Hancheng: There is a door between me and the future

Chapter 190 "Taeyeon, do you have a backup plan?" (Please subscribe and vote)

2013 years.

Seoul at night is like a silent but never-sleeping giant beast, with few people and vehicles on the streets.

The sky was filled with dark clouds, obscuring the stars; only the hazy moonlight shone through the clouds, casting a few streaks of silver light.

Only the occasional sound of wind, the hum of electricity from the neon lights on the exterior walls of distant buildings, and the monotonous announcements from the night buses that played on a loop echoed through the empty streets.

At this moment, Lin Xiuyuan, who had just returned from the Maldives, was sitting in his car, holding the steering wheel, and slowly driving the car out of the apartment parking lot gate.

Sulli sat up straight in the passenger seat, adjusting her seatbelt as she glanced at him. "Oppa, aren't you worried that Qri unnie might wake up and not be able to find you if you come straight back from there like this?"

As she spoke, her voice was light and tinged with curiosity.

"Don't worry, by the time I'm done with my work and go to rest and wake up, she probably won't even be awake yet," Lin Xiuyuan replied with a smile, his gaze focused intently ahead.

"Why?" Shirley asked, even more curious.

Lin Xiuyuan, however, said, "Kids shouldn't be so curious."

"What? Oppa, you're not that much older than me~" Sulli muttered, a little annoyed, but very obediently didn't ask any more questions.

It's actually hard to explain why Lin Xiuyuan, who was driving, couldn't very well say that he had a slight advantage after the two of them had been "squeezing juice" each other since last night.

The scene was so beautiful that he found it difficult to speak of it.

Lin Xiuyuan then chuckled and shook those images out of his mind, cleared his throat, and changed the subject, "By the way, I haven't made sure yet, we're going straight to Xiuyan's apartment, right? Shirley, do you have a key or know the password? Don't come to an empty apartment later."

“Unnie told me the access code,” Sherry nodded in reply.

"How audacious! Aren't you afraid I'll sell all her stuff?" Lin Xiuyuan grinned, his voice carrying the languidness of the night.

Sulli chuckled and tilted her head to look at him. "Oppa, given Unnie's situation, wouldn't it be faster to just ask her for money directly? Selling the furniture would involve moving it around and having to dispose of it, wouldn't it?"

“You’re right,” Lin Xiuyuan said with a smile, nodding as if to be serious. “Remember to remind me next time, don’t forget.”

"Haha, yes, oppa~"

As the two were talking, the car drove across a main road and headed towards Jessica Jung's apartment complex.

The streetlights lengthened their shadows, and the hustle and bustle of the city seemed to gradually fade away in the rearview mirror.

Meanwhile, at a highway exit not far from Cheongdam-dong, Kim Tae-yeon's car was speeding quietly along.

After driving for more than three hours straight, she was completely exhausted. The music that had been playing soft piano music had been replaced with upbeat dance music, as if the notes were forcibly trying to wake her brain from its drowsy slumber.

"Oh, I still have to work. When can I finally get a few more days off?"

Kim Tae-yeon muttered to herself as she casually gripped the steering wheel with one hand, her gaze focused on the road ahead.

Just as the car exited the ramp, turned, left the highway, and prepared to turn onto the main road and merge into the urban lanes.

Suddenly, a loud "bang" came from the side of the car.

The car body jolted violently, the steering wheel suddenly wobbled out of control, and the car veered to the right.

Kim Tae-yeon's eyes narrowed, and she instinctively gripped the steering wheel tightly, her heart leaping into her throat.

But instead of immediately slamming on the brakes, she gritted her teeth, steadyed her grip, and forced the car back onto the right track.

Once he realized that the vehicle was not sliding or out of control, he quickly turned on the right turn signal, carefully moved the car slowly to the emergency lane, and finally parked it securely with the hazard lights on.

The moment she shifted into Park, she seemed to deflate completely, her chest heaving violently as she gasped for breath.

A hint of color gradually returned to his pale face in the night wind, but his fingertips still trembled slightly.

All around was silent, with only the flickering hazard lights shining alone in the night, like a frightened little animal silently calling for help in the darkness.

The black Mercedes was parked quietly on the side of the road, its right rear tire completely flat, and the whole car was slightly tilted, looking quite disheveled.

Kim Tae-yeon gasped for breath, patted her chest in the driver's seat to suppress the shock, then unbuckled her seatbelt with trembling hands, opened the car door, and got out to check.

The wind was a bit chilly, and the darkness of the night was almost suffocating, causing a few slightly damp strands of hair to flutter across her forehead.

After getting out of the car, Kim Tae-yeon squatted down, looked down at the completely wrecked right rear wheel, and muttered in frustration, "This is... really bad luck."

After muttering to herself, she stood up by the car. The cold wind of the night made her subconsciously hug her arms, but her mood was even colder than the temperature.

