Chapter 4 She Stood Outside Watching the Sunset, He Watching the Sunset…

Chapter 4: She Watched the Sunset; He Watched Her...

On the way home, while Lu Yingxiao wasn't paying attention, Gao Youhe secretly used her phone watch to send a message to Gao Yan.

Gao Youhe: "Brother, why are you here?"

Gao Yan: "Your sister-in-law needed to talk to me about something."

Gao Youhe suddenly understood.

No wonder. Every time her brother returned from a business trip, he'd be extremely busy. Yet today, he had time to get off work early to pick her up from school.

But what could sister-in-law possibly need to talk to him about?

Wasn't she afraid of him?

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Noticing Gao Youhe's gaze, Lu Yingxiao asked with a smile.

Gao Youhe waved her phone watch. "Brother just texted me saying he's off work. He might arrive home around the same time we do."

Lu Yingxiao nodded. "Mm, Uncle Zhan mentioned your brother would be off work early today."

Gao Youhe carefully observed Lu Yingxiao's expression. When mentioning her brother, her eyes and expression were normal, without the fearful, anxious reaction she had shown upon seeing him last night. Did this mean sister-in-law wasn't actually that afraid of him? Was it just that his sudden appearance last night, amplified by the heavy thunderstorm, had startled her?

After some thought, Gao Youhe secretly sent another message to Gao Yan. "Brother, if you get home first, please stand in the sunlight to greet us."

"If we get home first, have Uncle Xiao Hu park the car in the sunlight, and you step out of the car bathed in sunlight."

Gao Yan, upon receiving these two messages: "..."

But they were siblings after all. While others might find these messages baffling, Gao Yan instantly understood Gao Youhe's meaning.

She thought Lu Yingxiao's fear of him was mainly due to the unfortunate timing and setting of his appearance last night.

Although Gao Yan didn't know the real reason Lu Yingxiao feared him, the one thing he was certain of was that her fear had nothing to do with his method of arrival.

Half an hour later, Gao Youhe's nanny van and Gao Yan's Maybach drove into the villa compound one after the other.

The autumn sun was as scorching as midsummer's. Even though it was already evening, its rays still felt hot on the skin.

Lao Wang, the considerate veteran driver, deliberately parked the nanny van in a shady spot.

After Lu Yingxiao and Gao Youhe got out one after the other, he drove the car into the garage.

Gao Yan's personal driver, Xiao Hu, intended to follow suit and park where Lao Wang had just parked.

The thought had barely crossed his mind when Gao Yan's voice came from the back seat. "Park the car next to the flower bed with the pansies."

The pansies in this flower bed were in full bloom, a sea of purple flowers, very beautiful. The only downside was the lack of tall trees for shade nearby.

Xiao Hu was puzzled but didn't object, parking the car near the flower bed as instructed.

Once the car stopped, Gao Yan glanced in the rearview mirror and got out.

"Sister-in-law, my brother is back." After getting out of the nanny van, Gao Youhe didn't immediately go inside. Instead, she deliberately kept Lu Yingxiao in the shade, looking at the flowers and plants in the garden, waiting for Gao Yan's Maybach to enter the compound. Seeing that Gao Yan had actually followed her suggestion, parking in the sunlight and stepping out bathed in its rays, she quickly signaled for Lu Yingxiao to look.

Without the raging storm as a backdrop, Gao Yan standing in the sunlight indeed didn't seem as frightening as he had last night.

Still, his looks and bearing were undeniable. No matter how much the sun illuminated him, his intimidating presence couldn't be completely masked.

"Mr. Gao, you're back." Lu Yingxiao stepped forward to greet Gao Yan proactively.

Her face was wreathed in smiles, showing no trace of fear towards him.

Lu Yingxiao had once been a skilled negotiator. She knew that to achieve ultimate victory in negotiations, the first step was not to show weakness.

Gao Yan gazed at Lu Yingxiao.

Calm, composed. Whether it was her eyes, her voice, or the subtle expressions on her face, there was no sign of fear towards him.

Perhaps the brilliant sunlight had helped somewhat, but he knew it was more due to Lu Yingxiao's own formidable ability to regulate her emotions.

He nodded in acknowledgment. "Mm, I'm back. How are you feeling today? Any better?"

