This is the earliest day Zhu Maolin has returned home recently.
It's just after dusk, not yet seven o'clock in the evening.
No slippers placed at the door, no food prepared long ago but already cold on the table, just one thing remains unchanged, which is the quietness in the house.
Hou Chen Yuhuan is not home.
Zhu Maolin didn't even know she wasn't home at this time. Perhaps he could have checked before coming back, but he didn't know why he didn't do so.
He attempted to pick up his phone, several times… but each time he couldn't think of anything to say.
Shortly after, Zhu Maolin brought out a bowl of noodles from the kitchen, turned on the TV, and watched while eating, but he wasn't aware of the taste of the noodles, what was playing on the TV, or what the dialogue was saying.
Because it was really quiet here. Zhu Maolin liked a quiet working environment, hence his office was very quiet too. Yet, the two kinds of quiet felt drastically different.
