Chapter 37: Autumn Night and Invitation

Su Ran sat at the entrance of the corridor and waited for nearly forty minutes, but Robben had not finished yet. He was a little unbearable in the cold autumn wind, and planned to go upstairs to urge him.

As soon as he got up, the woman named Lily came down from upstairs, and the air was filled with a strong smell of perfume.

"Finished?" Su Ran asked, wrapping up his clothes.

Lily glanced at him and said unhappily: "If it weren't for you, I would have stayed here tonight."

"Robben has several bars to go to tomorrow, so don't bother him." Su Ran said.

"I don't understand why two men live together." Lily still said to Su Ran unwillingly.

"I'll just stay here for a while, and move out when I find a house." Su Ran explained to Lily with some guilt.

Lily nodded, and then said, "I forgot to bring my wallet, give me 50 yuan for a taxi."

Su Ran was a little surprised: "Why didn't you ask Robben for it just now?"

"I just forgot it, and I was too lazy to go up again. Don't waste time, hurry up." Lily made a gesture to him to ask for money again.

"Are you a prostitute?" Su Ran blurted out.

Lily rolled her eyes at him and said, "Have you ever seen a prostitute who only wants 50 yuan?"

"That's right." Su Ran took out his wallet from his pocket, and after searching for a long time, he couldn't find a 50 yuan bill. Lily directly took out a 100 yuan bill and shook it in front of him, as if he had slept with her.

After Lily left, Su Ran felt that living with Robben was indeed not a long-term solution. It was not only inconvenient, but also far from the company. He still had to continue looking for a house.

Back in the house, the air seemed to still have an ambiguous atmosphere. Su Ran subconsciously looked at the bed, but the quilt was still folded.

"I didn't do it on the bed because I was afraid you would feel uncomfortable sleeping." Robben explained to him.

"You've worked hard." Su Ran said.

Robben smiled and said, "It's not hard. It's the same whether you sleep or stand."

Su Ran put the cherries brought from Xu Tianna on the table and said to Robben, "My friend gave them to me. Try them."

"Oh, they're imported from Chile. Which of your friends is so extravagant?" Robben said as he picked one up and threw it into his mouth.

Su Ran didn't answer for a long time. He realized that calling Xu Tianna a friend was a bit wishful thinking. In fact, they were at most better than strangers. After all, Xu Tianna was quite annoyed with him most of the time.

"Just a friend." Su Ran responded vaguely.

This was originally a trivial matter, so Robben did not ask any more questions. He took out the guitar from the guitar case, plucked the strings, and asked Su Ran with an intoxicated look: "Didn't you use this amazing guitar to pay off your debts? How come it's back in your hands?"

"She gave it back to me." Su Ran answered truthfully.

"Who is she?" Robben asked curiously.

"Should I write a book to answer you?" Su Ran was a little helpless.

Robben smiled at him with an understanding look and said, "Calm down." Finally, he stopped asking questions and plucked the strings. A song "Cinderella" drifted out of the ten-square-meter attic with the autumn wind at night.

The night was as quiet as a bottomless pool. Su Ran and Robben were lying on the bed, each holding a cigarette in his hand, equally confused and silent.

A gust of wind suddenly blew violently outside the window, instantly blowing away the smoke in the room.

Su Ran fought against the wild wind, took a deep breath of smoke and exhaled heavily, and the house began to be filled with the smell of tobacco again.

Su Ran quickly finished a cigarette, and he extinguished it in the ashtray, and finally asked Robben: "Ben, what are you thinking about?"

"Thinking about the girl." Robben said and took a deep breath of cigarette.

Su Ran teased: "Didn't you just sleep with Lily?"

Robben smiled and extinguished the cigarette in his hand, took another cigarette from the cigarette box and lit it, and said after a while: "I don't know how she is doing now."

"If you miss her, contact her, just as an old friend to care about her." Su Ran said.

"You and Lin Yue broke up for more than two years, do you dare to contact her?" Robben asked him back.

"Why are you talking about me and Lin Yue." Su Ran said.

