It was dusk. The setting sun was sinking toward the horizon, and the half still showing above it had stained the clouds in the west red. The green maple leaves along both sides of the road rustled in the light wind. This was the kind of quiet that belonged only to a small city.

Once the two of them had everything ready in the kitchen, Xu Ye called Wang Manning and Wang Yuxin over to help carry it all out to the courtyard.

He set the grill up, lit the smokeless charcoal, and sat down beside it to wait at his leisure for the coals to redden.

Jiang Meilin brought out several glasses of iced lemon water and joined them.

The house was rarely this lively. At the company Jiang Meilin worked around the clock with no time for anything else at all, and at home she spent almost the whole day indoors, still dealing with work email much of the time.

When she was younger she had thought being on her own was perfectly fine.

Now, though, she found she preferred a bit of noise. Even if she couldn't join in with what the young people were talking about, the sight of all those smiling faces as they talked was enough to lift her mood.

Seeing the smile on her mother's face, Chen Qingqing started signaling frantically to Xu Ye with her eyes. He had no choice but to get his phone out, take a photo of the grill and send it straight to Chen Hansong.

Chen Hansong received the picture and hurriedly zoomed in on it.

He knew at a glance that Xu Ye was in the courtyard of the villa at Red Leaf Estate. He got to his feet immediately and reached for his car keys, ready to hurry over.

But Xu Ye's second message came through right behind the first.

"Bring a few bottles of something to drink on your way."

Chen Hansong replied with a brisk Sure and went straight out the door.

Once the message was sent, Xu Ye shot Chen Qingqing an OK…