Chapter 46

His heart suddenly sank, and a bad premonition spread through him.

He quickly tore open the envelope.

Cheng Yue,

I’m sorry for disturbing you all this time. Your leg injury has healed, and I’ve taken the children back to Tianshui Village. If the divorce application comes through, please make a trip back to Tianshui Village. After all, you haven’t been home in a long time, and your parents miss you.

I’ve left some pickled vegetables, cold dishes, and braised meat for you. I didn’t touch anything else in the house.

Take care of yourself, and I wish you happiness and peace.

After reading the first page, he quickly flipped to the second one—it was the guarantee letter she had written back then.

He was so stunned that he didn’t notice how much more beautiful Su Qianqian’s handwriting had become.

He had never felt that the house was so empty before. Now, it felt eerily quiet, a quiet that made him feel suffocated. There was no longer the sound of Su Qianqian’s busy movements, nor the voices of the three little ones playing and talking.

After standing there for a while, he rushed to the door but almost collided with Cheng Yuan, who was standing outside preparing to knock.

“Captain, what are you doing?” Cheng Yuan was startled.

Cheng Yue didn’t answer, rushing downstairs, but then stopped and turned back, “Go get the car, we’re going to the train station.”

“The train station? Didn’t your wife say you were too busy to go back to Tianshui Village?”

Just as Cheng Yue was about to speak, he froze. “What did you say? She told you I don’t have time to go back? When did she say that?”

“Today. I took your wife and the kids to the train station and asked why you weren’t coming with them…”

Bang!

Cheng Yuan was suddenly slammed into the door by Cheng Yue, causing his vision to blur with pain.

“You bastard, you were the one who took them to the train station?” Cheng Yue snarled, grabbing his collar.

“Ah? Yes… yes, I did,” Cheng Yuan stammered, still confused about what was going on.

The noise caused Wu Sufen to open the door and see the scene, frozen in surprise. “What’s going on here?”

Cheng Yuan quickly realized something was wrong and laughed nervously, “Captain was just testing my reflexes. I haven’t trained in a while, so I got a bit slack.”

Wu Sufen didn’t see Cheng Yue’s face, so she believed it. “By the way, the watermelon today is especially good. Take half of it and eat it.”

She went inside to get the remaining half of the watermelon and brought it over. “Where’s Su Qianqian? I don’t smell the usual delicious food from your house.” As a neighbor who was constantly surrounded by the delicious smells of their cooking, Wu Sufen and her family were always teasing them about it.

“The kids missed their grandparents, so they went back for a few days,” Cheng Yue briefly explained.

“Ah? They’ve gone back?” Wu Sufen’s gaze toward Cheng Yue changed immediately. She knew that Su Qianqian and Cheng Yue were getting a divorce, and she guessed that Cheng Yue had kicked her out. Suddenly, she didn’t want to give him the watermelon anymore. Without Su Qianqian around, what was the point of having the watermelon?

Cheng Yue didn’t accept the watermelon. “There aren’t many people at home, we won’t be able to finish it. You keep it.”

With that, he grabbed Cheng Yuan and dragged him downstairs.

Once they were on the quieter second floor, Cheng Yue coldly asked, “Tell me everything clearly.”

“Captain, didn’t your wife take the kids and leave without telling you?” Cheng Yuan suddenly realized what had happened and was shocked. “Is this about the divorce?”

“When did they leave?” Cheng Yue didn’t want to explain. His mind was filled with one thought: This damn woman left without a word, and Cheng Yuan knew about it, but I didn’t!

“They left this morning. The train was at 9:58, and I saw them off,” Cheng Yuan confessed honestly.

“What else did she say?”

Cheng Yuan trembled under Cheng Yue’s fierce expression. He could feel he had made a mistake.

“My sister-in-law asked me to come check on you more often, she’s still worried about your leg injury,” he said weakly.

In the next moment, Cheng Yue kicked a nearby tree, and the leaves rustled loudly. Cheng Yuan swallowed, thinking that if that kick had landed on him, his leg would have been broken.

“Don’t worry, sister-in-law. The Captain’s leg is fine now. He can even kick trees.”

“Captain, what do we do now? Are you going back to Tianshui Village?” Cheng Yuan asked in a low voice.

“Go back my ass! After such a big thing, you didn’t tell me?” Cheng Yue snapped, angrily directing a stream of curses at Cheng Yuan.

“I’m sorry! How about you take a leave and go back?” Cheng Yuan suggested cautiously.

“There’s too much going on right now. I might not even get the leave approved!”

Cheng Yuan muttered under his breath, He doesn’t care about anyone, but he sure seems desperate now.

“What did you say?” Cheng Yue’s cold glare cut through him.

Cheng Yuan snapped to attention. “No, no, I didn’t say anything! I just meant that the situation is special, so they should probably approve your leave. Maybe you could call home first to have someone go pick them up, especially with a woman and three kids carrying so much stuff.”

Cheng Yuan spoke quickly, finally sighing with relief when he saw Cheng Yue’s expression soften a little.

Cheng Yue immediately went to make a call. Tianshui Village only had one phone, which was located in the secretary’s office.

Soon someone went to the work site to find Cheng Yue’s older brother, Cheng Song, to answer the phone.

“Da Song, your brother’s calling. Stop and answer the phone.”

As soon as Cheng Song heard it was Cheng Yue, he dropped the tools in his hand and ran to take the call.

“Hello, Cheng Yue, you little rascal, it’s been so long since you called us!” Five years had passed without a word, and the brothers had always had a good relationship, so they missed each other.

“Bro, I’ll be coming home soon. I’m calling now to ask you to go to the train station tomorrow to pick up Su Qianqian and the kids.”

“Ah? They’re back?” Cheng Song was surprised.

“They’ll be arriving around 3:30 in the afternoon. It’d be best to take a tractor, as they’ll have a lot of things.”

Cheng Song agreed, “Alright, Cheng Yue, how’s your leg?”

“It’s healed now. Su Qianqian took great care of me,” he admitted. If it hadn’t been for her, he didn’t think his injury would have healed so quickly.

“That’s great, that’s great. Mom and Dad have been talking about it nonstop.”

After the call, Cheng Song returned to the work site, where others asked how Cheng Yue was doing and whether he had become a big official.

He gave simple replies and planned to talk to his family about it once work was done.

Zhu Tianfang was also surprised. “So they’re back? And they came back on their own? Were they bullied there?”

People from the countryside often faced discrimination in the city, and most city folks looked down on them. Plus, there wasn’t much love between the couple, so Zhu Tianfang grew increasingly worried.

“Cheng Yue didn’t go into details. Let’s ask after my sister-in-law arrives tomorrow. Cheng Yue’s injury is healed. He said he’d be back soon.”

“That’s good, that’s good,” the Cheng family felt mostly relieved, though they were still a little uneasy since they hadn’t seen them in person.

That evening, Zhu Tianfang set up a place for Su Qianqian and the children to sleep. She’d missed them during their long absence. The kids brought so much energy, and it was pleasant to be around Su Qianqian now, especially after the incident when she had her head injured. Over time, Zhu Tianfang had forgotten her previous stubborn and aggressive behavior.

The next day, Zhu Tianfang and Cheng Song went together to pick them up. They rode a tractor with an open top to the train station.

The train was delayed by a few minutes.

Su Qianqian and the three children got off the train, with a lot of things to carry. She was managing it all—some things on her back, others in her hands, while the three kids helped share the load. They were all well-behaved and stayed close to her, making things a lot easier.

As she thought about how to get back to Tianshui Village, the youngest, Sanya, tugged at her shirt and said, “Mom, is that Grandma and Uncle?”