The moment Lu Zhenbang stepped through the courtyard gate, Su Ya greeted him with reddened eyes and, lowering her voice, told him everything that had happened during the day.
A short while later, Lu Zhenbang’s steady, powerful voice came from the main room on the first floor.
“Huaiyuan, Zhixia, come down for a moment.”
The main room was not brightly lit. Only a dim yellow incandescent bulb hung overhead.
Lu Zhenbang sat upright in the single solid-wood armchair at the head of the room. He glanced at his haggard daughter-in-law before speaking in a deep voice to his son, who looked as wilted as a battered eggplant.
“I already know what happened. Don’t worry. With your old man here, the sky isn’t going to fall.”
Hearing this, Lu Huaiyuan looked at his father with complicated emotions.
Perhaps tears really were contagious. For a brief moment, he felt his own eyes growing hot.
However, he reacted quickly and suppressed that emotion.
Nothing escaped Lu Zhenbang’s eyes.
He’s still too young and hasn’t experienced enough. Perhaps after going through this, he’ll grow up a little.
Lu Zhenbang ignored his son and turned kindly toward Shen Zhixia.
“Zhixia, put your mind at ease. Your efforts won’t be wasted. Isn’t it just going to college? As long as you have the determination, Dad will make sure you get there.”
“Dad, thank you…”
Shen Zhixia nearly choked up again.
Su Ya quickly took her hand.
“Trust your dad. He’ll definitely have a way. Now, get ready for dinner and come help Mom heat up the dishes.”
Only the father and son remained in the main room.
After fidgeting awkwardly for quite some time, Lu Huaiyuan finally gathered his courage.
“Dad, how about we have a couple of drinks?”
“I’ll get the liquor.”
Lu Zhenbang hurried toward the dining room, as though afraid that if he moved any slower, his son would see the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
Watching his father’s slightly hurried back, Lu Huaiyuan froze for a moment. He had not expected the old man to agree so readily.
Lu Huaiyuan had no idea what method his father had to turn the situation around.
But at that moment, his father’s back seemed to grow tall again, just like it had when he was a child.
In the kitchen, Shen Zhixia lifted the gauze cover over the cold dishes.
Only now did she truly focus on the food in front of her.
Without exception, every dish was something she had casually mentioned liking or had taken an extra bite or two of during the past few months.
Her mother-in-law had no idea how long she had been busy in the kitchen preparing this meal.
Yet at noon, Shen Zhixia had been so consumed by the despair of having her hopes shattered that she had not taken a single bite, and had even cast the entire family into a gloomy mood.
Her mother-in-law had not complained even once. Instead, she had carefully tended to Shen Zhixia’s emotions.
A deep sense of guilt and indescribable warmth welled up inside Shen Zhixia.
Without even noticing that Su Ya was holding a bowl while ladling out the soup that had been kept warm on the stove, Shen Zhixia walked straight up from behind and wrapped her arms around her waist, rubbing her face against her back.
The sudden hug nearly made Su Ya lose her grip on the bowl.
“Hey, hey! The soup! The soup!”
“Pfft!”
Seeing her mother-in-law scrambling in panic, Shen Zhixia suddenly burst into laughter through her tears.
A tiny bubble of mucus appeared at the tip of her red nose, and she hurriedly covered her face in embarrassment.
Then the mother and daughter-in-law laughed together.
The gloomy atmosphere that had hung over the house all afternoon dispersed just like that little bubble, bursting with a soft pfft.
The dishes were reheated and brought back to the table.
Lu Huaiyuan took the liquor bottle and poured a small cup for Lu Zhenbang.
Inside, he was practically itching with impatience, his mind filled with one question: What earth-shattering method did the old man have to solve their current predicament?
“Dad…” Lu Huaiyuan raised his cup, just about to sound him out.
“Come, let’s have a toast.”
Lu Zhenbang raised his small liquor cup first.
Lu Huaiyuan looked up and saw that his father’s face, usually stern year-round, was now filled with a relaxed smile.
The old man held the little white porcelain liquor cup in his hand, his eyes filled with pure joy, as though what he held were some kind of divine nectar.
The words at the tip of Lu Huaiyuan’s tongue became lodged firmly in his throat.
He suddenly realized that this seemed to be the first time in several years, ever since he had stubbornly refused to go to college, that father and son had sat peacefully at the same table and had a drink together.
The old man was genuinely happy today.
“…Drink slowly. You’re not young anymore.”
Lu Huaiyuan suppressed his impatience, tucked away all the questions filling his mind, clinked his cup against his father’s, and downed it in one gulp.
Forget it. He would find out the solution sooner or later.
Since the old man had said the sky wasn’t going to fall, then he might as well let him enjoy himself tonight.
After a night of letting things settle, the atmosphere at the Lu family’s old residence was no longer as gloomy as it had been the day before.
Shen Zhixia woke up very early.
She had cried so hard the previous day that even after applying warm compresses, her eyes were still somewhat swollen.
Her emotions, however, had already stabilized.
In her previous life, she had spent years struggling at the bottom of society and rarely allowed her emotions to spill over like this.
She did not even know how she had managed to cry so much yesterday.
When she saw Lu Huaiyuan worrying about her, she wanted to cry. When she heard the concern in her mother-in-law’s voice, she wanted to cry. When she received her father-in-law’s comfort, she wanted to cry.
And when she thought about how the whole family had accompanied her through these difficult months, she wanted to cry even more.
She had completely turned into a spoiled little crybaby.
In truth, she was not crying because she could not go to college. It was not as though she had never taken the examination in her previous life.
She was crying because she had finally received love from her family.
That overwhelming warmth melted the ice that had accumulated in her heart over two lifetimes, and then spilled out through her eyes.
Shen Zhixia walked into the main room on the first floor and saw Lu Zhenbang sitting there reading the newspaper, with a cup of hot tea in front of him.
“Good morning, Dad.”
Shen Zhixia walked over and greeted him.
“Sit. Where’s Huaiyuan?”
Lu Zhenbang pointed to the chair opposite him, seemingly as though he had been deliberately waiting for them.
“He’s still washing his face. He’ll be down in a moment.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Lu Huaiyuan strode into the main room and naturally sat down beside Shen Zhixia.
“Good morning, Dad.”
Lu Zhenbang nodded, set down the newspaper in his hand, and picked up his teacup.
“Zhixia, I told you yesterday that I wouldn’t let your efforts go to waste. Since you can’t take the College Entrance Examination, how about attending a night university instead of a full-time university? Would you be willing?”
“A night university?”
“Yes. You only need to attend classes in the evenings and on weekends. It’s still a university in the city, and the teachers are the same ones who teach the full-time students during the day. The knowledge you’ll learn is the same.”
Lu Zhenbang patiently explained.
Of course, Shen Zhixia had heard of night universities before, although she had never actually experienced one. It should be a pretty good experience.
“All right, I’m willing. But, Dad, am I eligible to attend?”
After what had happened the previous day, Shen Zhixia instinctively found herself thinking one step further.
“Not quite yet. So the first step is to transfer your household registration to the factory.”
“Can you transfer her household registration?”
Lu Huaiyuan could not help interrupting, a hint of grievance in his eyes.
If you could transfer her household registration, why didn’t you say so sooner? You made us struggle for nearly half a year!
Shen Zhixia also immediately straightened up, waiting eagerly for her father-in-law to explain what came next.