I Ran Away With His Child novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Fourteenth of March

Mu Qing walked up the long aisle between the tables with his son's hand in his, and two hundred people watched them come.

Nobody was rude.

They were far too well bred for that, and they only turned their heads, and whispered behind their glasses.

The kitchen boy, he heard. The one from the funeral. Six years.

He kept his eyes on the head table.

Xu Zhengyuan had risen from his seat before they reached it.

He came round the table in his dark suit and stopped in front of them with his hands at his sides.

"Mother," he said, and did not take his eyes off Mu Qing. "I will introduce him myself."

He turned to the courtyard.

His voice was not loud, but it was the voice of a man who had run a boardroom for six years.

"This is Mu Ran, who is five and seven months old. This is Mu Qing, his father, and my guest."

He held out his hand.

The place card was still in Mu Qing's fingers, bent at one corner.

Xu looked at it.

He took it, read it aloud, flat and clear, and the courtyard went still.

"Mu, Kitchen."

He tore the card in half, and in half again, and set the pieces on the white cloth.

"Who wrote this?"

Nobody spoke.

"He did," said Ran, helpfully, and pointed at the pale grey suit halfway down the second table.

Xu Jiahui had a glass in his hand.

He kept it very steady.

"It was a seating mistake, Cousin," he said. "The stewards. I'm so sorry."

"The ink was wet," said Ran.

Someone laughed, quickly, and stopped.

Madam Xu laid her hand on the arm of her chair.

"We are all a little overwhelmed," she said, kindly, to the courtyard.

"My son has had a shock. Of course he has. But I think the family must be allowed to be careful."

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