One last look at the lifeless flat tire, then looking up at the desolate night road with sparse traffic.

Helpless, Kim Tae-yeon could only frown, take her phone out of the car, and hesitate for a moment before dialing the insurance company's number.

It's so late, and we're near a highway exit. Not only will we have to wait until most of the night, but the worst thing is that our identities will be exposed.

If a picture of "Girls' Generation's Kim Tae-yeon waiting for a tow truck on the roadside late at night" is uploaded online, it could be a hot topic for three days.

"Ugh, this is so annoying."

After muttering a curse under her breath, Kim Tae-yeon was wondering whether to call her teammates or other acquaintances for help when suddenly car lights came on in the distance, and a beam of light swept over from the lane behind her.

Meanwhile, Lin Xiuyuan was driving slowly towards Zheng Xiuyan's apartment in that car, with soft music playing inside and a tranquil atmosphere.

As they passed a ramp exit, Lin Xiuyuan noticed out of the corner of his eye a car with its hazard lights on parked in the emergency lane on the right. Driven by his innate curiosity, Lin Xiuyuan subconsciously eased off the accelerator and called Shirley over to watch the show.

"Shirley, look! There's a car up ahead. Hey, it's probably broken down." Lin Xiuyuan laughed gleefully.

Shirley looked in the direction he was pointing, and there was the car's hazard lights flashing in the darkness, making it very conspicuous.

However, just as the car sped past, she suddenly opened her eyes wide, turned around in surprise, and said after a moment, "Oppa~ that figure next to the car just now... it looks like Taeyeon unnie."

Lin Xiuyuan was taken aback, then turned his head to look at her, "Are you sure?"

"Not 100%, but about 60-70% accurate. And the car looks familiar, it looks like Unnie's Mercedes."

"Then let's look back?"

The two looked at each other and then nodded in unison.

Before he finished speaking, he had already stepped on the brakes, circled the car at the U-turn lane ahead, and drove back in the original direction. Soon after, he slowly approached the Mercedes parked on the side of the road.

Before the car had even come to a complete stop, Sulli excitedly leaned out of the passenger seat to confirm, "It really is Taeyeon unnie!"

After saying that, she unbuckled her seatbelt, pushed open the door, and got out of the car.

Hearing the noise, Kim Tae-yeon noticed the approaching SUV and narrowed her eyes warily, but when she saw the figure jumping out of the passenger seat, she was completely stunned.

"Little Snowball? What are you doing here?"

The next second, Lin Xiuyuan also got out of the driver's seat, walked around the front of the car, and walked towards her.

After a moment of surprise, Kim Tae-yeon quickly put her phone back in her bag and hurried over to greet them, asking, "What are you doing here?"

As she said this, Kim Taeyeon's tone was a little surprised, and a little embarrassed. "Shouldn't we be asking you that, Taeyeon unnie?" Sulli smiled and came to her side, then asked curiously, "Are you alone? It's so late, why are you still driving outside?"

Kim Tae-yeon sighed and shrugged, as if she had finally unloaded some of her emotional burden. "I was coming back from Jeonju, and we were almost in Seoul when, as you can see, I got a flat tire."

At this moment, Lin Xiuyuan had already gone around to the back of the car, squatted down to check the tire, and then looked at this spot. "It is indeed a tire blowout, and the location is quite bad. It's right at the ramp entrance; someone else might not have been able to control it."

"I almost flew out of the plane just now..." Kim Tae-yeon smiled wryly, still looking a little scared. "Luckily I was a bit slow, otherwise nothing would have happened."

"Taeyeon, do you have a backup plan?" Lin Xiuyuan stood up, patted his trouser leg, and asked.

“There should be…” Kim Tae-yeon hesitated for a moment, then walked to the trunk, opened it, and muttered as she rummaged through it, “I didn’t expect there really is one… original, and a tool kit too.”

"But I won't change it."

She glanced at the heavy lump of iron, then turned to look at Lin Xiuyuan with a hint of helplessness.

Then Lin Xiuyuan suddenly laughed out loud, his tone teasing, "Oh, I didn't expect that our Girls' Generation's Taeyeon is also a woman who keeps backup boyfriends."

As soon as she said that, Shirley couldn't hold back and burst out laughing, almost bending over with laughter.

However, the "backup plan" and "player" memes only became popular in China many years later. Even Sulli only learned about them when she watched a video 25 years later.

So unlike Lin Xiuyuan and the other two, Kim Tae-yeon didn't understand anything, but she did catch the teasing tone in someone's voice.

So he looked at Lin Xiuyuan with a look that said, "I don't understand, but I know you're insulting me."

"What? What backup plan? What female player?"