"Same reason, what can be changed by contacting, just think about it." Robben said helplessly.

"I just feel sorry for you. You still love her, and you were forced by her parents, but in the end you left her with a bad reputation of betrayal." Su Ran said.

"As long as she is happy, my grievance is nothing." Robben's eyes were filled with sadness.

Su Ran also lit another cigarette, took two puffs and fell silent, and did not encourage Robben to contact the Beijing girl.

"Go to sleep, it's almost dawn." Robben put out the half-smoked cigarette in the ashtray and said to Su Ran.

Su Ran looked out the window, as if he saw through all the darkness before the dawn, and couldn't help sighing in his heart: life is really an unsolvable problem, right and wrong, true and false.

The next day, Su Ran spent a busy day. This kind of busyness was something he had never experienced in the first two years of the company, mainly because part of Fangyuan's work temporarily fell on him. But this is not a bad thing. If he is lucky enough to become the leader of the planning copywriting team, then the current busyness is the process of early adaptation.

In addition to being busy, Su Ran also gained something that day, that is, he got his salary. When it was almost time to get off work, he began to plan how to spend this month's salary.

After thinking for a long time, he decided to use the money to treat Xu Tianna to a dinner. I still remember that he tricked her into going to Fang Yuan's wedding under the pretext of dinner a few days ago, and she was very annoyed at the time. There is no doubt that he was not thoughtful enough. Therefore, he must invite her to this dinner with the most sincere attitude tonight, first to make amends, and second to thank her for cooperating with him in the play he played in the bar the night before, so that he would not lose face in front of Lin Yue.

Su Ran found Xu Tianna's phone number and dialed it. After a while, she answered it, and her tone was still calm: "Hello, is there anything?"

"I want to treat you to dinner tonight, will you do me the honor?" Su Ran said very sincerely.

"Which friend of yours is getting married this time?" Xu Tianna asked.

Su Ran was a little speechless, she always made him speechless so calmly. After a pause, he said, "This time it's not a friend's wedding, I just want to treat you to a meal."

"Oh, forget it today." Xu Tianna refused.

Su Ran felt a little disappointed, but still insisted, "Come on, I got my salary today, and you are the first person I thought of. Don't refuse my hospitality."

"My car has been sent for maintenance, and it's not convenient to take a taxi here. Maybe next time." Xu Tianna gave a reason not to come this time.

"That's easy. I have a car. I'll pick you up. Where are you?" Su Ran said.

"You have a car?" Xu Tianna asked in confusion.

"Yes, it's similar to yours. Just give me some face. I'll take you to a very interesting restaurant tonight. I guarantee you'll like it." Su Ran said.

Xu Tianna thought for a while and finally answered: "Well, I'm in Liu'an Jingyuan, come over."

"You live in Liu'an Jingyuan?" Su Ran sighed. He knew that this was a very high-end community in the local area. Xu Tianna probably went there because the bathroom was sprayed with insecticide yesterday and couldn't be used.

"Why are you asking so many questions?" Xu Tianna hung up the phone after she finished speaking.

Su Ran smiled and didn't care about Xu Tianna's attitude. He had expected that she had other residences in Suzhou.

He put his mobile phone in his pocket and said to Zhao Li who was still busy next door: "Zhao Li, lend me your Alto Little Prince tonight."

Zhao Li looked up at him warily and asked: "What are you going to do?"

"I'll fill you up with gas after use, hurry up." Su Ran said impatiently.

"You said it, don't play tricks on me." Zhao Li said as he took out the car keys from the drawer and handed them to Su Ran.

As the sky gradually darkened, Su Ran drove Zhao Li's Alto towards the "Liu'an Jingyuan" community. He thought to himself that he had not fooled Xu Tianna this time. The car he drove was indeed similar to hers. Hers was an Audi, and his was an Alto, both in eye-catching purple. He didn't know how the dinner would go, nor how Xu Tianna would view his invitation, but he still had a little expectation in his heart, hoping to take this opportunity to improve his relationship with her, and at the same time temporarily forget the many troubles in work and emotions, even if it was just a moment of relaxation.