Feng Qingqing returned to the guesthouse room to find both children already awake. She felt a jolt of alarm, but fortunately, she had prepared them the night before. She had emphasized repeatedly that if they woke up and she wasn’t there, it meant she had gone to get food. She told them to stay in bed, look at their picture books, and wait for her return—and under no circumstances were they to get out of bed or open the door. She had locked the door from the outside when she left, so she wasn't worried about them wandering off, but she had feared they might forget her instructions and start crying, which would surely draw the staff’s attention and cause trouble.
To her relief, the children had been very sensible and taken her words to heart. When they woke and didn’t see her, they had simply stayed put, flipping through their picture books. She let out a long sigh of relief. The children were, of course, thrilled to see her back; though they had remembered her instructions, they had still felt a sense of trepidation in her absence.
Feng Qingqing helped the children dress, washed up, and then took them by the hand toward the guesthouse entrance. She planned to spend the day showing them around some of Beijing’s famous landmarks and treating them to some good food. Although the Beijing of this era was far from the forest of high-rises it would become in the future, it was already beginning to take shape.
Chapter 641