more arrogant and detached he became.
He soon found himself surrounded by a flock of beautiful, fawning women.
These women were more glamorous than Jiang Yixia, had more tricks up their sleeves, and knew far better how to please him.
Jiang Yixia found out.
She cried. She made scenes. She even forgave him.
But Lu Fan, his head turned by money and desire, disappointed her again and again.
Until the last time. He was at a high-end restaurant with a famous starlet when Jiang Yixia caught them in the act.
That day, Jiang Yixia didn't cry or make a scene.
She just stood at the entrance to the restaurant and looked at him, her gaze frighteningly calm.
Then, she turned and walked away, never looking back.
At the time, Lu Fan thought nothing of it. He assumed she was just throwing a fit and would come back in a few days.
But he waited day after day, and it was as if Jiang Yixia had vanished into thin air. She never appeared in his life again.
When Jiang Yixia left, Lu Fan felt no discomfort. Instead, he felt that the only person holding him back was finally gone.
His business empire grew, and he went through one batch of women after another.
As his capital continued to accumulate, Lu Fan's assets grew into the trillions, and he became what was known as the nation's "Cash King."
But after he had his fill of money, women, and power, he gradually grew weary of that life.
He began to miss the simple bowl of hot soup in their old rental. He missed the girl with the ponytail who used to smile at him.
So, Lu Fan put most of his work on hold, returned to his home country, and adopted a low profile, hoping to find true love.
But over the past six months, the women who had flocked to him for his money all avoided him like the plague the moment he hid his status and wealth.
They looked down on him for being old and for not having luxury cars or designer brands. Even the young woman at a streetside bubble tea stand told him with a smile, "Sorry, uncle, you're not my type."
In that moment, Lu Fan finally understood: without his wealth, as an ordinary man, he was nothing.
He gave up his search for some bullshit notion of love and went back to being a top-tier tycoon who spent money like water.
He spent his days working out, eating gourmet food, and occasionally finding a pretty girl or two to cure his boredom. Life was carefree.
'Get married and have kids?'
'Forget it. That could wait.'
But he never expected that on a rainy evening like this, he would meet Jiang Yixia's daughter.
His thoughts snapped back to the present. Watching Jiang Silu's retreating figure, Lu Fan was filled with a whirlwind of emotions.
He could almost picture it: Jiang Yixia, pregnant and alone, giving birth and then struggling to raise a child while running a flower shop.
How did someone as gentle as her endure all those agonizing days and nights?
And he was the cause of it all.
His heartless cruelty back then had ruined her chance at a lifetime of happiness.
Lu Fan recalled Jiang Silu's vibrant, youthful face, and a ridiculous, terrifying thought suddenly surfaced.
'Jiang Silu said she doesn't have a father?'
'Wait!'
'Jiang Silu is a freshman, eighteen years old... and Yixia left me nineteen years ago.'
'Jiang Silu... *Silu*...'
'Could her name... mean *Thinking of Lu*?'
'Could Jiang Silu... be his daughter?!'