Lu Yingxiao: "Thank you for your concern, Mr. Gao. After a night's rest, I'm fine now."

Gao Yan: "That's good."

The two exchanged polite pleasantries.

Lu Yingxiao wasn't in a hurry to bring up the divorce.

Gao Yan also didn't rush to ask what she needed to discuss.

Gao Youhe, standing beside them, was growing anxious. She felt this pair of newlyweds didn't resemble a newly married couple at all. They seemed more like colleagues working at the same company, not very familiar with each other, but forced to stop and exchange greetings when they ran into each other. She shot a helpless glance at Gao Yan, who seemed incapable of bridging the distance with Lu Yingxiao. "Brother, since you're off work so early, you probably still have work to finish, right? You should go attend to it."

She worried that if her brother and sister-in-law continued being this formal, their already distant relationship would become even more estranged.

Gao Yan did have some work to handle, but it wasn't urgent.

He looked at Lu Yingxiao.

Lu Yingxiao met his gaze. "Mr. Gao, if you have matters to attend to, please go ahead."

Gao Yan understood.

Lu Yingxiao didn't wish to discuss things with him at this moment. So, Gao Yan didn't linger, picking up his briefcase and heading to the study.

Gao Yan's decisive departure made Gao Youhe even more convinced that if Gao Yan wanted to win Lu Yingxiao's favor, relying on himself alone was impossible. He would have to take the route of her loving the house for its crow.

So, Gao Youhe stopped trying to speak well of Gao Yan in front of Lu Yingxiao.

She tilted her head slightly and asked Lu Yingxiao, "Sister-in-law, you probably haven't toured the garden at home yet, have you? Shall I show you around?"

Lu Yingxiao, playing the role of the "wicked sister-in-law," countered, "Have you finished your homework?"

"Not yet..." Gao Youhe's voice grew small, but fearing Lu Yingxiao might misunderstand her as a bad student who disliked doing homework, she immediately added, "But I've already finished most of my homework at school. There's just a little bit left."

Lu Yingxiao: "No matter how little, it's still unfinished homework. I'll accompany you while you do it."

Gao Youhe agreed happily. "Okay!"

But the next second, Gao Youhe suddenly hesitated. "Sister-in-law, you really want to accompany me while I do homework?"

Lu Yingxiao: "You don't want me to?"

Gao Youhe: "Of course I do! It's just... I've heard from classmates that mothers who don't accompany them during homework are the gentlest in the world. But once they start supervising homework, mothers easily lose their temper."

Since childhood, she had been quite independent, completing her homework on her own. So, she wasn't very clear about how adults might react when accompanying her. But based on her classmates' experiences, supervising homework was particularly torturous. She worried it might torture her sister-in-law and subsequently affect their relationship.

Lu Yingxiao looked a bit dazed.

She had heard words like these from classmates when she was a child.

They'd also talk about how their moms were usually so gentle and kind to them, but would become exceptionally irritable once they started helping with homework.

Thinking of this, Lu Yingxiao looked at Gao Youhe with compassion.

She'd lost her mother right after she was born. When other classmates talked about their own mothers, did she also imagine what it would be like if her own mother were there to accompany her while she did her homework?

Lu Yingxiao gently ruffled Gao Youhe's hair and said softly, "I won't get angry. No matter what we do together, I'm happy."

All of Gao Youhe's worries vanished in an instant, and she happily led Lu Yingxiao into the villa to do homework.

There was a study on the second floor that was all Gao Youhe's, but she didn't like staying there. Whether playing or doing homework, she preferred to curl up in the living room on the first floor. When she was little, it was fine—she could just put a small stool in front of the coffee table to use as a desk. As she got bigger, the coffee table became too low, so Butler Zhan had specially placed a set of desks and chairs in the best-lit spot in the living room.

This set was usually just for Gao Youhe, so there was no other place to sit nearby.

Gao Youhe went and fetched the most comfortable armchair from the living room, placing it beside her desk. "Sit here, sister-in-law."

Lu Yingxiao said, "Okay."

After she sat down, Gao Youhe also sat down, put her schoolbag on her lap, and took out her finished homework and what she still had left.

She handed the finished work to Lu Yingxiao. "Sister-in-law, this is the homework I've already done."

Lu Yingxiao took it. "Let me have a look."

