Chapter 51: Visiting Hours, Again

The doctor allowed one outing, in a wheelchair, for two hours.

"If he so much as winces," she told Xiao Chen, "you turn the car round."

Shen Yan sat in the chair in the women's prison visiting room, thirty-four weeks and furious at the wheels.

Xiao Chen stood behind him.

His own belly pressed against the push bar, and his hand lay on Shen Yan's shoulder, spread wide.

The captain waited outside the door with a folder.

On the far side of the glass sat Mrs. Shen.

She was thinner.

The pearls were gone, and her hair had been cut short and had gone grey at the roots.

She held herself as straight as she had at the club.

She picked up the handset and smiled.

"Yan," she said, in the warm, low voice. "Darling. Look at you."

Shen Yan picked up his own handset slowly.

"Mrs. Shen."

"You used to call me Mother."

"I used to take what you gave me every morning."

The smile did not move.

"Lawyer Xiao," she said, and her eyes slid up to Xiao Chen. "How well you look. Marriage suits you."

"You asked to speak to him," Xiao Chen said. "Speak."

"I will. I'm a patient woman."

She turned back.

"I'm told it will be two boys. Or a girl and a boy. Or two girls. They won't say, will they? They keep it secret. How delightful."

"Why did you ask for me?"

"Because I have something to give you. And I want something in return."

Shen Yan said nothing.

Xiao Chen felt the bond gone cold and level under his hand.

He kept his palm where it was.

Then, without deciding to, he slid it down Shen Yan's back under the shirt.

He pressed the flat of it into the base of his spine.

Shen Yan had been aching there for a week.

The muscle under his hand was a hard knot.

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