Chapter 127

After returning to the dormitory, Song Haowen stood by the window and looked out. The towering Twin Towers of the Trade Center in the distance caught his eye. It was still twenty years before the “plane crash” incident in his previous life, and everything seemed so peaceful and imposing

Song Haowen sighed and decided not to dwell on these troubling matters. He took out a piece of paper with Tian Yuxi’s address written on it from his pocket. Thinking that Tian Yuxi’s residence was over three hundred kilometers away, and without a phone to contact her, he felt a bit anxious. Meeting her was one of the purposes of his trip.

Unable to stay in the dormitory any longer, Song Haowen went straight to find the translator and asked if she had time to accompany him for a walk. The translator happened to want to go out too, so they agreed immediately. After each of them requested leave from their respective supervisors and received approval, they happily left the hotel together.

The translator was a girl in her twenties named Yang Yuebing, cheerful in personality, fair-skinned, beautiful, and with a model-like figure. Her parents used to be diplomats for China stationed in the United States. Two years ago, they were transferred back to China’s Foreign Affairs Commission. After graduating from elementary school, she followed her parents to settle in the United States. After completing high school and university in the United States, she graduated from Yale University’s School of Economics last year. After returning to China, she was temporarily assigned to work in the translation department of the Ministry of Commerce. She was loaned by the Sports Association this time to serve as a temporary translator.

Although Yang Yuebing had not been back in China for long, she had known about Song Haowen for a while. She was his loyal fan, so the two quickly became friends. When she heard that he had a friend studying at Harvard, she proactively said to him, “There’s a shuttle from New York to Boston, which takes about four hours. If you take a taxi and drive fast, it’ll take less than three hours. It’s now seven in the morning. If you leave now, you’ll arrive around ten.”

Song Haowen became excited upon hearing this. “Then I’ll hurry to ask for leave from my supervisor.”

Yang Yuebing smiled and said, “Why would you ask for leave for this? If you do, you won’t be able to go anywhere.”

Song Haowen hesitated, “If I don’t ask for leave, should I just go directly? Aren’t you afraid of making mistakes?”

Yang Yuebing shook her head and said, “As long as you don’t do anything wrong, what are you afraid of? We’re just going out for a while. As long as we return on time, there won’t be any problems.”

Song Haowen felt reassured by her words and immediately hailed a taxi on the street. He quickly stopped one. Song Haowen told the black driver the address, and the driver expressed his willingness to go, asking for fifty dollars. Song Haowen was eager to go, so he didn’t care about the price and agreed immediately.

During the taxi ride, Yang Yuebing didn’t say a word from start to finish. It was all Song Haowen communicating with the driver. It was only at this point that she realized how good his foreign language skills were, seemingly not inferior to her, who had lived in the United States for nearly ten years, which made her admire him even more.

When the taxi stopped, Song Haowen asked Yang Yuebing to get in first. At this point, Yang Yuebing thought for a moment and said, “I won’t go with you. Your foreign language skills are so good, communication should be no problem. Remember to come back early. We agreed to meet here at six in the afternoon. Don’t be late.” Then they would return to the hotel together.

Song Haowen was touched and said, “Thank you,” before getting into the taxi alone.

Through their conversation, Song Haowen learned that the taxi driver’s name was Tom. Tom was very humorous and talkative, talking non-stop all the way, making the journey enjoyable for the two of them.

Loneliness. In his previous life in 2002, Song Haowen had traveled on business to Boston once and was not unfamiliar with the place. As he looked at the scenery on both sides of the highway, it was not much different from what he remembered from his previous life. He chatted with the driver while admiring the scenery outside the window. The journey of more than two hours felt like a momentary effort, and before he knew it, they had arrived at their destination.

Because it was summer vacation for American schools, Song Haowen had the taxi driver take him directly to where Tian Yuxi was staying. Since he couldn’t notify her in advance, Song Haowen wasn’t sure if she was home. Following the address, Song Haowen arrived at a residential area where there were two to three-story red brick houses. He stood outside the garden of one of the houses and shouted in Chinese, “Is Tian Yuxi here?”

There was no response to the first call, so Song Haowen called out a second time. This time, a head with long hair appeared at a window on the second floor. Suddenly, the person let out a scream, and then their eyes met.

“Tian Jie.” Song Haowen called out excitedly.

“Haowen, is it really you?” Tian Yuxi couldn’t believe it. “Am I dreaming?”

“It’s not a dream, it’s a good dream. Come down and see if it’s really me.” Song Haowen said with a smile.

“Wait for me!” Tian Yuxi quickly rushed down from upstairs and ran to Song Haowen, reaching out to touch his face, then suddenly hugged him tightly. “It’s really you! Don’t leave!”

Song Haowen hugged Tian Yuxi back, seeing her tears flowing, and couldn’t help but feel his nose tingling.

“Don’t worry, I won’t leave. Tian Jie, I was worried you weren’t at the dorm.”

“Come, have a cup of tea with me in the dorm.” Tian Yuxi excitedly took Song Haowen’s hand and led him to the rented single-room dormitory, which had a bed, a wardrobe, a small square table, and a standing electric fan. “Tell me, what’s going on? How did you find this place?”

