Chapter 103: She Arrived

Whenever this man was unwell, Lu Yan would always be given a few pointed reminders.

Because someone thought he was not taking proper care of him, the higher-ups had phoned a couple of days ago and said they would send someone else over to help; no one knew when that person would arrive.

He was fretting over it when there came a knock at the door. He went to open it, and after the visitor from reception came in, she said to Lu Yan, “Engineer Lu, your wife and child should be arriving soon. Would you like the logistics department to prepare some food?”

The pen in Lu Yan’s hand came to an abrupt halt.

She had truly come.

He had only given Wang Zhifang the slightest hint, and she had really come?

Lu Yan could no longer contain the joy surging in his heart. He stood and said, “Please get something ready. Stir-fry some shredded potatoes, make green peas with a few fried eggs, and if there’s soup, boil up a pot of that as well.”

After the receptionist left, Lu Yan turned to the caretaker beside him. “You can go back now. I’m fine here.”

With that, he gathered up the documents and pen, draped a thin outer shirt over himself, and was about to head out.

The caretaker was just preparing to leave when he saw Lu Yan also making for the door and hurriedly stopped him. “Engineer Lu, don’t go wandering off. There’ll be special staff here to receive them.”

Lu Yan ignored him. As soon as he reached the doorway, he saw Su Yang and Hong Zhou, one carrying a suitcase and the other holding a child, with Shen Qingyi bringing up the rear.

When An An saw Lu Yan, he shouted excitedly, “Dad!”

Lu Yan took An An into his arms and looked toward his wife behind Su Yang. She looked haggard, and her face was frighteningly pale. This was...

He forced down the tide of emotion in his chest and called softly, “Qingyi.”

Seeing this, Su Yang and Hong Zhou put down the luggage and withdrew from Lu Yan’s quarters, and the caretaker left with them as well.

Shen Qingyi came closer. He seemed to have grown thinner, and he no longer had the bright vigor he had possessed when he left.

“Are you feeling any better?” she asked.

Lu Yan smiled. “Yes. Come in.”

As he spoke, he set An An down and hurriedly cleared the things off the sofa, gesturing for her to sit.

He knew his wife liked things neat and tidy.

Having ridden all day, Shen Qingyi was indeed tired. She sat on the sofa and looked around Lu Yan’s quarters. It was a rather large suite.

The living room had a sofa, a coffee table, a tape recorder, and a television, and beside them stood a large square dining table with four brand-new chairs.

But it was clear Lu Yan rarely used any of these things, because everything was covered in dust.

Even the sofa had not been used; although he had just wiped it down, when her hand rested casually on it, her fingertips picked up a layer of dust.

“You haven’t eaten yet, have you? I had the logistics department prepare a meal. It should be delivered soon,” Lu Yan said as he found a cloth and began wiping the table and chairs.

“Okay,” Shen Qingyi replied. She did not really have much appetite, but her son must be hungry.

“Cough... cough...” As he wiped the table, Lu Yan could not help coughing a few times.

An An hurried over anxiously. “What’s wrong, Dad? Is it serious?”

Lu Yan reached out and patted An An on the head. “I’m fine.”

When he looked back, he saw that his wife had also come up behind him.

Shen Qingyi reached out to take the rag from his hand. “Give it to me. You should rest for a while.”

“No need.”

Just then, the logistics staff delivering the food arrived. Seeing Lu Yan weakly wiping the table, he said in surprise, “Engineer Lu, if you’d asked for a logistics person, they could have cleaned this all up in no time.

“When you’re ill, you ought to rest properly.”

Lu Yan frowned almost imperceptibly. “I understand.”

His words were plainly calm and light, yet the logistics worker felt as though he had somehow overstepped. He set down the food and, in the end, could only add, “If you need anything else, just let us know. You don’t need to wash these bowls and chopsticks; someone will come to collect them later.”

“Okay.”

After the worker left, Shen Qingyi arranged the dishes and went to wash the chopsticks.

It had been a long time since the three of them had sat down to eat together like this, and as Lu Yan looked at the wife before him, he felt dazed, yet solidly anchored.

She had finally come back to his side.

Two months. He would definitely persuade his wife to stay with him.

Shen Qingyi noticed that Lu Yan’s gaze kept drifting back to her, again and again, so even eating became harder to focus on than usual. She asked gently, “What is it? Do I look very bad?”

A faint curve touched Lu Yan’s lips. “A little.”

Shen Qingyi explained, “I’m just a bit carsick. I’ll feel better after some rest.”

An An quickly nodded in agreement. “Yes, Mom threw up several times on the way.”

“I’m sorry, Qingyi.”

He had not wanted things to be like this. Not only had she had to travel all this way, but the conditions here were rough too. Getting to the city still took one or two hours by car, and even there, there were no big department stores like the ones she liked.

Yet for reasons he could not explain, ever since Han Lanzhi told her to divorce him, he had not slept a single proper night.

That unprecedented sense of insecurity and panic had swept away his reason.

Shen Qingyi looked at the dim, weary man and felt a little reluctant to bear him ill will. “There’s nothing to be sorry for. Besides, An An misses you very much too.”

At that, An An quickly lifted his face into a smile. “Yes, yes! I’ve never been this far from home before, and I saw a lot of scenery in the car. You used to tell me that our country is vast and diverse, and I could hardly imagine it, but now I understand.

“But you also said that once night falls, many places in our country have no light except the stars and moon. I still didn’t quite get that.”

Looking at his son’s bright, shining eyes, Lu Yan pointed to the electric lamp in the room. “In many places, there isn’t enough electricity, so they aren’t connected to power.”

“Really?”

“When Dad’s feeling better, I’ll drive you out at night and you’ll see for yourself.”

“Then how do we make sure there’s enough electricity?”

Lu Yan smiled. “That’s the very meaning of your future studies. Once you learn enough, you can go into wind power, solar power, or nuclear power generation.”

Father and son went back and forth, chatting with great enthusiasm. Shen Qingyi had never seen her son speak so much with anyone else before. Perhaps sending him to his father really had been the right choice.

Just as she drifted off for a moment, An An tugged at Shen Qingyi’s hand. “Mom, did you hear that? Dad said there’ll be meteors here the day after tomorrow.”

Only then did Shen Qingyi come back to herself. “All right, then let Dad take you to see them.”

“Mom has to go too!”

“Okay.”

Shen Qingyi liked that sort of thing too. When she was little, her father had taken her to see them, and she had made a wish then as well. As for what she had wished for, she no longer remembered at all.

Lu Yan felt slightly more at ease. “Qingyi, you and An An sleep in my bed tonight. I’ll sleep on the sofa.”

Shen Qingyi hesitated for a moment, thinking that he was still ill. “You and An An should sleep in the bed. I’ll sleep on the sofa.”

An An also took Lu Yan’s hand. “Dad, I want to sleep with you.”

After they had washed up that night, Lu Yan and An An slept in the bed, while Shen Qingyi slept on the sofa.

Perhaps because she had been too exhausted from sitting in the car all day, An An fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow. Lu Yan lay on his back with his hands behind his head, unable to sleep no matter what. His wife had truly come.

Lu Yan got up and walked into the living room, where he saw his wife sleeping on the sofa beneath a thin blanket, turned onto her side.

He approached quietly and crouched down, looking at her sleeping face in the moonlight outside the window.