Chapter 26: Su Pingnan Returns Home

Du Dandan’s description of “not a good guy” instead piqued the whole dormitory’s curiosity, and everyone began chattering, asking about whatever interested them.

“Okay, okay, I don’t really know, either. I’m just a pretty face! How would I know so much?”

Du Dandan rubbed her aching head and spoke loudly.

“Okay then…”

But curiosity got the better of Du Dandan too, and she sat up in a hurry.

“I have a childhood friend who loved getting into fights since we were kids and idolizes this guy. I’ll ask him—he’ll definitely know everything.”

Seeing everyone nod, she immediately said, “My phone card has no credit left. I’ll use one of yours to call.”

It was 1992. Pagers were only just appearing and few used them. The giant mobile phones cost nearly twenty thousand and were rare status symbols. University students still used phone booths or dormitory card phones to make calls.

Li Luoran had pretended not to care all this while, yet she immediately pulled a pink phone card from her bag and tossed it over, prompting another round of gasps from the girls.

“Beep beep”—the call connected quickly. Du Dandan exchanged a few pleasantries and then went straight to the point.

“You say you met Little Red Robe? Ate with him? Dandan, I’ve always been a good brother to you, right? Remember when someone bullied you as a kid I helped you get back at them? Remember when you wet your pants in third grade…”

“Shut up!” Du Dandan snapped, mortified and furious. Seeing everyone trying not to laugh made her resentful toward Cao Ge on the other end.

“Talk seriously—tell me everything you know. Otherwise I’ll never speak to you again.”

The call went on for a long time and Du Dandan’s mouth kept opening wider and wider.

After Cao Ge finished saying everything he knew, he even insisted Du Dandan introduce Su Pingnan to him. Du Dandan fended him off with a few words before hanging up, and was left somewhat shaken.

She was like a flower raised in a greenhouse, sheltered and naive. Hearing such sweeping, bloody, and insane gangster tales for the first time struck her worldview hard.

As Du Dandan recounted what her friend said to the rest, the entire dorm fell silent.

When she reached the part about Su Pingnan storming Pleasure Forest alone, Tong Xuan—the most busty girl in the dorm—murmured a line.

“A real man.”

Du Dandan suddenly stopped. Although she had called Su Pingnan a bad guy out loud, she actually had a good impression of him. Unsure whether what she was about to say would scare Li Luoran, she paused.

“Come on, what happened to that Gate God Jiang afterwards?” A few girls, feeling like they were watching a gangster movie, grew impatient at the silence and couldn’t help urging her on.

The dorm lights suddenly went out—lights-out time had arrived.

In the darkness, Du Dandan’s voice drifted, “Later, Gate God Jiang and 36 of his closest men died in an accident.”

While Du Dandan was telling her dorm mates these stories, Su Pingnan was already boarding the plane to Tiandu with Han Bing.

Su Pingnan hadn’t been able to get a ticket when he arrived. This was the ‘90s—once on the plane he was surprised to find passengers were allowed to smoke after takeoff. (Author’s note: This is true: in the ‘90s planes really did allow smoking and drinking, and the plane provided them too. That’s what my older relatives told me.)

Amid the swirling smoke on the plane, Su Pingnan felt a little dazed. He’d never taken a plane in the ’90s before.

Arriving in Tiandu, Su Pingnan smiled at Han Bing and said, “Would you believe me if I told you that in a few years’ time, there will be people in this country who own their very own planes?”

Han Bing could only smile. This Mr. Su was young and indeed accomplished, but perhaps a bit overconfident.

As Su Pingnan disembarked, unbeknownst to him Li Luoran’s dorm had gone completely quiet. Li Luoran lay on her bed, her heart fluttering as if suspended in midair. She’d been a good girl since childhood, never doing anything excessive. Encountering a man with such an intense style for the first time left her at a loss.

In the dim light Zhao Xia said earnestly, “Luoran, I always think that since we only live once, we ought to live an exciting life. This guy is exactly my type. If you don’t feel anything for him, say so. I’ll get up right now and go chase after that Little Red Robe myself.”

For some reason, Li Luoran didn’t respond, even though she was still awake.

When Han Bing reached Wucheng, he was startled by the way Su Wenwen and the others greeted Su Pingnan: three black SUVs and nearly a hundred big men in black suits respectfully waited outside the station. When Su Pingnan emerged, they all bowed in unison and were both quiet and orderly.

Han Bing looked at Su Pingnan with a conflicted look on his face. Only now did he realize that what Su Pingnan had said in the private room to that outrageously beautiful girl was all true and not mere boasting.

Su Pingnan was speechless too—he was just seriously trying to do business, yet after only a few days away, his subordinates made him look way more like a mafia boss than the CEO of a company.

Li Mingyi was also among the crowd receiving him. Watching the dense ranks of bowing men—the eyes of the usually unflinching Zhang Lihua and the others burning with fervor—he smiled sincerely and bent his body deeply to welcome the sole emperor of their commercial empire.