Chapter 35: Tomorrow You'll Be With Me

She woke early on the weekend to the sound of a dispute in the living room.

Two of her younger cousins and her younger cousin Xiaofeng were in open conflict over the television. The uncles and aunts had been staying at the house since the trouble started, which meant the younger generation had installed themselves the moment school let out.

Fifteen-year-old Miaomiao spotted her first and abandoned the argument immediately. "Second Cousin! Ruan Xiaofeng is being completely unreasonable — he's a grown person watching SpongeBob—"

"You're watching Pleasant Goat!" Xiaofeng, ten years old and already formidable in argument, was not conceding anything.

Ruan Jing continued toward the kitchen and said over her shoulder: "Xiaofeng, take my room and watch whatever you want. The girls can stay down here. Does that work?"

"Why is it always me who has to move," Xiaofeng muttered, and went upstairs. He was known for being immovable on almost every front. With Ruan Jing he was simply obedient.

The two girls abandoned the television and followed her into the kitchen. "Second Cousin, you said last time you'd teach us Wudang style or Tai Chi—"

"I will. Not today." She opened the refrigerator. Her phone buzzed on the counter.

Just boarded. Delayed an hour. The storm here is something else.

She took out the things she needed and wrote back: Clear skies and blue here.

Makes me want to come home even more.

She put the phone down and turned around to find both girls watching her with the specific attention of people who have correctly identified a development.

"Boyfriend. Isn't it? It is."

"Oh." Ruan Jing moved past them toward the table. The girls followed, not even slightly deterred.

"Is he good-looking?"

"What does he do? How did you meet?"

"Could you allow me to finish my breakfast first."

Ruan Xian appeared in the kitchen doorway, took one look at the scene, and waved both girls off with the authority of someone who has a headache and is not negotiating. They scattered.

Ruan Jing glanced at her sister. "How are you feeling?"

"Head is splitting, the room is spinning slightly. What exactly did we drink last night."

"Vodka and beer."

Ruan Xian laughed despite herself. "Your tone hasn't changed in ten years."

"I'm glad you like it."

"Where did you even pick up an expression like that."

"Zhao Qiyan."

"Unbelievable."

---

By evening, Ruan Jing had changed and was heading out to the car when she opened the back door and found all three of them already seated, belted in with the practiced efficiency of people who had been planning this for some time.

"Second cousin is going out," Miaomiao announced helpfully. "We thought it might be stressful for you to drive alone."

"She's coming back. She's not a danger."

"We're going anyway."

"So it appears." Ruan Jing looked at the three of them and shook her head. "Seatbelts, or out of the car."

They were already buckled.

She got in and started the engine, wondering privately what Zhao Qiyan's face would do when he saw this.

---

She didn't have long to wait at the airport. He came through customs looking exactly like himself — unhurried, clean-cut, slightly tired in a way that only showed if you knew where to look. He found her immediately, which he always managed to do, and walked toward her.

He put his arm around her shoulder when he reached her, and pressed a brief kiss to her cheek. "Do you know what it is to feel every hour of a separation?"

"How were you," she asked, with deliberate lightness.

Something in his expression softened. He kept his arm where it was as they walked. "Can I ask you something?"

She glanced at him. "Ask."

Are you free tonight?

"What?"

"I couldn't sleep without you."

Ruan Jing laughed. "You should say that in front of my sister. She seems to think I've done considerable damage to your image."

"My image in your estimation seems to have been poor for a while." He had clocked the three faces in the car window two meters away, leaning out and waving with great enthusiasm. He looked at her.

"Come meet a few people from my family."

Qi Yan, who was not easily rattled by most things, said with complete equanimity: "The honor is mine."

She took the driver's seat. He put the luggage in the trunk and got in.

"You're the boyfriend, right?"

"What's your name?"

"You're even better-looking than our maths teacher."

"Are you one-eighty?"

Qi Yan turned to Ruan Jing. "Do I need to answer all of these."

"Feel completely free to do as you like." She pulled out of the parking bay.

---

Coming around the first turn, she remembered. "How's your father?"

"Patent dispute. It's not uncommon, but the whole thing has been irritating." He pressed two fingers to his temple. "It's put me in an unpleasant state of mind."

"We've both been having a difficult stretch of it."

