Chapter 23#
Chapter 23: Street#
Sitting across from him was Su Mo.
He wore a dark trench coat over a light shirt, a departure from the suits he always wore in their previous meetings. His hair, usually meticulously styled, fell slightly disheveled across his forehead. Less formal, yet no less sharp. His gaze remained as focused as ever.
Lu Yan couldn’t help but smile wryly.
This man—why did he always appear just when Lu Yan was about to forget him? His timing was so impeccable it almost made Lu Yan suspect he had a timer hidden somewhere in his heart.
Lu Yan looked at Su Mo, who remained expressionless, and said with a faint, teasing smile, “So Chairman Su has business in Barcelona too?”
Su Mo shook his head gently. “The Su Group has developed quite well, but our reach isn’t that long yet. I’m not here on business.”
Not business, then it must be personal.
Lu Yan clicked his tongue inwardly. This man’s way of speaking was still so direct, yet so subtle.
Lu Yan changed the subject. “How did Chairman Su know I was here?”
He was genuinely curious. He hadn’t told anyone about his itinerary today, because even he himself hadn’t known where he was going.
Su Mo shook his head again. “I didn’t know.”
Lu Yan was a bit taken aback.
Su Mo continued, “Your phone was off. I called Song Hui, and he didn’t know where you were either.”
Lu Yan pulled out his phone and saw it had died. “Sorry, I must have forgotten to charge it last night.”
“It’s fine,” Su Mo said with a faint smile. “You didn’t know I was coming to find you either.”
“Then how did Chairman Su manage to find me here?” Lu Yan was still curious.
“Since I didn’t know where you were, I just decided to walk around, hoping I might run into you somewhere. And I did.” Su Mo smiled again, lightly.
Lu Yan felt a little like laughing too. If this were a story written by a particularly sentimental author, such a coincidence would probably be given a beautiful name—serendipity.
“In three hours, my return flight will take off. If I hadn’t found you, I would have had to leave. Fortunately,” Su Mo sighed, his gaze growing more intense as he slowly uttered the remaining words, “I didn’t miss you.”
“Didn’t you just arrive?” Lu Yan asked instinctively.
Su Mo must have come to find him the moment he landed in Barcelona—Lu Yan was confident of that much.
Su Mo said flatly, “We’ve had a few big cases at the company recently, so I’ve been busy. I could only set aside one day.”
Lu Yan opened his mouth, but no words came out.
He wanted to say, if you only had one day, why go through all this trouble to travel back and forth? Barcelona was far from home, and even by plane, it was no short journey.
But the words wouldn’t come, because he understood perfectly well why Su Mo had done it. He didn’t have to accept this affection, but he had no right to trample on it, nor did he want to.
A moment of silence.
“Lu Yan,” Su Mo broke the silence first. It was the first time Lu Yan had heard Su Mo call him by his name directly; before, it had always been the polite “Mr. Lu.” He couldn’t help but straighten his back. Su Mo’s expression was as earnest as ever. “I’m not someone who gives up easily. I’ll wait for you. Wait for the day you change your mind.”
The words were still subtle, but Lu Yan understood them perfectly. A sudden pang of reluctance struck him. “What if I never change my mind?”
Su Mo raised an eyebrow, a gesture of ease and frankness. “Then that’s my problem.”
“Isn’t that…” Lu Yan hesitated, choosing his words carefully, “too risky?”
Su Mo smiled. “Every time we draft a project proposal, we envision the worst-case scenario. But we never abandon a project just because of that imagined outcome. Life itself is a risk.”
Lu Yan felt a little embarrassed, unsure of what to say. He spread his hands. “I don’t know if I should say good luck.”
Su Mo lowered his gaze. “Don’t say it if it’s not sincere. If every half-hearted wish could come true, there wouldn’t be so many regrets.”
A gentle breeze passed by, rare for the slightly hot afternoon. Lu Yan looked up at the leaves rustling on the roadside trees. An indescribable emotion stirred in his heart—one thing was certain, it wasn’t regret.
Lu Yan turned to Su Mo, who had fallen silent, and suddenly asked, “Have you eaten?”
The casual omission of a form of address felt slightly intimate. Su Mo was taken aback for a moment, then shook his head. “Not yet.”
Lu Yan smiled. “Last time, thank you for treating me to that great coffee. As a gesture of reciprocity, let me treat you to lunch today.”
The corners of Su Mo’s mouth lifted slightly. “I’d be delighted to accept.”
Su Mo wasn’t particularly fond of or accustomed to foreign cuisine, but today’s lunch, with its strong Spanish flavors, tasted exceptionally good to him. He recalled his mother’s words: good food is often tied to one’s mood.
The two of them enjoyed their meal slowly. Lu Yan didn’t like to talk much while eating, and Su Mo’s dining etiquette was impeccable, so the conversation was sparse. Yet Lu Yan didn’t feel awkward or restrained at all. On the contrary, he rather enjoyed the atmosphere.
