Chapter 143
Yan Lei tapped Yan Fu on the head. “What nonsense are you spouting?”
“It’s not!” Yan Fu covered her head, still unable to believe it. “How is my brother still alive?”
When she was very young, her mother would point at a photo and tell her that this was her brother, and that her brother loved her very much and used to carry her around to show her off.
She would ask where her brother went.
“He went where he was supposed to go.”
“He went to a very far place.”
Yan Fu was so smart. After she grew up a little, she understood—her brother was dead.
If someone in the family died, adults wouldn’t want the child to be sad, so they would tell the child that the relative had gone to a very far place.
Yan Fu was actually quite sad because her brother was truly very handsome.
Once, when a classmate was showing off their brother, she couldn’t help but say, “I have a brother too.”
The classmate looked at her sideways. “My brother picks me up from school. Where’s yours? How come I’ve never seen him?”
Yan Fu hid and cried her eyes out.
Don’t cry, don’t cry, be strong, she told herself, wiping away her tears. Her brother must be watching her from heaven. She had to be a strong little sister.
Yan Xiang: “…”
Qiao Wei: “…”
Yan Lei: “…”
Guard: “…”
The black-clad guard, having undergone such strict training, had a twitch on his face.
Despite the tears and laughter, the family was finally reunited.
It was a pity that Qiao Wei wanted to cook a meal for him herself, but she couldn’t. Yan Xiang’s security clearance was too high, and his diet was handled by designated personnel.
Everyone tacitly agreed not to ask what Yan Xiang’s job actually was. It was enough to know that he had made significan’t contributions to the country.
Yan Fu, on the other hand, having finally met her brother, had absolutely no awkwardness and quickly became incredibly affectionate with him.
But she was very dissatisfied with him about one thing.
“Brother, did you even use your brain when you named me!” she complained. “Yan Fu, Yan Fu, my classmates all call me ‘Lucky Love’.”
If a child’s name had any similar homophone, they were destined to get a nickname during elementary school; it was an inescapable fate.
Yan Xiang: “Uh…”
“I’m sorry.” He rubbed her head and apologized gently, “It was my first time naming someone.”
“Forget it.” Yan Fu waved her hand magnanimously. “I won’t hold it against you.”
The whole family laughed.
Qiao Wei asked him, “How long can you stay?”
Yan Xiang said, “Three days. I only have three days of leave.”
Qiao Wei nodded.
Yan Lei asked, “Do you want to see Jun Jun? He’s right here at the Military District.”
Yan Xiang looked at the guard, and the guard shook his head.
Yan Xiang sighed softly, “No need.”
Zhao Jianjun was not on the approved security list.
In the evening, Yan Xiang and his parents were enjoying the cool air in the courtyard.
He asked Qiao Wei, “Have you been following the news lately?”
His eyes were full of expectation.
Yan Lei didn’t understand what he meant.
Qiao Wei thought of the news that had felt strange to her before, and a realization flashed in her eyes.
It hadn’t been an illusion after all.
Her power was small; she could only change a few people and things around her. But Yan Xiang was a trans-dimensional entity; he could influence the country, influence the world.
She nodded. “I saw it.”
Yan Xiang smiled. He knew his mother would understand.
Yan Xiang didn’t go anywhere during these three days; he just stayed with his family.
Three days later, he left.
“The security regulations are different now than before,” he said. “We can communicate. Although it’s a bit troublesome and requires a relay.”
Times were different, and the international situation was different too. After all, it wasn’t the sixties or seventies anymore, an era where they had to guard against nuclear missiles from capitalist countries every day. Experts would be very busy, but they wouldn’t be isolated from their families for a lifetime.
Qiao Wei nodded. “Okay.”
Yan Fu was a bit shy, but before Yan Xiang left, she handed him a stack of envelopes. “For you.”
Yan Xiang was surprised. “What is this?”
Seeing him about to open them, Yan Fu hurriedly stopped him. “Read them when you get back, read them when you get back!”
Her face was a little red.
Yan Xiang nodded, said goodbye to his parents and sister once more, and left by car.
In the car, he opened the envelopes.
The handwriting went from crooked to gradually neat and elegant.
They were the letters Yan Fu had written over the years to her “brother who went to a far-away place.”
Rather than letters, they were more like a diary.
Every bit and piece recorded the trajectory of the little girl’s growth and her inner thoughts.
As Yan Xiang read, he couldn’t help but smile. As he smiled, tears fell down.
He had missed his sister’s growth for the sake of his dreams, but he found compensation here.
With the news reports year after year, Qiao Wei watched as this world deviated further and further from the world she originally knew.
In this world, the speed of the country’s military and technological breakthroughs was beyond imagination.
A more powerful Eastern power was reviving at a faster speed. The entire global situation had become different from the other world because of this.
Qiao Wei felt infinitely emotional.
Was this the world that those people on the internet wanted to see? Probably.
Thanks to the adjustment in security regulations, The Yan Household could now contact Yan Xiang. Although the relay was slightly troublesome, it was far better than the complete loss of contact from previous years.
Especially Yan Fu, who wrote several letters to her brother every year.
