When Li Yan came out, Yurong had already restored everything to normal. She was on the side listening to the repair manager's report, ordering them to fix it by tonight and conduct a thorough inspection of all elevators in the building overnight.
Huang Ying was standing by waiting for Li Yan to come up. When she saw him looking over, her face was still a bit red.
Another elevator had arrived, but having just exited the faulty one, they were all somewhat traumatized. Huang Ying was anxious to go to the hospital. After Li Yan came up, she called out to him and then headed to the stairs on her own.
Li Yan hesitated for a moment, didn't leave immediately, lit a cigarette, and casually asked the repair staff a few questions.
Seeing Zhang Yurong also taking the stairs after giving her instructions, Li Yan, who didn't believe that another elevator would coincidentally have issues, had no choice but to take the stairs with her.
The three of them descended separately, and throughout the stairwell, the sound of different footsteps could be heard. At the bottom, Huang Ying's steps were hurried, while Zhang Yurong's were calm and unhurried. Li Yan, with a cigarette in his mouth, brought up the rear, too lazy to talk to Zhang Yurong unless she twisted her ankle and needed help.
Zhang Yurong's heels weren't too high, but descending the stairs still required caution, especially since they had to go down several floors. Her naturally elegant demeanor made her silhouette appear graceful and enchanting from Li Yan's perspective at the back.
He continued following her to the company parking lot after reaching the ground floor.
Li Yan found it a bit amusing; this not-too-close, not-too-distant following probably made him look like a creep in the eyes of someone who didn't know better! Heaven knows he was just worried she might twist her ankle while descending the stairs!
The spacious parking lot still had a few scattered cars parked, and here Li Yan no longer needed to follow Zhang Yurong. He walked to his own car and leaned against it to finish his cigarette.
At that moment, a Mercedes-Benz drove by slowly, with Zhang Yurong leaving just a single remark: "Don't forget the time."
She occupied two parking spaces. Being the president of such a big company, she obviously didn't drive herself to business meetings, not to mention the image issue, at least avoiding the time wasted in retrieving and parking a car. There was no need to expend energy either, allowing her to handle some tasks on the road, make more preparations, or rest, etc. However, for personal privacy reasons, she did drive herself to and from work.
Zhang Yurong had two Mercedes-Benz cars, without any luxury sports cars or high-end brands. And besides the two of them, no one else in the company, including the board member who introduced Li Yan to the company, knew about their relationship. For a low-level employee like him, he drove a small apple-green QQ compact car.
Li Yan wasn't someone who went home on time. Due to their complicated relationship, even though they were married, they mostly minded their own business at home; hence, he preferred playing outside. Except for one day, today was that day, so Zhang Yurong reminded him.
After leaving in his QQ, there was no trace of Zhang Yurong's car. Li Yan was preparing to go home reluctantly when he saw Huang Ying's figure at a nearby bus stop.
The somewhat frail-looking Huang Ying was anxiously watching the buses passing by, checking the time occasionally. Although Li Yan's help saved her over half an hour, it was mostly consumed due to the elevator malfunction. It looked like she missed the bus and was reluctant to take a taxi, so she was anxiously waiting for the next uncertain bus arrival.
After roughly calculating the time and realizing he wouldn't be delayed, Li Yan decided to help to the end and drove over.
"No more buses? Let me give you a ride!"
"Li Yan? You haven't left yet..." Huang Ying said, slightly embarrassed, "It's okay, you go ahead, I can wait a while."
"Heh, what? Think the QQ is too embarrassing?" Li Yan asked with a deliberate laugh.
"No, no, I didn't mean that..." Huang Ying hurriedly explained, "I'm just afraid of wasting your time."
"Alright, just get in. If you say more, it'll really waste more time."
Huang Ying hesitated, looked again in the direction of the oncoming buses, saw that there wasn't the bus she was waiting for, and then got in.
"Where to?"
