While the two women continued pouring their hearts out beneath the trees, PD Xu Cui and the children remained outside the village restaurant, eating in relative peace. A large umbrella shielded their table from the sun's glare, casting a soft circle of shade across the wooden surface and the chairs arranged around it.
A fresh breeze drifted past, carrying the light scents of cooked food from the open kitchen windows and the distant greenery of the surrounding fields. The late afternoon light was warm but no longer harsh, and the quiet murmur of village life—distant voices, the occasional clatter of dishes, the soft creak of a passing bicycle—formed a gentle backdrop.
PD Xu Cui sat across from Leilei and Shen Guoxing. Beside him, Mo Yan rested in her stroller, thoroughly exhausted from a long stretch of being rage-baited and forced to third-wheel.
