Global Film Emperor

Chapter 280, Twenty-Nine Years Ago

February 13, 2021, the 29th day of the Lunar New Year.

Silent classical music played in the car. Lu Ze flicked his cigarette ash out the window, gradually slowed down, and searched for a parking space in the airport parking lot. He finally found a suitable spot and parked the car.

Without taking off his knitted hat, and also putting on the hood of his down jacket, Lu Ze got out of the car and sat down on a chair at the airport entrance to wait.

Because the holiday starts tomorrow, the crew finished work relatively early, only filming for half a day, so that all the staff could quickly go back to pack their things and go home for the New Year as soon as possible.

Normally, giving a three or four-day break after only a few days of filming is very stressful for a film crew, but He Ruikuan insisted on doing so. It is said that his older brother died in a car accident, leaving him as the only son in the family. He also has an elderly mother in her seventies who is not in good health recently. He Ruikuan wanted to spend as much time as possible with his mother while she is still alive, because once she dies, he will have no more direct elders.

It was also because of this selfish desire that everyone was able to have their wish fulfilled, allowing Lu Ze to bring his parents to Shanghai and have a reunion dinner with them that was three years overdue.

Because he was afraid of being recognized if he went too far inside, Lu Ze sat in the spot closest to the door, right in front of the wind. The wind was quite strong today, and the gust of wind made his fingertips icy cold.

Hearing the announcement that the plane had arrived at the airport, Lu Ze put his phone away, rubbed his hands together vigorously, tucked them under his armpits, and gazed towards the baggage carousel.

Finally, he saw a tall girl supporting a man with mobility issues, while a middle-aged woman beside her pushed a suitcase slowly toward Lu Ze.

It was clear that the elderly couple were quite happy. They kept saying they wouldn't come because they didn't want to trouble their son, but once they arrived in Shanghai and were about to see him, they were happier than anyone else.

She raised her right hand and waved, without making a sound, but the sharp-eyed girl still saw it. She gave Lu Ze a big smile, her hands still steadily supporting Lu Weiguo's arms, until Lu Ze walked forward and took his mother's luggage.

"Mom and Dad, are you scared of flying?"

"I wasn't scared. Xiaonan was sitting by the window. Her ears hurt a little during the descent, but they're much better now. She didn't feel that pain when we took off."

Li Yumei answered quickly. Perhaps for her, who had never attended school for more than a few days and rarely left the mountains, taking a plane ride was already an exceptionally exciting journey.

Listening to his mother's nagging, Lu Ze smiled and took the luggage from her hands, giving her a gentle hug, which made Li Yumei slightly stunned.

This is perhaps Lu Ze's biggest gain after all these years: he can express his feelings more bravely and without shyness than he used to be.

He used to find it difficult to say "I miss you" or "I love you" to his parents because he always felt ashamed to say it. But now, having seen a lot, he doesn't want to have any regrets because of such an ordinary expression of emotion. This is an important lesson that life has taught him at the age of thirty.

"Dad, let me help you. Let's go home. We haven't eaten yet, have we? Let's go back and eat early."

"Brother! Don't you have anything you want to say to me? Like, something to praise me?"

"No, isn't it expected that you did well on the test? Let's get on the bus first."

Once outside the airport, Lu Ze noticed that light snowflakes were falling from the sky. It must have started falling within the last ten minutes or so. Fortunately, the light snow came a little later than the snowfall of the elderly couple, otherwise they might have been delayed.

The dim streetlights would normally make the place seem rather desolate, but now Lu Ze was no longer alone. His family was all together, and the atmosphere became very warm. The four of them chatted and laughed, and Lu Ze took out his keys to open the car door, first helping his father into the car.

"Daize, is this car yours?"

Knowing that Lu Ze's parents were coming, Liu Bin didn't ask Lu Ze if he needed anything. He just took the car to be washed and waxed so that Lu Ze could pick up his parents in a presentable manner.

Although it's snowing lightly now, the moonlight blue Cayenne still reflects a beautiful light under the streetlights—the kind of beautiful that doesn't look cheap.

"Yes, Mom, get in the car. We can talk about it on the way."

"How much does this car cost? A Persian."

Li Yumei bent down slightly, squinted at the car logo, and tried hard to spell out the pronunciation using Chinese pinyin, but she always felt that it was not quite right. She kept thinking about it, which made Lu Ze feel helpless and amused, but he did not stop her. He just quietly accompanied his mother, who was not very good at pinyin.

"It didn't cost much, it's just that the car was washed really clean, that's why it looks expensive. Dad, let me fasten your seatbelt. It's snowing, and I didn't install snow tires, so let's be careful."

The car's price wasn't detailed because it wasn't very expensive for Lu Ze at the moment. He wasn't into cars; instead, he had a collection of watches worth over twenty yuan, some of which were so expensive they could buy two Porsches. However, this small amount of money still impacted his mother's values. Lu Ze felt his mother's thinking was excellent. He believed the older generation might have been less materially well-off, but their spirits were richer than people's today, and there was no need to change them.

She wouldn't understand what it meant for Lu Ze to spend hundreds of thousands of yuan a month just on team expenses. There was no point in saying more, since Lu Ze wouldn't let his parents live a frugal life anyway, so talking about money was pointless.

