"Hh... hh-hh... hh-hh..."
Delong instinctively reached out and seized his wife's wrist, ragged breathing rasping in his throat.
He had things to say, questions to ask, but amid this intense surge of emotion, he seemed to have temporarily lost the ability to speak, like someone driving who suddenly forgot which pedal was the brake and which was the accelerator.
Madam Tang Li was not angry, nor did she hurry him. She simply let her husband grip her wrist. His reaction did not surprise her in the slightest.
Kallen's appearance was not merely hope for the future, but also redemption for the past. At an age when there were fewer years left ahead than behind...
No amount of excitement was excessive upon receiving such a surprise.
Tears began trickling from the corners of Delong's eyes. He drew a deep breath, released his wife's hand, and began wiping his eyes. The more he wiped, the less he could stop the tears, and the redder his eyes became.
In the end, he crouched down, covered his face with both hands, and began trembling, his whole body shaking with silent sobs.
Madam Tang Li crouched down too, wrapping one arm around her husband's neck while gently stroking his head with her other hand.
From their courtship to their marriage and through the half a lifetime they had spent together, Delong had almost never held the position traditionally enjoyed by the man in a conservative aristocratic household.
But he had always fulfilled his responsibilities as a husband and head of the household while remaining true to his faith. One could say he had not done well enough, but not that he had failed to give it his all.
Had his wife not been a woman like Madam Tang Li, he truly would have been an