Chapter 441: Preparing to Depart

Li Zhao watched the bicycle disappear into the distance before slowly looking away.

Just then, Gu Zhen came running out.

"Brother Li, why didn’t you wait for me? I was only in the bathroom for a minute and you vanished."

Li Zhao shot him a sidelong glance. "Are you a child?"

With that, he walked off.

Gu Zhen: ...?

’What’s he so mad about?’

──

"Honey, was that man a new colleague of yours?" Qin Wenhao asked.

"He’s a colleague, but he’s not on my team. Our two teams work closely together, though."

Fu Mingxue wouldn’t discuss the specifics of her work.

Qin Wenhao heard the perfectly normal tone in his wife’s voice and assumed the man was just a regular colleague.

But he knew the look in that man’s eyes was anything but ordinary.

’He wanted to say something, but it felt like anything he could say right now would be inappropriate.’

Just then, Fu Mingxue asked, "What time did you get the train tickets for tomorrow?"

"Eight in the morning. I’ll take you to the train station."

"Of course you’re taking us. How else would we get there? Director Geng had offered to send a car to take us to the station, but I turned him down, figuring you’d have it covered."

’They had the children and luggage with them. Qin Wenhao was still at the base and not away on a mission, so how could he not be the one to see them off?’

"Right, I’ll take you." Qin Wenhao would only be able to rest easy once he saw them safely aboard the train.

It was a shame he couldn’t get the time off; otherwise, he would have personally escorted them all the way back to Beijing.

"Oh, right. I might come back for another visit, or I might not. If you can’t make it back for the New Year, just celebrate here. You don’t need to worry about us."

Qin Wenhao: ...?

’She was his wife; how could he possibly not worry about her?’

The bicycle was quite fast.

They were home in no time.

"Honey, do you want a bite to eat?"

"No, really, I’m good. I ate late, so I’m not hungry at all. If you’re hungry, go ahead and make something for yourself. I’m going to go shower."

As for packing, she didn’t have much to do.

She was just taking a few outfits back with her.

If she had to, she could just buy new things in Beijing City.

’After working hard all year, it wouldn’t be excessive to buy herself a few new outfits, would it?’

Seeing that she really wasn’t going to eat, Qin Wenhao dropped the subject.

He grabbed his clothes and went to take a cold shower—

When Fu Mingxue came out with her clothes, she saw the man, his naked body still beaded with water.

The corner of her mouth twitched.

’It was pretty cold this late at night; he was certainly brave for taking a cold shower.’

’Tsk, tsk. What a great build!’

Since Fu Mingxue was still on her period, there was naturally nothing Qin Wenhao could do.

On their last night together, all he could do was hold his wife as they slept.

「The next day.」

Fu Mingxue woke up quite early.

When she came out, she saw her mother bustling about frantically.

"Mom, why are you packing so many things? Don’t forget we have the two kids with us. This is all going to be so inconvenient."

"These two bags are just the children’s clothes. They need at least a couple of outfits each, don’t they? It just looks like a lot because their padded winter jackets take up so much space."

And this was after she had already downsized.

’We can’t just buy everything new when we get back, can we?’

’Besides, buying a new outfit or two for the New Year is fine.’

Fu Mingxue: ...

’Two outfits didn’t seem like that much, actually.’

Then she pointed to another bag—a fertilizer sack. It looked like something a migrant worker would carry into the city in a few years.

’She had no idea where her mother had even found a fertilizer sack.’

"Then what’s all this?"