After changing and finally getting comfortable he reached for his phone.
It was buzzing.
Messages. Mails. Notifications stacked on top of each other. He hadn't uploaded anything new in two days and yet the activity hadn't slowed down. He opened his channel.
50,000 followers.
He stared at the number for a moment. By any measure it was insane. But then again considering how different his videos were from everything else out there — the clarity, the way he broke down complex ideas into something anyone could follow — perhaps it wasn't so surprising. No other channel came close to doing it the way he did.
He scrolled through the comments.
*Vs2: Damn your videos are the best. I don't understand half of what we do in class but after watching your video it all clicks. I'm definitely acing my exams.*
*Xiao_ren99: I showed this to my entire study group. We watched it three times. THREE TIMES. Please never stop uploading.*
*Future_top_student: I found this channel at 2am before my finals and I think you just saved my entire semester. Where have you been all my life.*
He scrolled further. Between the comments his inbox was filled with formal mails. Several of them. Different businesses, different industries, all reaching out for different reasons. He checked his income summary.
¥200,000.
He set his phone down and looked at the ceiling for a moment.
He couldn't stop thinking about Zhao Lihua.
*Come on Li Feng.* He sat up slowly. *Man up.*
He stood, crossed the room and opened the bedroom door.
Xian was on the sofa fast asleep, Baozi tucked firmly under her arm. And there was Zhao Lihua at the small dining table, the white bag open in front of her, spoon in hand, eating the ice cream he had brought earlier.
A smile crept onto his lips before he could stop it. He stood in the doorway for just a moment longer than necessary.
*Okay,* he thought. *Maybe a little nervous.*
He stepped forward.
---
Earlier that afternoon Zhao Lihua and Mei had never stopped talking. From the moment the call connected properly they had poured everything out, neither of them wanting to be the one to end it.
Mei had insisted on coming. "Jiejie give me the address."
Zhao Lihua had been reluctant but Mei would not hear otherwise. "I'll be there in two days," Mei announced firmly.
After that the conversation had softened into something warmer. Catching up. Filling in the gaps of everything they had missed. Zhao Lihua told her about Xian, about the small apartment, about the new phone. Mei told her about her life, her work, the small things that had kept her going. They talked and talked until the afternoon light had shifted completely.
Then somewhere in the middle of it all Mei's voice lifted. "Oh! Jiejie I finally got a job."
"Really?" Zhao Lihua sat up straighter. "Where? Doing what?"
"Administration. Small company but the people are nice." Mei laughed. "I actually like going in every morning which is strange."
Zhao Lihua laughed with her. "That's not strange. That's lucky."
Then near the end, when the laughter had settled into something quieter, Mei's voice came through soft and serious. "Ever since mum and dad died we always had each other." A pause. "Never ghost me like that again Jiejie. Never."
Zhao Lihua hadn't been able to answer straight away. "I won't," she said finally. "I promise."
She had been emotional long before the call ended. The past had a way of rising up when you least expected it and by the time she set the phone down the tears had already come.
That was what Li Feng had walked in on.
She had composed herself just enough to say welcome home and nothing more. When he went to the bedroom she sat quietly for a while, checking on Xian, settling her properly on the sofa.
Then the ice cream caught her eye.
She stood there looking at it for longer than she would like to admit. She had told herself she wasn't going to touch it. She picked up the bag anyway. She sat down, peeled back the lid and took the first bite.
Her eyes went wide.
It was like tiny frozen berries had dissolved on her tongue all at once. Cold and sweet and completely unexpected. She took another bite before she had even finished the first. Then another. Her shoulders dropped. The tension she had been carrying all afternoon simply melted away with every spoonful.
She was so focused she didn't hear the bedroom door open.
---
Li Feng stood across from Zhao Lihua.
"Hmm."
Zhao Lihua stopped mid bite. She raised her head slowly, spoon still in her mouth, eyes landing on Li Feng standing there watching her.
*When?* she thought. *When did he get here?*
She lowered the spoon carefully, sitting up straight, trying very hard to look like she had not just been completely lost in a tub of ice cream with the focus of someone defusing a bomb.
It wasn't working. She looked exactly like a child caught with their hand in something they had been told not to touch.
*She was just too cute,* Li Feng thought, a smile settling on his face before he could stop it. *I should start getting ice cream more often.*
*Oh bury me,* Zhao Lihua thought. *Just bury me right here.*
Her cheeks had gone completely warm.
