Chapter Fourteen: Lend Me Some Money

Shen Qingyi didn't argue with him further and turned to leave the kitchen.

Lu Yan had hoped she would stay and exchange a few words, but he hadn’t expected her to turn away so decisively. A faint sense of disappointment welled up within him.

After washing the bowls, he stacked them neatly in the cupboard. As he closed the cabinet door, it trembled slightly. Looking around, he realized the cabinet had grown old and loose.

But thoughts of his son weighed on his mind, so he decided to leave the matter of the cabinet until his next day off.

Leaving the kitchen, Lu Yan passed through the backyard and saw Shen Qingyi still seated in the rattan chair, holding a cup of tea. Beside her sat a small radio, playing a pop song he’d never heard before.

He paused, but ultimately chose not to disturb her, and headed back to the main hall.

An’an was sitting on the sofa, tinkering with the robot Lu Yan had bought him the other day.

Seeing his father approach, An’an immediately stopped what he was doing and looked up, his eyes bright and curious. “Did the robot not come with batteries?”

Lu Yan sat down next to his son and took the robot from his hands. “So it can take batteries? Dad will bring you some tomorrow.”

He was a little surprised by his son's discovery; it seemed An’an had experimented before asking.

An’an nodded, then curled his lips in discontent. “Without batteries, the robot won’t move. I could have used the ones from the radio Uncle Xia gave me, but now Mom wants to listen and won’t let me have them.”

Uncle Xia? Lu Yan recalled the man he’d seen at the door holding his son that day, and an inexplicable discomfort tightened his chest.

Unable to resist his curiosity, he asked, “Does Uncle Xia visit often?”

An’an tilted his head, thinking for a moment. “He only comes by once in a long while.”

Lu Yan didn’t press further. Instead, he smiled at his son. “Actually, you don’t have to use batteries to play. How about we try something different?”

The mention of a new game made An’an’s eyes light up. “Really? What do we do?”

From the way his son had just taken the robot apart, Lu Yan knew he loved this kind of thing.

He took a small screwdriver from his backpack and smiled. “You can take the robot apart and see if Dad can put it back together, the more pieces the better.”

He always carried the little screwdriver for model experiments.

Sure enough, at the mention of dismantling, excitement shone in An’an’s eyes—he was an expert at taking things apart.

After listening to the radio, Shen Qingyi decided to give the battery to An’an. There was a program she liked, aired at the same time every day, always playing the same few songs.

She rose from the rattan chair, and as she walked into the hall, she heard her son’s constant exclamations of praise.

“Wow, amazing! Even after taking it into so many tiny pieces, you can put it all back together.”

“Let me try next!”

Lu Yan reassembled the robot, not a single piece missing, a faint smile curving his lips as he handed it back to An’an. “Your turn!”

“Yay!” An’an cheered.

Shen Qingyi looked at the man, poised and elegant, relaxed and at ease, so different from the serious, focused figure she remembered from the past, working beside her father.

Now, his eyes were warm, gazing at An’an with a tenderness words couldn’t capture.

“An’an,” Shen Qingyi called softly.

Father and son turned to look at her.

She approached and handed the radio to An’an. “Mom’s finished listening. You can have it now.”

An’an grabbed the radio, grinning and revealing his little tiger teeth. “Thank you, Mom!”

Shen Qingyi didn’t linger but turned and went back to her room.

As An’an pried at the battery inside the radio, he muttered, “Every night it’s the same songs, so boring.”

“What songs?” Lu Yan asked.

An’an paused, considering. “‘Pink Memories’ and ‘Green Island Serenade.’ I’ve memorized all the lyrics, but Mom still hasn’t learned them.”

“What are the lyrics?” He realized he had never truly known what Qingyi liked.

“Summer quietly passes, leaving little secrets…” An’an recited the lyrics perfectly—a feat that would have earned praise from others for his cleverness, but for Lu Yan, it was nothing out of the ordinary.

After all, a photographic memory was one of his own skills.

Still, the lyrics struck him as rather meaningless.

Meaningless or not, he remembered every word.

As they talked, An’an finished installing the battery in the robot.

Before they knew it, it was nearly nine o’clock, and Shen Qingyi came out to call An’an for his bath and bedtime.

Lu Yan rose as well, picked up his bag from the sofa, and bid his son goodnight.

…

After bathing, Shen Qingyi dusted An’an with talcum powder when he suddenly asked, “Mom, are you really going to Pengcheng?”

Her hands stilled. “You don’t want to go with me?”

“Of course I want to go with you, Mom. But can we wait a bit longer? No one scolds me in the courtyard anymore, and sometimes people even greet me when I go out.” An’an’s eyes sparkled as he looked at her.

She stroked his head. “How long should I wait?”

An’an tilted his head, pondering. “How about a month?”

He didn’t have a clear idea of how long a month was, only that it wasn’t too long or too short—surely Mom would agree.

“All right.”

After a while, An’an asked, “Are we going to Pengcheng to live with Uncle Xia?”

Shen Qingyi was startled. What was this little rascal thinking?

“Why do you ask that? Don’t you like Uncle Xia?”

An’an hesitated for a long time. “I like Uncle Xia. He always brings me delicious food and fun things.”

But he wasn’t like Dad, who could play anything and understand everything.

Uncle Xia only ever praised him, but he didn’t want praise.

Still, he sensed Mom didn’t like Dad.

“All right, go to sleep now.” Then, as if remembering something, she added, “Tomorrow, ask your dad to bring the proof when it’s ready, so I can get your household registration set up.”

“Okay.”

…

At noon, Lu Yan went to the canteen for lunch. Su Yang and another colleague followed close behind.

“Thanks to you for those research data earlier, otherwise I wouldn’t have made it out for lunch,” Su Yang said gratefully.

“Lu Yan, soon we’ll have a group of experts from Shanghai coming for a seminar. I heard it’s about the feasibility of building a Fiber Optic Spectroscopic Astronomical Telescope Experimental Base. None of us here have a grasp on this project yet—what are we going to do?” the other colleague said anxiously.

Su Yang, also nervous, added, “Yeah, I heard some of those experts have studied abroad.”

Lu Yan lined up for food as usual, his expression unchanged. “So what’s the purpose of their visit?”

At that moment, his supervisor, Wang Zhifang, came up behind him in line. “Isn’t it all because you did so well on the last project?”

He clapped Lu Yan on the shoulder. “I’ve already submitted your name—I know you can handle it. Don’t embarrass our research institute.”

Lu Yan was silent for a moment, then turned to look at Wang Zhifang. “Lend me some money.”