After his mother got into the car, Lu Ze took two large bags out of the trunk and threw them into Lu Nan's arms before opening the car door and getting into the driver's seat.

"Don't say I didn't buy you anything. The top one is what I bought for you. Do you remember the rest? They gave you gifts from Brother Song, Sister Zhen, Brother Zhuang, and Li Jianni? I've written their names on them. Take a look when you get home. Don't you have Brother Song and the others' phone numbers? Call them when you get home and say thank you."

Lu Ze was indeed well-liked. He didn't even tell anyone, but the next day a group of people delivered gifts to him. Even Wang Zhen, Zhuang Yu, and others in the capital had their gifts delivered to Lu Ze through intermediaries. Lu Ze secretly opened them and looked at them one by one; none of them were cheap items.

Of course, the favors and gifts exchanged would have to be returned, and all of these things added up to nearly five million in debt for Lu Ze, making him grit his teeth in frustration.

All the way, Lu Nan just stood there grinning like an idiot, clutching the pile of gifts. No matter how many times Lu Ze scolded her for this pathetic behavior, she couldn't change it. But this girl probably wasn't excited about all the valuable things, since she hadn't opened them yet and had no idea what was inside. She was just purely enjoying the joy of receiving the gifts.

After all, women love the surprise of receiving gifts and the feeling of excitement when unwrapping them. Lu Nan may be a little silly, but she is still a woman, and there are no exceptions.

Looking at his parents' expressions in the rearview mirror, Lu Ze saw that the elderly couple were gazing out the window, marveling at some of the beautiful buildings. It wasn't that they hadn't been to the city before, but the old Fengtian was incomparable to the current Shanghai. Due to their limited vocabulary, they couldn't find any words to describe it other than "beautiful".

Lu Ze could understand their feelings. First, they admired the bustling city, and beneath that admiration lay tension and unease. The deepest emotion hidden in their hearts seemed to be a sense of loss.

They are people abandoned by the times, without a doubt. Perhaps many people think that there are no more illiterate people in this era who can't even read a few words, but Li Yumei exists in this very reality.

Some people might find it unbelievable that there are still people who don't even know how to charge a smartphone, but Lu Weiguo lives on like that.

The elderly couple must be disappointed. Although they are not yet sixty years old, most men and women of that age are still working, their lives have actually come to an end, and their era has long since ended. No matter how capable Lu Ze is or how much money he makes, he cannot change this fact.

Seeing the hopeful yet resistant expressions on the elderly couple's faces, Lu Ze felt bad and also gave up the idea of ​​letting his parents come and stay with him. After all, they were from different circles, and he really shouldn't force himself on them.

Some might find it cruel that Lu Ze made such a decision about his parents' future without their consent, but the reality is that even if they were to learn how to live in the city, they wouldn't be able to. Even if Li Yumei did learn, could she live like Shen Jinghan? Let alone Shen Jinghan, they couldn't even live like ordinary old men and women in the city, because they were destined not to live the life of a sixty or seventy-year-old at the age of fifty.

Living in the village, at least the elderly couple still have old neighbors around them, and they can grow some vegetables and fruits, so they don't feel like they're completely useless.

There was a bit of traffic on the road, and around 8 p.m., the car arrived at the underground parking garage of the residential complex. After taking the elevator and opening the door, the interior decoration didn't surprise the elderly couple too much, since Lu Ze's rural home was also quite nicely decorated.

The elderly couple were more pleased with Lu Ze's current achievements. He now owns a house and a car, which at least proves that he has managed to establish himself in Shanghai, a city with immense living pressures. However, they dared not ask about his marriage and could only avoid the topic.

Dinner was cooked at home that evening. The father was drinking tea and watching TV on the sofa, while Lu Ze and Li Yumei were busy in the kitchen, and Lu Nan, that girl, was having a great time fighting with the cripple.

Soon, the food was served. Lu Ze raised his glass and clinked it with Lu Weiguo's. Drinking with his father felt different from any other dinner party he had attended. This allowed Lu Ze to completely relax and no longer be on guard, and he truly enjoyed the drink.

After dinner, Lu Ze put an electric blanket under the mattress in the guest room and turned up the air conditioner temperature to make sure his parents wouldn't get too cold, especially Lu Weiguo, whose legs were bad and would hurt badly if they got cold.

After changing into her pajamas, Lu Nan stubbornly insisted on sleeping with the cripple, regardless of whether the cripple wanted to or not. It's unclear why Lu Nan liked teasing the cripple so much; it seemed she couldn't feel comfortable unless she touched its forehead wrinkles.

After settling the three of them in, Lu Ze went to the master bedroom bathroom to take a shower, changed into his pajamas, lay on the bed, and entered the system space.

"Host detected to be in rest mode, preparing to enter teaching mode."

After entering the white space, just as he was about to open the new Wang Jian test paper, a hand suddenly grabbed Lu Ze's arm. Caught off guard, Lu Ze was pulled down by the large hand and fell to the ground.

Contrary to expectations, he didn't suffer the horrific head injury from hitting the ground. Instead, after a violent feeling of weightlessness, he passed through the ground in the system space and was still falling rapidly. Lu Ze opened his eyes in the wind and saw a city.

"."

(End of this chapter)