Li Feng pulled out a chair and sat down across from her. Silence settled between them. Then they both spoke at once.
"The thing is—"
"I was just—"
They both stopped.
Zhao Lihua let out a small breath and looked down. "You go first," she said softly.
Li Feng looked at her for a moment. *Now that I'm here where do I even start.*
"Hmm." He folded his hands on the table. A long sigh came out before he could stop it. Then he straightened.
"What I want to say is..." He paused. Then his voice settled into something quieter. More serious. "I wasn't a good man in the past. Neither a good husband." He didn't look away from her. "I was trash. I know I can't erase what I did to you. What I did to Xian." A beat. "But I want to start over. You don't have to forgive me. I wouldn't forgive me either."
He exhaled slowly. "All I can do is promise you this. From now on I will be a man you can always rely on."
He bowed his head. "I'm sorry."
He looked up.
Tears were falling down her cheeks. Slow and quiet. She hadn't even lifted a hand to stop them. She hadn't even realized they were there.
Almost a month. For almost a month she had watched him from a careful distance. Telling herself not to believe it. Waiting for it to stop. But the changes had been real. Small and consistent and real. And still none of it had reached the place where everything had been locked away for years.
The abandonment. The silence. Raising Xian alone while feeling invisible inside her own home. She had stopped waiting a long time ago. Stopped hoping even longer ago than that.
And now he was sitting across from her at this small table saying the one word she had buried the hope of ever hearing.
*Sorry.*
Just that word. And something she didn't know was still there cracked open quietly in her chest.
---
Li Feng sat in silence waiting. For anything. A word. A reaction. Something. He was tense in a way he hadn't been in a long time.
Zhao Lihua wiped her tears slowly with the back of her hand. Then she looked at him.
"You've changed," she said softly. "You really have changed."
Something in Li Feng's chest loosened just slightly.
"But I'm not forgiving you that easily."
He looked down. Then back up. Her eyes were still red but steady. Looking straight back at him.
She stood up and walked away.
*I knew it,* he thought. *This bastard really hurt her. I really—*
"To earn it," her voice cut through his thoughts, "you'll have to try harder."
He turned.
Zhao Lihua had walked back to the table. She picked up the ice cream without another word, scooped Xian up carefully against her chest and disappeared behind the bedroom door.
It clicked shut.
A slow smile curved on Li Feng's lips.
*Not impossible,* he thought. *Just harder. I can do harder.*
Then his smile faded. He patted his pockets.
*My phone.*
He stared at the closed door. He couldn't knock. Not tonight. Absolutely not tonight.
He let out a low growl, turned to the refrigerator and pulled out whatever his hand landed on first. He dropped onto the sofa, stared at the ceiling for a long moment and closed his eyes.
*Try harder,* he thought as sleep slowly pulled him under.
---
Li Feng picked up his lunchbox as he got ready to leave.
"Daddy! Daddy!"
Xian came running across the small apartment, arms already reaching up before she even got to him. Li Feng set the lunchbox down and scooped her up in one motion.
"My little Xian," he said.
She grabbed his face with both hands, very serious. "Can't you stay and play with Xian?"
Li Feng looked at her. "No," he said flatly.
Xian's face fell immediately. She looked down at his collar, suddenly very interested in the fabric.
"But," he said, "I promise to bring back ice cream."
Her head snapped up. "Really?"
"Yes." He patted her hand gently.
Zhao Lihua walked in from the other room.
*Try harder,* he thought.
"I promise to bring back a lot of ice cream," he said aloud.
Zhao Lihua stopped mid step. She knew. She knew he didn't mean just for Xian. Her cheeks flushed warm, yesterday still sitting fresh in her memory. She looked away without a word.
Li Feng set Xian down, said his goodbyes and headed out.
---
Later in the manager's office Li Feng sat across from Tao Jun and set a folder on the table between them.
"Mr. Tao." He folded his hands. "You have to make up your mind now."
Tao Jun's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"
"I know how the money is leaving this company." Li Feng's voice was even. "I know the method. I know the pattern. Three years of it mapped out clearly." He paused. "And I know who is behind it."
The office went very still.
Tao Jun leaned forward slowly, eyes fixed on him.
"What are you proposing, Mr. Li?"
Li Feng looked at him steadily.
"Call a staff meeting today."