The next day.
Sunday.
They had returned from Old Master's place rather late last night, after chatting idly with Xie Ran and the others for ages. Naturally, Dong Xuebin slept in. It was past ten in the morning when he finally rolled out of bed in the master bedroom on the second floor of his Si Ji Qing Bridge villa, kicked off the covers, and got up to wash.
Washing his face.
Brushing his teeth.
While he was at it, the phone rang.
Dong Xuebin hurriedly wiped his face with a towel and went out to pick up the extension on the second floor. No one had lived in the house for a long time, and the phone was covered in a fine layer of dust that got all over his hand. He had originally bought the place for his mom, Luan Xiaoping. After she married Uncle Yang, it was a small token of filial devotion from him as her son. But she absolutely refused to take it or live there. Dong Xuebin and Xie Huilan were not in the Capital City either, so the house had simply been left empty. Out of all 365 days of the year, it was probably occupied only three or four days, and even then only when someone needed it or borrowed it for a gathering. Dong Xuebin himself almost never stayed there. Even when he occasionally returned to the Capital City on business, he still preferred the Courtyard House. It was much more comfortable there, bigger too, and right in the city center.
"Hello, who is this?" Dong Xuebin had barely used the home phone. Caller ID was available, but he had not saved anyone's number, so he had no idea who it was.
"It's me." It was his mother-in-law.
Dong Xuebin smiled.