Lin Xiuyuan just smiled and didn't explain further. Instead, he rolled up his sleeves and bent down to check the tire. "It's okay, I'll change the spare tire for you. Then we'll drive the car back to the parking lot and have someone handle it tomorrow."

Changing a spare tire isn't difficult; the challenge lies in the strength and dexterity required.

Although after Shirley handed Lin Xiuyuan a few tools, he asked her to take Kim Tae-yeon to his car to rest, so that she wouldn't be spotted by passersby and end up on the news.

Seeing this, Sulli didn't say anything more and pulled Kim Tae-yeon into the Land Rover in the back.

The moment she sat down, Kim Tae-yeon asked Sulli about the meaning of those two jokes.

When asked this question, Shirley smiled first, and then explained it to the other person without hiding anything.

After hearing the explanation, Kim Tae-yeon found it both funny and frustrating. Then she turned to look at the figure squatting in front of the car, diligently tightening screws.

I wanted to get angry but couldn't; instead, a complex warmth welled up inside me.

Changing a tire didn't take long; Lin Xiuyuan quickly finished everything, then threw the things into the trunk of the Mercedes, clapped his hands, and went to his car.

Looking at the two girls, or rather at Kim Tae-yeon, he said, "What do you think? Do you dare ride in the spare tire's car?"

Facing the boy who was still teasing her, Kim Tae-yeon curled her lips and rolled her eyes at him, "I dare to ride in a car with a spare tire, but if the spare tire is driving... I won't ride in it."

Upon hearing this answer, Lin Xiuyuan immediately looked at Shirley, thinking that it must have been this little peach who had snitched.

Sure enough, Shirley immediately giggled.

"It should be fine." Kim Tae-yeon walked to the Mercedes and lifted the tire she had just changed. "As long as you tighten the lug nuts, I can drive back slowly without any problem."

"Suppressed tightly."

Lin Xiuyuan nodded, then paused and said seriously, "How about I drive this car for you, and you drive mine and follow along until we get to Girls' Generation's dorm, then we can switch back."

"No need for that, I can do it."

Having just seen Lin Xiuyuan change her tire, Kim Tae-yeon didn't want to trouble him any further, and her tone was a bit stubborn.

However, Sulli grabbed her arm at that moment, "Unnie, just listen to oppa, safety first is better."

"What's the difference between Xiu Yuan driving and me driving? Both involve personal danger."

"My driving skills are much better than yours."

“I disagree with that,” Kim Tae-yeon retorted with a smile.

The two exchanged a few words back and forth, and in the end, Lin Xiuyuan got into the Mercedes, while Kim Tae-yeon followed closely behind in her Land Rover.

Standing beside the driver's seat, Kim Tae-yeon explained the gear shift to Lin Xiu-yuan, then gave him a deep look and smiled, "Thank you, Xiu-yuan."

Lin Xiuyuan, who had restarted the car, looked up at the other person. As if he had thought of something, he grinned and said jokingly, "Don't just say it. I just hope you won't complain to Yoona about me being a pervert next time."

"what?"

Kim Tae-yeon didn't react for a moment, her eyes widening.

Before she could reply, the Mercedes next to her had already slid off the shoulder and slowly drove onto the main road.

She was left standing there, stunned for two seconds, then her cheeks flushed red, and she spat, "This guy..."

But he quickly came to his senses, jogged to the driver's seat of the Land Rover, shifted gears, and caught up with the Mercedes that was driving slowly ahead.

At that moment, Shirley, who was in the passenger seat, looked out the window and turned to ask her, "Unnie, what were you two talking about just now?"

"It's nothing, I was just thanking Xiuyuan."

Kim Tae-yeon, gripping the steering wheel, smiled slightly, too embarrassed to tell Sulli about the conversation that had just taken place.

At the same time, she finally had time to wonder why the two of them were out so late at night. "By the way, Snowball, why are you driving out with Xiuyuan in the middle of the night? Did you just finish a date?"

The fact that Kim Tae-yeon used the word "date" shows that she was genuinely curious.

Sulli, however, tugged at her pajamas and said, "Unnie, who wears pajamas on a date these days?"

However, this sentence was even more explosive, so the next second Kim Tae-yeon's voice rose several notches, "Pajamas? I thought you were just wearing loungewear, so Snowball, you and Xiuyuan..."

Indeed, Sulli's pajamas were more of a loungewear style and not particularly revealing; you really couldn't tell they were pajamas unless you looked closely.

"No, unnie, you're overthinking it. We just came out for a drive and grabbed a late-night snack."

"What else could this be but a date?"

"Unnie, this is called a dinner date."

"Thank goodness it wasn't a casual hookup."

"..."

　Only one chapter today, consider it a day off. My tenosynovitis is really painful, and I burned through 15,000 words yesterday.

　　Although it's only one chapter, I'm still shamelessly asking all my godfathers for some votes and subscriptions.

　　Goodnight everyone.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)