A leisurely life starting in a bar after being reborn

On April 7th, before dawn, Fu Yan set off in his car.

The Land Rover emerged from Yandaixie Street, headed east onto the Second Ring Road, then turned onto the Jing-Tong Expressway, heading towards Chaoyang District. Xiayang Park is located near the East Fifth Ring Road in Chaoyang, not far, but it was Monday the 7th, and the morning rush hour was already underway. It took more than forty minutes to get there.

The parking lot at the park entrance already had four cars parked there—a Jeep Wrangler, a Toyota Prado, a Mitsubishi Pajero, and a Great Wall Haval H3. All SUVs, but the Wrangler was the most eye-catching, with a roof rack and off-road stickers covering its doors; it was clearly a seasoned enthusiast.

Fu Yan found an empty spot and parked his Land Rover. As soon as he got out of the car, a man in his thirties came up to him. He had a buzz cut, a dark face, wore a windbreaker, and had a cigarette between his fingers.

"Fu Yan, right? I'm Guan Chao, the organizer of this event."

"Hello, Brother Guan." Fu Yan shook hands with him.

"A Land Rover Defender?" Guan Chao walked around the car, looking it over. "Nice car, perfect for mountain roads. But it looks pretty new. Has it been driven on rough terrain before?"

No, this is the first time.

"It's alright, the road in Fangshan isn't difficult, just follow along." Guan Chao handed Fu Yan a cigarette, which Fu Yan accepted, and the two stood by the car, smoking and chatting.

More cars arrived one after another, driving into the parking lot. There were Nissan Patrols, Jimnys, and two modified BJ40s, each with an increasingly rugged engine sound. The group members all called each other brothers in the group, but in person, most of them didn't know each other. They would nod to each other, offer a cigarette, and chat about cars for a bit, and that was it.

When almost everyone had arrived and all ten cars were ready, Guan Chao was about to say a few words about the precautions before departure when the last car slowly drove into the parking lot—a silver-gray Honda CRV, which looked particularly delicate among this group of big-foot monsters.

The car door opened, and a woman in her thirties got out first, with her hair in a ponytail and wearing sportswear. Then a man got out from the driver's side; he was not short and was wearing a dark blue jacket.

Fu Yan was listening to Guan Chao speak when he glanced at the two men out of the corner of his eye, his gaze lingering on the man's face for a second.

The other person also looked at him.

The two stared at each other for about two or three seconds.

That face—square, with thick eyebrows and a rather large nose—was noticeably fuller than I remembered, but the overall shape remained the same.

"Fu Yan?"

"Zhang Lei?"

The two called out each other's names almost simultaneously.

Guan Chao, standing to the side, paused for a moment, then asked, "You two know each other?"

"More than just acquaintances," Zhang Lei strode over, his face beaming. "College classmates! In the same class!"

Fu Yan was also quite surprised. He reached out and shook hands with him, and couldn't help but look Zhang Lei up and down. Zhang Lei had gained at least 20 pounds since he was in school. His chin was rounder and his belly was protruding, but he still had that air of a young master from Yanjing. His eyes were still the same when he squinted.

"What are you doing here?"

"My wife loves road trips, and she insisted on dragging me along." Zhang Lei pointed towards the CRV, where his wife was standing by the car looking at her phone. Hearing this, she nodded to Fu Yan. "And you? What are you doing in Yanjing? Didn't you—go abroad? Didn't you come back to Bincheng?"

"No, I settled here after returning to China and bought a house in Houhai."

"Houhai?" Zhang Lei's eyes darted around. "That place—a courtyard house?"

Fu Yan smiled but didn't elaborate.

Zhang Lei didn't press further, but his enthusiasm had clearly reached a new level. He put his arm around Fu Yan's shoulder and took a couple of steps to the side, lowering his voice to say, "Brother, our classmates have been trying to contact you for years, but nobody has your number. Did you not even have a cell phone when you graduated?"

"No, cell phones were too expensive back then, I couldn't afford them."

"I knew it!" Zhang Lei slapped his thigh. "On graduation dinner day, the class monitor specifically asked about you, but nobody could get in touch with you. Later, everyone created a QQ class group and kept your spot there, but nobody knew how to add you."

Fu Yan's heart skipped a beat when he heard this. Seven or eight years had passed, and someone was still saving a spot for him in the group chat—it would be a lie to say he wasn't touched, but he didn't show it on his face, he just smiled and said, "That's my problem. After returning to China, I kept thinking about going back to school to visit, and I kept putting it off."

"Stop looking, just join the group!" Zhang Lei pulled out his phone to start typing. "The class monitor is Li Minghui now, remember? The short one, the one with glasses..."

"I remember, I was the class monitor back then."

"Yes, yes, that's him. He's also in Yenching now, doing research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He even published a paper in Nature a couple of years ago..."

"Nature?" Fu Yan was a little surprised. "Holy crap, Li Minghui published in Nature?"

"Seriously, our group chat exploded. People are saying our class has finally produced a real scientist."

Fu Yan smiled. Li Minghui was the kind of person who buried himself in his studies during his school days; he didn't talk much, but he was truly intelligent. It wasn't surprising that he could publish in Nature.

Zhang Lei was quick; he had already added Fu Yan's QQ number to the class group. Fu Yan's phone immediately started vibrating, and a string of welcome messages flooded the group chat—"Fu Yan! Alive!" "Fu Yan is still alive! He wasn't sold out by Hei Niu!" "Welcome back, missing person!" "Fu Yan, where are you now?"

Zhang Lei laughed heartily from the side: "See? Everyone's been thinking about you. I'm organizing a class reunion later, you have to come!"

"Okay, call me when the time comes."

Guan Chao clapped his hands: "Alright, alright, time to go! Line up the convoy, I'll lead the way, Lao Zhou will bring up the rear, don't fall behind, radio channel 6, let's go!"

Fu Yan and Zhang Lei returned to their respective cars. Fu Yan started the Land Rover, glanced at the silver-gray CRV behind them in the rearview mirror, and shook his head—Zhang Lei, that kid, drove his dad's Santana when he was in school, and now he's switched to a CRV, still as pragmatic as ever.

The convoy of cars drove out of the parking lot one after another, heading towards Fangshan.

Fu Yan rolled down the car window a crack, letting in the cool April morning breeze, mixed with the scent of spring earth. He turned up the volume on his walkie-talkie and glanced at his phone—the class group chat was still buzzing.

He thought for a moment, then typed a few words and sent them: "Hello everyone, this is Fu Yan. I've lost contact with you all these years, sorry. I'm in Yanjing now, let's meet again sometime."

After the message was sent, the group was quiet for about two seconds, and then it became even more lively.

Fu Yan put down his phone, stepped on the gas, and the Land Rover roared as it caught up with the car in front.

I ran into an old classmate I hadn't seen for seven or eight years. Isn't that a coincidence? Out of twenty million people in Beijing, we bumped into each other in a parking lot of a secluded park. I don't believe in fate, but sometimes you have to admit it—some connections are unavoidable.