TRMLCM Chapter 48

Chapter 48: Arriving Home

After a day of rushing around, at five o’clock in the afternoon, they finally returned from the noisy city to the peaceful and serene Li Family Village.

The car steadily parked in the courtyard of Shen Chang’an’s home. His grandfather had already woken up. With the help of Shen Chang’an and the kind driver, they first helped him into the house. His grandmother followed behind, carrying two packages and taking out the key to open the door. But Shen Chang’an stopped her, telling her to take care of his grandfather, and that he and the driver would bring in the rest of the things.

After making sure nothing was left behind, the driver drove away. Shen Chang’an picked up the last package and slowly walked towards the house with the lights already on.

The sun was teetering on the edge of the distant mountains. With the mountains blocking the light, the sky over Li Family Village was already starting to darken. The sound of cowbells echoed gently as the villagers, who worked at sunrise and rested at sunset, slowly led their cows home.

A few years ago, thanks to government preferential policies, the old adobe house had been replaced with a two-story brick house. The lower floor mainly consisted of the living room, kitchen, and bathroom, while the upper floor had three bedrooms and a small balcony. The very top was a flat roof used for drying crops. Railings were installed along the staircase throughout the house.

Because no one had lived there for a while, many places were covered in dust. Fortunately, when his grandmother left, she had covered some of the appliances with dust covers. Now, after removing the dirty covers, the TV and cabinets didn’t need much cleaning.

Shen Chang’an went to his bedroom on the second floor, first opening the cat carrier in his hand. Berber groggily stepped out.

The empty room, which hadn’t been inhabited for a long time, was unfamiliar to him. He meowed softly, his one blue and one yellow eye looking at Shen Chang’an uneasily.

Shen Chang’an had been raising Berber since he was still in City S. Usually, when he returned to his hometown for the Lunar New Year, he would ask a neighbor he was on good terms with to take care of him. Later, after he bought a house in City C, he had the neighbor ship Berber over. This time, returning to his hometown, he hired a private car, so he simply brought Berber back with him.

Letting Berber familiarize himself with the environment, Shen Chang’an went to his grandparents’ room. This room still contained the old wooden bed that his grandparents had commissioned for their wedding. It was twenty or thirty years older than Shen Chang’an himself. Perhaps the craftsmen back then didn’t cut corners, because the bed was still sturdy enough to sleep on.

Opening the large cabinet beside the bed, he found a set of sheets and replaced the original ones. Then, he went downstairs and carried his grandfather upstairs, his grandmother followed anxiously, supporting his grandfather’s body.

Once they arrived in the room, his grandmother helped his grandfather take off his clothes. His grandfather, panting, cooperated with them with some difficulty. After he lay down, his grandmother quickly pulled the quilt from the side and covered him, tucking in the edges.

His grandmother quietly wiped away her tears before slowly getting up. Her cloudy eyes still glimmered with tears, and her wrinkled face showed a hint of joy at returning home. She looked at Shen Chang’an kindly and said, “Xiao An, tidy up your room yourself. I’ll go to the garden and pick some vegetables for dinner.”

Shen Chang’an nodded. “Okay.”

Next to his house’s courtyard was a small vegetable garden, filled with eggplants and small peppers. His grandmother used to tend to it carefully, but since she had been away for some time, the plants in the garden were overgrown and laden with produce, some of which were already old and rotten.

Shen Chang’an brought a basin of water from downstairs and first wiped the area around his grandfather’s bed. Then, he changed the water and brought another basin to his own bedroom.

He usually only came back for the Lunar New Year, so the mattress was covered with plastic wrap by his grandmother. Now, after removing the wrap, he only needed to wipe the headboard and such.

While he was working, Berber sat in his cat bed and didn’t come out. Perhaps he was used to the smooth floors of the city and had never seen such rough concrete. The clean cat tentatively stretched out his paws, but was unwilling to put them down.

Finally, after tidying up his bedroom, Shen Chang’an went out and checked on his grandfather in his room, seeing that he was sleeping peacefully, he breathed a sigh of relief.

He turned around and tiptoed out, but as soon as he turned his head, he noticed that Berber had gotten out of bed. He hadn’t closed the door when he came out of his bedroom, so Berber, seeing that he was about to leave again, hurriedly jumped out of his cat bed and followed him.

“Meow~”

Seeing that he had noticed him, Berber stared with round eyes and called out softly.

Shen Chang’an squatted down and rubbed his head, then got up, turned off the light in his room, and went downstairs.

The light was on downstairs, and his grandmother was already in the kitchen. Shen Chang’an looked at his phone charging, there were some message notifications from several apps, but only one green bubble notification.

He unplugged his phone and walked outside. It was already dark outside, using the light from the inner room, he dialed a phone number in the darkness.

“Hello? An An.”

The magnetic voice was tinged with anxiety, and the speed was very fast.

The person on the other end seemed to have been waiting all the time, the call was quickly connected.

The mountain breeze was very cool, and the clear night sky was dotted with stars. Shen Chang’an raised his eyes and looked into the distance, and for some reason, the corners of his mouth turned up slightly. He replied, “Yeah, it’s me.”

The familiar, cool voice sounded, and the two fell silent.

It was already past eight o’clock in the evening. In the dimly lit room, Cheng Yi held the phone in his hand, sitting in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, watching the heavy traffic of rush hour.

Since that phone call, he had been unable to contact the other party. Cheng Yi’s heart had been uneasy, and he had many questions he wanted to ask Shen Chang’an, but now that the other party had really called back, he didn’t know what to ask for a moment.

Was their relationship, relying solely on online contact, still too ethereal?

After a moment of silence, Cheng Yi asked, “Have you had dinner yet?”

Shen Chang’an was stunned when he heard this. He had already prepared himself to explain, but he didn’t expect the other party to care about this issue first.

A shallow smile unconsciously appeared in his eyes. “Not yet, I’ll eat in a bit. What about you? Have you eaten?”

Cheng Yi lowered his eyes slightly. “I just ordered takeout.”

As he spoke, he turned on the speakerphone and immediately opened the takeout app he usually used to order food for himself.

He had only eaten lunch after the phone call at noon, and after being busy in the stock market all afternoon, waiting until he spoke to Shen Chang’an, he belatedly felt the hunger coming from his body.

Shen Chang’an couldn’t see his actions and assumed that the other party had already ordered, so he gave a soft ‘hmm’. Listening to the phone falling silent again, he slowly said, “…I went back to my hometown today. My grandfather is sick, so I won’t be livestreaming for the next few days. Of course, you can still call me if you can’t sleep at night.”

He hadn’t brought back any of the livestreaming equipment, only packed a few pieces of clothing, bringing Berber and his food.

Speaking of this, he paused slightly, afraid that Cheng Yi would misunderstand, he hurriedly said, “I don’t mean that… you can contact me whenever you want to.”

The magnetic voice on the other end interrupted his words, “Then I miss you now.”

Cheng Yi said slowly, “Can I come find you?”