Qi Yan looked at her profile. "Zhao Lin mentioned a few things. I won't push you to talk about it if you don't want to. I just—" He paused, picking the words with some care. "Your unhappiness affects me more than you might expect, and I'd like to be useful if I can."

"Are you nervous right now?" she asked.

Zhao Qiyan had the expression of someone whose internal state has been correctly identified and who isn't entirely comfortable with it. "Yes. I was worried you'd find it intrusive. You generally prefer to manage things on your own."

"That's true." A small smile. "But it seems I've become a little emotionally dependent on you somewhere along the way."

The words landed and sat there.

Qi Yan's eyes moved to the rearview mirror — three passengers, very much present — and stayed there for a second. He said nothing. Ruan Jing glanced over and caught whatever had crossed his face before he'd had a chance to organize it.

He looked forward again and said, with the deliberateness of someone keeping themselves in check: "Can we have dinner tomorrow? Just us."

"Yes."

She saw him press his temple again. "Have you been sleeping badly?"

"Insomnia when I'm traveling constantly. I've learned to live with it."

"That's not a good way to live."

He looked at her with something approaching surprise, then smiled. "I'll work on it."

In the back seat, Miaomiao had been conducting a quiet consultation with the others and emerged as representative. She leaned forward and fixed Zhao Qiyan with her very best persuasive expression. "You can swim, right? Could you teach us?"

"Of course," he said.

Ruan Jing explained: "Everyone in my family is a little nervous about water. We'd all like to get past it."

Qi Yan looked at her with a particular quality of attention. "You could have come to me with that."

"I didn't want to be a bother."

"That's too formal."

---

They pulled up to his building in the kind of comfortable atmosphere that requires no maintenance. The three in the back immediately wanted to go upstairs. Ruan Jing moved to head them off — "Next time. He needs to rest—"

"Second cousin is being stingy."

"We'll just look for a minute."

"Come up." Qi Yan had already opened his door. "Children's curiosity should be properly satisfied, and besides, we've been apart five days. I'd like a little more time with you."

Ruan Jing got out and said, once, clearly: "One hour. They need to be back before seven."

The children had already raced ahead. Zhao Qiyan, in the small window of two seconds before she started after them, leaned down and kissed her. She looked at him.

He took her hand and walked toward the entrance. "An hour really isn't long."

---

Elevator up. Key in the lock.

The door opened, and people came out of the kitchen.

Two of them were carrying a cake. The rest arranged themselves in the narrow space of the hallway and produced sound and confetti in the practiced manner of people who had planned this.

"Welcome back! Happy Birthday!"

Zhao Qiyan stood in the doorway.

The group froze a fraction of a second later, registering that alongside Qiyan, being pulled in by his hand, was a woman they had not accounted for in the plan. The next part of the evening had involved KK stepping forward to offer a birthday kiss. That sequence now required immediate revision.

Ruan Jing recovered first. She took in the scene, the cake, the uncertain faces, and said pleasantly, "It looks like we won't need the full hour."

Qi Yan turned to the room. "Why are you all here."

A man stepped forward with the energy of someone taking responsibility. He explained the intention — surprise, birthday, a warm welcome home. He was clearly hoping the unauthorized entry into the apartment had not caused serious damage.

Ruan Jing watched the faint frown on the face beside her and touched his arm briefly. "Don't make his effort go to waste. I'll head out."

"Ah Jing—" He caught her hand. He held it for a moment. Then, knowing her and knowing she meant it, he said quietly: "Call me when you're home."

She nodded.

He still hadn't let go. He lowered his head toward her ear. "This one is a social obligation. Tomorrow — the seventh — you're with me."

She understood immediately — the dinner, the reason he'd asked. She thought of the last meal he had prepared for her and felt the warmth of it come back. "Alright." She freed her hand gently, turned to Miaomiao. "Press the elevator." Then she nodded back at him. "Go inside."

Behind her, the room was very quiet.

They had all just watched Zhao Qiyan — Zhao Qiyan, who was famously self-contained, famously difficult to move in any direction he hadn't already chosen — hold a woman's hand in a doorway and not want to let her leave.

Three minutes later he walked back in, pressed two fingers to his temple, and said with perfect politeness: "Please make yourselves comfortable. I need to lie down for a moment."

He went into his room and closed the door.

The room remained very still.

Someone, eventually, said what everyone was thinking.

Today had genuinely been something.