Chapter 414: Taking You Back

The rest of the journey went without a hitch; there was a slight traffic jam for a few minutes, but the road ahead was clear for the remainder of the time.

At nine o'clock in the evening, the Maybach successfully drove into the small county town of Cangnan.

In early April, the evening breeze in Cangnan was gentle, neither as biting as winter nor as sweltering as summer; it blew against one's face, bringing a touch of coolness and comfort.

After getting off the expressway, Shen Yan said to Luo Qiqi, "I'll drop Youwei off at home first, you can rest at her place for half an hour, and then I'll drive you back."

It was only thirty-some kilometers from Cangnan to Fuding, and since it was so late, he couldn't very well let a girl take a taxi back by herself.

"Thanks! I'll treat you to a meal later," Luo Qiqi said, suddenly pleasantly surprised.

She had originally planned to rest at the Yu Family home for the night and get up early the next morning to head back for tomb-sweeping.

She hadn't expected Shen Yan to be so thoughtful as to offer to take her back himself.

That was, of course, for the best.

Yu Youwei's red lips parted slightly, but the words about to escape were swallowed back down.

This was fine too; it saved Luo Qiqi the trouble of transferring vehicles back and forth.

After dropping off Xu Lin, at around nine-twenty, the car pulled into the open space in front of Zhongxinyuan; as expected, a group of chatterboxes had gathered at the entrance of the convenience store.

They were there chatting about this and that, discussing family gossip.

Everyone looked with astonishment at the car that had suddenly appeared.

The convenience store owner, Li Juan, said, "Whose relative is this? That car is quite good-looking."

Passerby A: "I've never seen this car before; I can't tell what brand it is."

Passerby B: "You're short-sighted; you don't even recognize a Maybach? It must be worth at least two million."

Everyone couldn't help but widen their eyes, wanting to see whose relative was so extravagant.

However, when they saw clearly that it was Shen Yan stepping out of the driver's seat, their jaws dropped to the ground in an instant.

Their lips trembled, and they almost lost the ability to think.

Among the group, Li Juan reacted the fastest, greeting him with overflowing enthusiasm: "Xiaoyan, this car is quite fancy; where did you get it?"

Shen Yan took off his sunglasses and replied indifferently, "I borrowed it from a friend to drive."

The reason he said that was because Shen Yan knew the baser nature of people very well: they despise you when you are poor and fear you when you are rich; whether in the city or the countryside, there is no shortage of narrow-minded people anywhere.

When your family is poor, others look down on you and feel it's bad luck just to pass by your house; but when your family becomes successful, others will grow jealous.

Shen Yan had heard of many similar cases before: a young man would make a fortune and return to his hometown in a luxury car, only to be dumbfounded the next day when the car had been scratched with long gashes; with no surveillance, he couldn't even find the culprit and had to accept his bad luck.

Moreover, the fellow villagers would gossip behind his back, saying the young man had done something unspeakable away from home and was earning dirty money.

If he said the car was borrowed, it could save a lot of unnecessary trouble.

Sure enough, hearing Shen Yan say that, the neighbors present quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

That was more like it!

How could a college student possibly own a luxury car worth millions?

Yu Youwei and Luo Qiqi almost couldn't help but laugh out loud, their bodies trembling slightly.

This left everyone confused.

Li Juan kindly advised, "Xiaoyan, you have to be careful driving such an expensive car; if you happen to bump or scratch it, the repair fees will cost tens of thousands."

"Got it!"

Shen Yan had no intention of explaining further; after a brief greeting, he opened the unit door and walked in, with Yu Youwei and Luo Qiqi following behind.

He left a group of neighbors behind, shaking their heads and sighing.

"Young people just aren't steady enough; they don't consider the consequences of their actions."

"Exactly, you should dress according to your station; what's the use of all this flashy stuff?"

"What do you know? The fact that Shen Yan has the ability to borrow such an expensive car shows he has wide connections; ordinary people wouldn't even know where to go to borrow a car."

That's right!

The crowd suddenly realized; such a luxury car isn't something you can just borrow whenever you want.

It seems Shen Yan is doing quite well for himself out there.

They should really try to get on his good side; you never know when you might need to ask him for a favor, especially since he's a law student at a prestigious university and will be a lawyer in the future.

Upstairs at the Shen Family home.

Just as he opened the door, Shen Yan noticed a few extra pairs of shoes on the doormat, and there were voices of conversation inside that sounded very familiar.

He looked inside.

He saw the family of three—Shen Liangping and his family—sitting on the sofa along with Grandma Shen; they were watching TV and chatting, the scene full of warmth and harmony.

"Oh! Xiaoyan is back."

Seeing Shen Yan open the door and enter, Grandma Shen was immediately overjoyed, her face crinkling with the traces of time.

"Hey! Grandma," Shen Yan said with a smile.

"Uncle, Aunt, Jiaqing, how did you arrive earlier than me? Don't you have to work today?"

Shen Jiaqing rested his hands behind his head and leaned comfortably against the sofa: "Worried about getting stuck on the expressway, I took the afternoon off and rushed back."

"Ha! You're really something."

Having driven for so long, Shen Yan couldn't help but feel physically and mentally exhausted; he washed his face, downed a bottle of milk, and then sat on the sofa to chat with them about daily life.

As early as half a month ago, Shen Liangping's family had already moved into their new home in Shanghai; the residential complex had a decent environment, and the apartment was 120 square meters with three bedrooms and a living room.

They were just waiting for the tomb-sweeping to finish this time to take Grandma Shen to live with them and enjoy family life.

"By the way, Xiaoyan, didn't you say you wanted to buy a house? How is it? Did you find a location you like?" Shen Liangping asked with concern.

"I've already bought a house, right over on Yinliu Road, five minutes away from Jinqiao Road."

Everyone was very happy to hear this; living close by would make it convenient to visit each other often in the future.

Huh!

Suddenly, Shen Liangping's expression became strange; for some time, he had been searching for a suitable storefront around Jinqiao Road, preparing to return to his old trade and open a noodle shop.

Therefore, he was very familiar with the surrounding environment.

Yinliu Road seemed to be a wealthy villa district; could it be that his nephew bought a villa?

"Yes, what I bought is a large villa." Shen Yan did not deny this fact.

The few of them did not feel surprised, and Shen Liangping asked again how large the villa was.

"The footprint is one thousand square meters, and counting the garden, it's over two thousand square meters."

One... thousand square meters?

???

Including Shen Nainai, the eyes of the few people all widened like copper bells; at Shanghai's current property prices, a one-thousand-square-meter villa would cost at least several tens of millions.

This... this...

What kind of business is Shen Yan actually doing outside to be able to shell out so much money all at once?

It all feels very unreal, just like a dream.

Only Shen Jiaqing was the most composed.

Since his little brother has the money to invest in Xiaogu Company, what is there to be surprised about him spending tens of millions to buy a villa?

Upon learning that buying the villa cost nearly seventy million, Shen Liangping worried that his nephew had gone astray and immediately asked, "Xiaoyan, where did you get so much money?"

"I earned it from investments. I don't know if Brother Jiaqing told you, but I hold quite a lot of shares in the company he joined."

Shen Liangping looked at his son, wanting to verify the truth of this, and Shen Jiaqing nodded in agreement: "Little brother is indeed a major shareholder in our company."