Early morning, the airport.
It had rained in the autumn night. The bus rolled across the wet apron toward the wide-body passenger plane at the distant parking apron.
Song He and Xiang Xiaotong sat in the front row. Behind them were all the students from the Youth Class. The students had been chattering about the supercomputer project, but when the bus reached the parking apron and the enormous plane was cloaked in a beautiful glow beneath the rising sun, it finally caught their attention. They gazed out the windows and exclaimed in amazement.
"Dean Song, is this your private plane?" one student asked.
"It's not mine. I'm poor. The plane belongs to your rich Dean Xiang!" Song He joked. "All right, everyone, board in an orderly fashion!"
The bus came to a stop. The front and rear doors opened, and the students filed out one after another. Excited, they stepped onto the boarding lift and slowly rose into the plane.
It was the first time the students had seen a top tycoon's private plane. Once aboard, they kept exclaiming in amazement, looking around with curiosity and caution.
Song He and Xiang Xiaotong boarded with smiles, immediately met by a chorus of excited chatter.
"So planes can actually be this spacious?"
"So this is the legendary private plane!"
"I thought there'd be rows and rows of seats. It turns out they're huge leather sofas!"
"Seats packed tightly together are for commercial airliners. This is a private plane. Only a few people usually fly on it, so what would we need hundreds of seats for?" Song He laughed. "Everyone can look around freely. This is the lounge. Sit wherever you like. There are quite a lot of us, so if you can't find a seat, head farther inside!"
The lounge had rather