Song Haowen explained about coming to New York for a competition. Tian Yuxi listened and couldn’t help but worry.

Song Haowen quickly comforted Tian Yuxi, saying, “Don’t worry, this competition is just a show match, not a serious one. It won’t be easy to get hurt.”

Although Tian Yuxi still had some concerns, she knew that it was useless to say more, so she could only advise Song Haowen to be more careful. When he asked about her situation here, she said, “I will take you to visit the school I attend, and tell you about my situation.” After that, she invited him to eat some snacks, then took him out while introducing her situation. She said that she had basically adapted by now, and with the help of summer courses, there should be no big problems. She should be able to graduate on time in a year. Once she got her bachelor’s degree, she wouldn’t pursue further studies but would return to China immediately. Although the material conditions here were good, she didn’t want to stay any longer. She missed her family and friends too much.

“Tian Jie, it’s been almost a year since you went abroad. Why didn’t you write me a letter?” When Song Haowen suddenly thought of this question while walking with Tian Yuxi on campus.

Tian Yuxi was silent for a moment and said, “Do you remember the envelope you forced me to take when you went abroad?”

“I remember. There was ten thousand yuan in it. What’s wrong?” Song Haowen asked puzzled.

Tian Yuxi looked at Song Haowen and said, “I know you sent me money out of kindness, but do you know what trouble you caused? When I went through security, they found the money…”

After the money was found, because the amount was so large, if it weren’t for the teacher and classmates who were with me to testify, explaining that the money was just given to me by a friend and I didn’t know about it in advance, and didn’t intentionally bring it without permission, and it was also my first time going abroad and I didn’t understand the rules. In the end, the customs officers showed leniency and decided to confiscate only my ten thousand yuan in cash, without imposing any additional penalties, and allowed me to board the plane and leave the country.”

“Ah, I forgot, I’m sorry.” Song Haowen regretted deeply. Before his rebirth, the maximum amount of cash that could be carried abroad was twenty thousand yuan, but in this era, one could only carry one or two hundred yuan in cash. He was careless and forgot the difference between his past and present lives. For now, ten thousand yuan was indeed a large sum of money, equivalent to several hundred thousand yuan in his previous life. With such a large sum, if things went wrong, he could have been sentenced… “I didn’t expect my good intentions to turn into a bad situation. Not only did I fail to help you, but I almost harmed you.”

“Ten thousand yuan is such a large amount of money, and you dared to give it to me? You are so generous. Unfortunately, in the end, it was still confiscated. Because of this, I was sad for a long time, feeling sorry for the money and hating myself for being confused. How could I have forgotten the regulations emphasized by the teacher during the training before going abroad, the maximum amount of cash one could bring when going abroad, and the maximum amount of US dollars one could bring when returning to the country. Because of this, I didn’t dare to write to you. I picked up the pen many times and put it down, afraid of touching this sad matter… Please forgive me.” Tian Yuxi’s eyes turned red and tears flowed uncontrollably.

Song Haowen kissed Tian Yuxi’s smooth forehead sympathetically and wiped her tears with a handkerchief, smiling and comforting her, “This money was confiscated by the country, which can be considered a contribution to the country, better than losing it abroad. When you finish your studies and return to the country, I will give you a red envelope of ten thousand yuan to make up for your loss. Who would dare to confiscate my red envelope then?”

Tian Yuxi smiled through her tears and couldn’t help but punch Song Haowen’s chest. “I know you have money, but I can’t accept such a large red envelope from you. There’s no reason.”

Song Haowen said indifferently, “What reason? This is voluntary on my part. Do you know what I said to your parents a few days ago when I was at your house? They were very supportive they want me to become their godson, but they said they needed to ask for your opinion. If you have no objections, it’s settled. By then, you will be my real sister, we will be a family, and it’s only natural for a younger brother to give his sister a red envelope, isn’t it?”

Tian Yuxi’s face suddenly turned cold and said, “I disagree with this.”

Song Haowen was stunned for a moment, feeling at a loss for what to say.

Tian Yuxi didn’t explain, but took Song Haowen around Harvard campus. Since it was summer vacation, there were few pedestrians inside, mostly tourists. At noon, she took him to the school’s KFC for fast food, ordering fried chicken, burgers, fries, and other foods that were not yet available in China to treat him, unaware that he had almost grown tired of these things in his previous life.

After lunch, Song Haowen suggested that because he had come over without the delegation’s knowledge, he couldn’t return late, so he had to return to New York immediately. Tian Yuxi then wanted to go with him. He explained that there would be training tomorrow and a match the day after tomorrow, so he would be busy these two days and couldn’t take leave to accompany her. According to the schedule, there would be two days of free time after the match. If she had time, she could come to the place where he was staying to find him, and they could explore New York together.

Tian Yuxi hesitated for a long time before reluctantly agreeing not to go back with him and promised to find him early the day after tomorrow. Song Haowen told her the hotel address and room number, then got into a taxi and waved goodbye to her.