"Oh, beautiful miss, we meet again. I forgot to introduce myself last time; my name is Su Lei. May I ask for your name, miss?"
Su Lei pushed the flower towards Qin Yue.
Qin Yue felt this person seemed somewhat familiar... Who was he again?
"Are you? Excuse me, do we know each other?" Qin Yue's puzzled words came from behind the flowers.
"Uh..." Su Lei's face stiffened, "Miss, don't you remember? I heard you play the piano at the STAY restaurant last year and even gave you flowers."
At this, Qin Yue remembered. The roses were exactly the same as the ones from that time. It was that hateful guy who got her fired from her job.
"So what do you want now? Do you recognize friends by giving them roses? No thanks." Qin Yue's mood instantly worsened, and she turned to find Fei Yue, leaving Su Lei behind.
Su Lei had no idea what he had done to offend this young lady. He innocently looked at his flowers, shook his head, and stuck them in a large blue-and-white porcelain vase nearby. They were actually quite beautiful.
Someone patted his shoulder from behind. He turned around to see Shi Weijun looking at him with a strange expression.
"Ah, Big Brother Su... What are you up to?" Shi Weijun looked at the vase with a bunch of roses, wondering why it looked so much like a big red mushroom.
"Uh... hehe," Su Lei awkwardly scratched his nose, "I fancy that girl, but she doesn't seem to like me."
"Yep... the one in the white dress."
In an instant, Shi Weijun's gossip spirit flared up. Excited, he pulled Su Lei to a corner to get the details. Su Lei took this opportunity to learn more about Qin Yue, and the two quickly disappeared...
Fei Yue watched this farce and smiled, pinching her sister's small nose. "You really made her suffer, aren't you afraid of retaliation?"
"Not at all," Qin Yue shook her head, but couldn't shake off Fei Yue's hand. In a rush of embarrassment, she bit Fei Yue's hand, and he finally let go. "The teacher said if Su Lei bullies me again, I can call her, and she'll have Su Dad deal with that brat. Hehe. By the way, I saw you talking to Liu Jie earlier. How did it go?"
"Ah, nothing. She ran off halfway through when someone interrupted."
The farewell dinner ended peacefully, at least on the surface.
A long summer vacation was beckoning to the two siblings, and they had no plans.
They did have plans, though. Fei Yue intended to apply for a research institute in NJ and move the 'Madman's Mechanical Research Center' there. The application was approved, but the address hadn't been chosen yet. However, the equipment was already stored in a warehouse there, meaning Fei Yue currently had no research facilities.
Qin Yue had no plans either. Su Lei wasn't as annoying as the rich, spoiled brats in novels. He didn't block her house with a luxury car, didn't lay a carpet of roses, and didn't do any of those ridiculous things like declaring his love with a hot air balloon. In fact, he disappeared after that day and never showed up in front of the two siblings again...
Out of sight, out of mind... Hooray.
But life always has some annoying things. This time, life played a huge joke on the two siblings.
====================== If Life Deceives You ==================
June 30, 2022, one month before the public beta of "Dream."
The sky was overcast, with occasional rumbling thunder, but this couldn't dampen the two siblings' spirits.
Well, it wasn't exactly joyful, but rather a mix of joy and worry.
The gatekeeper's aunt was coming to Beijing. A few days ago, the old man at the scrap yard was diagnosed with heart disease and needed to come to Beijing for a follow-up check. The gatekeeper's aunt was coming to take care of him and to see the two kids she hadn't seen in almost ten years...
Fei Yue and the aunt agreed to meet at the side of the highway on the sixth ring road in Beijing. The old man was quite old, and there was a large Xing senior citizen hospital nearby, which was relatively inexpensive for his condition. The distance from the city to the sixth ring road was too far, so taking a bus on the highway was more cost-effective than a taxi.
Today, Fei Yue and Qin Yue were on a bus heading to the sixth ring road. Qin Yue sat inside, and Fei Yue sat outside. Qin Yue, lost in thought, looked up at the lightning flashing in the sky and leaned closer to her brother.
Fei Yue looked at his sister, who had buried her face in his chest, and couldn't help but smile as he hugged her tighter, making her feel safer.
"Don't worry, I'm here with you."
With the thunder rumbling outside, the two siblings clung tightly to each other. Fei Yue looked at the dark sky ahead, lost in thought.
The bus arrived in Daxing. The short-distance bus trip was short, but not that short for the distance from the city to the sixth ring road. The two siblings got off the bus in a hurry.
In the distance, they saw a bright red figure waving at them from across the street. That was the gatekeeper's aunt.
Qin Yue also jumped up and waved back, then pulled her brother's hand and hurried forward. They could see the aunt walking towards them.
"Crack!" With a loud thunderclap, the rain started pouring down. Although no one would forget to bring an umbrella on such a gloomy day, some people were still afraid of thunder.
Qin Yue was startled by the loud thunder and tightly hugged her brother, not daring to move forward. Fei Yue, helplessly looking at his sister who was acting like an ostrich, waved to the aunt to indicate that he couldn't cross and asked her to come over.
The sky was dark, like a layer of rainproof fabric, and lightning was everywhere. Fei Yue could vaguely see the bright red umbrella, representing the aunt, slowly approaching, slowly crossing the road, and slowly walking towards them.
A continuous rumble of thunder grew louder, and a huge black shadow, trailing a curtain of rain several meters high, rushed over from the other side of the road at a speed no less than 200 km/h.
The black sports car, like a bolt of black lightning, sped across the waterlogged city road, raising a towering wall of water. The roaring car, with its engine's thunderous roar, charged towards the aunt who was crossing the road.
The aunt was violently hit by the black sports car, flying several meters and landing heavily on the roadside greenery. Her bright red umbrella flew up a few meters and then sadly drifted down, like a dying butterfly completing its final journey.
With the roar of the engine, several brightly colored sports cars sped past Fei Yue, splashing him with mud. Who cared about such trivial matters now!
The aunt was hit and killed on the spot. When Fei Yue rushed over to check on her, he found her neck already broken, her head twisted 180 degrees, and her eyes wide open, staring in the direction the sports car had gone.
Fei Yue left Qin Yue at the scene, not daring to let her come over. After closing the aunt's eyes, he called 112. It was too dark to see the license plate of the sports car, so he couldn't report it. The 112 ambulance arrived and took the aunt's body to the hospital, the Daxing Senior Citizen Hospital, where the old man from the scrap yard was staying.
Fei Yue was in a daze, his mind filled with the events of the aunt's death. Qin Yue cried silently beside him, not having seen how the aunt was hit. Her grief was the kind everyone should feel upon hearing the death of a loved one.
By the time Fei Yue remembered to ask the hospital not to reveal the aunt's death, it was too late. The honest hospital immediately informed the old man, who was almost ready to be discharged, of the tragic news. The old man, whose heart condition had almost recovered, suddenly shouted "Yufen!" and fainted, dying that night from a sudden heart attack...
The aunt and the old man had no children, spending their lives at the community center and the scrap yard. Fei Yue handled the funeral arrangements and buried the two elders in the Daxing public cemetery. The funeral home was amazed by the joint burial, claiming it hadn't seen such a case in ten years. Thus, in a faintly sorrowful atmosphere, the aunt and the old man were buried within two days.
The wake was to give the living a chance to mourn. Fei Yue wanted to set up a memorial for the two elders but didn't want them to have a poor send-off, so he had to regretfully give up on the idea.
In just two days, two living people were gone. Qin Yue cried countless times, but there was no way to change what had happened. Regret was useless; the most important thing was to find the culprit and bring justice to the aunt...