Chapter 1: Aurora Ashford International Airport
"Mimi, would you like to check your luggage again to see if there is anything you forgot to bring?"
Mila Winters was holding her mother's photo frame and looking at it. Her grandmother, who had recently been confined to a wheelchair due to a fall, came in from the room in a wheelchair. She raised her head and dropped the photo frame back on the bedside table.
"I checked grandma and brought everything together." Mila Winters replied.
There is a pure black suitcase on the right side of the bed, and there is a blue schoolbag on the suitcase. It is mid-August when the heat is still lingering, and Mila Winters is about to leave for Willowbrook Airport. She has just completed the college entrance examination this year, with excellent results. She won the first place in science in Willowbrook city and was admitted to Ashford University, the best university in the country.
Margaret Winters couldn't move his eyes away from Mila Winters. He pushed the wheelchair forward a little and grabbed Mila Winters's hands. The palms felt soft and greasy. She was in a daze for a moment. When people reach such an old age, they always miss their youth. She was once this age, in the prime of her youth, and her third son and third daughter-in-law gave birth to her as a good granddaughter. Not only was she smart, she was also very beautiful. In the past few days, she kept seeing Mila Winters on her mobile phone, because after Mila Winters became the top pick in the exam, she was interviewed by the city's TV station. Because she was so beautiful, it quickly spread on the Internet, saying that she was the most beautiful top pick.
However, she is a good granddaughter who has too many horoscopes. When she was in elementary school, her father died in a car accident, and her mother died of illness before the college entrance examination. Thinking of this, Margaret Winters frowned slightly and let go of Mila Winters's hand, "Ashford, you know, study hard. In our family, you have the best academic performance. Don't let grandma down."
Mila Winters hummed, his eyes looked at Margaret Winters, and his voice was a little shallow: "Yes, grandma."
Her pupils were too clear, and there were no disturbances. Margaret Winters couldn't help but think of the day when Mila Winters's mother Lydia Winters's body was pushed into the morgue. Mila Winters was also in the hospital, but she didn't shed a single tear. She just looked blankly. The family was afraid that her mother's death would affect the child's college entrance examination. However, half a month later, Mila Winters entered the examination room as usual, and she did not perform abnormally, and got the top prize.
"Okay, we have to go to the airport, Mimi, you Logan are already downstairs, please get down quickly." Margaret Winters said.
Mila Winters hummed, got up, walked to the suitcase, and put on his schoolbag.
Originally, Margaret Winters arranged for Mila Winters's second uncle to take time to send Mila Winters, but unfortunately, Mila Winters's second uncle was transferred to Brookhaven by the company for a business trip these two days. The family was a bit busy, and only Z XQ025's cousin Logan Winters has time today. In fact, Mila Winters is not familiar with this cousin. He is the child of Mila Winters's second uncle. After graduation, he worked in another urban area in the province and rarely met her.
Mila Winters said goodbye to Margaret Winters, packed up his suitcase and went out with his schoolbag on his back.
Logan Winters's car was parked on the first floor below. It was a white Audi. Mila Winters had ridden in this car once before. He remembered the license plate number and quickly found the location. When she arrived, Logan Winters in the car was just about to send her a message to tell her where the car was parked. When someone saw him, he came over directly and lowered the window.
In addition to Logan Winters, there was a strange man in the car. Mila Winters didn't recognize him, so he glanced at him and turned to call to Logan Winters.
"Here he comes." Logan Winters grinned, opened the driver's door and got out, walked over and took the suitcase in Mila Winters's hand, "Put this in the trunk."
Mila Winters nodded, "Thank you Logan."
"You get in the car first." Logan Winters said.
Mila Winters hummed and walked to the passenger side to open the door. As soon as she got in, her head popped over and said, "Hi!"
Mila Winters turned his head and faced a fair face. The other person's hair was dark chestnut and gelled. He smiled at the corner of his mouth and said to her: "Your brother said you were admitted to Ashford University? That's awesome. I also went to school in Ashford, but I studied in an ordinary second class and graduated next year. Oh, I am your cousin's good friend, my name is Carson Hale."
Mila Winters smiled politely back: "Hello, that's a coincidence."
"Are you going to Ashford today too?"
"No, I'm just going to play billiards with your cousin later. I'll see you off by the way. I don't have much to do anyway. We don't start school until September 7." When Carson Hale replied, he could hardly control himself, scanning Mila Winters's face up and down.
