“This kid is a prime candidate for being an internet troll. Before, I only thought he was fit for the army. You all knew this already?”
Army Commander Liao looked at Hu Zhenghao and Li Wen. Both nodded.
“How long can you hold your breath?”
“About as long as Li Wu,” Hu Zhenghao answered.
Li Wen shook his head. “I can’t hold it that long.”
“You really need to train more. Just reading books isn’t enough—you have to have a strong body too.”
Army Commander Liao patted Li Wen on the head. This kid was strong academically; he knew that well.
Good prospects, and there were several of them. They couldn’t just let them go.
The commander was already planning to give these kids some serious training this summer.
“Hahaha, today I’m the boss! You all have to call me big brother!”
Li Wu was still basking in the joy of having won the title of ‘boss.’
“Hmm, ambition isn’t about age,” Army Commander Liao praised, watching the kids still splashing energetically in the water, his eyes shining even brighter.
“Mom, let’s stay here tonight and rest. Driving continuously is risky.”
Shen Xianjun stopped the car and spoke.
“Mom, I feel tired too. It’s hard to rest properly in the car.”
Qin Nian also spoke up.
“All right.”
Yang Yufen nodded.
Shen Xianjun went to book two rooms.
Yang Yufen quickly fell asleep, but Qin Nian came out of the room.
“What’s wrong?”
Hearing the movement, Shen Xianjun came out immediately.
“Mom’s asleep, but I’m not tired yet. I thought I’d come out and organize the things I wrote these past two days.”
“Then go inside and sort it out. Yuanjie and I will be outside. Yuanjie just said he wants to get something to eat.”
Shen Xianjun went back inside.
“When did I say I wanted to eat something?”
Liao Yuanjie hadn’t missed the conversation outside the door and teased Shen Xianjun with a knowing look.
“You want to eat now? Here, I’ll treat you.”
Shen Xianjun took out some of his private money, thought for a moment, put ten yuan back, and gave five yuan to Liao Yuanjie.
“Go on.”
Liao Yuanjie took the money. He wasn’t very tired either. He had thought they’d be driving all night, but unexpectedly, they were stopping to rest.
“Sis-in-law, I’m going to get something to eat.”
Liao Yuanjie greeted before leaving.
Qin Nian suppressed a smile. The door was still open. Although Shen Xianjun had lowered his voice, the distance wasn’t far.
“Ahem, there’s a table inside. You can use it. I’ll stand outside.”
“We’re married. Just come in and sit. It won’t bother me as long as the door’s open.”
Qin Nian said, already sitting down at the table.
Shen Xianjun cleared his throat and then came in to sit.
Liao Yuanjie returned after a while, carrying some food.
“Got this for you. It tastes pretty good.”
“Thanks.”
Qin Nian tidied up the food and glanced at her watch. It was indeed getting late.
They set off early the next morning. With clear roads during the day, they drove faster, arriving in the city just after two in the afternoon. When they got back to the residential compound, the kids hadn’t finished school yet.
“How did you get back so quickly?”
Aunt Wang came out when she heard the voices and saw Yang Yufen’s group returning.
“We can’t delay the kids’ work. I’ll come back to chat later. We need to go home and get settled first.”
Yang Yufen smiled in reply.
“All right, all right.”
Aunt Wang didn’t linger or try to hold anyone back. After watching Yang Yufen and the others head home, she turned around and went back to prepare dinner.
“Mom, you rest. I’ll take care of tidying up,” Shen Xianjun said as he carried everything into the house. Seeing Yang Yufen about to start working, he quickly spoke up.
“Mom, Xianjun and I will handle it.”
Qin Nian also hurried to speak. Along the way, she had come to understand why her mother-in-law hadn’t stayed longer in their hometown. She said it was because she worried about the children, but in truth, she didn’t want to disrupt their work.
Still, the long journey by bus was tough even for a young person like her, let alone for a woman of her mother-in-law’s age.
“You two cook the meal and tidy up the house a bit. I’m going to check on the chickens in the coop out back,” Yang Yufen said.
She was a little tired, but after sitting for so long on the bus, she really didn’t want to lie down just yet. Moving around a bit would do her good.
Seeing this, the two didn’t stop her and quickly put away their things before starting to cook.
“I’ll go pick up the kids,” Shen Xianjun said after finishing the last dish and taking off his apron.
“Okay,” Qin Nian nodded.
“Mom, I’m going to the teacher’s house for a bit. Xianjun is going to pick up the kids,” Qin Nian told Yang Yufen as she headed toward the chicken coop.
“Alright. Take these eggs with you, and while you’re at it, give the team leader a call to let him know we’ve returned safely,” Yang Yufen said as she finished cleaning out the chicken coop and handed over the basket of eggs before continuing her work.
“Got it,” Qin Nian replied, carrying the basket of eggs as she left. Professor Wen was at home reading the newspaper and looked surprised when he saw Qin Nian.
“I thought you were going to stay for several days. Why are you back so soon?”
“My mother-in-law worried about our work and didn’t want to hold us up. We didn’t even step inside the house before heading to pay respects at the gravesite. She only stayed one night. If we hadn’t stopped to rest overnight on the road, we might have made it back by morning,” Qin Nian explained, placing the eggs expertly in the kitchen.
“No need to rush so much. You don’t want to wear yourselves out,” Professor Wen said, pouring her a glass of water.
“Xianjun and Yuanjie took turns driving, so it wasn’t too bad. Professor, about the house?” Qin Nian asked.
Professor Wen nodded.
“We got confirmation yesterday. The owner is willing to sell, and it’s not far from here—right next to the newly built middle school. Once you bring your household registration book back, you can handle the paperwork,” he said.
“Thank you so much, Professor. When would you be free?” Qin Nian asked, eager to get things moving.
“The day after tomorrow. I’ll take you to see it. You should rest well tomorrow,” Professor Wen replied, understanding her urgency.
Qin Nian nodded. She did have some things to handle the next day—she had already organized some core technical data and needed the professor to help arrange for someone to assist her in writing it all up so it could be applied in the experiments sooner.
“Dad! Grandma and Mom are back, right?” Li Wu called out excitedly when he saw Shen Xianjun. Just as Shen Xianjun nodded and was about to say something, the twins grabbed each other’s hands and ran off without waiting for him.
“Grandma! Grandma!” Their voices reached the house before they even got to the door. Yang Yufen came out, and the two children rushed into her arms.
“Grandma, why did you come back so soon? We missed you so much!”
Li Wu was overwhelmed with excitement, and Li Wen tightly embraced Yang Yufen.
Yang Yufen gently patted the heads of the two children.
“Grandma said she’d only be gone for a few days and would be back soon. She misses you all very much. Come on, wash your hands. Your mom will be home soon too.”
Yang Yufen led the children to wash their hands, when Li Wu suddenly remembered something.
“Oh no, we haven’t waited for Brother Zhenghao!”
Yang Yufen was momentarily stunned at his words; she hadn’t thought of that either. Not just Zhenghao—what about Wang Xing?
As Yang Yufen was still pondering, Li Wu spoke up.
“It’s okay. Brother Zhenghao surely knows we came looking for him. Grandma, Wang Xing was taken away by his dad because his maternal grandparents had an emergency. He still hasn’t come back.”
Today at school, without Wang Xing around, they all felt so bored.
