hollywood billionaire

Chapter 555 The Empire on which the Sun Never Sets

"Dear passengers, this is the captain's announcement."

"Our aircraft has begun its descent and is expected to arrive at London Heathrow Airport in...45 minutes. The current local time is 8:53 a.m., the ground temperature is -2 degrees Celsius, the weather is partly cloudy, clear and windless, and suitable for landing. Please fasten your seatbelts, straighten your seat backs, and turn off all electronic devices."

"On behalf of the entire British Airways crew, I would like to thank you for flying with us and wish you a pleasant journey in London."

Hearing the landing announcement simultaneously through the cabin loudspeaker and his headset, Han Yi pressed the pause button on the remote control, freezing the image of Tom Cruise on the screen in front of him at the moment he was clinging to the plane with his bare hands. He then took a sip of ice-cold cola, trying to use the unique stimulation of the carbonated drink to awaken his somewhat sluggish brain after three hours of short sleep.

On December 15, 2016—or more accurately, December 16, 2016, since he was at the origin of Greenwich Mean Time—Han Yi was on British Airways flight BA114, departing from New York and bound for London.

Yesterday, after the Museum of Modern Art in New York closed, Han Yi and Xu Yiru didn't go home to cook. They had just eaten lunch at 2 PM and weren't particularly hungry. So, they headed north and leisurely walked to Robert's Restaurant on the top floor of the Museum of Art and Design at 2 Columbus Circle. They sat in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Columbus Circle and the entire Central Park and enjoyed a low-calorie, healthy meal.

Afterwards, the two couldn't wait to leave the city's hustle and bustle behind and return to their penthouse apartment in One57 to savor each other and their less than 24 hours of alone time.

Using watching a show as an excuse again, and still unable to remember a single line, the exhausted couple, who had been entwined until the early hours of the morning, didn't wake up until dawn. Fortunately, Xiaoru, who was only staying in New York for two days, hadn't taken much out of her suitcase, and was only putting on and taking off clothes at a time; otherwise, she definitely wouldn't have been able to reach Tetboro Airport before the scheduled departure time.

Jet Linx has booked a flight for 1NAH1 today, flying from Teterboro Airport to Taipei Songshan Airport. The flight departs at 3:45 PM Eastern Time and is scheduled to land at Fairbanks International Airport in Alaska at 6:22 PM, making a technical stop of nearly two hours before departing again at 8:15 PM. After another nine-hour flight, the flight will finally arrive in Taipei.

The entire trip, including fuel costs, in-flight meals, staff salaries, operating expenses, and route application fees, would cost Han Yi US$233,400. This is more than 23 times more than the approximately US$10,000 first-class ticket price on the New York-Tokyo-Taipei route jointly operated by ANA and China Airlines.

Xu Yiru repeatedly requested that she buy her own plane ticket and fly directly to Taipei in business class on China Airlines, but Han Yi was unusually insistent on this, insisting that Xiaoru fly back on his plane. He claimed that being escorted back to Taiwan by his G650ER was equivalent to him personally taking his girlfriend home.

More importantly, the G650ER has a fully reclining bed, a shower room, an entire cabin for Xu Yiru's exclusive use, and customized in-flight meals. Thanks to Han Yi's special attention, even with only one passenger on this journey, Jet Linx's in-flight catering department prepared an exceptionally rich menu. From Tetborough to Fairbanks, it was a luxurious afternoon tea consisting of ten kinds of fresh fruit, six kinds of delicate savory snacks, five kinds of fish, four kinds of appetizers, a sushi platter, and a sashimi platter. From Fairbanks to Taipei, there were two meals: dinner and breakfast. Dinner was a four-course French meal consisting of salad, appetizer, main course, and dessert, while breakfast was Chinese congee and dim sum to suit Asian palates.

In addition, Jet Linx prepared nine kinds of freshly squeezed juices and a Jet Linx signature milkshake for Xu Yiru. This was in addition to a total of twenty-four other options including hot tea, red wine, champagne, and carbonated beverages.

A significant portion of these would likely never be tasted by Xu Yiru, or even seen; they would simply lie quietly in the control room, traveling by plane to another continent, only to be transported back intact.

This extreme luxury of having an entire aircraft for one person's use and the entire crew serving that one person is one of Han Yi's ways of expressing his love and care for his girlfriend.

Of course, Han Yi's insistence on using a private jet to send Xiaoru home wasn't just because he wanted to express his love and care; there were two other reasons as well. The first reason was that he wanted to test whether spending money on his girlfriend could also earn him a high cashback.

And the second reason...

He wanted to alleviate his guilt a little by using this meticulous and extravagant thoughtfulness.

After all, Han Yi himself knew very well what the main purpose of his trip to Europe after saying goodbye to Xu Yiru was.

But Xiaoru didn't give him any chance to ease his guilt. Although she reluctantly agreed to take a private plane back to Taipei, she refused to let Han Yi take her to the airport no matter what he said.

“If you see me off, I’ll definitely cry.” Standing in the front hall, Xu Yiru, who was about to leave, hugged Han Yi tightly and said, “I can’t bear this kind of sad farewell. It will make me unable to get rid of this depression for a long, long time. So, Yi Yi, for my own good, let’s say goodbye here.”

"Give me a kiss and say, 'Don't worry, we'll see each other again soon'... okay?"

Her radiant smile resurfaced in his mind, overwhelming him with guilt once more. Han Yi desperately tried to sever this memory. I fucking deserve to die…

He has such a great girlfriend like Xiaoru, yet he still goes around flirting with other people.

Well, that's great. In the next three weeks, he'll have a girlfriend in Asia, a girlfriend in America, and a girlfriend in Europe. He's practically turning into the British Empire.

Speaking of my girlfriend in Europe...

It's been so long since I've seen Barbara...

What kind of surprise will this Hungarian supermodel, who never lacks quirky ideas, bring this time?

It's making me a little impatient...

Swinging between painful self-reflection and elation of anticipation, Han Yi, who had gone further and further down the path of being a scumbag, finally docked at Terminal 5 of London Heathrow Airport at 9:50 GMT, along with BA114, which had finished taxiing.

Without a backpack or any carry-on luggage, Han Yi put on the windbreaker handed to him by the flight attendant and leisurely followed behind the other thirteen first-class passengers, becoming one of the first to exit the cabin.

When Han Yi usually takes international commercial flights, whether in economy or business class, he always tries to leave the plane as soon as it lands and then runs to customs to gain valuable clearance time. This is because most international airports in the world have peak arrival times for international flights, and Han Yi faces not only competition from other passengers on the same flight but also from other travelers all over the world.

But this time, he didn't need to rush so much, running until he was out of breath, just so he could get a few more places ahead in the long line at customs.

Because money is omnipotent, even when it comes to clearing customs.

Han Yi stopped at the junction of the jet bridge and the cabin door less than two meters from the cabin entrance.

His gaze fell upon a tall, well-dressed Black man standing to the left of the cabin door, wearing a shiny leather driver's hat, holding an iPad with two lines of English text displayed on it:

YI
HAN
"Good morning."

Han Yi took a step forward, walked up to the black driver, and nodded to him.

"I am Yi-Han."

"Good morning, Mr. Han!"

The Black driver immediately flashed a dazzling set of white teeth, his smile professional and sincere.

“Good morning, Mr. Han! My name is Aiden, and I will be your personal driver for the next 48 hours.” He bowed slightly. “On behalf of the Ritz Hotel service team, I extend my warmest welcome to London.”

(End of this chapter)