Chapter 11: Together
Assistant Lin entered the instruction into his tablet without Pei Hanchuan needing to remind him or repeat himself.
The receptionist also nodded, her hands folded neatly in front of her. "Understood."
"If I’m in a meeting, she is still admitted," Hanchuan continued, stressing the point. They had almost turned her away. He couldn’t even think about what would have happened to him if he couldn’t find her today.
And clearly, she wasn’t at the university.
"Yes, President Pei."
Hanchuan’s gaze moved to the security officer who had reached for her. "You followed current procedure."
The man straightened. "Yes, sir."
"Current procedure has changed. No one in this building touches her without her permission."
"Understood."
He then looked down at Zhiyi. Her attention had returned to his legs. He shifted his weight deliberately and smiled softly as her eyes tracked the movement again.
"We’re going upstairs," he said.
She nodded.
He guided her toward the executive elevator without removing his arm from her shoulders. The employees and visitors scattered across the lobby watched them pass, but no one dared speak.
At the elevator, Zhiyi slowed.
Hanchuan felt the change in her immediately. "What is it?"
She looked at Assistant Lin and then at the guards still standing near reception.
"The guards aren’t coming," he said, his voice still soft and steady. "It will be the three of us. No stops."
Her shoulders eased just a fraction.
Hanchuan placed his hand against the security scanner and when the doors opened, he brought Zhiyi inside. Assistant Lin entered behind them, and selected the executive floor.
The doors closed on the lobby.
Zhiyi looked down again.
Hanchuan walked to the opposite side of the elevator and back so she could watch both legs move. "They work," he repeated.
"I can see that."
"And yet, you’re still checking."
"Yes."
"Take as long as you need."
Zhiyi watched him reposition himself beside her. Only then did she look up. "You were coming downstairs."
"I was coming to find you."
"You knew where I was?"
"I knew the university. Assistant Lin had just found your afternoon class."
Assistant Lin kept his attention fixed on the tablet in his hands, although Hanchuan knew he heard every word.
"I left class," Zhiyi replied slowly.
"I noticed."
"The receptionist wouldn’t call you."
"She won’t make that mistake again."
"She was following the rules."
"I changed the rules."
Zhiyi accepted that without further argument.
The elevator opened onto the executive floor and Hanchuan led her past the reception area and toward his office, with Assistant Lin following.
At the door, he stopped and turned toward Assistant Lin. "Incase you haven’t already done it, cancel everything remaining today," he told him. "No calls and no visitors unless I ask for them."
"Yes, President Pei."
Assistant Lin stayed where he was standing on the other side of Hanchuan’s office door, his head bowed respectfully.
Then the door closed.
For the first time since he opened his eyes in the meeting, there was no one else watching them.
Hanchuan turned.
Zhiyi stood just inside the office with one hand still wrapped around the strap of her bag. She had followed him from the lobby without question, but now that they were alone, uncertainty had returned to her face.
That expression unsettled him more than the security guards had.
He crossed the room and stopped in front of her. He placed both hands on her shoulders and coaxed her. "Look at me."
She did.
He had already seen her recognition in the lobby. He had felt it in the way she came to him and leaned against his side. Still, he needed to hear the answer.
"You were reborn too?"
Zhiyi nodded.
He pulled her into his arms.
Her bag slipped from her shoulder and landed on the carpet. Then her arms closed around his waist, and the last of the distance between them disappeared.
He held the back of her head with one hand and wrapped the other arm around her. He could feel her breathing against his chest. He could feel the steady beat of her heart.
They remained that way until both of them released the breath they had been holding.
"You remembered," Zhiyi said.
"I remembered."
"I didn’t know if you would."
"I was afraid you wouldn’t."
Zhiyi was quiet for a moment. "I remembered enough for both of us."
Hanchuan closed his eyes and pressed his face into her hair.
He had expected that answer. Even if he had forgotten everything, she would still have come. She would have warned him, helped him save his friends and prepared him to survive without ever asking whether there would be a place for her afterward.
His arm tightened around her. "I was going to your university," he told her again.
"I found you first."
"You did."
"I couldn’t get past the desk."
Pei opened his eyes. "That has been corrected."
"The receptionist—"
"Was following the rules. I know."
"You looked angry."
"I was."
"Those statements conflict."
"No, they don’t." He moved his hand slowly over her hair. "She did what she was supposed to do. But I still didn’t like seeing it."
Zhiyi considered that against his chest. "All right," she said finally with a nod.
But he kept holding her.
The city stretched beyond the office windows, untouched by floodwater or ice. The afternoon sun shone against towers that would become lethal during the heat, but today the air-conditioning worked and the streets below remained full.
He had checked the date, but he didn’t know if she had or not. "We have twenty-seven days," he said.
She pulled back far enough to look at him. "Until the first heat?"
"Yes."
Her eyes shifted slightly as the answer opened into everything that had had to be done.
He recognized the moment the possibilities began multiplying. He placed his hand against the side of her neck. "Not all at once."
"We need shelter, water, food, medical supplies and transportation. The heat lasts four years, but the flooding after it—"
"I know."
"We only have twenty-seven days."
"I know that too."
Her body had begun to go still.
Hanchuan tightened his hand gently against her neck. "Tell me what matters first."
Zhiyi focused on him again, the question narrowed the field of possibilities distinctly.
For several seconds, she said nothing and he simply waited while she followed the problem from beginning to end.
When she finally answered, her voice was quiet but certain. "Your friends."
Hanchuan smiled softly. He had known she would say that.
"They’re alive," he reassured her.
"All four?"
"All four."
Some of the tension left her face.
"We keep them that way," Zhiyi said.
"Yes."
"And this time, you don’t lose your legs."
He drew her back against his chest.
"This time," he said, "we’ll do it together. From start to finish. Together."