The smell reached them before anything else did.
Something warm and sweet drifting through the apartment, filling the corners of it, slipping under the bedroom door. Zhao Lihua sat with it for a moment without moving, not sure what to do with it.
Then Li Xian shifted beside her.
"Mummy." Her small hand found Zhao Lihua's sleeve and pulled gently. "I'm hungry."
Zhao Lihua looked down at her daughter. Li Xian was looking up at her with wide eyes, earnest and waiting, her hair still flat from sleep. The smell kept coming — warm and savory and real.
She sat with her fear for another moment. Then she picked Li Xian up, settled her against her hip, and walked out.
---
The living room was clean. The same as when he had left it — nothing put back out of place. The table had been set. Two plates, laid out properly, with Scallion Pancake Triangles and two cups of warm soy milk placed beside them.
Li Feng was standing at the kitchen counter with his back to them.
"Still got it," he said, to no one in particular.
He turned. He saw them standing in the doorway — Zhao Lihua with Li Xian on her hip, both of them still in the threshold, neither of them quite crossing into the room.
"Food is ready," he said, gesturing toward the table. His voice was even. Unhurried. "Eat up. You must be hungry."
He didn't wait. He walked past them, not close, giving them the full width of the room, and pulled the bedroom door shut behind him.
Zhao Lihua stood there for a moment after the door closed.
Then Li Xian turned in her arms and looked at the table.
"Mummy, mummy." Her voice had changed completely, the careful quietness dropping away all at once. "Daddy cooked."
Zhao Lihua looked at the plates. Her stomach answered before she could say anything — she was genuinely, deeply hungry, the kind of hungry that fear and stillness leaves behind. She was practically drooling.
"Yes," she said, looking at her daughter. Something in her chest loosened just slightly, just enough. "Let's eat."
She set Li Xian down and took her hand and walked her to the table. She lifted Xian up onto a chair, tucking her in close to the edge, then sat down across from her.
She picked up a pancake and took a bite.
It was delicious. Properly, genuinely delicious — the outside crisp and golden, the inside soft, the scallion coming through clean. She hadn't eaten anything like it in longer than she could remember.
Across the table Li Xian had already abandoned any pretense of patience. She was eating fast, both hands involved, her eyes bright.
"Slow down, Xian," Zhao Lihua said.
Li Xian tried to answer. What came out was entirely unintelligible, her mouth completely full. She blinked, unbothered, and kept eating.
Zhao Lihua watched her daughter for a moment. Then she took another bite.
---
In the bedroom, Li Feng sat down on the floor. Cross-legged, back straight, phone in his lap. He sat quietly for a moment and let himself think.
*There's no point trying to repair a bond that's already broken. What this family needs right now is money. And a lot of it.*
*I need a job. Some reliable source of income. Something I can build from.*
He unlocked the phone and opened WeChat, scrolling through slowly. Then a thought came to him that hadn't before — something actually useful about the man whose life he had inherited.
Li Feng had a degree. Two, in fact. Accounting and Economics.
*Well.* He scrolled further. *At least the idiot did something right.*
Freelancing was the only thing that made sense right now. No interviews. No explaining a gap. Just work, delivered, paid. He navigated to the freelancing site. Li Feng already had an account set up. He hadn't done much with it, but it was there.
Even better.
He started scrolling through the listings. Most of them he passed over without stopping. Then one caught his eye — a small business posting, a coffee shop called Little Nest Café, looking for someone to help with data analysis. Sales figures. Inventory. Basic operational reporting.
He clicked on it and read through it twice.
Then he opened a proposal and started writing.
---
*Hi, I saw your posting for a data analyst for your coffee shop. I understand that tracking sales, managing inventory, and knowing which items sell best can be tricky for a small business.*
*I can help by analyzing your sales data, identifying trends, and creating simple reports so you can make smarter decisions and reduce waste. I've helped small businesses turn numbers into actionable insights before and can do the same for your café.*
*I'm comfortable with a monthly rate of around 1,200 RMB for ongoing analysis and reports.*
*Looking forward to your reply.*
*— Li Feng*
---
He read it back. Then he submitted it.
Charging anything higher would bring rejection and he knew it. He wasn't in a position to negotiate from strength right now. He needed the foot in the door first. Everything else could come after.
He wrote three more proposals. Different businesses, different needs, same careful rate. He submitted each one and set the phone down.
Then he lay back on the floor and stared at the ceiling.
*One thing at a time.*
---
The next morning Li Feng woke up on the sofa.
He had taken it the first night without deliberating — just moved there, because it was the right thing to do. Zhao Lihua and Li Xian needed the bedroom. They needed space, and they needed to feel like that space was theirs. He could not give back what Li Feng had taken from them. But he could stop taking more.
He picked up his phone.
A notification was waiting in his mail. He opened it.
His proposal had been accepted. Little Nest Café.
Li Feng sat up straight.
Then he was on his feet, and he couldn't keep the smile off his face entirely, and he didn't try.
*It's a start*, he said quietly, to the empty living room.
He went to the kitchen and made breakfast — quick and simple, enough for two. He showered. He dressed. He checked himself once in the mirror, straightened his collar, and picked up his keys.
On his way out he stopped at the bedroom door.
"I'm heading out," he said. "Food is ready."
He didn't wait for an answer. He walked out and pulled the door shut behind him.
---
Zhao Lihua came out a few minutes later.
She stood in the living room and looked at the kitchen. At the food left out on the counter, still warm. At the sofa with the folded blanket at one end.
She thought about the man she had known for years. The one who came home with alcohol on his breath and anger looking for somewhere to land. She thought about the last two days. The cleaning. The cooking. The bedroom door left to them without a word about it.
She reached up and gathered her hair back, smoothing it into a ponytail, her fingers moving slowly.
"Xian," she called.
Li Xian appeared in the doorway, rubbing one eye.
"Let's eat," Zhao Lihua said. She looked at her daughter. "Daddy cooked again."
Li Xian's face lit up immediately, sleep gone all at once.
"Daddy's food tastes good," she announced, with complete confidence, and walked to the table.
Zhao Lihua watched her sit down. She watched her daughter reach for the food without hesitating, without checking first, without making herself small.
She didn't say anything. She sat down across from her and they ate.
---
On the other side of the city, Li Feng stood outside Little Nest Café.
He could see it through the glass front — small, warm, a handful of tables, the kind of place that ran on thin margins and needed every advantage it could get. Exactly the kind of client he could actually help.
He settled his breathing.
Then he pushed open the door and walked in.
The café was warm inside, the smell of fresh coffee sitting in the air like it had always been there. Mismatched chairs, a chalkboard menu behind the counter, everything put together carefully on a limited budget.
A young woman was already seated at one of the tables near the window. Laptop open, notepad beside it, pen moving as she reviewed her notes. She didn't look up when he walked in.
Li Feng clocked her immediately.
A middle-aged woman came out from behind the counter, wiping her hands on a small towel. Round-faced, practical, the kind of person who had run a small business long enough to stop being impressed by much.
"You must be Li Feng," she said. "I'm Chen Wei. Come in, sit down."
He nodded and took the table across from the other applicant. The woman at the window still didn't look up.
Chen Wei stood between them, looking at both.
"I should be upfront with you," she said, folding the towel over her arm. "I have two people today to help me with the café's data. I want to see who can offer the best insights."
She looked at Li Feng. Then at the woman by the window. Then back at Li Feng.
"So. Impress me."
Li Feng sat back slowly.
*I knew this was just too good to be true.*