936 Coincidence
A well-decorated cafe was sitting on the corner of a commercial street.
Judging from the decoration and the colored chalkboard at the entrance of the cafe, the owner was likely a hipster. There weren’t a lot of people in the cafe.
Lu Zhou pushed open the gla.s.s door and walked in. He saw Chen Yushan sitting by the window waving at him.
Her appearance hadn’t changed since Chinese New Year. She was wearing a beige coat, a white sweater, and knee-high black boots.
Chen Yushan wasn’t the only person there.
Lu Zhou saw an unexpected acquaintance sitting next to her.
“Long time no see, Academician Lu.” The woman sitting next to Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Thanks for taking care of my daughter.”
“Mrs. Yang, you’re too kind.” Even though he was surprised to see Mrs. Yang here, Lu Zhou tried to act unfazed. He politely smiled and said, “Academician sounds too formal, just call me Professor Lu.”
This woman was none other than Mrs. Yang Danqi, the mother of Lu Zhou’s former student.
Seven years ago, Lu Zhou was still worrying about his living expenses and tuition fees. This woman helped him a ton. They barely kept in touch after he went to study at Princeton and Han Mengqi graduated from high school.
He didn’t expect to see her today.
Chen Yushan smirked and spoke.
“Okay okay, enough small talk, it’s not our first time having coffee together. What do you want to drink? I already ordered.”
Lu Zhou: “Mocha, please.”
Chen Yushan raised her arm.
“Waiter, a mocha, please.”
When Lu Zhou didn’t have access to instant coffee, a cup of mocha was his second choice.
The creamy chocolate masked the bitterness of the coffee, making it more palatable for him.
Lu Zhou took a sip of his mocha.
Chen Yushan looked at Lu Zhou curiously and finally asked, “Why are you in Shanghai?”
“I have some stuff to do at the ILHCRC. I didn’t want to come, but they made me.” Lu Zhou looked at Chen Yushan and said, “What about you? I didn’t know you were in Shanghai.”
Chen Yushan pouted and said, “Wow, I knew you never cared about me. You don’t even look at my posts on WeChat.”
Lu Zhou: “…”
What do you mean?
Do you know how busy I am, who has the time to look at your posts…
Seeing Lu Zhou speechless, Chen Yushan sighed and said, “Okay, whatever, remember that plan I told you about last time?”
Lu Zhou nodded and said, “Yeah… Is this related to that?”
“Sort of,” Chen Yushan said. Because her auntie was here, she didn’t elaborate on the details. She briefly said, “Basically, the state wants to invest capital in high-tech industries. There’s a high-tech innovation and investment summit happening in Shanghai. It’s quite big, and a lot of Chinese and Asian companies are attending.
“I received an invitation from GAZE—General a.s.sociation of Zhejiang Entrepreneurs—so I came here as a representative of Star Sky Technology.”
High-tech innovation and investment summit?
Sounds interesting, I wonder what it’s about.
Lu Zhou looked at Mrs. Yang and spoke.
“Mrs. Yang, are you going as well?”
Yang Danqi nodded and said, “I’m an old member of GAZE, so I received an invitation as well. Even though my business has little to do with technology, I’m taking this as an opportunity to catch up with Chen Yushan.”
Chen Yushan smiled and said, “What do you think? Do you want to come check it out? It’s quite interesting.”
“I’m good.” Lu Zhou smiled and said, “I don’t even have an invite, so it’s not a good look if I do.”
Yang Danqi smiled and said, “Professor Lu, you must be kidding, you don’t need an invitation.”
Chen Yushan nodded and said, “Yeah, yeah, if you want to go, I can get you an invitation right now.”
Lu Zhou looked at Chen Yushan and didn’t know how to respond, so he shrugged and spoke.
“If I’m available… I can go.”
“So, it’s settled then.” Chen Yushan smiled and said, “Which hotel are you staying at? I’ll go find you, we’ll go together!”
Mrs. Yang elbowed Chen Yushan and said, “Hey, you’re just going to ditch your auntie like that?”
Chen Yushan awkwardly said, “We can go together, I didn’t say I’m ditching you. We’ll go pick up Lu Zhou together…”
Mrs. Yang smiled and shook her head.
“Okay, okay, you millennials can do your thing, I won’t third wheel you two. I’ll just go catch up with some of my old friends.”
“Auntie, you’re the best!”
“Okay, okay, fine.”
Chen Yushan was grabbing Mrs. Yang’s arm while giggling. Judging from Mrs. Yang’s smile, she seemed quite fond of Chen Yushan.
Lu Zhou didn’t know what to say.
This chick…
I didn’t say I was going to go…
What if I’m busy that day?
But…
This high tech summit does sound interesting.
Lu Zhou had been to many academic conferences, and he wondered what the capital investment conferences were like.
If he didn’t have to do anything himself, he was quite interested in going and watching on the sidelines.
Lu Zhou made up his mind.
If I’m not busy, I’ll try to go…
While Chen Yushan was excitedly telling Lu Zhou about what this summit was about, a silver plane all the way across the Pacific Ocean landed at the airport in New York.
Xiao Tong got off the plane with her suitcase and headed toward the place her brother once worked and studied at…