The breeze blows in from the window, and there is a nice light fragrance on the girl. Her face is too delicate, with a kind of impact. It is not the kind of soft and weak appearance, the standard oval face, but the facial features are bright and eye-catching, and the skin is too white, so delicate that there is no flaw.
Carson Hale stopped breathing.
"Oh, we have military training, and I don't want to start school so early." Mila Winters smiled lightly.
Freshman year almost always starts early because of military training.
Carson Hale's throat moved slightly and he tugged at the corners of his lips: "It's quite pitiful. Remember to wear sunscreen and don't get tanned."
Speaking of sunscreen, she closed her head before buying Mila Winters.
The two didn't chat for a few words, but Logan Winters had already put away his luggage and returned to the car.
Mila Winters has not traveled far for a long time. The last time she took a plane was a family of three. She was too young at that time and only remembered that the puffs at the airport were delicious. She came to the airport again, but she did not expect that it would be after graduating from high school.
August is the peak travel season, and the airport is busier than she imagined. The spacious check-in hall is crowded with people. Although Logan Winters is not that close to her, he is a competent cousin. When he arrived at the airport, he took Mila Winters to help her check in and then sent her to the security checkpoint before leaving.
Mila Winters's black suitcase was no longer with her, and she only had to carry a blue schoolbag. The air conditioner was on in the airport, which was very cool. After passing the security check, she came to the waiting hall to wait alone. It was still more than half an hour before the official ticket check-in and boarding the plane. Mila Winters found a rest chair and sat down. Suddenly she heard her phone ringing. She took it out and saw that it was a message from Carson Hale.
When they were in the car before, Carson Hale asked her for WeChat.
Records of Heroes of the Sea: [Ashford is familiar to me, feel free to ask me if you have anything you don’t understand. 】
Mila Winters replied with a good emoticon package, but found that there was no comment yet, so he clicked on Carson Hale's avatar and went to the homepage to change the comment.
The whole journey went smoothly. Mila Winters got on the plane to Ashford half an hour later. For Mila Winters, it was a novel experience to fly again. However, her perception of everything since she was a child may have been relatively dull in terms of external expression. During the two hours on the plane, Mila Winters stayed in a daze for half an hour, and then opened a copy of "Utopia" in her schoolbag and read the entire book.
When the plane landed at Ashford Capital Airport, at two o'clock in the afternoon, Mila Winters got off the plane and followed the flow of people to the baggage claim area. Just like the airport in Willowbrook, the towering dome seemed to have no end, absorbing all human voices and footsteps as well as the alternating Chinese and English boarding announcements on the radio. However, after two hours, the ground she stepped on had changed.
The baggage claim area gradually filled up with people, waiting for their luggage to be discharged from the pallet of the luggage carousel. Mila Winters waited patiently for a while, and the carousel began to have large and small luggage slowly moving onto the conveyor belt. They circled around, and after every pair of searching eyes, Mila Winters looked and looked, but never found his box.
But she was always patient and not in a hurry, until she almost ran out of luggage, and in the end there was only a pure black suitcase left, which went back and forth on the conveyor belt twice without anyone claiming it.
Although this suitcase was also pure black, she was sure it was not hers. This black suitcase was larger than hers.
After thinking about it for a while, Mila Winters felt that someone might have picked up the wrong luggage, because her suitcase and the other person's suitcase were both pure black, otherwise the black suitcase would not be claimed by anyone in the end.
I didn't expect to encounter such a thing when flying again. I frowned. Mila Winters took out the box first and trotted towards a staff member in the airport.
In her suitcase was a new laptop that her grandma bought her, and a lot of other clothes that she couldn't lose.
The staff member who was questioned listened to her inference and told her that she could go to the baggage inquiry counter, which would help her solve the problem. Mila Winters found the relevant counter as she said.
There are three service specialists here, two women and one man, all wearing airport work uniforms. When they saw Mila Winters walking over quickly with a suitcase, their eyes were all looking at her.
"Little sister, what's wrong?" Before Mila Winters could speak, the female commissioner on the right took the initiative to ask her.
"Someone took the wrong suitcase. This one is not mine, but there is no one else at the baggage claim area, and my suitcase is not seen. My suitcase is also black." Mila Winters said.
"Are you sure you got it wrong?" the female commissioner asked.
Mila Winters said: "It should be."
The female commissioner looked at her again and said, "Okay, please wait a moment and I'll ask you."
