Opening the box, to my surprise there was a watch inside, with a white dial, black strap, and shimmering crushed diamonds all around. Sheng Ning’s eyes widened in astonishment as she looked at him.
"Do you like it?" Su Huai’an asked nervously.
"Yeah!" This watch, even if placed thirty years later, wouldn’t be outdated at all. The market was tight now, and being able to buy a Meihua Watch in the country was a status symbol. The one Su Huai’an gave was clearly a foreign brand, unavailable domestically.
"This was just brought back from the UK by a classmate of mine. I noticed you didn’t have a watch, so it’s perfect to give to you!"
"Thanks, it’s too expensive, you shouldn’t have!"
"No problem!" Su Huai’an had intended to ask about Xu Qigang, but fearing to upset her, he held back the last word. When saying goodbye and leaving, he especially entrusted, "I’m heading back to the compound first. Have Chen Huaying come to the compound to find me once she’s done here."
"Oh!" Sheng Ning watched Su Huai’an leave and only after a long while did she snap back to reality. It seemed her cousin had an unexpectedly close relationship with Chen Huaying. Wasn’t Su Huai’an known to be cold? Could something have happened that she was unaware of?
After racking her brain and coming up empty, Sheng Ning turned around to head back to the dormitory. Once inside her room, everyone was eating, all the food she had brought from her hometown laid out. Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on novᴇl(ꜰ)ire.ɴet
"Sheng Ning, how come you brought so much delicious food?" Lu Dabao was so delighted eating it, he even forgot the pain in his legs, "I think if I had this much good food every day, my leg would definitely heal faster!"
Sheng Ning was speechless. Who said Dabao was dumb? If anyone said so again, they would have to contend with her. When it came to eating, Dabao was smarter than anyone. "Don’t worry, there’s plenty of food! You’re the patient after all."
"Really? Really?" Dabao was so happy he almost leaped for joy, "If I’d known there would be food every day, I would have taken more falls."
Chen Huaying couldn’t listen any longer and scolded, "Lu Dabao, don’t push your luck, thinking of nothing but eating all day. Be careful, lest your parents and siblings come to peel your skin off."
It was the first time Sheng Ning heard anyone mention Lu Dabao’s family. When she last visited Chen Huaying’s place, she only knew that Lu Dabao had spent time in the compound as a child, then moved away with his parents, and only returned to work for the General Union when he grew up. However, the bond that made them good friends wasn’t family backgrounds but the friendship between them.
Lu Dabao shrank back in fright, eyebrows drooping, he murmured softly, "Oh!"
"Right! Chen Huaying, Su Huai’an just said he’s going back to the compound and that you should go find him directly," Sheng Ning mentioned, remembering Su Huai’an’s parting words as she looked at the watch gift box in her hand.
"What? I have to go find him?" Chen Huaying suddenly felt like dying, "Sheng Ning, you don’t know, before I went to National Security University, Su Huai’an was like a shining star in my eyes, but now he’s the devil to me." She had completely given up.
"You have today as well!"
The three of them were unsparingly mocking, bursting with laughter. It was so rare to find someone Chen Huaying was scared of.
Not long after Hai Shen left the clinic, the wife of Hai Shuangjie, Hai Lan’s foster mother Zhou Yuan, arrived personally. She was a woman in her fifties, slightly overweight but with well-maintained fair skin. Dressed plainly, yet the gold necklace she wore around her neck was striking.
She didn’t come from a prominent family, nor was she a comrade herself, but by marrying into the Hai Family, she acquired a position at the city library.