"Just celebrating a bit." The person who never used to smile couldn’t suppress his laughter at this moment. The usually cold person unexpectedly looked good when smiling.

"Uh, uh, uh..." Shen Feihu didn’t even know what to say. Was he overjoyed to the point of foolishness?

"I’m heading back now. There are a ton of things waiting for me to handle." He had to leave quickly, or else Xu Qigang would start urging him about the trip to country M again.

"Wait, President..."

"I’m leaving. Hurry up, Qiu Bai, you all come too." Shen Feihu pulled the recently arrived Qiu Bai and Wenyin to escape quickly.

Xu Qigang was obsessed with seeing Sheng Ning. He was so pressured that his head felt doubled in size. And with such matters, he simply couldn’t refuse.

Xu Qigang watched the retreating figure of Shen Feihu, shaking his head helplessly.

Actually, this time what he wanted to say wasn’t about urging him to go to country M. For him, the sooner he could go to country M to bring Xiao Ning back, the better. However, he also understood that some things needed time.

Now that he knew Xiao Ning was safe, he was very content. Nothing was more important than her safety. He would go, and he would go as soon as possible. He would go in the best possible state to bring her home, bring his son and daughter home.

Xu Qigang tightly clenched his fist, a silly smile appearing on his handsome face.

An’an was escorted out of the Northwest by special personnel, and before entering the city, she saw Qin Yue sitting on the hood of an off-road vehicle, tilting his head and smiling at her.

An’an pressed her lips together. For some reason, seeing Qin Yue’s smile made her feel a pang in her heart, as if it were being pricked by a needle.

So many things had happened in succession. She had been in the Northwest for half a year. Before leaving, she only saw Qi Lei once. He had come from his hometown and tried various ways to see her.

At that moment, An’an felt guilty. She didn’t realize how difficult it had become for her hometown friends to meet her. She immediately apologized to Qi Lei, but the words that came out were dry.

Oh right, the word "dry" was Qi Lei’s description. He said that she had lost all her previous vitality, that she was no longer the Sheng An he remembered, no longer the Sheng An he liked. The gap between them was vast, and he felt he wasn’t even qualified to see her, so he would never come to look for her again.

Qi Lei was An’an’s first friend, lost inexplicably just like that. She didn’t even know how to explain it to him, because her explanation was also dry.

Qi Lei went back disappointed.

Since then, when An’an washed her face or combed her hair, she couldn’t help looking in the mirror. She wanted to laugh; she wanted to be carefree like before, happy even if she just earned a dollar a day. During winter, when her hands got swollen from soaking bean sprouts, she was still happy.

She pulled at her cheeks in front of the mirror. Even if she smiled, she was no longer the An’an from before. Why was there such a big difference between the two of her? Clearly, she had become more outstanding, more useful to the nation and the people, yet those who liked her before now seemed to dislike her?

Those who cared about her ended up leaving her?

It’s undeniable that Qi Lei’s words had a significant impact on An’an.

At this moment, she stood ten meters away from Qin Yue, silently watching him. Her heart was guessing what he was thinking. Would he be like Qi Lei? No, it was the same, right?

He had once struggled too, probably liking the An’an from before, not the one she was now.