The two suitcases are the same color, but differ in size. It is most likely that they were picked up by mistake, rather than someone else doing it intentionally. There are only those passengers on a flight. After answering Mila Winters, the female commissioner started to call and inquire one by one.
On the twelfth call, I finally asked someone.
After confirmation, they found that they had indeed taken the wrong luggage, but the other party had already boarded the bus and had to get off the bus and send the luggage back.
After hanging up the phone, the female commissioner said to Mila Winters: "It is true that someone took it by mistake. He told you that he was sorry, but it will take some time to deliver it. You may have to wait for a while."
Mila Winters was not in a hurry. These two days were the freshman reporting days. It didn't matter if she arrived at school a little later. She nodded and said, "Then just wait."
Seeing that there was no sign of complaint on her face, the male commissioner next to the female commissioner looked at her and said, "Well, although it was the passenger's personal error that caused your luggage to be temporarily lost, our airport is very humane. To make up for this unpleasantness, I will give you a VIP card! You can go to the VIP room to rest and have something to eat. I will ask someone to deliver your luggage to you after it is delivered."
Mila Winters happened to be hungry, so he said thank you.
"Do you know where the VIP area is? Forget it, I'll take you there." The male commissioner pulled the tie around his neck and said.
"Put this suitcase here for now, you don't have to worry about it."
…
"Where are you from?"
"Willowbrook."
"Oh, Willowbrook seems to be a very cool city, not as stuffy as Ashford."
"Yes."
"Are you here for a trip? Probably not, otherwise you wouldn't be alone."
"No, I am a freshman this year and come to school."
Along the way, the male commissioner asked Mila Winters many questions, and Mila Winters answered them all. After answering this one, the male commissioner glanced at her: "You are not Yanying's student, are you? You must be."
"...No, it's Ashford University."
This answer made the male commissioner laugh, "You're kidding me."
"..."
Mila Winters was silent and did not argue.
"No, holy shit, are you really Ashford University?"
"No sister, with your looks, why don't you like Yan Ying?" After the other party laughed, she realized it was not polite, coughed dryly, and asked her.
Mila Winters thought for a moment and replied: "I have no acting talent."
Writing questions and studying are her greatest strengths.
The male commissioner couldn't help but glance at Mila Winters again, feeling that her reaction was so calm, which made him, an adult and a staff member of the airport, a bit rash. He coughed again and said with a smile: "You have a face like this, if you enter the entertainment industry, you will definitely be popular!"
Having been used to being praised for her beauty since she was a child, Mila Winters did not answer the call and had already arrived at the VIP lounge. The other party answered the phone and seemed to have something urgent to do, so she did not talk to Mila Winters anymore and left in a hurry after bringing Mila Winters here.
The VIP lounge at Capital Airport is very high-end and atmospheric. The lighting is warm amber, which falls from the suspended ceiling. The leather-textured sofas are arranged in a crescent shape and are unified in champagne color. The obsidian tabletop reflects a faint soft halo.
After Mila Winters scanned around, she heard the growl of her stomach and found the restaurant. There were many delicious foods here. She chose to order a local specialty mixed sauce noodles and a corn ribs soup.
The two meals were neatly placed on the stainless steel tray by Mila Winters. When she was carrying them and preparing to walk towards the rest area, she heard comments in her ears.
"The guy in the middle is so handsome. Oh my god, I want to ask for WeChat."
"Forget it, that seems to be the president of Halcyon Global. Do you think he can give you WeChat? Don't think about it."
"President Yaoheng? Real or fake? Yaoheng's boss is so young?"
"Why are you lying to me? My cousin works at Yaoheng and sent me a photo of the CEO of their company. It was him. Because he was so handsome, I remembered his appearance right then."
The two people's voices were not loud, but because they were close, they were picking up food next to Mila Winters. Mila Winters heard their words clearly and turned his head subconsciously.
A group of people walked in from the entrance of the lounge. The leader of the group was naturally surrounded by others. He was tall and wearing a pure black haute couture suit. His facial contours were deep and sharp, and his chin was tight, exuding an undeniable coldness. His aura was so strong that the air around him seemed to be a bit quiet.
Mila Winters paused slightly, but without looking away, he suddenly met the other person's bottomless eyes. His eyes could be said to be very indifferent, like the biting cold wind. They looked at each other for three seconds, and the man withdrew his gaze first.
The author has something to say:
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It’s been a year since I wrote a letter. How many babies are there? Happy New Year.
*Semi-fanciful, likes to write about daily life