Huayu 1999: Starting with nothing but getting something for nothing

After assigning tasks to Cheng Er and Ning Hao in the afternoon, Yang Che took Qin Lan to the Capital Airport.

At Beijing Capital International Airport, Terminal 2 is still very new and has only recently been put into use, so Terminal 3 is naturally nowhere to be seen yet.

Once inside the terminal, there were no self-service check-in machines, so you had to queue. Fortunately, there weren't many people, otherwise Yang Che would have been exhausted from carrying Qin Lan's suitcase the whole time.

What? Why are you carrying it? It doesn't have casters!

Yang Che looked around with interest, feeling that the overall atmosphere was a combination of a government office and a guesthouse. Besides the environment, it was probably also related to the travelers. Everyone was dressed very respectably, many wearing white shirts. There wasn't a single person like him wearing short sleeves, shorts, and sandals.

Thank goodness he took off his sunglasses and tucked them into his T-shirt collar, otherwise he would have looked like a complete scoundrel.

Even so, Yang Che attracted a lot of attention—some critical, some disdainful, some admiring, and some even envious...

At this moment, Qin Lan poked his waist with her finger and whispered, "Brother Che, have you really never been on an airplane before?"

Yang Che spoke frankly: "This is the first time in my life."

"You're lying to me, I have a feeling you sat there."

"That's because I asked a question on a forum before I came to the airport."

"What's the problem?"

The question is: How can I avoid giving the impression that I'm a first-time flyer?

"real?"

"real."

At this moment, the older brother in front of Yang Che finally couldn't help but burst out laughing. His shoulders were shaking quite a bit. While laughing, he curiously turned around and saw the cheerful young man with a row of big white teeth. The older brother smiled with appreciation and then turned back.

Qin Lan belatedly realized that her brother Che's voice had been very loud the whole time, which made her feel quite embarrassed.

He muttered under his breath, "That's shameless."

Yang Che smiled and said, "Don't you want to know how others answered me?"

"What was your answer?"

"Some people say they open the window if they feel stuffy; others say they go to the restroom if they want to smoke; still others say that each flight attendant on the plane has their own, and the first one you get is the prettiest one to sit in your seat, otherwise there won't be any good ones left."

Qin Lan listened attentively to his first sentence, but then she couldn't stop laughing and playfully punched his back twice with her little fist.

The refined-looking man in front of me laughed, laughing so hard he was practically crowing. After a while, he turned around and said, "Dude, back in the 80s, you didn't need to go to the bathroom to smoke. The cigarettes were all provided, like Zhonghua or Little Panda."

Yang Che was very surprised: "I'm not well-educated, don't lie to me. All I know is to give people Moutai."

The older brother paused for a moment, then burst into laughter, clearly having also seen Bruce Lee's "Fist of Fury".

Just then, a well-dressed, plump woman in the next line looked over and said, "What she said is absolutely right!"

Yang Che replied, "I see."

The plump woman's eyes lit up, her smile widened, and her voice rose a little: "Are you from Shanghai?"

"No, I can speak a few words of Shanghai dialect."

"You speak quite correctly."

Yang Che smiled but didn't respond further, because Qin Lan said she was going to the restroom and hung her handbag around his neck.

Yang Che chuckled. This little vixen was really jealous; she was even jealous of a 40-year-old plump woman.

Of course, the older man behind the chubby woman also gave Yang Che a rather unfriendly look...

Oh shit.

After that, Yang Che stopped flaunting his charm and went through security and waited for his flight.

At the boarding gate, at least half of the people were reading. People just love to study when there are no smartphones or Wi-Fi.

Yang Che regretted not bringing a camera. If he had captured this scene, he could have used it to slap the faces of public intellectuals online ten years later.

He couldn't help but say, "Look, in no way are our people inferior to foreigners? They're reading books just the same."

No, let's take the picture while riding the subway.

Hearing Yang Che's inexplicable words, Qin Lan finally said, "Brother Che, I think you're a bit... a bit dissolute."

"Haha, that's a good word."

"But it's good, you've been a bit bored these past few days, haha."

"illusion."

"....."

The two chatted about trivial things until 4:20 when they boarded the plane, a China Eastern Fokker 100, which cost 980 yuan per person, quite expensive.

The jet bridge was very short. After turning a corner, you could see flight attendants standing in front of the cabin door, smiling. Their uniforms consisted of white shirts and navy blue vests. The flight attendants had different hairstyles: some had long ponytails, some had short bobs, and some had side-swept bangs. They were all quite distinctive in appearance. Well... you could only say they had regular features, but they definitely wouldn't be considered beauties.

That makes sense, the selection process for flight attendants now is not the same as it will be five years from now.

You can tell from their attitude; they're polite but distant, and you don't feel comfortable or at ease with them. Flight attendants are pretty arrogant these days.

The cabin layout was the old-fashioned one he remembered. The seat fabric was even stiffer than in later generations, but the seat space seemed a bit larger. Even though he was sitting in the middle, it might be because Yang Che's butt was relatively small now.

Every five or six rows of seats on the top of the cabin, there was a large, bulky TV, just like a long-distance bus from many years ago. I wonder if they would show an uncut version of a folk opera.

Qin Lan finally confirmed that it was Yang Che's first time on a plane. He looked around and seemed even more curious than she was. However, Che-ge was smarter than her and quickly figured out how to adjust the seat and the tray table.

Not long after, a tall woman appeared in the aisle on the right. She was about twenty-three or twenty-four years old, about 175 cm tall, with a square face, single eyelids, two ponytails, and a white shirt. She was very well-built and could be considered a great beauty in any way.

That wasn't important. What mattered was that Yang Che felt she looked familiar. After she sat down, he asked, "Hello, haven't we met somewhere before?"

The woman didn't seem surprised and replied somewhat perfunctorily, "I guess so."

Yang Che raised an eyebrow and said seriously, "I'm not trying to hit on you with a lame excuse, nor do I mean to offend you. You just look familiar."

The woman turned her face upon hearing this: "I..."

Qin Lan, who was sitting by the window, had been gritting her teeth, but when she saw the woman's face clearly, she exclaimed in surprise: "You're that female secretary, the female secretary of 'Old House Has Joy'?"

The woman then continued, "Yes, I'm an actress. You may have seen me on TV. I'm sorry, I misunderstood."

Yang Che raised an eyebrow. He had never seen "Old House Has a Show" before, and then suddenly thought of something.

"Oh, I admit I was being presumptuous. Are you going to Nanjing to film a new movie?"

"Yes."

Yang Che pointed to Qin Lan beside him: "My sister is also going to film a movie."

"Oh?"

The woman looked at Qin Lan in surprise. What a pretty and sweet girl! Then she felt a little ashamed. How could she have mistaken this handsome guy for a hoodlum? Hmm... he was dressed like a hoodlum, so it wasn't her fault.