How can I justify myself as a Magnate if I don't indulge myself?

"Be careful on the road and drive slowly!"

After Gu Heng and Lin Ran got into the car, Xu Hong stood by the car and softly instructed...

"Got it."

Seeing the worried look on his mother’s face, Gu Heng was full of jealousy...

She had never been so gently cautious with him when he had gone on long trips before... Usually, it was all curses and warnings not to starve himself out there...

Now, he was just taking Lin Ran to the town, a mere 10-minute drive, and she was this worried...

Indeed...

His son was an accident, his daughter-in-law was her true love...

With this thought, Gu Heng floored the accelerator and drove straight into the distance, his speed surge of 0 to 100 kilometers in 3.8 seconds truly kicking up a cloud of dust...

"That jerk, definitely doing it on purpose!"

Xu Hong, startled by the speed, stomped her foot in the yard.

....

....

"Slow down a bit."

As the car left the village and hit the main road, Lin Ran said softly from beside him.

"What’s up? Scared?

Don’t worry, the rural roads are well built these days, no worries there."

"No, I want to take a good look at the scenery outside. Also, I want to see what the place where you grew up looks like."

Lin Ran, facing the window, responded faintly...

Hearing her answer, Gu Heng was stunned and couldn’t help but retort, "What’s there to see? I barely recognize it myself, it’s changed so much over the years...

You’re not getting addicted to playing my girlfriend, trying to make it real, are you?"

Despite his words, he gradually slowed down, and the landscape outside the car window began to clear.

Rolled down the window...

The cold night air rushed in, causing Lin Ran to shiver involuntarily, tightening her collar, but she did not close the window—instead, she leaned out curiously to look at the varied shapes of the small buildings along the road...

"These beautiful buildings were built in recent years, I hardly remember them.

But I remember those dilapidated buildings like my own house quite clearly; there’s a small temple up ahead. When I was a kid and didn’t want to go home after school, I’d always hide and play there."

"Why did you hide in the temple?"

Lin Ran turned her head, looking at Gu Heng with puzzlement.

The wind blowing through the car window tousled her hair, covering most of her exquisite face, but the half that was visible was still stunningly beautiful...

"When I was a kid, my mom hit me the most, though my dad rarely did.

But my mom is devout, and she thought if I was in the temple, the Bodhisattva would see her hitting me, which she felt would be disrespectful in front of the Bodhisattva.

By the time we got home, she usually didn’t want to hit me anymore."

"Is your fear of your mom now because she hit you so much back then?"

"What else did you think? Childhood trauma, that’s what! A minor beating every three days, a major one every five days. If I weren’t tough, I don’t know how I would have survived this long!"

As Lin Ran remembered the photos of Gu Heng’s childhood and imagined how Xu Hong beat him, she couldn’t help but break into a radiant smile... n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Suddenly...

"Bang," an explosion sounded from afar...

Immediately after, a splendid firework burst into the night sky.

Gu Heng turned his head to look at Lin Ran...

Lin Ran’s smile and the fireworks entered Gu Heng’s eyes at the same time as if the scene froze at that second...

They stared at each other for a few seconds and, very in sync, both turned away...

Although the car fell silent, the sound of fireworks outside grew denser...

Countless fireworks rendered the night sky, already past eight o’clock, as bright as day...

Seeing this sight, Lin Ran quickly tapped Gu Heng’s arm and said, "Pull over quickly, I want to record this scene, hurry, hurry."

As she said this, she rummaged through her bag for her video camera.

Gu Heng also considerately pulled over to the side.

After getting out of the car, Lin Ran held up the video camera, spinning around to capture the dazzling fireworks in the night sky.

"Do you guys set off fireworks like this every New Year’s night?"

"Every night? What are you thinking, that everyone is made of money? You think what’s being sent up into the sky is what? That’s all money, alright. I won’t speak for other places, but just this town here, setting off fireworks like this could cost someone hundreds of thousands!

What family can afford to do this every night?"

"What’s special about today, then?"

"Twenty-fourth of the Twelfth Lunar Month, Little New Year’s Eve, huh? Don’t you celebrate Little New Year?"

After Gu Heng finished speaking, Lin Ran couldn’t help but retort, "Isn’t Little New Year on the Twenty-third of the Twelfth Lunar Month? We celebrate it on the Twenty-third in Jinmen."

"That must be a north-south difference then; I heard that along the coast they even celebrate Little New Year on the twenty-fifth. Anyway, it’s all more or less the same idea, just for the festive spirit."

After finishing, Gu Heng suddenly realized, looking incredulous, "You’re from Jinmen?

How come I’ve never heard you speak with a Jinmen accent?"

Upon hearing this, Lin Ran’s face involuntarily reddened, "Isn’t it better to speak Mandarin?"

It’s not that she didn’t want to speak in her hometown dialect; it’s just that the Jinmen dialect is so recognizable—once spoken, it’s unmistakably comical as if flavored with stand-up. She cared quite a bit about her image, and except around family, she had never revealed her Jinmen dialect to strangers...

However, considering that Gu Heng had opened up so much around her, she didn’t want to keep up appearances, smiling she said, "Do you want to hear it?"

Gu Heng, hearing this, eagerly replied, "Then could you recite the Menu for me—they include steamed bear paw, steamed deer tail, that sort of thing."

Lin Ran: "???"

"Do you think all people from Jinmen know how to perform stand-up?"

"Isn’t that the case? I had a colleague who did deliveries, a big brother from Jinmen—he could rattle off stand-up routines at the drop of a hat; if you didn’t know better, you’d think he graduated from De Yun She."