If you set aside those special feelings, Su Mo was truly a person worth knowing deeply. Of course, that was only if he was willing to be close to you.
Their location wasn’t very close to the airport—it would take over an hour by car. So after lunch, they sat for a while, and then it was time for Su Mo to depart.
Lu Yan hailed a taxi for him, saw him into the car, and thoughtfully closed the door. Su Mo didn’t say much throughout, as if he took Lu Yan’s service for granted. Only when the door was about to be shut did he nod slightly and say a quiet “thank you.”
Lu Yan watched the taxi drive away until it was completely out of sight, then turned and began to walk slowly along the street.
Su Mo had come in a hurry and left in a hurry—just over an hour, a few words—yet it felt like a gentle breeze swept through Lu Yan’s heart, stirring the surface of a spring pond, leaving ripples that refused to settle.
The truth was, Su Mo’s approach was far too clever.
In fact, Lu Yan was the type who responded to neither force nor persuasion. But Su Mo neither used his status to pressure him nor lowered himself to beg. Either tactic would have only repulsed Lu Yan.
Su Mo simply stated his feelings directly and left the decision in Lu Yan’s hands. Yet he wasn’t passively waiting. If this were a battle, every move he made was perfectly timed—neither too much nor too little, calm and direct, striking once and retreating. Before Lu Yan could even form a response, Su Mo had already withdrawn.
Or perhaps this was simply Su Mo’s nature. Even when caught in love, he retained his pride and composure, along with his coolheadedness and initiative. Toward Lu Yan, he felt not only admiration and affection but also respect.
Lu Yan was hardly made of stone. Faced with such a Su Mo, he couldn’t help but be moved.
But Lu Yan had deep-seated issues.
He had lived two lives, and in neither had he ever been in a romantic relationship. Given his circumstances, he certainly hadn’t lacked admirers. The reason he had never been in love was partly because he hadn’t met anyone who moved him, and partly because he didn’t want to.
Lu Yan came from a single-parent family. As a child, he was often mocked for being a fatherless bastard. Worse still, his only relative, his mother, had some mental instability, earning him the additional stigma of being the son of a madwoman.
But Lu Yan knew his mother hadn’t always been unstable. She had driven herself mad over the man who abandoned her—Lu Yan’s biological father. Love was a sharp blade; when you loved someone, you essentially handed them the weapon that could wound you. If you loved the wrong person, it was nothing short of a disaster.
Some people could experience love many times in life, drifting from one to another until they found the one meant for them. Others could only experience love once, and its outcome was either bliss or destruction. Lu Yan’s mother belonged to the latter.
While caring for his mother, Lu Yan would often watch, cold-eyed, as she raved in her madness. He pitied her misfortune and resented her weakness. Even when she eventually died in a car accident, Lu Yan felt only calm. He thought that for her, this might have been liberation.
Yet Lu Yan knew that deep inside, he shared the same madness as his mother. He would either not love at all, or love with everything he had. He didn’t trust people. He didn’t want to be destroyed. So he chose not to love. If he didn’t love, he wouldn’t be hurt.
Lu Yan wasn’t cowardly; he was dismissive. For him, love wasn’t a necessity—career was.
So, while Su Mo had touched him, it was only a touch, nothing more.
It wasn’t until the city lights began to glow that Lu Yan returned to the hotel.
Song Hui was sitting on a sofa in the hotel lobby. When he saw Lu Yan, he immediately got up. He looked like he had been waiting for a while.
Song Hui got straight to the point. “Brother Lu, Chairman Su called this morning looking for you. Your phone was off, and I didn’t know where you went…”
Lu Yan raised a hand to stop him. “I know. My phone ran out of battery last night. I’ve already met with Chairman Su.”
Song Hui was stunned. When he had suddenly received Su Mo’s call asking for Lu Yan, he had thought it was about something important. He never expected it to be this important—that Su Mo himself had come all the way here.
Song Hui hesitated, unsure whether to ask where Su Mo was now or if he needed to arrange a hotel. But since Lu Yan hadn’t mentioned it, he didn’t want to pry. So he brought up the other matter. “Brother Lu, the day after tomorrow is Company M’s new product launch in S City. Brother Feng called this morning. He thinks we should go straight to S City to prepare. Since I couldn’t reach you, I went ahead and booked flights to S City for tomorrow morning. Is there anything else you need arranged?”
Hearing the word “work,” Lu Yan perked up. The emotions stirred by Su Mo throughout the afternoon quickly settled. He nodded. “Good. You did well. We’ll handle the rest when we get back from S City. I’ve already asked Director Guan for leave, so there’s no issue. You should get some rest too. We’ll be busy once we arrive in S City.”
Song Hui nodded, and the two of them went back to their respective rooms to rest.