Chapter 19: The Seventeenth

The long table was set for eleven.

Lu Chen stood in the doorway of the dining room and counted the chairs twice.

White roses stood in the middle, the same as the first life.

The candles were the same.

Even the cushion at the head of the table, where the chairman would sit, had been plumped the same way.

Only one thing was different.

This time he knew where every person would be sitting, because he had moved the name cards himself that afternoon.

"You're early," a soft voice said behind him.

Su Lu came in wearing perfume and a cream silk dress.

Her hair had been brushed until it shone.

She laid a hand lightly on his arm, as she had done a hundred times.

"I'm glad you're here, Chen," she said. "Whatever has happened between us, I never wanted it to end badly."

"Neither did I."

"Su Ye is lucky to have you."

"He says the same about you."

She smiled.

It was a warm, sweet smile, and it did not reach her eyes at all.

"Let's make it a lovely night," she said, and went to straighten the roses.

The family came in at seven.

Su Ye's father pushed the chairman's wheelchair down the hall, slowly, with a nurse beside them.

The old man wore a dark jacket and a gray scarf, and his color was bad.

He looked around the room and breathed in.

"Good," he said. "It smells like home."

"You should be in bed, Father," Su Ye's mother said.

"I'll be in bed for the rest of my life. Tonight I'm at my table."

They helped him into his chair at the head.

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