"I haven't even settled accounts with you yet. How do you have the nerve to come swaggering up to me?" Xu Lai looked completely at ease.
But Xu Ke clearly didn't take his words to heart. "Hmph, you only ever know how to look fierce with me. I can't be bothered with you."
With that, she skipped off ahead.
Xu Lai shook his head helplessly, glanced back down the alleyway where Lin Ruoruo had disappeared, and then walked after Xu Ke.
Lost in thought, Xu Lai slowed his pace. The usual three-minute walk took him five minutes before he reached the waiting car.
"Ge, can't you walk a bit faster?" Xu Ke urged when she saw him approaching the vehicle.
"If you're in such a rush, take a taxi back yourself," Xu Lai retorted.
He then climbed into the Alphard and signaled the driver to set off.
After a twenty-minute drive, they arrived at Xu Lai's Courtyard House.
Inside the courtyard, Xu Minghui had personally cooked a table of dishes.
There were no lavish feasts of fish and meat—just simple, home-cooked dishes. But Xu Minghui knew these were the things Xu Lai craved most whenever he came home, the flavors of his childhood.
Standing behind Xu Minghui was a middle-aged woman in her fifties—none other than Auntie Li from the orphanage, who now worked as Xu Minghui's housekeeper.
"Principal, Xiaolai and the others are back."
Li Fengxia, seeing Xu Lai and Xu Ke step from the front hall into the main hall from a distance, spoke up softly to remind Xu Minghui.
Hearing this, Xu Minghui looked up with a warm, motherly gaze as the two of them walked from the courtyard toward the dining room.
"Xiaolai, Xiaoke, dinner's ready. Come eat."
Xu Ke came bounding over with a grin, beating Xu Lai to the dining room. "Wow, Granny, it smells so good! I'm going to eat three bowls of rice today."
"You girl, has anyone at home ever shorted you on food?" Xu Minghui said with a smile.
"Of course not, but if Ge hadn't come back, who knows when I'd get to eat Granny's cooking again," Xu Ke replied.
At that moment, Xu Lai walked into the dining room and chimed in, "It's late at night, you should eat a bit less unless you want to put on weight and start crying about going on a diet."
He paused, a mischievous glint in his eye. "Besides, the way you say that—with Auntie Li right here—are you implying that the food Auntie Li cooks everyday doesn't taste good?"
Li Fengxia, standing nearby, laughed. "You two siblings can bicker, just leave me out of it."
Hearing this, Xu Ke stuck her tongue out at Xu Lai, then hurried over to Li Fengxia, hugging her arm and shaking it. "Auntie Li's cooking is delicious, of course."
All four of them burst into laughter. This kind of familial warmth was something Xu Lai had always cherished. An orphan from a young age, he had constantly longed for a warm home. Through his hard work, he had achieved that, but this family still felt slightly incomplete.
Xu Minghui spoke up, "All right, everyone sit down and eat."
At the dining table, Xu Lai's youthful side showed through as he occasionally bickered with Xu Ke over the dishes.
And so, the family enjoyed a proper late dinner together.
...
In a bedroom on the east side of the Courtyard House.
Xu Minghui sat on the side of the sofa against the wall, while Xu Lai occupied the single armchair next to it.
When Xu Lai first returned to Jiangcheng, he had intended to visit Xu Minghui immediately, but she had been swamped with work due to the start of the school semester.
That was right—Xu Minghui, approaching sixty, was now the honorary principal of sixty-six "Minghui Hope Primary Schools." Although she was an honorary principal, every semester she still traveled personally to each school to distribute school supplies and daily necessities to the children.
Backed by Xu Lai's capital, her philanthropic efforts focused on children's education had also garnered widespread attention.
As soon as Xu Minghui returned to Jiangcheng, she had come straight to Xu Lai's Courtyard House.
The silence between them was broken first by Xu Lai. "Granny, is there something you want to ask me?"
Xu Minghui nodded. "That's right~ Xiaolai, given your experiences over the years, I really shouldn't need to say anything, but..."
She paused, then continued, "All these years, I've watched everything you've done, and I know how much Ruoruo means to you... Now that you've finally found her, so much time has passed—when you interact with her, you must still be mindful of boundaries..."
Before Xu Minghui could finish, Xu Lai cut in, "Don't worry, Granny, I have a handle on it. I know how fragile Ruoruo's heart is right now."
"Mhm, it's just that Ruoruo and her mother all these years... sigh."
"Granny, I said it before: since I've found Ruoruo, I won't let her suffer anymore, and I will never let her be wronged again."
Xu Lai's gaze deepened, his serious tone making it sound as though he were making a proclamation to the entire universe.
Seeing this expression, Xu Minghui was startled for a moment. She remembered this look; she had seen it once when Xu Lai was seven years old.
Sometimes Xu Minghui even felt a sense of unreality—was the boy before her really only eighteen?
Xu Lai and Xu Minghui talked for over an hour, during which he briefly outlined some of his upcoming plans. Listening to him, she felt a pang of heartache because Xu Lai bore far too much on his own shoulders.
After leaving Xu Minghui's room, Xu Lai walked back to his own bedroom. Once inside, he took a shower, changed into a comfortable pair of pajamas, and then entered his study through the side door connecting the master bedroom.
Using his fingerprint to unlock the cabinet beneath the desk, he took out a scroll of paintings.
He slowly unrolled it to reveal the portrait of a woman. She bore a seven or eight-part resemblance to the present-day Lin Ruoruo, but possessed a more mature, alluring beauty.
"In this lifetime, I still won't let you slip through my fingers."
...
Meanwhile, at Lin Ruoruo's home.
In Lin Ruoruo's bedroom, aside from a very old desk, there was only a wardrobe pieced together from acrylic panels. The room was tiny, and the bed was pushed flat against the wall. There wasn't enough space between the bed and the desk to fit a stool, so Lin Ruoruo had to place two books on the edge of the bed to prop herself up while she sat and did her homework.
All of her textbooks and study materials were stacked neatly against the wall.
"Today I'm very happy. He took me to eat the fried chicken my dad promised to buy me... He also said he'd help me with my tutoring. Actually, I want to go to a good university too." As she wrote, she cried, and then she smiled.
Having never known lovesickness until now, the moment she tasted it, she was consumed by it.
Her longing for Xu Lai had gradually taken tangible form because that person was slowly making his way into her life.
For his sake, she would try her hardest. Even if she couldn't attend the same university as him, she could at least draw a little closer to him.
Lin Ruoruo stopped writing, turned to the simple wardrobe in her room, opened the innermost compartment against the wall, and pulled out a sketchbook pressed flat beneath a stack of clothes.
The sketchbook already contained quite a few drawings.
Looking at her previous work, the lifelike face on the page bore a striking seven or eight-part resemblance to Xu Lai, only appearing more mature.
Lin Ruoruo gently stroked the face in the sketchbook and smiled softly.
Then she flipped the book over so that the back page became the front.
And she began to draw something new.