Chapter 75

[L2 sun protection and repair. Completion: 10%] [Value: 10% L2 points. Sell back?] [Yes] [No]

In Cerulean's laboratory, Li Lan looked at the scan without the least surprise. It was only a fortnight since she'd got the sea buckthorn formulation, and ten per cent satisfied her.

She let out a long breath and stretched in her chair. The sample had come out at first light, and to get that ten per cent she'd been in the laboratory until the small hours nearly every day of the fortnight, occasionally straight through.

At least when she was tired she could buy a restorative from the shop. Expensive, and it worked extremely well — better than ten cans of coffee. Worth looking into when she had time; students and working people would like it. It did rather compete with Clearhead.

Having wandered off in her head, she got up and walked a couple of circuits, then labelled the sample to go in the cabinet. Opening it, there were several identical ones inside; with the one in her hand, eight exactly — the last few days' work.

She'd barely shut the door when she heard the door behind her, and turned to find Zhang Lin in the doorway with a raised eyebrow.

Li Lan glanced at the clock. "Morning, Sister Lin. Why are you in this early?"

Zhang Lin checked the time too. "Half past seven isn't early. And you can talk — you didn't sleep again, did you?"

Li Lan's eyes drifted. "Er. I slept."

Zhang Lin could read that perfectly well. "By sleeping I mean going back to the hotel and lying down, not face-down on a desk. And it's freezing. Aren't you worried about catching something?"

Li Lan headed her off. "I'm fine, Sister Lin, I'm very healthy. And there's heating in the office."

Zhang Lin looked at her disapprovingly. "You're trading on being young. Carry on like this, all night every night, and never mind the rest — the shadows under your eyes and your skin—"

She had been going to say that late nights bring spots and shadows, and looking at Li Lan — bright-eyed, no shadows whatever, not a spot on her, nothing like somebody who was up every night — the rest of the sentence turned awkwardly.

"—you'll pay for it later."

Pregnancy possibly having something to do with it, she went on a while. Li Lan knew it was concern, and nodded and steered her towards the door. "I know, Sister Lin. I'm going home today, so I can sleep on the way. Have you eaten? I'm starving."

Not a diversion. She'd been up all night and was genuinely hollow.

Zhang Lin let herself be towed along by the arm. "You should have gone home long ago. It's nearly New Year. Every other student on holiday is out looking for somebody to spend it with, and you come to the office."

And before Li Lan could speak: "What time do you leave? I'll take you after we've eaten."

---

Having said goodbye, Li Lan sat at the airport alone. She'd meant to take the train, but with the Spring Festival peak coming and online ticketing only days old and effectively useless, the station was heaving and tickets hard to get, so she'd flown instead. Flying meant a change of transport, and it beat a train at Spring Festival.

On board she found her seat and, to fill the journey, took out a sheaf of printed papers. Experiments matter and theory can't be neglected, and since she'd stopped reading novels she carried papers around instead.

And having read enough of them, she could tell substance from padding at a glance. Where a paper was interesting she'd try the experiment; some of them genuinely were, though there weren't many.

Today's had several worth reading closely, and she settled into them with interest. High focus meaning she lost track of time once absorbed, two hours passed and she finished them exactly.

Off the plane, she turned her phone on to a long string of QQ messages, all from Li Cheng asking where she was. To save trouble she'd booked her return for the day Li Cheng's holiday started, so their parents could collect them both at once.

Waiting outside, Li Cheng spotted her pushing her luggage out first and pointed. "Dad, Mum, there's Li Lan."

And then couldn't help jumping up and waving. "Li Lan, we're here!"

Li Lan came out to find her sister bouncing and waving in the crowd like a startled deer, and turned towards the three of them. It was her first time home since term started, and Chen Ying looked her over. "Lanlan, have you lost weight again? Have you been eating properly?"

Li Lan walked beside her with Li Cheng on the other side. "I have. And I haven't lost weight, I've put quite a bit on."

"No, you look thinner to me. There can't be much fat in university food. Your face has gone in — you used to have a double chin and look how sharp it is now." The longer she looked the thinner Li Lan seemed.

Li Lan glanced at Li Cheng, and their eyes met, and thirteen years of sharing a bed told her Li Cheng had had much the same greeting.

Sure enough, from the other side of their mother, Li Cheng undercut her quietly. "She said the same to me. Except mine was from working for the exam."

Li Lan said, equally quietly, "There's a kind of thin that only exists in Mum's head."

And the two of them laughed.

Undercut, Chen Ying wasn't annoyed and stuck to her position. "I think you're both thinner. I'll cook you something decent when we're home."

---

Two days later Li Jingyu posted his arrival time in the group chat, and having collected the other two they could hardly not collect him — particularly with him abroad this long and both parents missing him.

So all four went, and found him quickly in the crowd. Li Cheng waved with both hands and he spotted them at once, shouting "Mum, Dad" and, arriving, opening his arms and giving Chen Ying an enormous hug. She was briefly stunned inside it, then copied him and patted his back awkwardly. "It's good to have you back, love."

Letting go, he opened his arms towards his father, who was slightly embarrassed, and said with a face half stern and half delighted, "Say hello if you're saying hello, what's all this hugging? Picking up peculiar habits."

Before he could answer, Chen Ying gave her husband a shove. "Honestly. Your son's missed you, what's wrong with a hug?"

Li Jingyu looked at him too. "Yes, Dad, it's been three months. I've missed you."

He'd only said it for form's sake, and the shove carried him into the hug, out of which he came quickly and awkwardly — with a very large smile he couldn't suppress, and stood beaming with his wife while their son greeted his sisters.

Once they'd all settled, Chen Ying walked round him twice and nodded, satisfied. "Korea has made a difference. He's much better-looking. Jingyu, have you grown?"

He nodded. "A bit." He'd measured himself before flying: two centimetres up on when he arrived.

She looked at him with concern. "That explains it. You've lost weight, though. Can't you get used to the food? Look at the state of my son."

He nodded and then shook his head, dopily. "I couldn't at first, it's much better now. And I haven't really lost weight — maybe it's the height."

His father joined in. "I shouldn't think that little place has much worth eating. Nothing like home cooking. Get your mother to make you something."

He shook his head and said it breezily. "I can't eat much. The instructors watch us. If you gain, you don't get enough to eat and they put you on a diet. It's miserable."

Which did not satisfy Chen Ying. "What sort of company is this? You're still growing. How can you not get enough to eat? What if you make yourself ill?"

Seeing him gormlessly about to continue, Li Cheng tugged his sleeve. Their brief sibling solidarity had vanished without trace, and both sisters gave him a look: idiot. Shut up.

Catching up, he gathered that what he'd said might have been unwise, swallowed the rest of the complaint and changed course. "I do get enough. The company provides balanced meals." Salad, mostly.

"Everyone eats enough. It's some of the girls who diet. I haven't, really." He did have to watch it constantly.

Which mollified her somewhat — though not enough to stop her going on about it the whole way home.