Hancheng: There is a door between me and the future

Chapter 41 "Can I participate?"

At the tavern entrance, Lin Xiuyuan, having hung up the phone, turned back into the shop to check with the renovation team on the finishing touches.

After confirming that the interior decoration could be cleaned up that night, he immediately contacted the liquor company to arrange delivery for the next morning.

He had just finished a call with the supplier and hadn't even dialed the next number when the phone rang.

Upon seeing the caller ID, Lin Xiuyuan recalled their first meeting that night, and then answered with a smile, "Hello, Zhiyan."

"Lin Xiuyuan, where are you?"

Park Jiyeon was making the call from a corner backstage. They were currently being attacked online, and their music show schedule was so packed that they didn't even have a waiting room.

Only commercial performances in shopping malls offer a place to rest.

Park Jiyeon knew better than anyone that by the end of the year, she and her friends wouldn't even have seats on stage.

"There's another one at the pub entrance, called oppa."

Lin Xiuyuan, who is not from the Peninsula, didn't really care about Park Jiyeon calling him by his full name. He emphasized that he just wanted to hear the beautiful star call him by his full name.

But Park Jiyeon pretended not to hear and asked to herself, "Huh, it's open for business?"

"Two days from now. The interior design is just finished, and the drinks will be delivered tomorrow."

Hearing this, Park Jiyeon's face lit up with joy, because she would be able to rest in two days.

It wasn't that their company had a change of heart; rather, the newly debuted subunit faced another boycott, resulting in the cancellation of many previously agreed-upon performances and activities, thus abruptly halting their comeback.

Thinking of this, Park Jiyeon smiled and asked, "Can I participate?"

"Come on," Lin Xiuyuan said without refusing.

But the next second Park Jiyeon said, "Then I'll bring some people over to support you."

However, this time Lin Xiuyuan refused, saying, "It's a membership system, you can do it yourself. I don't have much energy to take care of others."

"Ah~ oppa~"

"No, no discussion, hanging up."

Recently, Lin Xiuyuan has been frequently experiencing foot baths and massages in 2025, and he has also gained some Dao Heart, so he still has some resistance to Park Jiyeon's coquettishness.

But the next second, Park Jiyeon's shout made his hand tremble, "No, oppa, I can help you win over Dae Jiyeon, the married woman."

"..."

beep~
Hearing the busy tone in her ear, Park Jiyeon first smiled, then put down her phone, suppressed her smile, sighed softly, stood up, and looked back at the other members.

That night, when she told Ham Eun-jung that she 'liked' someone, she wasn't lying to herself, except that the boy liked a divorced 'wife' from another time and space.

but……

So what? Does that mean the future Park Jiyeon won't be Park Jiyeon anymore?

Since it's all about herself, she wasn't wrong.

……

The next day, 2025.

At the corner of the alley in the villa community, a car slowly came to a stop.

After finishing my work overseas, I also took a detour to Krystal in Los Angeles, and today I'm finally back in Seoul.

As soon as she landed, she asked Jessica, who had come to pick her up, to drive her to the vicinity of Lin Xiuyuan's villa.

That is, the entrance to the pub that was under renovation, a location less than 200 meters from his villa.

Jessica, who had parked her car by the roadside, looked at the shop that was under renovation and asked with some confusion, "Soojung, why are we here?"

"My friend owns this little bar. He wanted to come and check on the progress. It seems like it's almost done."

Seeing several workers cleaning through the window, Krystal got out of the car, pulled a suitcase from the trunk, and said to Jessica, "Unnie, you should go home first." Her unusual action left Jessica puzzled and worried. "Who are you waiting for here with your luggage?"

Krystal didn't answer her, but just stared at her quietly, intending to make Jessica 'give up'.

But this time Jessica wouldn't leave, as if she had guessed something.

And as expected, she was not disappointed. Just a few minutes after she and Krystal were facing off, a familiar boy slowly walked out from the alley.

Then, as if he had noticed something was wrong, he stopped a few meters away from the front of the car.

His gaze darted back and forth between Jessica inside the car and Krystal outside.

At the same time, the moment Jessica saw Lin Xiuyuan, she immediately looked at Krystal outside the car window, her eyebrows furrowed, "Oh, Jung Soo-jung, are you really obsessed?"

"Unnie~ You should go back now."

Krystal sighed deeply; she knew this would happen.

So I told her at the airport that I didn't need her to see me off, but Jessica insisted, and now look what happened.

Upon hearing her sister's answer again, Jessica was utterly bewildered and looked towards Lin Xiuyuan at the front of the car.

The latter was standing there quietly at this moment, and when their eyes met, he silently moved a few steps to the side.

He was afraid that the sister-obsessed guy holding the steering wheel might suddenly get angry and charge straight at him.

Fortunately, Jessica still retained a sliver of rationality.

His angry gaze swept back and forth between him and Krystal a few times, then he let out a cold snort and drove away.

Watching the taillights disappear into the distance, Lin Xiuyuan finally dared to step forward and greet Krystal. "You didn't say Jessica was there. I was so afraid she would have actually hit me and sent me flying. That would have been a huge loss."

"I originally planned to take a taxi, but she insisted on picking me up from the airport. What could I do?"

Krystal answered Lin Xiuyuan's question, then casually pushed her suitcase to him and looked at the small bar next to her, "When will this place open?"

"Next week, let's take care of the tavern over there first, then deal with this one."

"Yeah, it's just the two of us here anyway."

The two walked and talked, and soon returned to the villa.

Then, at Krystal's request, Lin Xiuyuan carried the suitcase into the master bedroom's walk-in closet.

When she opened the box, revealing neatly folded clothes and several exquisite little boxes inside, he immediately turned his gaze to the watch cabinet and glasses cabinet next to it, saying with some disbelief, "It can't be these little trinkets, can it?"

"Well, I went to Paris for work this time and also took the opportunity to visit Bern. I found some old antiques for you and bought some new watches, so that this beautiful walk-in closet wouldn't go to waste."

Krystal had already made this plan ever since she visited the villa and saw the empty walk-in closet.

Lin Xiuyuan was a little surprised, "It's too expensive. I'm not used to wearing these things. They feel a bit cumbersome and uncomfortable."

"It doesn't matter whether you wear it or not, but you have to have one. Don't leave this area empty, it looks bad."

As she spoke, Krystal continued to stuff glasses into the cabinet. "And these glasses are all free. I just went to my sister's store and bought a whole bunch. You can wear them once and throw them away. I'll replace them for you when you run out."

If Jessica had heard what she was saying, she probably would have gone crazy and wanted to kill someone or smash the cabinet.

How can it be free? Aren't there any costs? Don't you need to pay employee wages? Don't you need to pay rent for the store?

However, all of this is hypothetical. In any case, Jessica is currently unaware that she is returning to her apartment with a belly full of anger, planning to have a good chat with Krystal later when she comes back.

Meanwhile, Krystal and Lin Xiuyuan, who were at the villa, somehow ended up talking about the opening of the small bar there in 2013.

Krystal immediately became interested. "Can I participate?"

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(End of this chapter)