News of Chu Changqi's death came half a month later.
Chu Yilan was trimming a pot of asparagus fern Shen Lian had just bought. At the news, he merely paused for a moment, and the last lingering dust in his heart scattered all at once.
"All right. Someone will go over to handle things. Thank you for your work," Chu Yilan said evenly.
Setting his phone aside, Chu Yilan resumed what he was doing.
The grudges and tangled emotions passed down from the previous generation were finally over. In a sense, he had seen to Chu Changqi's old age and burial after all, Chu Yilan thought with some irony.
Shen Lian came downstairs looking fresh and clean, clearly having just washed up. "You're up so early?"
Chu Yilan rarely slept in. "Mm. Breakfast's in the kitchen. I'll bring it out for you."
"No, no." Shen Lian headed straight for the kitchen. "I'll get it myself."
Summer had arrived with a vengeance. This year, Qu City felt as though it were roasting over a fire, and Shen Lian was reluctant to go out unless he had to.
Shen Lian polished off breakfast in a few bites in the kitchen, then washed the dishes and put them away.
"What are your plans this afternoon?" Chu Yilan asked.
"I'm going to stop by the studio and hear what Brother Hu has to say," Shen Lian replied.
"Mm," Chu Yilan said. "I'm going to the office too. Call me when you're done."
"Sure!"
These days, Chu Yilan personally picked out all of Shen Lian's everyday clothes, from head to toe. With the best food and accommodations as well, at first glance, he seemed even more pampered than the young masters raised in prestigious families. On top of that, he carried himself with an unmistakable