The dating reality show host just wanted to give up, but the rich girl fell for him.

In the airport waiting hall, huge floor-to-ceiling windows let in large patches of golden light.

The crowds were dense, and the sounds of suitcase wheels scraping against the ground and the soft female voice on the radio mingled together, revealing the restlessness and hustle and bustle unique to modern cities.

Lin Mo quietly stood at the end of the check-in line, pulling his black suitcase filled with large jars of pickled mustard greens.

He was wearing only a thin black jacket over a white cotton T-shirt.

He exuded a relaxed feeling that seemed out of place with his surroundings.

People in line ahead of them would occasionally check their watches anxiously or send voice messages to their phones complaining about how slow the security check was.

Lin Mo simply held onto the handle with one hand, his gaze calmly fixed on the scrolling flight information on the large screen. When it was his turn, the ground staff pushed his suitcase onto the weighing belt.

"Sir, your suitcase just happens to have the weight limit line on it." The ground staff girl looked up and asked routinely, "Are there any items inside that need to be labeled 'fragile'?"

Lin Mo thought of the glass jar that her mother had wrapped in three layers of plastic bags.

"Yes, it's a fragile item, please handle it with care." His voice was gentle and calm, without any rush or impatience.

After checking in his luggage and going through the tedious security check process, Lin Mo followed the flow of people and boarded the passenger plane bound for the north.

He found a seat by the window and casually pulled down the sunshade to block out the somewhat glaring afternoon sunlight.

With the engine roaring higher and higher, the plane accelerated along the runway, then suddenly pulled its nose up and soared into the sky.

The feeling of weightlessness brought a brief silence to the cabin.

Lin Mo adjusted the back of his seat, found a comfortable angle, and slowly closed his eyes.

To outsiders, this quiet young man appeared to be resting with his eyes closed, passing the long flight time.

But in reality, a dilapidated northern courtyard was floating in his mind.

He did not visit the house in Nanluoguxiang in person.

My phone only contained a few dozen high-definition photos of the scene sent by the agent, as well as a simple floor plan.

But for someone who had once ingrained the skills of various crafts into their very being, that was enough.

Every detail in the photo was magnified and dissected in his mind, then reconstructed into a three-dimensional model.

"The main house has three bays in width and two bays in depth, and it's a very old-fashioned gable roof structure," Lin Mo silently calculated in his mind.

In a close-up photo of the roof beam taken by the real estate agent, there was a very unnatural shadow.

Lin Mo easily deduced from the direction of the shadow and the grayish-white texture on the surface of the wood that it was decayed due to years of rain leakage.

"One-third of the main beam is rotten, so we can't dismantle it by force."

"We need to find two sturdy old elm trees, use the 'substitution' method to move the stress point away, and then make repairs."

His long, slender fingers rested casually on his knees.

As he mentally rehearsed the repair steps, he would occasionally tap his kneecap lightly with his index finger.

The movement had a peculiar rhythm, as if he were holding a wooden mallet with its edges polished to a shine.

"In the southwest corner of the porch, several mortise and tenon joints have completely come loose."

"It can't be fixed with iron nails. We have to carve several dovetail tenons and fit them in perfectly to withstand the wind and sun in the north."

Inside this cramped cabin, encased in steel, rivets, and precision electronic instruments.

Lin Mo, however, cherished a quiet and simple wooden table in his heart.

There was no deafening roar of machinery, no cold steel and concrete.

Only the grain of the wood and the old craftsmanship that has been passed down through the years remain.

Time slips away silently in the unfolding of events.

The sky outside the cabin gradually darkened, and the afternoon sunlight was swallowed up by thick clouds.

As the flight continued northward and approached the airspace above the North China Plain, the passenger plane, which had been flying smoothly, suddenly experienced continuous turbulence.

The seatbelt indicator light above my head lit up red with a crisp "ding".

The chief flight attendant's voice, slightly apologetic yet somewhat solemn, came through the cabin intercom.

"Attention passengers, this flight is about to arrive at Beijing Capital International Airport."

"Affected by the sudden passage of a strong cold front, the temperature in Beijing has plummeted, and the ground temperature has now dropped to six degrees Celsius."

"And accompanied by strong winds of around level seven."

"The plane may encounter strong turbulence during its descent. Please fasten your seatbelts and prepare to stay warm before disembarking."

These words caused an uproar in the previously dim and quiet cabin.

"Six degrees?! I checked the weather forecast at noon and it said it would be fifteen degrees!"

"Are you kidding me! I packed all my thick clothes into my suitcase for checked baggage; I'm only wearing a long-sleeved shirt!"

A chorus of wails immediately rose from all around.

This flight departed from the warm climate of the Jiangnan region, and the vast majority of passengers were wearing light autumn clothing.

Several young people, still wearing shorts and ripped jeans, shivered involuntarily upon hearing the warnings of level six and seven gale-force winds.

It felt as if the biting cold air had already rushed in through the air conditioning vents above my head.

Sitting next to Lin Mo was a middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses.

He was rubbing the goosebumps on his arms while anxiously rummaging through his backpack, trying to find a piece of clothing to block the wind.

After searching for a long time without finding anything, the man turned to look at Lin Mo.