Gao Youhe waited nervously for Lu Yingxiao's evaluation.

Lu Yingxiao carefully looked through it.

Lifting her head and meeting Gao Youhe's expectant yet anxious little gaze, she smiled and praised, "Your writing is neat with no mistakes or missing parts. No wonder you're the class monitor!"

Gao Youhe beamed. "Sister-in-law, I'm going to start on my homework now."

Lu Yingxiao said, "Okay."

She sat and watched.

Gao Youhe was very self-disciplined. Once she focused on her homework, she never got distracted.

When she encountered a math problem she couldn't solve, she would check her textbook herself.

Once she figured it out, she'd go back to her work.

After finishing, she would even take the initiative to check it over, which was a huge relief.

"Sister-in-law, I finished the last of my homework. Will you check it?" Gao Youhe handed her math test paper to Lu Yingxiao.

Lu Yingxiao looked it over.

The paper was clean, the handwriting was beautiful, and there wasn't a single wrong answer.

She didn't hold back her praise. "You're really the kind of child every parent wants—the proverbial 'other people's child.'"

Gao Youhe corrected her, "I'm not 'other people's child.' I'm sister-in-law's child."

Lu Yingxiao smiled and gently booped Gao Youhe's cheek with her finger.

She thought to herself that when she talked to Gao Yan about the divorce tonight, she would ask him if she could visit Youhe afterwards.

She really liked this little girl.

"Sister-in-law, look! Such beautiful sunset clouds!"

Gao Youhe suddenly pointed to the west and called out.

Lu Yingxiao looked up. They were indeed beautiful—a fiery red, like marshmallows being roasted over a fire.

"Sister-in-law, let's go outside to see. We'll have a better view from outside."

Gao Youhe pulled Lu Yingxiao outside.

Once outside, the fiery red glow of the sunset shone on them, tinting them the same fiery color as the clouds in the sky.

Gao Youhe kept exclaiming, "So beautiful! This is the most beautiful sunset clouds I've ever seen."

Then she asked Lu Yingxiao, "What about you, sister-in-law?"

Lu Yingxiao's mind involuntarily recalled a certain afternoon when she was three years old. The clear sky had suddenly poured with heavy rain. Worried that her mother, who was working in the fields, might get soaked without an umbrella, she had gone to find her mother, holding an open umbrella in one hand and a folded one in the other. But by the time she arrived, the rain had already stopped.

The sun, which had been hidden by dark clouds, reappeared in the sky.

Since it was already evening, the sunlight made the white clouds in the west glow fiery red.

Back then, she didn't understand what sunset clouds were. She had anxiously said to her mother, "Mom, there's a fire! There's a fire over there!"

Her mother had gently patted her head and patiently explained, "That's not a fire. Those are sunset clouds."

Lu Yingxiao had only half-understood.

All she remembered was her mother's voice, so gentle that the sunset clouds that day seemed as soft as marshmallows.

Lu Yingxiao looked up and replied softly, "Yes, me too. Today's sunset clouds are the most beautiful I've seen since I grew up."

The most beautiful one from her childhood was forever preserved in her memory.

Gao Yan's original study was on the third floor. After moving to the guest room on the first floor last night, he'd had Butler Zhan move his study down as well.

After wrapping up his work efficiently, his ears perked up at Gao Youhe's exclamation from the living room.

It turned out she had seen beautiful sunset clouds.

As the sounds of Lu Yingxiao and Gao Youhe running outside reached him, Gao Yan also walked to the window and looked up at the sky.

A fiery red expanse—it was indeed beautiful.

His ears caught Gao Youhe's repeated exclamations again, saying this was the most beautiful sunset clouds she had ever seen.

Hearing this, a faint, involuntary smile touched Gao Yan's lips.

Youhe was young; she probably didn't remember, but eight years ago, she had already seen the most beautiful sunset clouds. The four of them had sat in the villa garden, looking up at the sky and admiring the sunset clouds on the horizon.

However, Youhe had still been in their mother's womb at the time, so it was no wonder she didn't remember.

Looking up at the sky again, then following the glow of the sunset shining down onto the two figures standing close together—one adult, one child—Gao Yan's lips unconsciously curved into a faint smile.

Today's sunset clouds were just as beautiful as those from eight years ago.