The young girl was growing up and had too many things on her mind that she didn’t want to tell her annoying parents, wanting only to confide in her distant brother.
Adolescence was truly worrying!
So much so that the brother, who was serving the national destiny, had to actively contact his mother through a secure line in the midst of his busy schedule: “Be careful, there’s a bad boy hitting on Fu Fu.”
So angry. What kind of person is he, hitting on my sister and making her anxious? I really want to launch a missile at him.
Yan Fu was backstabbed by her own brother! She was so angry she didn’t write to him for three months.
A brother is just a second father! Just as untrustworthy as parents!
Time entered the nineties. By this time, Yan Lei had been promoted to Army Commander, and Qiao Wei had entered the Provincial Committee.
Yan Fu was admitted to QH University.
Although she wasn’t set by the world as a trans-dimensional existence like her brother, perhaps thanks to her father’s protagonist halo, she was also a smart top student.
With the Lu family in Beijing looking after her, her parents weren’t worried about her at all.
However, Yan Fu called back: “Mom, can you reach my brother now?”
“No,” Qiao Wei said. “Didn’t he leave a message before? He’s entered a high-secrecy project again. Disconnected. We have to wait for him to come out.”
“Then when will he come out?”
“Who knows? Maybe a few months, maybe a few years.”
The country’s technological breakthroughs had already made Qiao Wei numb; after all, it was a world with a cheat code. Let it develop however it wants; this wasn’t something she could control.
Yan Fu was furious: “Then leave him a message.”
“Tell him to calm down! I’m here to go to school! Don’t cause me so much trouble!”
“Every day, the old masters come to see me like I’m a giant panda. Can I even go to school properly?” A group of old people whose photos were on the bulletin board came to see her every day, asking after her. This life is impossible! Dammit!
Qiao Wei and Yan Lei weren’t worried about Yan Fu’s college life. They were now worried about Yan Xiang’s personal life.
Yan Xiang was twenty-eight and still single, without even a girlfriend. The laboratory was his girlfriend.
Unfortunately, although they were Yan Xiang’s parents, they couldn’t reach him.
It wasn’t until four years later that Yan Xiang suddenly contacted home: “I’m married.”
“I’m bringing her back to meet you.”
Yan Xiang’s wife couldn’t be called beautiful, but her temperament was very different, somewhat cold and detached. There was a sense of being overly rational.
Qiao Wei even secretly wondered if she was an AI robot; after all, she wouldn’t be surprised by anything fantastical around Yan Xiang. But she was indeed a real living person.
“She is a genius,” Yan Xiang said. To be called a “genius” by him, she was no ordinary genius.
Qiao Wei inhaled softly and then exhaled a long breath. Although she hoped Yan Xiang would have a partner, she didn’t want his partner to only provide him with daily companionship and emotional solace. A genius needs to be understood. If she was the same kind of person as him, that was truly great.
“Her original family wasn’t very good; they could never understand her, causing her a lot of pain,” Yan Xiang told his mother. “She isn’t as lucky as I am, so her personality is a bit cold. She is actually a very good person.”
Qiao Wei said: “It doesn’t matter. She is living with you; as long as you and she can get along well, that’s fine.”
When it was time to leave, the young woman said goodbye to Qiao Wei.
“I envy Yan Xiang,” she expressed her feelings somewhat clumsily. “He is a very gentle person. I have always wanted to know what kind of family would raise a personality like his. Now I know.”
Qiao Wei urged her: “You two must take care of each other.”
Both of them nodded.
With their kind of work, it would be several years before they met again.
Indeed, the next time they met, Qiao Wei was already 55 years old, and she had retired.
Yan Xiang and his wife returned, and they brought a child with them. The child was three years old; although they had talked on the phone, this was the first time they met in person.
Qiao Wei and Yan Lei were finally upgraded to grandparents.
The two of them held the child and were unwilling to let go, even arguing about who had held the child longer.
Yan Xiang and his wife looked at each other and stated their purpose: “We want to leave the child with you.”
Their work was too special, and it was normal for them to stay in the laboratory for many days without going home. The couple had discussed it seriously and felt that leaving the child to be raised by a nanny was not as good as leaving the child with the grandparents.
Yan Xiang’s wife communicated with Qiao Wei privately: “I may not be able to fulfill the role of a mother.”
Everyone wants both career and family to be perfect, but how is that so easy?
She said: “I really hope the child can grow up like Yan Xiang.”
Qiao Wei said: “We will do our best.”
The son and daughter-in-law left.
Qiao Wei and Yan Lei held the child and turned back to the house, preparing to enjoy their time with their grandchild.
Yan Lei said: “It should be my turn to hold him now, right?”
“I haven’t held him enough yet.”
“You’ve already held him for a long time.”
“I just haven’t held him enough.”
“Tsk.” Yan Lei stopped arguing and took direct action.
Qiao Wei exclaimed: “Oh my, what are you doing!”
“You hold the child, and I’ll hold you.” Yan Lei picked up his wife and the child together.
“You’re going to kill me, put me down! Don’t you want your old back anymore!”
“I’m not seventy yet, so I’m not old,” Yan Lei hummed. “Don’t wiggle around, or you’ll fall.”
[End]