They discovered that the young man was wearing only a thin jacket that offered absolutely no warmth, and he didn't even have a scarf to protect him from the wind.

"Young man, you're dressed too lightly," the man couldn't help but remark. "Six degrees Celsius in the north, plus the strong wind, that's a bone-chilling cold."

Lin Mo slowly opened his eyes, withdrawing from his focused world of woodworking.

He turned his head to look at the man next to him, then glanced down at his own clothes.

Then, he slightly tugged at the corner of his mouth, revealing a faint smile.

"It's okay, I can handle it."

His voice remained remarkably steady, exuding a composure beyond his years.

There was not a trace of panic or annoyance at the prospect of facing severe cold and freezing temperatures.

The middle-aged man pursed his lips, shook his head, and didn't respond, assuming that the young man was just being stubborn and suffering for the sake of saving face.

Lin Mo raised his hand and pushed the sunshade next to him upwards.

Through the narrow porthole covered with tiny ice crystals, he calmly looked down at the vast land below.

Night had completely enveloped the plains.

The enormous city is like a giant beast lurking in the darkness.

Countless dazzling lights intertwined to form an inseparable net, spreading wildly in all directions.

A fierce wind raged at low altitudes, blurring and scattering the city's neon lights, creating a chilling and desolate atmosphere.

Lin Mo just watched quietly.

Those deep, dark eyes reflected the myriad lights of the city, yet remained undisturbed.

In my past life, I knelt on cold stone slabs in the dead of winter and experienced countless unseen attacks and sabotage.

Those scheming and deceitful plots are far more chilling than this mere six degrees of cold air.

Now I live a different life, and I've let go of all my obsessions.

He just wanted to find a dilapidated little courtyard, quietly make a few bowls of hot soup noodles, and carve a few pieces of unwanted rotten wood.

This little breeze is nothing.

The plane experienced severe turbulence again.

The feeling of weightlessness and the shaking of the aircraft intertwined, and people in the cabin kept letting out terrified gasps, gripping the armrests of their seats tightly.

But Lin Mo's hands remained firmly resting on his knees.

Even the rhythm of his breathing remained perfectly steady for a single second.

"boom--"

With a deafening roar as the tires screeched against the runway, the plane landed heavily on the tarmac.

The speed brakes suddenly opened, and the engine emitted a deep, reverberating thrust.

The massive aircraft glided for a long time in the strong winds before finally coming to a safe and steady stop.

The moment the hatch opened.

A biting early winter wind, like a knife, carrying withered leaves and cold dust, poured straight into the covered bridge.

The passengers at the front gasped in surprise at the gust of wind, stumbled back several steps, and quickly tucked their necks into their collars.

Lin Mo stood up and strode to the cabin door, facing the suffocating cold wind head-on.

The biting cold instantly penetrated the thin jacket, triggering a physiological shiver on the skin.

But he didn't even frown.

He simply stretched out two fingers and pulled up the zipper of his jacket to block the wind from reaching his collar.

Then, he strode forward, stepping steadily through the wind-blown fallen leaves, into the cold night of the capital.

The terminal lights flickered in the distance, and the cold wind made his short hair a little messy.

He looked at the night sky before him, a familiar yet unfamiliar sight, a hint of nonchalance in his eyes.

He tightened his thin coat and strode forward.

"Excuse me, I am passing through the capital."

……

Half an hour later.

Lin Mo dragged his suitcase, which he had just taken off the carousel, out through the glass doors of the airport arrival hall.

He didn't join the endless queue for ride-hailing services.

Instead, they headed straight for the somewhat deserted taxi waiting area not far away.

I opened the car door and carefully stuffed the heavy box into the trunk with one hand.

I sat in the passenger seat. The car's heater was on full blast, and the air was filled with cheap car air freshener and a faint smell of tobacco.

The driver was a typical Beijing local, rubbing his hands together and blowing hot air into his thermos.

"This awful weather, the temperature drop is like a joke." The driver glanced at Lin Mo. "Young man, aren't you cold dressed like that? Where are you going?"

Lin Mo leaned back in the slightly worn leather chair.

He turned to look at the roadside tree branches outside the window, which were being blown about by the strong wind, and spoke in a calm and clear voice.

Nanluoguxiang.

With a roar of its engine, the bright yellow taxi merged into the traffic and headed towards the deepest part of the city, braving the cold wind.

Meanwhile.

Dozens of kilometers away, in the brightly lit backyard of the Jiang family mansion.

The night wind howled wildly, making the precious flowers that were usually carefully cared for tremble and scatter their petals all over the ground.

A round, dark shadow silently crept up to the shady side of the courtyard wall.

The dark figure was wearing an extremely thick windproof coat.

He was wrapped up so thickly that he looked like a clumsy bear that came out in the middle of the night to steal winter food.

She cautiously peeked out from the corner of the wall and looked around.

I confirmed that the security team my dad had hired at a high salary was patrolling by with flashlights.

The "black bear" immediately and clumsily raised one leg and furtively stepped on a dark green recycling bin.

Jiang Ruoyun wore a thick woolen hat on her head, with most of her face hidden in the raised collar of her clothes, revealing only a pair of bright and clear eyes.

The cold wind lashed at my face like a whip, stinging painfully.

But at this moment, a different kind of light flickered in the young lady's eyes.