Huang Ying hesitated, initially intending to give an address near the hospital, but still said: "The Third Hospital of the city." She added, "My mom is hospitalized, and my brother is taking care of her. I switch with him after getting off work."
"Oh, it's not early anymore, I'll drive a bit faster."
"No need, safety first."
It was currently rush hour, with many cars everywhere. Although Li Yan was good at driving, the road conditions still made it take over twenty minutes to reach the Third Hospital, which was still much faster compared to taking a bus.
"Li Yan, thank you so much for today!" Huang Ying thanked him sincerely after getting off, but didn't leave immediately as she arranged her bag.
Seeing her looking like she wanted to say something but held back, Li Yan laughed and said, "What? Want to reimburse me for gas money?"
Huang Ying's face immediately turned red, as she indeed had this idea. After all, taxis cost money too, and not to mention the time, giving some gas money seemed right. But saying that to a colleague she was familiar with felt too distant, betraying the good intentions. Just when she didn't know whether or not to speak up, Li Yan had already brought it up.
"Alright, give me ten bucks." Li Yan teased.
"Oh." Huang Ying hurriedly reached for her wallet.
"But... if you pay, I'll be accused of running an unlicensed taxi." Seeing her stunned, Li Yan teased again, "How about this, since I'm here anyway, buy a couple of kilos of fruit, and I'll pay my respects to your mother as a gift."
"Like this..." Huang Ying hesitated.
After saying it, Li Yan went to park, so she had to go to a small supermarket to buy some fruit.
When she took Li Yan up to see her mother, Huang Ying felt a bit awkward because she didn't want colleagues to know about her family's situation. But she felt a warm feeling inside that Li Yan, as a colleague, came to visit her mother. Regarding buying fruit, of course, she understood that Li Yan had deliberately said so to avoid making her feel indebted.
...
To avoid misunderstanding, Li Yan left quickly and then drove straight home.
The place he lived now was a villa area in the suburbs, where he moved to after getting married four months ago. It's a bit far from the company, so Li Yan, who was lazy to drive, had to buy a car.
Approaching the villa area, after a turn, Li Yan suddenly heard the urgent whistling of a car. A red sports car was charging straight towards him!
Treating the residential area like a highway? Li Yan frowned slightly, seeing the arrogant sports car without any intention of slowing down or avoiding, he quickly pulled to the side.
Yet, the sports car driver, whether due to poor eyesight or terrible driving skills, still crashed into him despite him giving up most of the road, forcing him to dodge more and putting his car's front outside the lane.
After continuous braking, the red sports car finally stopped, hitting Li Yan's car door due to inertia.
Li Yan frowned and looked over, wanting to see what kind of fool was driving, only to see that the driver of the red sports car, after a moment of shock, came out first and angrily cursed at him: "Can't you drive, you messed up my car!"
The collision wasn't severe, just a scrape, with some paint off Li Yan's car door and a small patch of paint off the sports car.
Can I drive? Being robbed of his line left Li Yan coming out from the other side, asking back: "I should ask you if you forgot your glasses at home!"
The sports car driver was a slim young girl. Her hair was styled like a hedgehog, dyed like a parrot, with smoky eye makeup and thick blue lipstick. Under the night sky, she looked like a ghost to Li Yan. She was irksome to see, and coupled with the fact that she was at fault, Li Yan wasn't inclined to be courteous.
Just then, three or four more Porsches and Ferraris roared over, parking and blocking the road.
A few young men and women with similarly strange styles surrounded and confronted Li Yan.
"Little D, is this bumpkin trying to scam you?" A blonde girl dragged the red sports car girl while asking.
The girl was so irritated by Li Yan's words that she couldn't speak, but when she saw her friends arrive, she angrily said, "This guy called me blind!"
These words gave the others a reason to cause trouble, and they immediately erupted.
"What? Driving a beat-up car and having such an attitude!"
"Beat him until even his mom doesn't recognize him!"
"Uninstall him! And smash the junk car!"